Friday, April 11, 2014

What Happened to “Attention to Detail?”

What Happened to “Attention to Detail?” image Screen Shot 2014 03 14 at 10.14.56 AM

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not perfect. Things do get past me. So I ask other people to review things before I send them out. From proposals to campaigns, I want to make sure anything final is good before it goes out. I pay particular attention to proofs from the printer and other types of final approval.


Why are large companies letting so much slip through?


By now you’ve probably heard about what happened to Target and their wonderful Photoshop work. Not long after, I got this email from Old Navy:



Look closely at the hand on the hip of the girl in orange. Where did that come from? You can clearly see on her right side and the leg of the girl in green that these were not clipped out well. I know Photoshop. The difference between a good clip and a bad clip for something like this is only about five minutes. Maybe they gave it to an intern? Still, between the senior designer, creative director, marketing manager, etc. someone should have noticed it looked weird.


It’s not limited to the work in Photoshop. It seems like companies aren’t testing emails before sending things out. This woman’s head was recently cut off in an email from New York & Company (screenshot below). I got this in Gmail and opened in Safari– it’s not like it’s an overly unique combination of things that would cause the code to get like this. (For non-technical people, they could have fixed it with good coding). In a world of multiple devices, testing browsers and email clients are critical for online marketing.


Perhaps it’s an issue of noticing and not caring? I can’t remember the last time I read a printed magazine or newspaper without a typo. Editorial styles and consistency are out the window.


Perhaps it’s the digital age that’s causing us to move too fast. Our brains are learning to look past errors and digest the meaning. After all, it’s not that hard to read this and know what it says.


What Happened to “Attention to Detail?” image spellimg(source)


Whatever the case, here is my plea:


Dear anyone responsible for creating and distributing content:


I’m sick of marketers getting a bad rap for stupid things.


Stop assuming people don’t care. Stop thinking it’s not that big of a deal. Stop thinking your consumer isn’t educated enough to know. Stop relying on someone else to notice it. Just stop.


I get it. We’re busy. It’s hard to juggle 10,000 tasks and get each one right.


Plan time to step away and revisit before production/distribution. Find a trusted editor to review things. Most of all be accountable. You’re representing an industry and we need to stick together.


Love


-Jen


Have you seen other examples of poor quality control? Share examples in the comments.


Source: B2C_Business



What Happened to “Attention to Detail?”

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