It was July 2007. Another Coles catalogue went out to homes around Australia, just like many times before, announcing the specials for the week.

But this catalogue was different.

This one hid a dark secret.

A secret that when exposed, caused a huge collective uproar…
…an uproar of laughter, that is.

One keen-eyed shopper, and no, it wasn’t me, spotted something a little bit unusual on the image of cupcakes and doughnuts.

For there, sitting innocuously on a cupcake was a normal, everyday black house fly.

This image in the catalogue would have passed many, many eyes before being printed. Marketing people, account managers, account co-ordinators, photographers, stylists, re-touchers, Mac operators, proofreaders, printers… the list goes on. But none spotted the fly. 

There have been other instances where nasty things have appeared in published images because someone has deliberately put them there, perhaps as an act of revenge of perhaps as a private joke. I’m also sure there are things that have appeared in that we all have missed. Things so subtle that they are missed by the naked eye.

It’s interesting that the fly in this case chose to sit on a cupcake and not a doughnut. 

There’s no accounting for taste.