“If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking.”

George S. Patton, General U. S. Army

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Mark Twain

"The ancestor of every action is thought."

Emerson

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought."

Buddha

"When you are not told what to do you begin to think what to do."

Roger Cohen, Op-Ed Columnist New York Times

"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."

Voltaire

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think."

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

"You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think."

Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course

"Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?"

Winnie the Pooh

"Time to think matters ─ at least if we’re interested in getting the answers right."

Stephen L. Carter

"Thinking is always out of order, interrupts all ordinary activities and is interrupted by them."

Hannah Arendt, Life of the Mind

"Too often we…enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

John F. Kennedy

"The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds."

Will Durant

"Thinking is like living and dying. Each of us must do it for himself."

Josiah Royce

"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar territory."

G. Behn

"The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking."

Albert Einstein

"Pursuing our thoughts in silent contemplation takes an investment in time that few can spare."

Stephen L. Carter

"A moment’s thinking is an hour in words."

Thomas Hood

"Sometimes I think and other times I am."

Paul, Variete: Cantiques spirituels 192

"To think is to differ."

Darrow

"To think is to live."

Cicero

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

William Jones

"What we think, we become."

Buddha

"Our job is not to make up anybody’s mind, but to open minds and to make the agony of the decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking."

Anonymous

"The person who thinks before he speaks is silent most of the time."

Anonymous

"Think ─ and you will be very lonely."

Anonymous

"Thought is action in rehearsal."

Anonymous

"We live in a world that leaves very little time to contemplate."

Anonymous

"Don’t worry too much about what people think because they seldom do."

Anonymous

"Invest a few moments in thinking. It will pay good interest."

Anonymous

"One cannot think crooked and walk straight."

Anonymous

"Think Differently + Do Things Differently = Better Results"

Anonymous

February 11, 2014

“You can’t be what you can’t see.”

Tags: Promotion,

I feel sorry for photographers these days. Inexpensive “stock” photography is all the rage now, especially when budgets are an issue (which is almost always).  I love the stock concept images that give truth to the adage, “One picture is worth a thousand words.” But I am not sold on the stock photos of people. Everyone looks so fake, so perfect. But Seattle-based Getty Images is apparently trying to do something about that. Starting with its photo files of working women and families.

When it comes to using people shots in your marketing, I highly recommend that you create your own image bank. Your employees, customers and members don’t look like perfectly groomed plastic stock people.

But custom photography can be expensive and I need to continually sell my clients on the value of the investment as it relates to building an authentic brand.

And photography today is definitely trending authentic.

The good news/bad news is that now everyone is a photographer. Digital cameras and cell phones are at-the-ready and companies are getting more comfortable using amateur shots and inexpensive stock-images-for-hire.

But the trouble with stock is that everyone is using the same stereotypical stuff. Especially when it comes to the people shots.

Enter Sheryl Sandberg, a Facebook executive and author of “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,” who advocates for women achieving leadership roles.

She announced yesterday that her nonprofit organization, LeanIn.org, has formed a partnership with Getty Images, a stock photo agency with an archive of 150 million still images and illustrations. Together they will be offering a special collection of images that they feel “represent women and families in more empowering ways.”

This is a first for Getty: jointly creating a collection with a nonprofit that will pocket 10% from the licensing revenue.

So will that be the demise of the perfect people pictures?

It’s a start.

In the new collection, gone will be the perky blonde executive woman in the power suit with the leather briefcase and sensible heels (feeding a baby in a high chair).

In her place will be the working woman sporting a tattoo sleeve working comfortably at home with a baby on her lap and a laptop on her desk.

Older women will be shown participating in meetings with young millennials (imagine that…).

Women in the workforce will be portrayed with updated hairstyles, casual clothes and the latest digital devices in hand. (No stylist needed).

Young girls will be shown working on computers, not playing with dolls.

And men will figure more prominently in parenting roles, especially as it relates to father/daughter interactions.

“When we see images of women and girls and men, they often fall into the stereotypes that we’re trying to overcome, and you can’t be what you can’t see,” Ms. Sandberg said in an interview.

I like the “can’t be what you can’t see” quote.

But I worry that this new collection will begin to look as unauthentic as the current crop of stock images if it gets too extreme.

There will be plenty of shots available of women lifting weights, painting houses, performing surgery and driving trucks.

And the dads will be changing diapers, setting the table and braiding their daughter’s hair.

(I’m personally holding out for the shot of the man taking the meeting notes. Talk about a breakthrough…).

Visuals are immensely powerful and aspirational.

That’s why image-based communication is taking precedence over the written word: Pinterest, Instagram, and cell phone cameras rule.

We all need models to model the lives we want to live, the people we want to be.

I’m a huge fan of that.

But I think I’ll pass on the tattoo sleeve look for now.

Since establishing Alvaré in 1981, Anita has guided the agency through 38 years of steady growth and success. A marketing communications entrepreneur who has done it all, she remains deeply involved in strategic planning and creative direction, bringing extensive knowledge and insight to each client project.

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