Projecting Much?

I was designing a series of posters advertising retirement accounts for a credit union. One had an elderly couple walking on a beach, holding hands, silhouetted against a sunset. Another had a similar couple looking into the horizon from the bow of a cruise ship. The tagline on both was something to the effect of, “It’s your retirement; what do you want from it?”

The comments on the proofs came back, respectively:

Client: “It looks like they are walking into the sunset to die.”

And:

Client: “It looks like they’re considering jumping overboard.”

I resubmitted some different concepts, but I also commented that the client may want to contact their human resources department for referral to a therapist.