A jewellery advert with a model ‘playing’ the oboe is baffling the woodwind world

16 August 2021, 17:59

Oboists, we hate to be the ones to tell you – but you’ve been doing it wrong this whole time.

Stock photography has been historically unkind to musicians. From violin bows hovering around the middle of the fingerboard, to this joyous car crash of a guitar photoshoot, accuracy has sadly not always played a central role in the capturing of all-purpose musical imagery.

And here, we have the cream of the crop.

A photo has been floating around the Internet of a billboard ad, advertising a brand of jewellery, in which a model plays the oboe.

Well, sort of...

Loosely translated, the ad reads: “A fancy diamond... colourful treasure collection.”

Over the last few days, the music world has been left puzzling over the model’s alternative fingerings and relaxed embouchure.

Read more: These stock photos of cellists are getting roasted on Instagram

“Is that one of those rare Japanese wooden, double reed, cross over flutes? I hear those things are hard to play and sound like an oboe,” one astute Facebook user suggests.

And, because musicians simply are the best kind of people, actual oboists have now started taking the meme into their own hands and having a crack at playing their own instruments with this newfound technique.

Have a gander in the comments section of this post, for some more wonderful performance efforts:

What a brave new world today’s musicians are living in.