{"id":10416,"date":"2015-06-01T17:58:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T21:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/?p=10416"},"modified":"2022-08-01T07:43:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:43:04","slug":"identiposers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/2015\/06\/identiposers\/","title":{"rendered":"Identiposers"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the many reasons I hate sales and marketing is that only one side of the story is ever presented: the side that induces you to buy the product.\u00a0 The positive features are exaggerated and the negatives are either downplayed or ignored.\u00a0 The moment I sense that I am being sold something, my defenses kick in, because I know I am not being told the whole truth.<\/p>\n

I am especially annoyed by the people who market themselves as if they were a brand.\u00a0 They also show only one side of themselves: a pretty package, a carefully manufactured persona-as-product they hope you will buy.\u00a0 Integral to their self-marketing is how they depict themselves on their websites and in promotional materials.\u00a0 Invariably, they appear to be fresh and ageless, as good brands should be, reality be damned.<\/p>\n

I call such people identiposers<\/em> — people who allow (or promote) the misrepresentation of their image for potential personal gain.\u00a0 Allow me to present a few examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"BWalters\"On the left is the image that Barbara Walters, age 85, uses as her Facebook profile photo. On the right is a snapshot of Ms. Walters following her May 2015 appearance on David Letterman’s show.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"raitt1-2\"On the left is the image of Bonnie Raitt, age 65, that she displays on her website.\u00a0 On the right is a photo of Ms. Raitt at a February 2015 music awards program.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Oz\"On the left is the image of so-called Doctor Mehmet Oz, age 55, that he uses on his Twitter page.\u00a0 On the right is a photo of Dr. Oz from his June 2014 testimony before the U.S. Senate.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Arianna\"On the left is the image that Arianna Huffington, age 64, uses on her Twitter account.\u00a0 On the right is a photo of Ms. Huffington at New York Fashion Week in February 2015.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"QuakerOn the left is an image of the Quaker Oats Man, age 138, as shown in the corporate logo.\u00a0 On the right — well, I think you get the idea.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"BrianPerformers are not the only ones who conveniently forget to keep their public image up-to-date.\u00a0 Take Brian Krebs,\u00a0 cybersecurity expert.\u00a0 His website banner photo calls to mind a dashing and intrepid investigator of computer crime.\u00a0 But on television, we see a 43-year-old soccer dad.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Boxer\"Let’s not forget politicians.\u00a0 One of the photos at right shows how Senator Barbara Boxer of California, age 74, looks today, and the other photo — from her website — is how she looked in 1998 or thereabouts.\u00a0 You may guess which is which, no special committee hearings needed here.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"BTracy\"Many motivational speakers make a living talking about self-confidence, including Brian Tracy.\u00a0 The image on the left shows the confident-looking Mr. Tracy, now 71, as seen on his Google Plus profile<\/a>.\u00a0 The photo on the right shows Mr. Tracy at one of his workshops, back in 2011.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I don’t buy the notion that these examples are oversights, a result of just being slow on the draw to update promotional materials.\u00a0 No, the images presented to us are chosen to make the person-product look younger than his or her actual age and thereby appear more vital, appealing and credible.\u00a0 Using outdated images is a manipulation, one that is hardly more ethical than the more-frequently-criticized overuse of Photoshop.<\/p>\n

I have nothing against people wanting to look their best in public and taking pride in their appearance.\u00a0 But what we see here are examples of personal branding by identiposers, not personal pride.<\/p>\n

\"Selfie\"I am not a celebrity or businessperson.\u00a0 I have not used my image to brand my blog — what a mistake that would be! —\u00a0 but in fairness, by not<\/em> having posted my photo here, I could be accused of leaving too much to the reader’s imagination.\u00a0 So, in the spirit of self-disclosure, I am sharing a photo of me taken earlier this year.\u00a0 It’s the first selfie I ever did, using the first smartphone I ever owned, and it will likely be the last.<\/p>\n

This brings to mind a morbid topic: what photo is appropriate for one’s own obituary?\u00a0 Must it show how I looked in my later years or may it be from any point in my lifetime?\u00a0 I don’t know what photo I would pick, but you can be sure it will show me with more hair on my head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the many reasons I hate sales and marketing is that only one side of the story is ever presented: the side that induces you to buy the product.\u00a0 The positive features are exaggerated and the negatives are either … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10416"}],"version-history":[{"count":66,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10804,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10416\/revisions\/10804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}