Uniquely Canadian Stock Photography from CIRA | Hacker News Reader

Uniquely Canadian Stock Photography from CIRA

cira.ca

118 pointsdbelson42 comments

There is something amazing about stock photography that I always enjoy. Some of the situations the models are in are just absurd. I would love to know what the person responsible for coming up with the scenes is thinking. It seems CIRA really went above and beyond here.

This is just a Canadian layman’s view, but I suspect it was something like “What’s with those ridiculous stock images that keep getting made? Always such unrealistic scenarios...” “Hey, you know... We could probly do something about that...” “You read my mind, but also let’s put Canadian stuff in ridiculous ways.” “Ooo yeah, a real pastiche!” “It’s really more of a parody, but call it whatever you like.”

For non-Canadians, CIRA is the registration authority of Canada's TLD (.ca)

Oh dear... far nicer than this would have been stock photos which are noticeably in Canadian cities. Couple laughing outside Atwater/Kensington market over a chocolatine/timbits, person working on laptop with Capilano bridge in sight, something about a rodeo?

But yah... we can pretend "holding an axe in a conference room" is super relatable/useful :P

Let people have fun.

I'm not trying to prevent others from having fun, I'm just stating that it isn't fun for me, a member of their target audience and an owner of a .ca domain. Furthermore, I don't think I personally know many people that are amused by "boardroom lumberjack" that aren't people not from Canada.

That being said, if it's your cup of maple syrup, then be my plaid-wearing, beaver-trapping, boardroom lumberjack guest:)

As a different member of their target audience, and an owner of .ca domains I think this is a nice humorous nod to the Canada I enjoy: subversive, self-aware, inclusive, and experimental. Usually I ignore CIRA for being uninspired, but today they got my attention.

Everything you listed is already highly represented when it comes to Canada. Let the rest of the country have a second of attention and you might discover why they despise urbanites so much. Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver already have enough attention as it is. Not everything has to be about them.

Geez, does everything have to be turned into "us vs. them"?

Please tell me more about how you "despise" me for living in a city, complete stranger who knows nothing about me.

This is a fun Saturday thread, is this really the place to grind your axe? (see what I did there?)

No, instead we should be representing all the board-room lumberjacks ahaha

Sure, add in some less represented aspects of Canadian life, no problem with that. I just rather it to the fictional sort.

I, for one, was disappointed by the lack of Screech, cod-kissing, and Anne of Green Gables cosplay.

It's a lot easier to buy a moose outfit than fly to 5 Canadian cities! That said, I would have enjoyed less cliched Candianism like "Toronto young professionals discuss which condo they are saving up for" and "Ottawan mother from English-speaking family looks on in despair as five-year-old daughter refuses to practice French, forever dooming her to provincial political office".

Oh good! Being an expat, one pet peeve of mine is how people tend to freak out whenever I bring my axe to the office. With these, I can politely nudge them to rectify their cultural intolerance :)

There should be a picture of someone getting complex surgery without having to pay a single cent.

> Seriously, these are free? Yup, like health care or love.

That's just genius.

sure these are stereotypes but so many Canadian stereotypes are good ones - let's lean in!

I guess you could say they’re discussing hockey-stick growth in those businesses meetings...

Uniquely Canadian stereo types

Sorry!

No igloos yet, I'm disappointed.

When I was growing up a guy on my street had a dog sled and people would drive their snowmobiles to high school.

Sad to see that my culture is not represented here.

These are brilliant, I hope companies or other organizations from other countries follow suite.

I don't know about the moose...I encountered one up in Atikaki and, well, I wished I was anywhere but there (luckily he ignored me). Playing basketball with a moose is just foolish.

These pictures are funny because some of the stereotypes are true. For example, those lumberjack shirts from Marks Work Warehouse are total chick magnets here in Ontario.

i can see this becoming commonplace. Instead of paying for stock photos , being paid to use them , with product placement.

Like what Unsplash did?

Introducing Unsplash for Brands. A new model for imagery and brand building.

https://medium.com/unsplash/introducing-unsplash-for-brands-...

huh, that's pretty clever. I wondered how unsplash was going to monetize.

I would like to see him holding a BlackBerry, but I think we all understand the reality.

Only thing missing is a Mountie writing someone a traffic ticket.

Free "like healthcare"... sigh.

As a Canadian i find these pictures weird.

It seems to imply that women outnumber men yet statistics canada indicates this is not the case?

Lumberjack guy and two women Lone female hockey player Women drinking beer

We dont need to take opportunity to push a political message, sometimes we just have stock photos without careful screening to meet some agenda.

I think you are reading too much into stock photography. I don't really think they are trying to imply anything other than being a little silly.

Look, bub, they've got ketchup chips, poutine, canadian tuxedos, business meetings about the maple syrup reserve... are you gonna complain about the anatomical inaccuracy of the moose, too?

Otoh...

I'm not really sure why this got posted to HN... it's just a dumb joke. My gf sent me this gallery of butt-shaped mushrooms... are we posting those here now?

edit: come on folks, I'm not posting that here, you know how to search the internet

My gf sent me this gallery of butt-shaped mushrooms...

And you're holding out on us???!!??

I'd upvote that. Post it and reap the sweet, sweet HN karma!

CIRA's humorous and rather interesting marketing campaign is kind of interesting in the tech sphere, especially to Canadians.

Convince .as to buy it and publish it as a stock photo gallery!

Maybe it was just chance, or maybe it was intentional. I'm ok with it regardless.

It's called oversteering. You sometimes do it when you've been on a crash course you're trying to get out of :)

Sounds like you need to have a puppers and simmer down, bud.

Yeah he’s gonna need to take 10-20% off

I've heard the documentary Trailer Park Boys also presents a somewhat distorted view of rural Canadia. Is that true?

Yeah, in my experience, the Red Green show is more accurate

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