So I step out of my office here at Infinite Curve Towers and see this ad on a black cab on the street:

I mean, who signed that off, with the wrist looking like that? Not just bad archery… bad artwork. Sadly it seems to be a flipped version of another of their ads, spotted and criticized for different reasons by fellow WordPress blogger Sam Elfler:

That explains the wrist business, but not the grip, “hook”, strange, MC Escher angling of the string / limbs / bow arm, anchor, arrow on the wrong side of the bow… Or the fact the targets are, erm, behind her (unless that’s supposed to be the point). Although the vintagey clothing seems to be influenced by someone Googling the all-time awesome 1940s Greyhound ad.

Anyway, M&G Investments have form in this department – they seem to love the female archer image and recently used this monstrosity in another piece of online marketing. Yeurgh…

STANDARD BAD ARCHERY RANT: Look, I know. No-one cares. BUT: this is the thing, I believe people tend to recognise authenticity when it is put in front of them. When something technical is presented you can always tell when you are seeing an expert doing something rather than just a model, and with archery-based ads that little gleam of reality is only going to enhance the image of rugged individualism / ‘aiming high’ / ‘hitting the target’ etc. that they are trying to project with the product. Right? RANT OVER.