Professing to professionals

The things one gets in the mail. Or in one's mailbox at the office.

Having attended a seminar-type event once several years ago and allowing someone to get a business card, I got on a mailing list. I don't get too many items delivered to my mail slot at the office, and most of what I do get I file in the recycling bin because it really has no application to specifically what I do, but being circumstantially involved in "the industry" they are willing to give me a shot. At least for the first issue of new ventures.

(The specifics of what I actually do are not worth getting into, I assure you.)

Last week I got a glossy magazine with the words "professional" and "management" (and "week") in its title. As I specifically eschew being "management" in any capacity, and I more or less can only be considered "professional" by virtue of refraining from telling co-workers (who desperately deserve it) to go to hell, I concluded the only way the publication applied to me might be that I do participate in the "week."

Nonetheless I did flip through a few pages, finding it filled with the same sort of typical ads for products and services that I've seen in other similar periodicals directed toward the "industry." Same old same old. Lots of smiling people in suits with text extolling the benefits of the product/service. They're not the slickest ads one will ever see, but they seem obviously geared toward the stereotypical professional, with a properly politically correct mixture of gender and race represented. Some effort clearly went into them.

Then I came across the ad on the inside back cover (to the right*), for a document disposal service, touting the importance of knowing what pieces of paper, if not shredded but merely thrown away, could prove a liability later. Certainly something that could be of interest to those in a managerial capacity.

As you can see, the ad features a relatively attractive young woman bending at the waist, holding a stack of papers over a wastebasket, with her mouth slightly open (presumably to indicate confusion). Full color. Prominent in its placement.

The first thought is beyond even mentioning. I'm not suggesting it's a source of pride that the woman's posture elicits a particular association; I'm merely suggesting it's blithely optimistic to think that it was accidental when they were shooting the photo for the ad. However, her blouse is not low-cut or anything overtly provocative in that regard, so one can grant some benefit of the doubt regarding the intent of those who came up with the ad.

Not much doubt, but some.

Further overlooking any sexist overtones by having the person doing the stupid act of improperly disposing of papers be a woman (and blond!), I found myself wondering: Who the hell bends over like that to throw something away? Egad, that is ergonomically atrocious! Bend at the knees, bend at the knees!

Perhaps I expected too much of the advertisers in such a publication.


* In the image, the names have been blurred to protect the... well, not necessarily innocent...