One of the easiest way to let people know that you’re not a serious company is to use stock photos. It becomes very clear when using the same people we have seen all over the internet.
Let’s take the girl on the right for example. I figure we had seen enough of her. I am apparently mistaken.
She shows up everywhere. Here are just a few..:
I say few because a Google Image Search for it shows (about 20,800,000 results), of which I will now be a part of!
She even shows up Off-Line in a Phoenix New Times Paper:
Note the use of their personalized spelling of ‘their’ in the second line of the first paragraph.
With the price of cameras so low, and cameras showing up on every device these days, do you want to look like a fake company by using a fake employee to represent your company when she may have already been associated with a bad spelling mistake like above, or something even worse? Pay your employee for the right to use their likeness on your website or other promotional items, and have them sign a release form.
Is there a reason your company has used stock photography for personnel photos?
I’m surprised that everyone moved away from the Sasha Grey looking one below. (If you don’t know who Sasha Grey is, she’s a porn star, so don’t search for her and blame a blog post) I had seen her (not Sasha) on Dell at one point.
Not Sasha Grey
Sasha Grey
Update: I was awe struck when during the purchase of a new faucet when I turned over the box to see this:
Why Moen? Why??? Do you not have any employees you can take pictures of?
Note: This post was additionally a way for me to win a bet by incorporating an image of Sasha Grey into an SEO blog post!
