About two years ago, management decided to renovate some of the older parts of the studio, including the lobby area, which is the first thing visitor see when they walk in. As part of the renovations, they put in a video wall to showcase our city, the studio, and the people who work in the studio.
I remember there was an open “casting call” for employees to come get their picture take for the video wall. It was understood that your photo would be used to showcase who worked at EAV and would be visible to anyone coming through the lobby. I think it took a while for enough people to volunteer to get sufficient photos for a collage.
Anyways, about two weeks ago, a co-worker of mine mentioned to me that there was a guy in the collage in the video wall who was photographed in a “Brazzers” sweatshirt. I thought that was pretty funny, so on a coffee break, we strolled out into the lobby area so I could see for myself. We stood in front of the video wall for a few minutes, with my camera ready to take a photo. I almost missed it but I captured the guy above. Sure enough, it’s a dude wearing a black hoodie with the “Brazzers’ logo emblazoned on front. Look, there’s no doubt people in any company look at porn but to have it advertised this way so publicly is a bit embarrassing. How did this even get past editorial control? Several people would have had to seen this photo and each of these people would have had to allow the photo get to the next phase of making into the collage.
This employee photo might have been up there for up to two years so I decided to maybe HR should know about this. It’s also super convenient that HR is located right next to the video wall itself. So, with picture in hand, my co-worker and I marched into the HR offices. There were three HR ladies there and it was at this point I realized I would have to admit to them that I knew what “Brazzers” was. Whoops, maybe I should have let me co-worker talk instead. I pressed on however and said, “Hello. I have a photo here of someone on the video wall who is wearing a sweatshirt with the logo of a pornographic company on it. I wasn’t aware that this company even existed until today, let alone their business function but I was told that’s what they do. Maybe we should not have his photo on the wall.“
I don’t think those ladies bought it but they did ask to see the photo. As soon as they looked at the photo, they knew someone else had to take action. They called for someone more senior to come speak to me. A few minutes later, another HR person arrived, and again, I had to explain what I saw and that I didn’t know what “Brazzers” was until today. They said they would definitely take care of this.
It’s been weeks now and I don’t know if that photo has been removed. How long was that up?