On eating one's own dogfood...

I just ran across this article about how Sony has an ad running in Outside Magazine for a new DSLR they're marketing, the Sony A700. What's interesting about the ad is that there is pretty strong evidence that the photo they chose to use in the ad -- presumably as a way of showing the power of the A700 -- was actually a photo taken in 1965 before Sony cameras existed. In fact, it was most likely taken using a Nikon, based on other work that the photographer did around the same time.

What I find hard to understand about this is why Sony didn't hire someone to go take some photos with the camera that they're actually marketing in the ad. Sony isn't exactly the starving underdog; I'm fairly certain they could afford it. Crazy talk, I know.

Judging from the pile of equipment they have on display in the ad, it stands to reason that they're trying to appeal to the semi-pro and pro markets with this camera... which also happen to be markets that have a pretty high likelihood of noticing the fact that you used a relatively recognizable 40 year old photo in your ad for a camera made by a company that didn't even make cameras that long ago.

Link: http://www.cnet.com/8301-13556_1-9818927-61.html