This Chick Gets Around! – Stock Photography

August 24, 2007 | Marketing, Technical

It’s so funny. Being that I work online, I get around to a lot of different websites and am involved in a lot of things. And seeing as I am in the business, I can see what other people are doing and many times know exactly where they’re getting it from. Well, stock photography is one of them. I am a user of Istockphoto from time to time. When I need something that I have neither the time nor inclination to create myself, many times I will check out IstockPhoto for something to get me started. Let’s look at this image I used several months ago on the PC Mechanic Store. And let’s compare it to the version on IstockPhoto.

Looks pretty similar, right? It is. All I did was add a little text to it and kick it out the door onto my site. Why did I choose that image? Well, she was holding a laptop with a blank screen. It’s computer related (so is my site), and the blank screen meant I could put something of my own on top of it. Secondly, she’s a cute woman. Most of my audience are guys. Connect the dots here. It isn’t hard.

Am I alone? Hell no. Crucial Technology is now running an advertising campaign across tech sites (PC Mechanic being one of them) that is using banners with this chick all over them. Observe:

I am also a subscriber to Website Magazine, and who did I see staring at me in one of the ads? Yep, you guessed it:

Is she modeling for all these companies? No. She modeled for one photographer who then stuck the image up on stock photography sites. Then, a bunch of us lazy business owners went and bought the image and used it in our ads. Will most people notice? Probably not. Well, the one in the magazine reaches an audience that is a lot more likely to notice. After all, website owners have a much higher likelihood of using stock photos.

Stock photography is a huge time saver. But, on the flip side, you do run the risk of lessening the impact of your ad if somebody notices that they’ve seen that image before. I mean, we’re SUPPOSED to think that this cute chick is really endorsing this company. Instead, I come off thinking that the business is just super lazy and are aware of Istockphoto.

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