Is there an industry-wide blowout on stock photography, or something? Everywhere I’m seeing superflous photos of random people smiling accompanied with every line of corporate monologue. Why? It’s so obvious that those photos were taken completely out of context of the copy - especially since there are apparently very popular photos that I’ve seen in completely different ads (I’ve the same photo of a green-eyed latino youth urging us to get tested for HIV and advertising a consulting firm, and then there’s that bone-thin black woman emerging from the ocean in a yellow bikini who’s both on the cover of a new lesbian novel and a model for a sexual supplement).
What’s the point of the smiling, heavily made-up, colorfully dressed woman spinning towards us on a sign that says “Now Open 24 Hours” at CVS? Is she supposed to represent a woman who’s happy about CVS always being open? She looks like she’s going to the club. I can understand the convenience of 24 hour service without her. In fact, unless there’s a person photographed actually using your product, random smiling person isn’t going to give me any warmer feelings about what you’re selling.
Apparently it gives some people warm feelings, otherwise no one would use them.
“Oh look, there’s a smiling white woman who appears to be endorsing a product/service/store. I’M a smiling white woman, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy that product/service/store, too.”
Speaking of stock photography…maybe someone here in the industry could answer this…
Is there a name for the horribly overused overhead exaggerated perspective shot of someone looking up at the camera that I like to call “Big head, small feet”? It annoys the piss out of me for some reason.
We are also seeing more stock TV commercials, that are obviously pre-created to be used for any product. The most obvious is the animated commercial of the super-spy girl leaping into cars and such. It is for some sort of insurance, I think, but is quite obviously created to be generic enough to use for any product or voiceover.
I know that’s what’s going on, but that still never works for me. Even if that guy who’s smiling with his arms folded underneath the words “We work for you” seems to be in my demo, I’m still only going to think “who’s that?” rather than “wow, they work for me!” Now if that same person is sitting in front of a desk of an accountant who’s clearly identified as being an H&R Block employee from the presence of the brand within the photo, then that might actually have an effect on me. Otherwise, the photo is as useful as no photo at all. I suspect that case is the same for others. I like my “ther must be a sale going on” theory.
Having worked as a graphic designer for a digital priniting workshop I can assure you that stock photography is a gift from the gods; you get a client who asks for some design done RIGHT NOW! or sooner and you can´t afford to make your own photographs. It´s also good for slack assed slobs that can´t be bothered to think of a design by themselves and just flip though the image catalogue and pick something fitting… and don´t dare to look at me like that, okey?
Oh God, I hate that, too. It’s second only to talking babies on the irrational hate meter. I don’t know what it’s called, but it can be done by getting a camera with an extremely wide field of view and taking the photo from right next to the person’s face. There’s probably some Photoshop morphing to enhance the effect, too.
I was buying some random converted at the electronics store one day, and it had a random stock photo on it. I wondered, what would it be like if you were that person? And one day you mysteriously saw your face on the box for a bunch of stereo/mono cables. I think that would be a little creepy.
You don’t really need Photoshop to help you with this. Any wide angle lens will do enough. It doesn’t even have to be extremely wide. Anything like 28mm or shorter will do the effect quite well. The closer you are to your subject, the more 3d perspective is seemingly elongated.
I wonder the same thing too. My class has access to a large catalog of stock photos for our use and knowing they have hundreds of CDs from one company alone makes me wonder how the hell can everyone seem to be using the same image. I mean, I understand that there is a lot more ads than stock photos, but still.
I don’t think so. The Esurance logo is prominently featured in each commercial, and the action in the commercial makes sense in time with the voice-overs- for example, the spy clicks to find an insurance quote, clicks on a “buy” button, and prints out an insurance slip in time to the slogan “Quote, buy, print.” I don’t think there will ever be a generic “insert product name here” type of ready-to-use commercial in the style of this parody- at least on a nationwide level, since it would be quite obvious if two major companies were using the same commercial “blueprint.” It would make sense, however, in the sense of a commercial that could be used in a local area, which could be used for different products in different regions of the country. In a way, there are ready-made commercials being shown nationwide, differing not in the name of the “product,” but in the name of the “distributor.” Syndicated TV shows come with their own package of commercials, it appears. Although local networks do create their own commercials, there are many cases where there are ads for the series where all the station has to do is drop in their logo and a voiceover. The voice on the ad will end by announcing, say, “The Simpsons,” and then the local announcer will cut in “Weekdays at 7:00 on Fox 5!”
There is a TV commercial version of this, only the product doesn’t change, just the company. When I travel to other parts of the country, I’ve noticed the same commercial, with the company name dubbed in. The dubbing can be really obvious, too. I’ve seen quite a few for law offices/lawyers. I’ve also seen them for jewelry stores and window companies.
There’s one commercial for a law office I’ve seen for at least three different lawyers. It’s the one where the evil insurance guys are talking about how they’re not going to give any money on the claim. Then one of them says, "but they got a lawyer… it’s “insert name of lawyer here” " The other insurance guy looks stunned and says, “Let’s settle this case”
Around here it’s for Sam Bernstein. North of here, it’s for someone else. And I’ve seen in on the west coast for another lawyer.
I think I’ve seen the one with William Shatner in it for multiple lawyers, as well.
I see this woman everywhere. The linked example is at the top of the control panel page for my Web site.
Don’t get me started on old-school stock photography, with corporate types shaking hands, running through O’Hare, or an inspired “I’m a visionary filled with excellence” look upwards towards the top of a shiny office tower.
One stock photo phenomenon: lots of diversity in corporate handshaking, with a notable exception.
White man shaking white man’s hand: far too many
Black man shaking black man’s hand: quite a lot
White man shaking black man’s hand: plentiful
White woman shaking white woman’s hand: many
Black woman shaking black woman’s hand: abundant
Black woman shaking white woman’s hand: a plethora
White man shaking black woman’s hand: nonexistent
Black man shaking white woman’s hand: nonexistent
Interracial cross-gender handshakes: a no-no in the serious ISO-9000 Twenty Sigma corporate world of excellence in world-class business solutions, apparently.
