Dear Stock Image Industry: We Need a Reality Check

Marketing friends: can we take a minute to commiserate together the number of times we’ve had to use stock images for marketing materials that just weren’t that great, but there wasn’t money or time to commission custom photography or video shoots?

Years ago, one of our graphic designers jokingly sent over a photo of a pregnant woman sitting on a couch in a business suit, but the suit jacket was wide open to reveal her bare stomach. What? Why? How? Who? I’m still flummoxed (and haunted) by that image. I can’t image who would use that image and even more importantly, I can’t imagine who thought that was a great representation of a businesswoman who is working while “with child”. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Let me run through just a few of my grievances (the list is long and varied):

• People “making decisions” while standing in front of a bunch of post it notes.

  

• All the gorgeous people wearing suits and/or looking like hipsters at the office standing or sitting around a beautiful glassed conference room.

  

• Every business meeting or cubical connect with people smiling and pointing at charts on screens. So! Much! Pointing! With such big toothy smiles!

  

  
  

• Brains or a robot “hands” to represent AI.

  

I get it—marketers don’t always want to show reality, like people half-paying attention during meetings while they scroll through their laptops. Or the more relatable scenario of someone sitting in a cubicle, scowling at their screen. Some concepts, like data science algorithms, are tough to visualize in an engaging way. But so many stock images feel inauthentic, making it hard for marketing teams to create credible, relatable materials.

The Stock Image Industry Challenge

I believe the crux of the issue is that the people shooting the b-roll or taking the photos often don’t truly understand the industries or business concepts they’re supposed to capture. I know It’s not intentional. They receive some direction from a creative lead or client, but often lack the deeper knowledge required to represent, say, the “day in the life” of a cybersecurity professional, or the HR leader’s interactions with an employee, or a mid-level government employee crunching data or processing my tax return.

My current role involves marketing risk and threat intelligence technology to government, NGOs,  and commercial organizations. We often need imagery that represents real-world security functions—some sophisticated with lots of great technology and automated processes, but many still fairly manual and underfunded. Our buyers work in environments where budgets depend on government allocations, and as you might imagine, their budget cups don’t “overflowth.” Yet, this is how security functions are often portrayed in stock images:

Okay, that's actually a scene from Minority Report - a movie from the early 2000’s, but that’s not far from what is available in stock image databases. The reality? These teams are more likely sitting in cubicles or at open desks, working on laptops, maybe with a few big screens on the wall showing CCTV images, maps of risk events happening and a stream of live news coverage. They are not standing at sleek glass walls, swiping holographic charts with their fingers.

Using imagery like that in marketing materials immediately undercuts the credibility of the organization and our understanding of their pain points.  If my marketing materials misrepresent their reality, they’re likely to scroll right past my ad or social post without a second thought.

The Plea from the Bottom of My Heart

To project planners, videographers, and photographers – could you ask more questions before your next shoot?  Is it possible to more genuinely represent organizations of all sizes, shapes, budgets and set-ups? Can more thought be put into situations in which people are collaborating or making decisions?

While I like to imagine that everyone’s work environment is happy and friendly and there’s no stress or urgent deadlines, that’s just not the norm. (But please don’t show stressed people grabbing their heads or pulling their hair!) Lastly,  not everyone has an extensive skin-care routine, regular teeth whitening sessions and trips to the salon or barber. Sometimes people don’t look that glossy. 

On behalf of all marketers everywhere who rely on stock images on the regular, please and thank you!