OK, so I was going through some older marketing materials today at work and I notice the following in an 8-page brochure (with some background information thrown in):
There’s a picture of an employee (we’ll call him John) working. “John” just happens to be the CEO’s kid. There’s another picture of a man, woman, and two kids. The woman and two kids, I found out, are John’s wife and children, while the man is a model hired for the shot. It is definitely a “family” shot (akin to this).
So I’m looking at this and one thought keeps running through my mind: What sort of “man” would allow his wife and children to pose for such a shot with another man, especially given that they’re advertising his own family’s business?
It is, imho, completely bizarre and in some undefinable way, emasculating and embarrassing.
So I tell this to Laura, saying that there’s no way in hell I would allow her and Sophie to pose with another guy (as a family picture) in a marketing shot for my (or my Dad’s) company. My wife, on the other hand, thinks I’m just being weird and that there’s nothing wrong with it. And the PC part of me kind of agrees with her… until I look at that picture again, whereupon I immediately think “WTF, dude? Where’s your balls? Why are you allowing another man to pose as husband and father to your wife and kids?”
So what say you, Dopers? Am I being all knuckle-draggy here, or do you, too, think it’s a bit odd for a husband to allow himself to not be pictured with his own wife and kids in a “family” photo in his own family’s company?
(Note the picture is a pure marketing shot, they’re not identified as anybody special. And, btw, it’s not as if John is an ugly guy or that his looks are wildly dissimilar from the other three members in the photo (i.e., he doesn’t weigh 350 pounds with pimples and three chins, while his wife is a svelte, athletic 115)).