Hilarious! Perhaps the last one belongs in a Monsanto ad (we love GMO's).

There are also hilarious images like this one, with several connected cog wheels. It's supposed to represent efficiency, but a lot of them just would not spin in reality, like this one: 
http://www.aliventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/cogs.jpg

I love the guy rubbing out the 'Im' on impossible. Who would ever have thought to do that, a sly dog indeed! Next they'll be telling me that Clark Kent is Superman.

How funny were they?? I have actually used the receptionist with the ear piece on a website for an old cleaning business of mine, hehehe

Hilarious post! I often find myself drawing mind maps or writing inspirational words backwards on transparent lucite or glass, so those stock photos really speak to me.

Haha these are awesome! I've seen quite a few people use these different photos just because they're stock... 
 
It looks like you embarrassed quite a few sites with this one!  
 
Lol

My company, a global ed-tech software/solutions provider, is awfully keen on using "Young Asian girl with a laptop computer." Part of me feels it's because the former director of marketing adopted a chinese baby girl, but perhaps I'm reading a bit too into things... ha. Regardless, the fact remains, that almost all our ads/collateral feature an asian girl with a laptop. DIVERSIFY, MAAAAAAAN!

Lol!! I believe we have one of those happy meeting shots somewhere. My guess about the last one is that it's some statement on flexible work scheduling or remoting. We've recently had some fun with "pain" in a Thinkstock search. Go ahead, try it. Just awful. Or breast. Trying to find something tasteful for medical things in general is always a challenge. We are, however, really happy about using anything microscopic. I absolutely love germs/cells/neurons, which are often beautiful and abstract enough to be artistic.

Explaining this kind of brand-treason is my daily battle to clients. Nice job!

I too fail to see why most businesses can't just use photos of the people that ACTUALLY WORK THERE. It's much more personal. It's a complete turn off for me to see the same stock imagery, it doesn't do a good job of building trust in my opinion. The customer rep with the headset is probably the worst perpetrator. Loved the captions!

Oh cmon, I was expecting to see some truly dreadful pics. Out of all the stock photos in the world this was the best you could do?

The comments are what makes these. Have you ever seen the JC Penney's catalog from 1977? HI.LAR.IOUS. http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2007/10/strap-in-shut-up-and-hold-on-were-going.html 
Talk about laughing so hard you cry...

This is absolutely hilarious. If you want to see some truly bad stock photos, check out my current website--terribly outdated and the stock photos are the cheesiest (the one on our contact page is the worst). Thankfully we are under a redesign!

I disagree on the bonus picture. I think it has a good tongue-in-cheek quality to it. If positioned properly, it could totally make fun of itself for its stock quality and get a good chuckle. The photos only are limited by your imagination - with the write design and copy, even a guy in a wheat field wearing a suit and holding balloons could serve some purpose.

Thanks, made my day! 

Comedic yet professional scarecrow for hire?

Great Friday Fun! Thanks for the amusement. Perhaps the last one has the music "Fly me to the Moon" playing in the background.

Finally, some wisdom on 'Banality Unlimited' - or "Creative Stock Photocide" 
 
Most websites flay themselves with these - and a zillion other stock [mock?] business montages - like those awful slick business suited guys engaging in endless skirmishes in the Matrix movies.  
 
Clearly, designers need to cure themselves from this underdose of imagination.

Lol. Love these. Stock photos are sometimes necessary...but using bad stock photos gives the impression that you (or your client) is lazy and uncreative - neither of those are a good thing.

I love the antiquated light bulb illustrating new ideas. It should be a CFL or LED.

"Businessman in Wheat Field With Briefcase and Balloons" : 
 
Ce n'est pas un businessman 

Stock imagery isn't all bad I belive it is the inspiration for this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhrteSZXFzM 
 
N.B DO NOT WATCH THIS IF YOU HAVE A FEAR OF INANE GRINS.

Combine any of these photos with the word "AWESOME" and you have 90% of todays advertising on the web.

Thanks for sharing -- most ridiculous images ever...

Caption for man with briefcase in wheat field: 
"Fantastic - I've done the deal, we've bought the land, the show home will go up next week and I've already made a start on the balloons. Another 500 or so will do. Not bad for a morning's work!" 
Agree with some of the comments - the pictures are quite good. It's their (possible) use as stock images that is horrendous. Don't you think?

Pretty funny, but I expected way worse. There are DEFINITELY worse out there. The last was pretty darn amusing. How do you even begin to apply this to anything. Hmmmm, let's see, "Work keeping you tied to reality (in a wheat field)? Yearning to fulfill your dreams of going to the circus, amusement parks and boardwalks? Let us help with our virtual reality program. You can be in two places at the SAME time. Fascinating!"

Wonder what would it be like if gravity did indeed call in sick one day!

Funny. I feel like I've seen them all somewhere before...

