We are so business time friends!
Fox + Getty Images = brilliant
Memo to whoever dreamt up this advertising campaign for Unfinished Business: brilliant. Considering that 32% of my working hours are laughing at and deriding business stock photos, I’m envious that I didn’t think of this myself. These are the best stock photos ever.
Stock photos really do suck
This campaign succeeds because it’s a case of “It’s funny because it’s true.” Stock photos really do stink. Seriously. Audit my tweets. If I’m not raging about my pet peeve of actors drinking out of empty cups (Hello? I can tell it’s empty and now you’re just Matt LeBlanc to me–you’ve ruined it), I’m wondering why there are so many stock photos of people smiling manically at their desks like, “I always smile like a grown up Toddler and Tiaras star” or coworkers looking at the camera like, “Oh, hey, you just caught us here collaborating successfully and other keywords.”
Stock photos are weird, too.
Also, WTF, stockphotos? You not only somehow are dull and campy at the same time, you are downright weird. I’m grateful for lion head butcher and little baby boss (two of my personal great finds featured here at a great Tumblr, Weird Stock Photos).
Good stock photos are anything but stock
Good stock photos are anything but stock. They certainly aren’t in steady supply. Sometimes I just want a great photo of people at a tech company working. Because that’s my job. Until my job is photobombing stock photos or creating ad campaigns like this one for Unfinished Business, please tell me where to get more great photos like the ones at Death to Stock Photo and don’t make me pay Getty top shelf prices for a great photo.
My favorite photo resources – what are yours?
Here are some of my favorite serious and funny photo resources. Please share your favorites!
- Death to the Stock Photo – Great images and FREE. Sign up to get them by email for free, and get access to their backlog for $10/month. They’re still small and growing, but any one of their pictures is worth $10, so it’s a steal regardless. (H/t to a coworker for telling me about DTS!)
- Weird Stock Photography Tumblr
- New old stock – copyright free vintage photographs
- Visually blog – Where to find the best stock images
