Blend Images Offers Hispanic Stock Photos For Your Advertising Needs, Or You Can Take Free Pictures of Your Friends

The November 2008 edition of Hispanic Business features an ad for Blend Images, a company offering stock photos of “ethnic” people. The ad proclaims that the company has “fresh, original photography for advertising and marketing projects.” This is the sort of business that can be easily championed… or easily derided. For instance, the picture at left shows a sassily dressed Latina in, presumably, her apartment, casually standing with her legs crossed in a way that almost shows the viewer more than they need for a marketing project. No matter that we love her shoes and might wear that dress if we had the boobs for it, the point is, what sort of advertising or marketing project would need this image? Did we mention that this picture is listed in the gallery “Your Place or Mine?”

More ethnic imagery, after the jump:

Can’t you almost hear the guy on the left calling out “Dawg!” between puffs on his cigar? Nevermind that these two culturally diverse gentlemen are sitting around playing video games while smoking cigars and drinking champagne, why are they on a furry couch with a cheetah print cover on the back? And why does the guy on the left have on jeans that make it look like he wet himself? We can understand needing this stock photo for a story on a genetic link between earning a bit of money and needing to be a douchebag (really, guys, champagne and cigars for a Playstation?) but we’re not quite sure where else this photo might be useful. Dating site, perhaps?

Oh, stereotypes. Or, rather: Oh, reality. Yes, many Hispanic men find themselves working as cooks in a restaurant, but why is he smiling about it? “Hey, I get to cook you food. It’s nice. No papers needed.”

We can understand the need for diverse stock images, but we’re not sure if these images show real diversity. The people might be diverse, but the situations they’re placed in come across as stereotypes. What do you think?

Blend Images