I am a professional visual communicator... a professional photographer. I have 40 years corporate and commercial shooting experience. These over-lit, poorly composed, pointless, boring, generic, stock images don't work because they are fake. Viewers feel like they have been "lied to". Just like you did, most viewers actually ignore poorly made stock pictures. It is a misrepresentation, at best. If you use them, you could be missing the one chance you'll have to personally connect with and to sell to your target audience. That will be a missed opportunity. I can shoot anyone, in unique, real work situations, anywhere in the country, from 300 feet under ground to 12,000 feet overhead, with 80 million incredible, medium format, high definition pixels and controlled studio or wonderful location lighting, in less time and for less money, guaranteed, than you will spend looking for and using low quality, worthless, useless, tiny, generic JPEG pictures. My clients own all of the copyrights to whatever beautiful, high definition, unique, professional, real images I shoot for them... forever. They can use their huge, 500mb TIFF images any time they wish, as often as they wish, any way they wish, anywhere they wish, at no additional cost, to tell their very special story. If your pictures are fake, so is your message. You are losing time and money. You are not fooling anyone.

What if the pictures came with your captions? Then they'd be awesome!

Funny, I once had a boss that really liked to do number 6 every day.

Agree with previous comments; as someone who actually spends hours perusing stock photos for our site, I expected much worse. These honestly weren't that bad. I think it really depends on your audience and what you are trying to communicate. We actually use your example #10 (so obviously I disagree that it's an awful pic). I also find it funny that the examples used in this post as "awful" and "hilarious" are actually in my opinion much better pictures than many of the ones I've seen used on Hubspot's blog (my little ponies, anyone??!) But I am still a big fan of HS blog.

Go on though, admit it... we've all used one similarly as bad at some point or another!

That gal with the headset sure is popular! http://frisk.in/Skt9BZ

Sure... most of the pictures are pretty corny... but they are FREE. The problem with using pictures of actual staff or customers is that you need to have them sign a legal release... same with snagging any old picture off of the internet that has not been designated as royalty free and to use as you wish. Not such a big deal for personal uses but if you are talking about commercial use you might want to have a lawyer on retainer for lawsuits that get tendered against you. There are resources where you can PURCHASE photos but of course that means you have to spend money.

In #13, the photographer had just come from a middle school photo shoot. "Okay, turn to the side, look at me, chin down, now look up, and tilt your head, a little more... now smile!"

I agree with Kirsten Meyer, there's not really much wrong with these pics. The people jumping on the bandwagon with comments such as "hilarious" have a severe case of the Emperor's new clothes.

Wow. You have truly enlightened me. I immediately went to my marketing VP and told her to get rid of all photos in our brochures and on our web site. Clearly lots of big text or graphics of bar charts is where its at. 
 
Oh, BTW, I thought your graphic of a bar chart was just as lame. Really, who uses bar charts when great text will do just fine. Maybe we should switch back to wearing suits to the office as well. 
 
In truth, can't say your email generated any interest to use your services. Bad miss. I wouldn't want a marketing company doing that for any of my businesses

Number ten - Poor George Clooney ...where did it all go wrong eh?

Literally LOL'ed! Too funny - and definitely way too creative, they need to take it easy with those stock photos ;-)

Rude! I love most of these pics! Or I did. In the 90s. Now we're embracing the whole flawsome trend, so we use our old stock pics as inspiration, like in this one https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151149486552241&set=pb.99091122240.-2207520000.1354306672&type=3&theater Sadly gravity did come to work that day. But its close. We also use lots of photos of our kids eating vegetables in our course textbooks - they can't go after us for royalties - its brilliant really.

@Erika Yigzaw - at least your pictures aren't staged and didn't require hired models! Your picture shows the true environment of your company and personalities of your colleagues. Cannot be compared to the ones above! :-)

#12 is on EVERY website! This is so true and funny.

Caption for Man /w Briefcase in Wheat Field: "It's mine! All mine! I now own Kansas!" 

Most of these photos are by the same photographer. You left off Natalie and Jasper though. These two models are ubiquitous. Why oh why do businesses keep using their photos when they SO obviously don't work for all the tens of thousands of business that use them :)

Most of these I agree with as poor photo choices but #10 actually looks fine to me. They have some intensity and it is reasonably realistic to be all grouped together staring at a screen.

Surely Interesting article. Very funny :-)

The attractive receptionist has always bugged me. I see it on so many sites.

Personal favorite was the business man grasping to his briefcase! Love it! 
 
Campayn.com

The headset customer service model needs to be retired. Having some real professional photos taken of your business would be the best way to go. It's strange how few of the big sites do have real photos, you know they could afford them. Small business could grab an edge with some nice real photos taken by a pro. I think it would be a great investment.

The stock photos that I hate the most - they are not in this post -Are the one on senior living websites - like retirement communities or in-home care. The residents are always really happy and in group photos. They just look so silly to me.

Haha. I love #8.  
 
Looks like he is about go crazy.

The sad part is I've seen a few of these around on live websites! 
 
Good Post!

