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Blackstone’s multi-coloured mag

Where others think annual download of (mostly dry) information to shareholders, Blackstone thinks: “lifestyle spread”.

Blackstone has produced an 80-page annual report, entitled “Welcome.” The main spiel from Steve Schwarzman is penned to “Dear Fellow Unitholders” but we didn’t get any further because we were agog at the pictures.

The photographic technique used results in what might be termed a “larger than life” portrayal of various of Blackstone’s staff and businesses. They certainly employed a heavy-handed colourist to do the touch-up work, not just on the photos but on the array of rainbow-daubed graphs. The Thames (page 5) is an unfamiliarly pleasant greenish-blue.
The Epicurean Dealmaker is unimpressed, and is betting that the figures have been spliced together with their oh-so vibrant city backdrops, in a characteristic rant.

It also tends to undermine the message Blackstone may have been trying to convey about its own humanity when the most lifelike figure in the entire report is the wax figure of Nicole Kidman at BX portfolio company Madame Tussauds.

DealJournal thinks it’s all a bit Reservoir Dogs.

We applaud the attempt to inject a little more glamour into finance. We’re just not sure finance is ready for this.

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This entry was posted by Helen Thomas on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 9:47 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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Comments

  1. May 15   22:40 Posted by Who ya calling a Fake? « ANTAP [report]

    […] http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/05/15/13076/blackstones-multi-coloured-mag/ […]

  2. May 15   13:26 Posted by Anonymous [report]

    I especially like the visual message on pages 16-17 of the report:

    Mum with kids having a pick-nick , a couple running through the park and a black gardener securing the fruits of labor.

    What a warm pc welcome indeed.

  3. May 15   11:19 Posted by taxloss [report]

    Aaaarghhhh! It’s the Crimson Permanent Assurance!
    *Splat*

  4. May 15   11:06 Posted by Ando [report]

    So are they making any money for their “unitholders” or what? If they are they can be as creepy as they like.

  5. May 15   11:00 Posted by maximus [report]

    Epicurean dealmaker is truly funny on this bunch. Full of portentous self importance

  6. May 15   10:55 Posted by Study War No More [report]

    My 5 year old can do a better job with Photoshop than that…
    But hey, increasing returns to shareholders by economising on design fees…

    It does look a bit scary, like if it was the matrix and one (or all) of the execs will turn into Agent Smith and unleash a sleuth of shareholder value destruction…

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