Anyone who has driven a North American car newer than 1985, meaning unless you live in the hills without running water and copper wires in the wall, knows that the passenger side mirror of an automobile has a little disclaimer about objects being closer than they appear.
Did you ever wonder why the car manufacturers do that? Is the right side mirror less important than the driver's side? What research was done that rationalizes objects to be smaller and further away? Doesn't it make sense to see objects in the rear view mirror at the right distance our eyes are used to seeing them.
Here's the answer. A convex mirror, which is a fancy way for saying curved outwardly, gives a larger field of view to eliminate blind spots on the passenger side. The planar mirror, a flat mirror, doesn't get the advantage of the passenger side.
I remember driving to Montreal in 1996 in a Honda Civic 2 door Coupe. On approach to the big city, the traffic got heavy and stressful for this young hic. I could've used those convex mirrors on the driver's side as I pulled directly onto no less than four different cars trying to pass me on the AutoRoute. Horns a blazing, I felt lucky having escaped disaster, but at the same time, I learned of the driver side blindspot that no one taught me in driver's education.
The mirror thought popped into my brain this morning while having breakfast at a truck stop.
There was a promotional piece on the table showing a picture of a new menu item. The plate looked appetizing but I was shocked at the wimp-ical, ball-less, stand for nothing attitude of the words directly beneath the picture
"Actual plate may look different from the picture."
Are you kidding me? Putting a picture of a product on a menu is a promise. The owner is promising to the client that the ordered product will look almost exactly like the picture. If the product comes out and it looks less appetizing than the picture, does anyone believe that a stupid, legal disclaimer is enough to discredit a customer's expectation?
The simple answer is make your plates look exactly like the picture. No choices, no options.
This well known truck stop has systems to deliver consistent product. If the employees can't make the product look like the picture, may be it's time to remove pictures from the communications.
Not wanting to be oversold and underdelivered, I ordered something different. There was also a picture of it on the menu. And as expected, the product delivered was not representative of that picture either.
The strategy of placing pictures in any business marketing material is to promote the actual products and services offered for sale. Pictures are not just for restaurant menus. If you can't deliver exactly what the pictures say, don't put pictures on your marketing material.
A marketing piece without pretty pics can be boring. But a marketing piece with lies says your dishonest.
What your preference: To be seen as boring or to be seen as a liar?
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