In my line of work, you look at a lot of technology company's websites. A standard feature of them is the portrait of a multi-ethnic, productive, happy men and women (MEPHAW). Which makes me wonder...Who are these people?
Given their ubiquity, there must be a hefty-sized market for these posed MEPHMAW photographs. Each picture needs at least four people to prove their true MEPHMAW cred. Multiply those two numbers, and you get a sizeable employment market.
And how exactly do the photographers cast these pictures? Do they think in terms of cut-outs to fill, such as, "We need a pretty Indian women here. Do you represent any models like that?" Or do they just cast a wide net, find a big group of people who look good, and then select the right demographic mix from those first-round picks?
I can't imagine that the job is easy. Not only do you need to look good, but you also need to look productive. You can't emit the vibe that you're the handsome sales guy who has been skating through life on his good looks. You need to look convincingly engaged in your job, not hanging back and having a good laugh at the expense of the other drones.
And why do we never see what the MEPHMAW group is actually doing? The fact that the display is always artfully turned away from the camera's view invites all kinds of speculation. Was a customer bug report especially hilarious? Did someone in Marketing finally discover that the URL productsexchange.ourcompany.com could be read in more than one way?
I know that they're trying to convince us that the assembled MEPHMAW are totally stoked about their jobs, and can't imagine anything better in life than crowding around someone's monitor to see how their department leads the company in punctuality of expense report submissions. But, let's be real here. They're watching someone melt down on Twitter.
Comments