By now most people will have noticed the new Look and Feel of this site, as well as the main Sun.com and Java.sun.com sites. All three a part of an overall branding theme. One portion of branding is the photography you choose to convey the message of your brand. An example photo can be seen "Here":http://www.sun.com/brand
What's amazing is the discussion that this one photograph (and others of a similar theme, Global Uses of Technology) has generated on a few internal email aliases I'm on. Personally I like the thought of showing global citizens benefiting from Sun Technology. It says a lot about what Sun is about. Technology, innovation, not necessarily Solaris 10 and Opteron servers, although those are key pieces. Keep in mind this is a branding campaign, not a sales pitch. You're not supposed to see some IT drone using Widget X.
I'm being completely blown away by some of my fellow employees assertion that this particular photo of a Sumo Wrestler wearing zubon (lightweight cotton pants) lying on a tatami using a PDA was somehow offensive. What!!? How can that be offensive? Admittedly, I'm a tough person to offend. I think this country (and the world for that matter) is waaay to easily offended these days. It's not enough to disagree intelligently anymore, no no no, that's not EXTREME enough. Doesn't demand a response. If you merely dislike something, I can safely chalk that up to subjective opinion and move on. No, one must be _offended_ to get any attention these days. Being offended implicitly demands some form of redress. The offense must be stopped, covered up, removed. Think of the children! Usually the next words you hear from the offended person are: Why, there ought to be a law!
In most cases though, if I squint just right and stand on one foot, I can sort of, vaguely, make out why someone would be offended. In this case, I am completely at a loss. I cannot see one offensive thing. Has America become so inundated by bland, Gap-attired IT Drones in our technology marketing that the shock of someone from another culture is just too much? Would a blond, blue-eyed, perky co-ed be acceptable? How Global is that?
What's truly ironic to me is I'm having these discussions on our internal Mac-users alias and the Bloggers alias, the two places, if any, I would think would embrace a global and stimulating perspective. In any case, if these pictures alone drum up the same level of discussion in the big wide Real World as they have on two little ol' email lists here at Sun, the movers and shakers behind the new branding campaign have already achieved something cool. In my mind at least.
