We read information from a picture much quicker than we read through a paragraph of text that accompanies it. Also, commonly, when looking at a document whether it be printed or web based, the observer is often attracted to the pictures before the words.
As a designer, I find it very frustrating when I see the same type of stereotypical imagery repeated again and again on branding material for different companies. One of the very worst examples is a woman with a ... READ FULL ARTICLE