"How to pick your perfect man!"
"White people say it will all be alright folks." (You're right. That's not a title of magazine story. It's just a caption that couldn't be anything else.)
You’d probably have to work in the magazine business, or in a below-the-line agency to find these funny.
Or just hideously, depressingly familiar.
The premise: Why do stock agencies stock these photos?
What are we supposed to do with them?
And why do picture editors persist in showing them to editors? as suggestions for story illustrations?
I suspect they do it for sport.
To entertain myself I have imagined some traditional-type magazine stories to accompany each image.
It’s a cute game.
You can try it too.
To illustrate the magazine story: "When he really likes his workmates more than you."
To illustrate the story: "You can overcome insurmountable hurdles, you stupid cow?"
"When vegetables are not your friend?"
"Yes, your mother might like him, but is he really the man for you?"
"If you don't like the picture we've just suggested, how about this one? For the same story?"
Perfect for next month's beauty story.
When you catch Mom and Dad having sex? Outdoors? On a bicycle?
Dad and Daddy explain ...something to junior
To illustrate a story women's magazines do not do often enough, "When mom is right."
Oh gosh. I do not know. You decide. It could work for anything, really.
No. You've really got me there.
"What to wear when you are being pursued through a field in a windfarm by a man in black? "
Selfishly, I could go on and on.
Just as the editors of the blog, have done.
But I am not too sure if anyone out there shares my bloglove, so, with regret, I’ll stop.
For more, if you want them, hurry on over to Awkward Stock Photos.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I actually saw that one of they guy in the red pants blowing smoke in an ad in a South African newspaper this weekend. I remember it because I thought: WTF??!
Yeah, stock pics! Best known for exposing a lack of originality (or budget) and subject knowledge at creative agencies the world over… Flip them at your peril – wedding rings should be on the left, bicycle chains should be on the right.
The last pic should have been “remember not to wear heels three sizes too big when being chased though a wind a wind farm by a man in black”.
Haha! Great stuff :p
And some more awkward photos – http://www.photoandvideography.com/awkward-stock-photos-from-shutterstock-280/