A Question of Manliness...

In My Humble Opinion
1

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)).

2

I vote: you are indeed weird, knuckle draggy, and have feverishly odd ideas of ‘manhood’. A lot of anxiety there - very strange post!

3

Perhaps. But honestly, I can’t figure out the mindset of someone who says “You want a picture of my wife and kids with another guy? No problem!”, especially when advertising their own family business!

4

Yeah but no one knows he is the owner, I mean it doesn’t say “Picture of owner”. They’re not identified.

5

I agree with the OP, totally weird. Totally. WTF. :dubious: (although to so quickly bring “manhood” into the picture seems a bit much)

6

Definitely weird, but not a “manhood” thing. It would be just as insulting to the wife if they’d decided to replace her with a model for the family photo.

7

I don’t understand why they just replaced the husband. Why not just hire all models or use a stock photo instead of only replacing the guy?

8

You are being weird. He is basically using his family as models in advertising. It is done all the time. My aunt used my grandma (as a customer) and my cousin (as an employee) in a commercial for her business. Why would they bring in and pay for models when his family would probably get a little thrill out of their “fame”

9

Well, if John is featured in one photo as an employee of the company, and then the “family” is shown as the customers of the company (I’m guessing), wouldn’t it be kind of strange if they used him twice in different roles? Whoever put the brochure together probably already decided to go with the photo of John working, before they arranged the “family” shot.

Maybe they didn’t hire all models or use a stock photo because John’s kids really wanted to be in the brochure. When I was a kid, it was considered really cool to see yourself in a newspaper on local TV for any mundane thing at all, so I guess this would be kind of similar.

10

Maybe they didn’t want to use John in two different ads.

On a semi related subject, I WISH that certain company owners would get it into their heads that they are not, in fact, voice actors. There’s a woman who owns a local mattress company around here who does a lot of the radio commercials, and she has one of the highest pitched, most grating voices that I’ve ever heard. She needs to hire someone else to voice her commercials. Even Flo from the Progressive ads is slightly less irritating, especially if she doesn’t have that Greek chorus. Lawyers and used car salespeople seem to be particularly bad about this, though of course any area might have an owner with a particularly grating voice.

11

I don’t see what manhood’s got to do with that particular picture, although I think several things are weird about the whole brochure:

  • the family pic where everybody except the “father” is a real family. Either use unrelated people or use an actual family. And don’t use close relatives in a “customers” shot, maybe your local humor doesn’t bend this way but I can already hear the “sheeyit, the only people who buy from them are their relatives?” Use friends or neighbors, use an employee’s relatives (preferably not the own employee’s SO and kids, someone like the employee’s sibling and sibling’s family), in other words: use someone who doesn’t have a direct economic link to the business they’re pictured as being customers of.
  • that the father of that strangely-pictured family is pictured elsewhere in the brochure. If he wasn’t, you could think that maybe he didn’t appear as a way to difuse the close links between models and business, or that he was the photographer, or maybe he just hates being in pictures. But the combination is just weird.
12

Yeah, this, and what Nava said. It’s weird to use your family as not-your-family in a family business’ marketing materials, especially when combined with “models.” I don’t think it’s a question of manliness, it’s just strange.

13

It’s no different than actors playing a role, and there have been plenty of actor families playing roles like the OP. It has nothing whatsoever to do with manliness.

14

Perhaps clients will meet Johns wife behind the counter of the business, while thye won’t meet John because John works back-office? Clients get a little thrill out of getting service from someone “famous from radio and TV”, however local that TV and radio might be.

I did some PR for a volunteer organization that was aired on my city’s local TV and even that resulted in several strangers adressing me as: “Hey! Weren’t you on TV for X-cause yesterday?” Yes, that is me. However, the fame hasn’t gotten to my head. :slight_smile:

15

When I was 8, my parents started their own business, and took a few ambiguous photos in order to have the leaflet printed and ready at the same time as they were planning to open. Including one of me and my brother in front of one of the future exhibits, together with my Dad’s friend and his girlfriend in a ‘family’ pose. Struck me as funny, but not weird- for a start, my Dad was taking the photos :wink: Was funny, because my bro was 11, and the guy acting as his father was actually only 23, as was ‘Mum’.

I guess my mother would have looked a proper cougar if they’d mixed couples, as well as the potential for awkward body language. No-one was a proper model, they were just a pretty good-looking couple willing to pose in exchange for giving them a lift to work for a week when their car broke down :smiley:

Personally, I think a part of being ‘Manly’ is not being paranoid about other people around your wife. But that’s me.

16

I think the business owner is probably gay, and/or his wife is a slut and sleeping with the guy in the ad.

IOW, OP, you’re completely off base.

The picture does not identify the people as a ‘real’ family, right? So, they’re all just actors. In a commercial. The guy is not a substitute for the husband. They cast a photo shoot, which happened to use the owner’s wife and kids (probably because they were free) as a wife and kid in a shoot.

It’s called acting, dude, and if this pushes your buttons I can’t imagine what happens when you turn on the TV and watch men and women pretending to be in relationships, and actually kissing and stuff. I’m sure all the husbands of those actresses are emasculated, and wish they had put down their foot and not allowed their wives to be filmed in such a way!

17

Seconded.

18

Very odd OP.

19

Oh, I thought they were putting the wife and kid in to show the family of someone who helps run it. In that case, it makes sense.

20

When I buy a picure frame, I don’t assume the people in the place holder photo are really a family. The only reason it is weird to the OP is that he happens to know some of the people in the photos, stop looking at the brochure and get back to work.