4 ms·

EDIT: OP didn't pick the picture of the girls, those are actually LG "booth babes." Sorry OP! Metacomment (about the article): The author created a fake photo

by sequoia 15y ago

EDIT: OP didn't pick the picture of the girls, those are actually LG "booth babes." Sorry OP! Metacomment (about the article): The author created a fake photo for the article based on the dialer and app screens and photo of two young girls, presumably to draw the eye and get clicks (or for lack of any actual applicable images). I have a couple of issues/questions: 1: Is it reasonable for a tech blogger to create fake images of a product and lead the article with them? (It says in the title attribute that the image is fake but I don't make a habit of hovering over each image to find out if it's fake.) 2: I know that using sexualized pictures of women to draw readers is a common practice that isn't going away (see Wired, Psychology Today, every other magazine), but these girls look peripubescent. I'm annoyed by the practice in all cases, but it seems especially poor taste to use images of such young girls in this context. (If someone wants to make the case that I'm imagining the role sexuality plays in this practice, I'm happy to hear it, but I'm highly skeptical.)

hub_ 15y ago
One thing that is sure is that this one seriously lack ethics. Note that even in real journalism there is that kind of practice. Just look at tabloids.
eshrews 15y ago
"Believe it or not, they're official LG booth babes, for MWC! That's a press photo from this morning, for the Optimus 4X thing. They do look a bit young for booth babes, IMO." From the comments - http://www.extremetech.com/computing/119571-mozilla-partners-up-with-lg-to-combat-apple-and-google-with-its-own-device#comment-447161126 http://www.extremetech.com/computing/119571-mozilla-partners...
- tuacker 15y ago
  The picture on The Verge looks like the original one: http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/22/2818308/lg-optimus-4x-hd-press-images#3039772 http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/22/2818308/lg-optimus-4x-hd-p...
  - hub_ 15y ago
    Busted ! :-)
  - sequoia 15y ago
    Holy crap... That's really quite shocking and makes me seriously question whether I'd want to do business with LG. If you had a 14 year old daughter, would you appreciate LG or whoever paying her to wear a very low cut shirt and make eyes at a bunch of older (mostly) men to entice them to buy a phone? I don't consider myself an "overprotective" parent, but I think this sort of sexualization of young girls by a large company is really sick and distasteful. /r/jailbait got shut down for sexualizing girls of this same (apparent) age, just as LG is doing. Gross.

by sequoia 15y ago

hub_ 15y ago

One thing that is sure is that this one seriously lack ethics. Note that even in real journalism there is that kind of practice. Just look at tabloids.

eshrews 15y ago

"Believe it or not, they're official LG booth babes, for MWC! That's a press photo from this morning, for the Optimus 4X thing. They do look a bit young for booth babes, IMO." From the comments - http://www.extremetech.com/computing/119571-mozilla-partners-up-with-lg-to-combat-apple-and-google-with-its-own-device#comment-447161126 http://www.extremetech.com/computing/119571-mozilla-partners...

tuacker 15y ago
The picture on The Verge looks like the original one: http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/22/2818308/lg-optimus-4x-hd-press-images#3039772 http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/22/2818308/lg-optimus-4x-hd-p...
- hub_ 15y ago
  Busted ! :-)
- sequoia 15y ago
  Holy crap... That's really quite shocking and makes me seriously question whether I'd want to do business with LG. If you had a 14 year old daughter, would you appreciate LG or whoever paying her to wear a very low cut shirt and make eyes at a bunch of older (mostly) men to entice them to buy a phone? I don't consider myself an "overprotective" parent, but I think this sort of sexualization of young girls by a large company is really sick and distasteful. /r/jailbait got shut down for sexualizing girls of this same (apparent) age, just as LG is doing. Gross.