If you have ever dreamed about owning a T-shirt featuring the most awful stock photos on the internet, give it up for Adobe, as the company has released a collection of cliché-filled clothing just for you.
We can all agree that some things are so bad that they become good, and a specific type of stock photo fits this description to a T. Such examples include "business man in suit with coffee mug during meeting" or "laughing woman eating healthy vegetable salad." Most major stock sites feature swarms of such imagery, to the nausea of art directors everywhere.
No matter how corny these images are, they still hold a dear place in the souls of the public. Adobe, however, aims to change that and is working to deliver a new series of stock images that are more in touch with the 21st century.
In an effort to promote Adobe Stock, its proprietary stock image service, Adobe decided to use the dated and intensely boring images to send its point across. That is why the company recently chose a number of its favorite visual photo-clichés and put them on T-shirts.
"A limited edition clothing line giving a salute to the most infamous stock images," is how the software company describes its line of casual wear.
The Adobe Stock Apparel shirts include designs that depict awful representations of everyday situations and business concepts. To enumerate just a few, know that Adobe's shirts feature a photo with "firm handshake between associates" and "mature business man with boxing gloves fighting co-worker."
The company commissioned Swedish ad agency Abby Priest to deliver a punching campaign for its new stock service, and the European team came up with the idea to reuse the oh-so-familiar images.
Oskar Hellqvist of Abby Priest notes that the campaign uses "classic motifs that have been overused." By making use of old stock photography, Adobe separates the past from the future that it hopes to fill with its own set of images.
In an ironic move, the ad agency created the limited edition clothing as a tribute to the history of stock photos and, true to the fashion industry, attempted to bring disruption, originality and a pinch of the unconventional in the game.
Keep in mind that the shirts are not available for sale, as Adobe is handing them out to select employees.
However, if the idea of the campaign strikes your fancy, we are sure you can download an image of two happy seniors piggybacking on the beach and print it on a T-shirt for casual Friday.
