Advertising: Max Oppenheim shoots spoof stock photos for Cannes Lions campaign

It’s more than possible to lose whole afternoons in the weird and wonderful world of stock photography. Whether I am preparing a presentation or researching a magazine article, once you delve in it’s hard to break free; just one more abstract concept into Google Images to see what comes back.

Ahead of this summer’s Canner Lions festival, McCann London have worked with photographer Max Oppenheim to build an entire campaign around that strangest of creative collateral. Under the strap line “‘You’ll come back as pumped as a stock photo model,” Max has shot some of ad land’s biggest names (including Amir Kassae, Ted Royer, Cindy Gallop) in the unmistakable style of bland fall-back photographs.

The styling is spot on; from the generic office locations to the “businessman and woman of today” attire, and the posters include relevant search terms like “winning,” “inspired” and “energised.”

Max said of the series: “It was a challenge to find just the right visual language to pull off this series. I was very careful to select neutral locations, styling and wardrobe to capture the generic world of stock. And it helped massively that all the ‘models’ understood how great the idea was and threw themselves into their performances. They were pumped!”