ASUS and MSI have some 'splaining to do
By Paul Miller 
posted May 18th 2008 9:01AM
posted May 18th 2008 9:01AM
posted May 18th 2008 9:01AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Haha, that's amazing!
I want wait to see how this unfolds.
I forget where, maybe the Wall Street Journal, but some newspaper had an entire article on companies losing branding quality due to internet stock photo usage (and many companies using the same stock photos).
This is pretty common though; I'm not sure why it deserves an Engadget article. Neither company did anything wrong, per se.
Definitely. Either way I gotta say MSI did the better shop job.
Yeah, MSI looks more natural but the the ASUS guy is blushing so hard that he looks like he's in love with his notebook!
http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?contractUrl=1&language=en-US&family=creative&p=200193762-001&src=standard
Title: Boys (8-10) sitting at desks with laptops in classroom, portrait
Image #: 200193762-001
License type: Royalty-free
Photographer: Thomas Barwick
Collection: Digital Vision
Credit: Thomas Barwick
It's just what happens when you decide to go super cheap with design, photography, and brand, 'specially in this day and age of the instantly-informed public.
Those cheap asshats deserve this article.
"License type: Royalty-free"
Geez eh, cheap indeed.
The CD collection which this image belongs to is $600 and contains 50 images, so this image cost them $12, assuming they could find a use for the other images.
Setting up your own photo shoot would have cost way more than $600. It is a question of branding. The marketing people at Asus should have paid for exclusive use (still cheaper than rolling your own) or at least have checked prior use...
Honestly though, it's not like 99.9% of the people being marketed to would notice.
There's no such thing called bad publicity.. this thing is just making us talk even more about their brands..
Anyone pr their dog can take a picture of this "quality", suitable for the web, with a $100 camera. I'd do it for a $5. Companies get so tied up with "professionalism" but the standards of "professionalism" change as technology improves.
They're stupid to use stock footage when an original photo would have taken any random employee 5 minutes at a school or home.
@LarryLarryLarry
Yeah, it's not like there are model releases or anything involved.
You can totally just go into any school and start taking pictures of
kids and use them anywhere you want for your business.
And I don't see what the big deal is about this. It's kind of funny they used the same photo, but the use of stock photography is very common. There's nothing to explain about it. And believe it or not, getting good photos is not as simple as just walking into a school or whatever with your cannon powershot.
Actually, for correctness, I think that it is an iBook.
yeah, macbooks don't have the vent on the side, and the macbooks have a microphone port (which this 12 incher is missing). Macbooks have no dialup internet port (blanking on the official name) and the security lock is in a diffent location. Come on engadget, you don't brand computers at Starbucks like i do?
even more correct I doubt there's actually iBook there, you can see how the kids in the back show up more in MSI's pic. The original probably features them with pen and paper, its not uncommon for companies, especially tech companies to take photos like that and drop in what they want advertised
Dialup port = RJ11
Yeah, and the macbooks have a charging port on that side where as the iBooks have it on the other side
@ JohnTitor : The original picture is not taken to promote the iBook, it's just a portrait from a class at school. So no need for the photographer to edit some laptops on the desks. If he did, he did one hell of a job, because in that case he took care of every detail, contrary to the MSI picture where they just mirrored the other half of his classmate face and blurred it out. If you look at the original picture you see the second kid appearing as a normal kid, on the MSI picture he looks like an abomination of god.
A dial-up internet port is called a "modem". Kids nowadays. :-)
Not all modems are dial up Internet ports. :P
Modem = Modulator/Demodulator. They take digital signals and turn them into analog signals and back again.
Technically speaking, even a wireless broadband card is a "modem" as it is taking analog radio waves and turning them into a digital signal for the computer.
Likewise, your cable box at home is a cable "modem".
Keeping this in mind, it is actually more accurate and descriptive to call it a "dial up Internet port" rather than a "modem".
Adults these days. ;-)
wtf :?
Wow... even 5 year olds using Mac are hipsters.
lol, priceless. They almost got away with it.
"If it wasn't for you meddling kids!" In the spirit of lifting trademarks, forgive me Scooby-Doo
@NotNormal:
Ruh-Roh.
What's worrying is how in the Asus ad he's wearing lipstick and blusher (i think that's blusher anyway)
Also worrying...you noticed
@Maxwell Ash
More worrying to me is that you didn't notice. Seriously, how could you not notice that? It looks horrendous.
it looks to me like they screwed with the white balance controls.
Anyway id that kid were me: I'd sue for money, unless they got his permission then did a bad photoshop job which would seem rather pointless....
That's an iBook, not a MacBook.
is it really so hard to make a kid go near an eepc that your need to doctor a picture of him using it
lol good call
You can see that the kid is very happy with his iBook, and the kid behind him even happier with his Powerbook. If you put them in front of some Eee PCs they wouldn't be as happy. Put them in front of an MSI and they'd probably start crying.
That's an iBook... MacBooks don't have modems, nor do they have vents next to the HD.
Nor do they have a barrel charging connector (versus a magsafe), nor do they lack a mic input jack.
@ Scott
The "barrel charging connector" is on the right on iBooks, the slot before the modem is a kensington security slot
Why the even picked that image is a mystery to me. It's hardly ideal for shopping in an alternative product.
Busted!!
hahaha, the photoshopping looks horrible. Is it really that hard to take an original picture themselves? That seems like it would be cheaper to do. then again, they probably hired little timmy to do this work.
The MSI is badly copy pasted...onto the iBook. You can see part of it !
The Asus cropped the pic, so we can't tell.
Asus replaced the reflections on the table with matte grey and some very weak shadows, they also put some grey brushing over his left hand.
PWNED.
Whoa! I will make sure that I will never pose in a generic position on camera... Someone could easily photochop a plasma gun or a canister of Radioactive material in from of me smiling and send it to Homeland security... or S.H.I.E.L.D....
Is it really that hard to shoot your own photos? I mean whoever did the photoshop work, even took the time to play plastic surgeon...look at the face on the kid in the background on the MSI one!
rofl I noticed that too, wow.....
The MSI one is so bad.
you know the most important aspect is...time and money.
to shoot an original photo, you need:
1) hire a good photographer
2) rent or borrow a venue
3) hire professional models (model agency alwayyyyys charge very very much)
Though riginal photo also need to be photoshopped,
but, for gettyimage, just click click click and you can start to photoshop it.
Indeed, royalty free image is not....cheap...
The price is even higher then a Eee PC...
They are just...unfortunate....hahha
and the original photo is too nice.....hahah
it's an iBook - see the telephone modem jack and no MagSafe... ?
i know you! you're from flickr lol
Get it? GET A MAC !
What a bunch of idiots.
I wish I was the owner of that photo so I can sue their asses for a huge sum of money.
How hard is it to just hire someone to make a pose, put your product beside it, then click the camera ?
The owner of the photo CAN'T sue. Whoever shot this put it up for sale on a stock photography website, with very little control in terms of how the image is used once it is bought by an individual or company. The owner probably thinks it's funny shit, if he ever bothers to read any articles about it. I mean, what does he care? His name isn't in the credits anywhere.