Outkast: Polaroid Concerned

A week ago Sunday afternoon, I went down to a local radio station to do an interview with the BBC about the forthcoming Grammys (the station provided their facilities as a courtesy). While waiting to go live, I was chatting with the engineer about the Grammys and about Outkast in particular. He hadn’t heard the album yet, but he loved “Hey Ya!” and declared the line “shake it like a Polaroid picture” a classic certain to endure.

Now Polaroid is concerned about the implications:

OutKast’s number one hit “Hey Ya” includes the “shake it” line as a reference to the motion that amateur photographers use to help along the self-developing film.

But in the “answers” section on the Polaroid Web site, the company says that shaking photos, which once helped them to dry, is not necessary since the modern version of Polaroid film dries behind a clear plastic window.

The image “never touches air, so shaking or waving has no effect,” the company said on its site. “In fact, shaking or waving can actually damage the image. Rapid movement during development can cause portions of the film to separate prematurely, or can cause ‘blobs’ in the picture.”

A Polaroid spokesman added: “Almost everybody does it, thinking that shaking accelerates the development process, but if you shake it too vigorously you could distort the image. A casual shake typically doesn’t affect it.” [Reuters]

I kind of assumed the line was a simile, but hey, thanks for the info.