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McCann London make sure the new Cannes Festival promotion is not a 'stock' campaign

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The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity have hired McCann London to create a campaign which will promote the upcoming 2014 festival. The campaign takes the form of a series of stills that have been designed to mimic (and mock) the generic, phoney excitement of the 'stock' photo. Various world-renowned creative professional are featured in the stills, jumping for joy (in typical 80's freeze-frame style), fist pumping and kicking back with glee in a number of stock poses. Each image is pasted by the kind of watermark you expect to find on any given stock image, only this watermark contains the tagline; “You'll come back as pumped as a stock photo model.”

The 'Pumped' campaign takes the form of a series of stills that have been designed to mimic (and mock) the generic, phoney excitement of the 'stock' photo

These satirical images will appeal to anyone familiar with dreary stock image databases (essentially anyone working in media, myself included), and manage to capture the predictable nature of stock photography whilst injecting a little fun and cheek into the works. Senta Slingerland, director of brand strategy at Cannes Lions, believes that the campaign “Celebrates the one thing that everyone who goes to Cannes experiences; the feeling of falling in love again with what you do for a living.” Mike Oughton, McCann London's creative director has said the campaign will “Strike a chord with anyone who has ever typed the word 'success' into a stock image library search bar.”

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The series was shot by Max Oppenheim, a celebrated photographer who has worked with everyone from American Airlines to the British Heart Foundation, and even rock bands such as Feeder. Oppenheim said that it was “A challenge to find the right visual language” when he first accepted the job. He was “Very careful to select neutral locations, styling and wardrobe,” which he felt would reflect the generic, plain world of the stock photo. He says that it “Helped massively that all the 'models' understood how great the idea was, and really threw themselves into their performances,” which is abundantly clear from the results.

The series was shot by Max Oppenheim, a celebrated photographer who has worked with everyone from American Airlines to the British Heart Foundation

Rob Doubal and Lolly Thomson worked as chief creative officers on the 'Pumped' campaign, and executives shot for the stills included representatives from agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, AKQA, Droga5 and DDB Worldwide, amongst others. The 61st Annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will take place between the 15th and 21st of June at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.

Official Cannes Lions Website

Official McCann London Website

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from the UK, who enjoyed one of the best meals of his young life in a small restaurant down a side-street in Cannes a few years ago.

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