The Power of Imagery

What do you see in this picture? An emergency landing?

Photo credit: Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch

Without explanation, and with issues in the news over the last year regarding Bombardier Q400 passenger planes, one might assume that airport fire crews were in place for an emergency landing (http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2007/09/12/bombardier-q400-crash-as-caught-on-tape.aspx).

This image, taken from the tbnewswatch.com website, only tells one half of the story. This was in fact one of two fire trucks creating an arc of water over top of this plane, in recognition of Porter Airlines first flight into Thunder Bay.

Many "readers" and viewers form impressions in a split second, based on a single photo. They choose to skim websites and newspapers as they seek out stories that interest them. And without the benefit of full visual context, what did they see when they saw this image?

As communications professionals, we must analyze situations like this and be bold enough to advise against proceeding with otherwise well-intentioned initiatives. As innocent as the "arc of water" idea might have seemed, this type of photo can impact the reputations of two companies: 1) Porter Airlines; and 2) Bombardier. If you were with either one of these companies, would you want your Porter Airlines Q400 visually associated in any way with airport emergency crews?

The power of imagery...