Sunglasses and Politics
Every now and then a political story hits the Internet and becomes extremely popular in a very short matter of time; days and sometimes even just hours have to go by before everybody has heard the latest gossip. This is often not because of the inherent value or importance of a story - but just because it seems to resonate with the public in some say. If a light hearted story becomes popular it will be all over the political forums like a virus and even some of the serious broadcasters will pick it up. Just such a story emerged from the United States of America in April of this year, and funnily enough - it was about Vice President Cheney and a pair of his sunglasses.
If you do a google search for Dick Cheney’s sunglasses, you may see what all the fuss has been about. Right there in the reflection of his sunglasses is an image of what looks a lot like a naked or semi naked lady. This picture comes from the official Whitehouse website and is listed as a photo of Dick Cheney fishing. What is most interesting about this entire situation to me has to do with the power of suggestion, and the way that this can be amplified in a short amount of time on the Internet.
A man wearing his shades while fishing is not a big story, not even if that man is the Vice President of the United States of America. However through the power of a blurry photograph and the suggestions of a few people, suddenly a naked woman is in the frame. A lot of people seem to have a need to find a deeper and more absorbing story that fits the facts, even if it has no grounds in reality. A ray ban sunglasses advertisement may not even be able to catch the public attention as much as some of these stories do.
On some political forums, people were so sure that the image was of a naked person that they were analysing who it might be and what they might be up to. When someone actually took the time to sharpen up and magnify the image, the boring truth was plain to see. It was, after all, an image of a man holding a fishing rod - no naked women (or men for that matter) in sight. With the power of suggestion and a blurry image of a man doing some fishing, some people manage to see secrets, lies and even conspiracy. If the people at ray ban knew how easy the public could be captivated online, they just might be able to incorporate some of this psychology into their advertising campaigns.