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
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its called a stock photo. Any one can buy them and use them. They drop in a picture of the laptop. Look at the MSI, there is not reflection on the desk...
Heh-heh.
You should also mention it's an iBook since no one's mentioned it ;-)
Just to clear it up a little bit.
I found the Asus picture on a cd they handed out at the CeBIT pressconference back in march.
The MSI Wind picture was released in a promo photoseries about a week ago... well and then i found the original on gettyimages
Cheers
Sascha
eeepcnews.de
The best photo reuse ever:
There's a picture of a hot-woman-doctor in an ad for "The Ropes" in the back of Maxim/FHM type magazines pushing sex or something...
That same picture was used in an ad for Microsoft Office!
Can't beat re-use of Getty images...
So I wonder who Apple ripped off to use the photo?
A stock photo and the wonders of photoshopping means the kid could be smiling over his school lunchroom meal and not a computer at all - or wasn't even in that room at all and was originally photographed leaning on a railing....
You are assuming that Apple used that photo, which is a stupid assumption.
how'd you figure it out?
could you tell by the pixels, and seeing quite a few shops in your day?
The iBook was in the stock photo, they edited out all the Apple logos so it could be used as a stock image.
And damn those are horrible photoshops, and laptops.
I build websites for people, I also do photography. I can tell you from first hand experience that when a client is looking at the costs of original vs. licensing stock photos vs. exclusively licensing photos, they go for the stock almost every time. Photos from stock are as low as free up to $20 or $30 for non-exclusive use. Exclusive use is considerably more expensive.
Generally big companies (like Asus) would get exclusive, original works from their ad agency. You won't find Apple or Microsoft, for example, using stock photos...
You get what you pay for...
I may be wrong about Microsoft not using stock photos. I guess I shouldn't be surprised...
MSI and ASUS have nothing to do with this. Get your shit straight.
Seriously? Your post is on the second freakin' page. Epic Fail.
what's truly funny is all of the idiots posting in this thread like they have a clue about stock photography, the cost of photoshoots, the rights of the person being photographed... especially amusing are the ones who don't actually read the article before they post.
I think this calls for an Engadget photoshop competition!
See who can replace the iBook with their favorite model of laptop the best.
Of course iBook lovers would have to be disqualified.
Dunno why either of them (ASUS and MSI) wanted to use that picture in the first place, anyway. Anyone who wears what that kid is wearing obviously has no sense of style, so that doesn't say much his choice of laptop.
MSI apparently has better Photoshop skills, ergo I'll buy a Wind.
Just hilarious. That kid must be in high demand!
It's hilarious how often you see the same clip art used across multiple products. I know I keep seeing a picture of this chick in vinyl pants & long hair twirling it sideways in no less than 4 products. One for a Coby portable DVD player. Same pic was also used in Sam Goody's displays.
got a link to the pic?
I think we're forgetting Okami for the Wii. Capcom lifted art from IGN for their cover art. Because they didn't have any art for their own damn game?!
This kid is the new star of tha interwebs. Expect several hundred shopchops of orange hatted boy.
I dont see the big deal about it. I'm a graphic designer and we do that all the time. They use a stock photo and remove the laptop and place the one they want to use. Most stock photos that use a laptop is a mac because the photographer use a mac and think it will look better then pc laptop. go to gettyimages or corbis to see the stock photos.Go to gettyimages.com and search for 200193762-001 and you can buy it. I don't see the big deal.
I can't believe that i'm the first one to use the words "Everywhere Girl" in response to this.
Your not... but if you read the previous comments you'd have seen joe mentioned it before you and someone else posted links.
Pro Tip: Read other comments before posting.
@ buddyboy
PROTIP: Apostrophes.
I just dont believed these were used in press. Sure companies use stock photos all the time, nothing wrong with that, just usually they spend SOME time editing them, the grey desk overlap th kids hand with the asus "ad" and the MSI one used a awful image of their laptop, its not at the right angle. Also they didnt bother to hide the Ibook underneath,
Hilarious.
Well hiring your own models and doing advertising is equivalent usage and editing of stock photos. If they had paid their own model to sit and act happy, it's the same thing. This is exactly like hiring a paid actor to pretend he's happy with your product "because that is the type of reaction customers can be expected to have".
I agree that's screwy and needs to be changed, but that's the way it is nowadays.
omg is that's an ibook?!
if you look, asus changed the position and the angle of the laptop in relation to the kids arm, msi changed the angle but not the position then added a reflection on the table. the original was not taken to show off the logo, so msi and asus changed the angle so it would show off the logo better...
SHOOP DA wOOP! That's so photoshopped! I can tell by the pixels and by having seen many shops in my days
Pixels? Who cares about pixels? I can tell they're 'shopped due to the fact that there are 3 different pics of the same scene.
Try this for an even bigger cock-up.. Esquire using the same image of Barack Obama that Time had already run before..
http://aphotoeditor.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/timeesquire.jpg
As a photographer this really makes me wonder.
Cost of setting up a new photoshoot - probably not much more than the RRP of the laptop. Embarrassment when this kind of stuff shows up - priceless.
@Rick, that is what got me, wierd people
I smell troll.
Thats actually an iBook, thats the thing Apple made before Apple started making it into daily news.
You're kidding right?
I think it's time to go old school:
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll289/catgrin/book_ad.jpg)
Will it post?
i'm a graphic designer for a large engineering consultancy, and we use stock photos quite alot.. but I dont use photos with people in, unless they are our own staff/product! the amount of time/money photoshoppin those images would have been much better used hiring a photographer, especially for such an international product in the public domain... they must reaallly be making few pennys sellin those things.
Tho the photoshopin on the background for the MSI image is quite funny (they replaced the black kid who's face was covered by the ibook, with what looks like the chinese kids head lol)
well the orange beanie boy is still not as famous as the everywhere girl: have you guys seen her?
http://www.hyperbio.net/fric_frac/2007/03/girls_girls_gir.html and http://blog.ideeinc.com/2008/01/22/everywhere-girl-the-book/ it is old news but I keep track of appearances and there are so so many even today!
The perspective is all wrong on the MSI version. Fail.
My background is in advertising/design. Using a stock "royalty-free" image is acceptable and legal for most forms of usage. Using a stock "rights-managed" image without permission or negotiating a fee is illegal. The difference usually comes down to the quality of the image, which dictates a big jump in price.
The real question here is why on earth wouldn't they spend around $600 to do their own unique shot showcasing their actual product that they would own the rights to? Then again, looking at both of their web sites, I found the answer...
I'm sure gettyimages sell their images royalty-free. but why don't they just go take a real shot of a kid with a laptop? It wouldn't be any cheaper (like give the kid the laptop and say "you'll be famous") but at least you'll know it won't look fake and get revealed.
His makeup is so... pretty.
Plus there is the fact that in the original, there is a girl in the background, in a blue shirt, then in the MSI picture there is a boy, wearing the same shirt that the second kid is wearing...could have at least chosen a different color for the coller
Um... did ANY of you notice that the blurry new friend in the MSI pic is a boy's head 'shopped over a girl from the original picture? Yeah, 'scuse me? Why do they need to replace the blurry blue shirt and long hair of a girl with a copy of the head of boy #2?
And then people wonder why girls aren't being attracted to tech. Sheesh!!