Aug 16, 2008 0
Being There
There are a few perks for outdoor industry types. Pro deals. Bringing your dog to work. And making fun of mainstream marketers’ horribly misinformed use of outdoor imagery. A perennial classic is the motivational poster. So, when I saw the new MasterCard ad in the back of this week’s New Yorker, I was ready for a healthy dose of self-righteous mockery.
On second glance, though, it wasn’t so bad. The gist of the ad made sense. The gear was the real thing and the photo didn’t look too goofy—a little staged but clearly not shot by a commercial photographer on a day trip from Manhattan. However, the dollar figure for the gear total seemed a little low. A Mountain Hardware expedition tent and a Nikon digital SLR? We had to be talking more than two grand. A quick trip to REI.com and Backcountry.com resolved the issue. Here’s the bill:
Black Diamond Vaporlock Carabiner : $14
Mammut 60m 10.5mm Dry Rope : $210
Mountain Hardwear Wraith -20° Bag : $555
Mountain Hardwear EV3 Tent : $750
MSR Pocket Rocket Stove : $40
Snow Peak Titanium Cook Kit : $40
Mountain Hardwear Trance Pack : $169
Nikon D40 Digital SLR Camera : $530
Grand Total : $2,308
Pretty close to MasterCard’s $2,106 tally. Given the choice of gear and the fairly authentic-looking mountain shot, I’d say there was a designer at MasterCard’s ad agency who knew a thing or two about playing in the woods. What’s more impressive is that it didn’t get watered down by an account manager or client-side comments like “aren’t tents supposed to be green?”
I was also pretty sure the location shot was a stock photo. It took all of five minutes to find it here at Getty Images. What, you didn’t think they actually sent a photographer above treeline, did you?
In a super nerdy outdoor footnote, the shot is taken on Ruth Mountain in the North Cascades, a walk-up, but one with a Fred Beckey pedigree. It’s pretty much a daytrip so the EV3 and -20 bag might be overkill.