I used to run a small UK based stock library and you would be surprised how many people would send me stuff like this and ask for something similar but more British- I would always say I was unable to help!

I couldn't stop laughing!!! I've used at least 2 of these - #1 and #2 for my "homemade" marketing pieces... ((blushing)) By the way, #13 is really creepy...

Those were awesome! Too funny!

The poor guy in #7 and #8 is having a heart attack. Somebody call 911! 

I've found about half of these in my quest for stock photography. It's hard / impossible to get good stock photos.

So, I was expecting really awful. The sticky note lady and guy in the field are pretty bad (unless the copy makes them work), but most of these are just generic and boring - not "truly awful." I've seen worse. I do agree with Paul, it's more effective to use real photos if they are done well.

Thanks for sharing this post.There are a lot of facts that I've been searching for a long time.

Love it. Made me chuckle because I have seen these used before - LOTS! Keep up the good work HubSpot, pointing out our failings as marketeers :-)

He's out standing in his field. Or whatever!

Oh no! I'm sure we've used some of those. :-p

The funniest part is YOUI! The images are awful but your descriptions are hilarious!!!!!

Misleading title. These are neither hilarious nor truly awful. They are generic and boring. Very different. 
 
While I understand this makes it too cookie cutter, companies don't want to spend money on real photographers so they use these stock options which are nice and safe. They are like dentist ads on the subway.

Lots of fun here granted, but no real solutions. Maybe you can point us in the right direction to solve this as a small business? It's hit a pain point for me as I'm challenged with finding relevant imagery for a website re-design at present.  
 
Often, it's simply out of the hands of a company with a tiny marketing budget to afford a professional photographer. They seem to charge exorbitant fees, or where do you search for that amateur who's all fair and good when it comes to your cousin's wedding, but what about handling photos in a complex technical workshop? 
 
So sometimes, paying stock photos is the only way to go. But where can you look for some that are novel and rarely used?  
 
And saying 'just take some photos of your own team to make it personal' just doesn't cut it. Have you ever been flooded by requests by colleagues who really want their photos to be taken? I doubt it. 
 
My prospective customers aren't really bothered about our nice reception area and what our commercial vehicles look like. They want images that reflect how we've helped those who share their profile, with an environment or scenario that reflects what they encounter on a daily basis. So where do you get these type of images from???

Lot of attractive images, I like their expression. It really describe how fun they are with their work. 

Love the balloon dude. And the stickies

You forgot to include the perfect racially segmented consulting group!

See what you are getting at, but firstly, stock photography is affordable for small businesses, and secondly I think sometimes its easy to look at these things from the perspective of people who aren't working in conservative office environments. I thought this blog was a bit judgemental and even condescending given your customer base - not your best.

The last image would be applicable for the head of the marketing/advertising team for the movie, "UP".

Commenters who feel there's nothing wrong with these images because they're safe and cheap are missing the point. These images (and many others like them) have become cliches. They're so overused as to mean nothing. Are we to believe these people really work at your company? That your meetings are youthful, energetic and multicultural? That your customer service staffers are all pretty and eager to serve? No one is being fooled and it hurts the company's message and brand.

I have a client who just loves their "branding" and wont let us change it no matter how hard we try. 
 
The key part of their "branding" is the most awful stock image of people standing around. The entire image is dated by what they're wearing and is just totally meaningless. 
 
On top of all that, the same awful image is seen elsewhere all over the web.

If you fancy a laugh, go to Google Images, and search each of the above images using the URL. 
 
That returns a list of quite a few sites actually using the above images. 
 
There is actually nothing wrong with using Stock images, but as for most things in life, there is a right time and a right place. There is however a problem with using stock images as the main identity of your buisness/corporation, or blatantly pretending to be something you are quite obviously not.

Please can I use all the images you have on this blog post. I could really use some good graphics! ;) 
 
In all seriousness this is going to be part of the differentiation challenge. How to produce visuals without investing too much time.

Like it! It's a knockout selection... These are great images of a clinically perfect workforce with perfectly ironed clothes, white teeth, groomed and no pimples! Don't they eat doughnuts? ... I imagine that's what Apple Inc is like!

@Dave, trade the suits for jeans and you'd Apple!

Final Image: 
 
'Fun or Work I'm such a dedicated employee to I just can't decide! I'm just so PASSIONATE about my job and employer!' 
 
Or maybe: 
 
'Balloons or briefcase which cliche to go for!' 
 
Nice post thanks for sharing these TEDIOUS corporate cllches are the bane of many designers, especially the down trodden in-house ones! I think I have been instructed to use most of those!

Caption for photo: 
 
"Now, according to Apple maps, I just grab the balloons and I'll float to my destination."

"sub-par filing system" - How funny! Maybe if she considered using a Virtual Assistant, she wouldn't have to cover herself in post-its!

Does anyone know of a stock site that features more "real"-looking people? People with imperfections, cluttered kitchens, ragged landscaping?

Haha, these are pretty awful however I have stumbled upon a few worse pictures on random sites.