Share Investing and Sport Climbing

Financial services firms seem to have a penchant for using climbing related themes to advertise themselves, often with laughable results (check here and here for some examples).  Today it was the turn of that mighty organ, the Australian Financial Review, to have a go, using climbing themes extensively in a supplement entitled “Share Investing – the Complete Guide”.  Putting aside the obvious problems of classifying a 26 page pamphlet as a “complete guide”, the climbing imagery is as follows:

 

An impressive start – this girl looks the goods, from the nose stud to the chalked fingers to the slight sense of disarray amongst her quick draws. The right foot “sur la pointe” move is interesting, but she wouldn’t be the first climber to come to the sport via ballet (ref. Rachel Farmer, Royal Ballet Company dancer, medical student and standout sport climber before her untimely death).
This bloke looks the part too – plenty of bearded wonders just like this at any crag in the world. One thing seems a bit odd though – why is the girl tied in to a different rope?
The AFR gets extra points for the tatt, however it’s notable that he has chalky fingers but no chalk bag.
The sport of rock climbing and the job of hand model are mutually exclusive.  Alas no climber on earth has hands like this!