Watch Your Metadata

You know, sometimes you just gotta stop and laugh. This is the kinda laugh that you throw your head back and laugh out loud. I recall the uproar - pre-MacIntel - when an advertisement for Intel chips, it was revealed, was made with an Apple.

Now, let's have a little chuckle in the latest round of commercials.

(Continued after the Jump)

Apple has been wildly successful with their "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" ads. So much so, that after a flawed trial with Jerry Seinfeld, the latest ads poke back at the iconic Apple ads. Yet, the laugh track dials up to 11 when the metadata reveals that the images were made on...wait for it now....a Mac.

Cue the laughter.

John Paczkowski over at All Things Digital (Hi. I'm a PC...and I was Made on a Mac, 9/19/08) writes

"The irony is enough to make your head explode...My God. This is how Microsoft and its ad agency hope to turn Apple’s disparagement to their advantage? I would have assumed that an advertising campaign touting Windows PCs over Macs would, you know, not be created on Macs. But then I don’t work for Microsoft..."

, and Microsoft has issued a statement:

"As is common in almost all campaign workflow, agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit and distribute content, including both Macs and PCs."

Right. Yet, it's been reported that Microsoft has cleaned up the metadata, and, presumably, someone is re-doing the entire campaign on a PC? No? Maybe?

Folks, be careful in your own metadata. Here's an example of one I caught recently. It was an assignment from earlier this year, but a post-production person who wasn't paying attention applied an old template to the data, so the added copyright notice was two years old. Not good. Attention to detail, people.
Other things, like mis-spelling a subject's name could mean your images don't turn up in a search. Having the wrong city, and so forth. The list goes on. Be darn sure you're handling your metadata right, or the value of your images will be diminished, and you might just embarrass yourself, or your clients.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.