---
title: "Microsoft and Clip Art Follies"
date: 2002-10-15T02:55:23-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2002/10/15/ooocog/
author: Les Orchard
---

# Microsoft and Clip Art Follies

This is why I love the web &amp; blogosphere these days.  It's getting just a little harder to get away with bullshit every day.  :)  Threads cross at <a href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2002/10/14#When:2:30:09PM">on Dave's site</a> and <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/20798">Metafilter</a>, among other sites, and Microsoft's counter-Switch ad is revealed.
<br /><br />
Man.  And they even used a <a href="http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/search/detail.asp?source=searchResults&amp;imageIndex=10&amp;hdnSync=%22One+Woman+Only%3AOnly+Women%22+and+%22Coffee%3AHot+Drink%22~0%2C12%2C449%2C3%2C15%2C1%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C12287%2C0%2C1%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2Cen-us%2C1%2C%22One+Woman+Only%3AOnly+Women%22+and+%22Coffee%3AHot+Drink%22%2C389%2C257%2C1%2C&amp;hdnCurrPage=4">clip art image</a> for the "real person".  I've not been in the web biz, ad biz, or promotions biz for very long at all, but I've already developed a cynical chuckle for clip art people.  I've either searched through sources myself, or been at the shoulder of a creative director while she or he did the searching.  It doesn't take very long until you can nail it when you see it.
<br /><br />
But clip art in and of itself isn't bad - it's when an attempt is made to pass the clip art over as some kind of candid reality...  that's when a company really shows how smart they think you are.  :)
<br /><br />
(Oh, and P.S.:  Can you people <strong>please</strong> stop using those "photographer standing on a stool over a model looking up" posed images?  It really doesn't convey hip, cool, or clever.)
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<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
        <ul class="comments">
            
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085426">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://algorhythm.org"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=546b2f1947278db93fa8f7c734876111&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://algorhythm.org">Shawn</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085426" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-10-15T03:35:19">2002-10-15T03:35:19</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Ah, but it gets better, Les.  Check the "Update" I posted here:

http://algorhythm.org/archives/2002/10/14/im_not_really_a_switcher.html</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085427">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=2ac2cffd36ada8c734b90e02a1e5c1ac&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com">l.m.orchard</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085427" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-10-15T04:03:58">2002-10-15T04:03:58</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Gah!  Now if someone would just do something like this on purpose, it would make for a clever game.  Otherwise, it's so incredibly like the cliche marketroid.</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085428">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://manero.org"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=b6813ce994fa77bba4bb52aad9eec301&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://manero.org">Tony Collen</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085428" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-10-15T04:18:21">2002-10-15T04:18:21</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">>(Oh, and P.S.: Can you people please stop using those "photographer standing on a stool over a model looking up" posed images? It really doesn't convey hip, cool, or clever.)

deus, I've been complaining about this cliche for a while.  It's terribly over-used, and I generally see it in two places:

1) Large monolithic corporations trying to "get jiggy wit it"

2) Wanna-be smaller companies that think it makes them look like they're a big monolithic corporation that wants to "get jiggy wit it"

Tony</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085429">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://manero.org"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=b6813ce994fa77bba4bb52aad9eec301&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://manero.org">Tony Collen</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085429" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-10-15T04:20:42">2002-10-15T04:20:42</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">As an added bonus note, I want to start the craze of photographing hipster models at a low angle, making them look menacing, something like a dot-com jolly green giant.  Ho, ho ho!</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085430">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://hereticmessiah.weblogs.com/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=16a1717a880cce3bfefce65049d7120d&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://hereticmessiah.weblogs.com/">Keith Gaughan</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085430" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-10-16T08:55:41">2002-10-16T08:55:41</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Here here! Those kind of pictures really get up my nose. They're the clip-art equivalent of the whole swooshes thing.</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085431">
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                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.promoguy.net"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=ee2dc86234b233f8bb0581f081ea65a5&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.promoguy.net">Promo</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085431" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-10-16T13:32:15">2002-10-16T13:32:15</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">I am glad to see someone else noticed the abundance of "shot from above" photos. And I don't know what library they are from, but I see some of them over and over. Usually the blonde gal with short hair holding up (insert product here). Enough already!</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085432">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://hereticmessiah.weblogs.com/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=16a1717a880cce3bfefce65049d7120d&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://hereticmessiah.weblogs.com/">Keith Gaughan</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085432" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-10-16T16:16:29">2002-10-16T16:16:29</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Corbis, if I remember correctly, have an emmense number of those shots. Let's face it - the things are worse than cheese - it's smegma!</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085434">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href=""><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=87aa8420d20ade4286b132244378ec54&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="">Queeta</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085434" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-11-05T20:04:50">2002-11-05T20:04:50</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">ummm yeah i thought that this was suppose to be a site where you get clip art/pictures of photographers.</div>
            
        </li>
    
        </ul>
    
        </div>