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A Tribute To Dumb Stock Photography
May 15, 2008
The great boom of the 1990′s brought us fast times and less attention to detail and substance in the world than perhaps ever before. In a special tribute, we take a critical look at the hilarity and absurdity of the idea that has become Stock Photography.
If you were one of the “lucky” ones to work through the days of the 90′s tech hype, you’ll be able to identify with the “stock photos” below on the next page, which more or less personify the additude and “aura” displayed by most business people at the time. This attitude of “just sit back in my dream remote location and do nothing while every real decision and bit of work is done by ‘someone else’ while I occasionally teleconference from my laptop in the woods or on a lone stretch of beach to ‘keep touch with the common man’” is what drove so many to failure and bust trying to emulate the success of the few Silicon startups that covered every bit of almost every magazine, TV show, and newspaper at the time.
Widespread hysteria enveloped the masses of small business owners who tried to grab their piece of the Great Silicon Gold Rush. And looking back, even as a casual observer at the time, it’s easy to see why; the unyielding barrage of media from all angles were screaming “New Economy” this and “The Dawn of the New Age” that. If you weren’t part of it all, or busy working on a strategy of integration, you were considered an “old dog” that no one had any use for. Companies went boom and bust in a matter of months or even weeks or days. It was the era of the “Power Lunch” and the “One Minute Millionaire.” There seemed to be a new “Captain of Industry” touting a new technology that was supposed to revolutionize the world about once every few days. This went on hardcore for a couple years. Admittedly, it was very difficult not to get caught up in at least some of the hype.
And this, as in all extremely bullish times, led to a watering down of society in the most extreme sense of the term. Caught up in all the hype and spin, people didn’t seem to have time for much of anything anymore. Everything from books to news to advertising blasted off from the Earth into a spacey world of vagueness by means of symbolism and pictorials…not unlike those found in childrens books.
Thus…the perversion of that which we call Stock Photography.Â
You see, stock photography was a way for artists and media professionals to catalog their less-interesting and more generic work into its various subjects as a means of selling and sharing it with others who may find its use more beneficial to their project. But during this time of the 90′s blitz, stock photography evolved into something quite innane.
 
 
As once content-rich and informative advertising became more “one-liner” and pictorial, so did everything else that could possibly be watered down. Something already pictorial like stock photography went even farther, however. It became a bastion of dumb stunts, idiotic symbolism, and perverted imagery (“perverted” in the sense that it was warped out of context).
The result was precisely like many of the examples I am presenting in this tribute right now. As a sign of the times, you can just browse a database, slap one of these babies on your ad or website, and “be done.” Of course the wiser of us will realize that substance always wins out (even when “unpopular”) and that by stooping so low as to seriously use such imagery in real practice, is unprofessional, unfunny for most businesses, and draws a lot negative attention. In other words, one would only use them for real if lacking real substance to communicate a message by any other means.
Now the reason I can and do use them here, is because this is a tribute to such examples. Why a tribute? Well, take a look around and see the enjoyment you can have by making fun of the stuff. I mean, c’mon!
 
 
I have found many examples, both on the web and in magazines when the very same royalty free stock photo will be used in an advertisement. This is ok and very much expected, but not when you lead the public on. For example, a very deceptive trend among a lot of advertisers is to use “pictures of employees” in their ads as a means of creating a “human image” of the company in hopes that the customer sees the ad, identifies with the human image and either inflates the positive image of the company in the customers mind or, preferredly, the customer goes right out and purchases whatever it is the company sells.
This is wrong advertising thinking on so many levels (discussed in other articles on my site) but the part of it I want to bring to attention right now is the use of stock photography and stock video in these ads.
I saw a full-page magazine ad in “Business 2.0″ magazine (I won’t comment on the magazine itself, which is very hype-y) for a company that was using the “look, this is one of our employees” gimmick. Well, I clearly recognized the photo being used as something from a stock photo library. Utterly rediculous, but more-so an outright LIE.
Ok, so lying in advertising isn’t anything new, but this is both ridiculous and deceptive. If they lack the substance for a REAL marketing message (as opposed to just “doing it because its what everyone else does”), as well as the substance of the company to do something decent with a $50,000 full-page ad, then I guess this is what they have to do in order to “get their name out there and hope someone will buy.” In the meantime, this 90′s way of thinking will bankrupt them as it did so many other fly-by-nighters.
Enjoy the ride while it lasts. And oh yeah…keep using that stock photography in lieu of substance — Stock Photography, we salute you.
 
 
 
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Tags: advertising, art, dot com bubble, false advertising, Humor, idiocy, magazine ads, marketing, photography, stock photography, stupidity, symbolism, tech bubbleTopics: Humor | 1 Comment »
The evolution of stock photography–interesting! I think people do it because it’s quick. Thankfully, the company I worked for actually used their own people on their website. It costs thousands but at least it was genuine.
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