Best Visual Meme Ever: STOCKING
This is one of my favorite visual memes. I noticed it awhile
back, but I feel like it's only getting some real momentum now. The premise is
simple: people choose a stock image to recreate on their own. The two photos
are then posted side-by-side for comedic comparison. As someone who often works
with stock photos, I especially appreciate this. Two software company employees
Dennis Van Huffel and Jamie Graham are credited with starting stocking in
August 2011 through a Tumblr blog: “Stocking is the new Planking.” Tumblr was
the perfect medium choice for their “argument” because Tumblr is both highly
visual and highly shareable. This choice is also well suited to their audience
because it is a platform that they frequent. While anybody can appreciate
stocking, I think that those who work in the graphic design and advertising
industries would especially appreciate it since they often work with sometimes-silly
stock images. I also thought it was interesting that they chose to title their
blog “Stocking is the New Planking,” and effectively piggybacking on another visual
meme, planking. Overall, I think that visual memes are more effective than any
other kind. I’m glad that we were able to end our semester on this unit.
I hadn't seen this meme until you posted about it but I think that it could really catch on. Some of the best meme's are those that point out the ridiculousness of the source material and stock photos are the perfect example. We encounter ridiculous stock photos every day and rarely give them a second thought because they are so ingrained in our digital culture. The fact that this is a meme that everyone can "get" and relate to will also help its spread.
ReplyDeleteI find this meme interesting as well, but what really interests me is the fact that it was referred to as the new planking. I did one of my major projects on the planking meme and focused on the ways in which it was progressively getting more dangerous and out of control as the meme evolved. Stocking seems to invalidate my claim on the grounds that this meme is fairly safe, BUT I read an interesting blog post chronicling how most online photograph memes that have arisen since planking have tied themselves to the impressively popular planking movement by deeming themselves an evolution. This seems to me to just be an attempt to increase the credibility of a new meme by tying it to one as successful as planking. This has been the case with memes such as owling, horsemanning, and now stocking. One of the memes I studied extensively for my project, batmanning was also explicitly tied to planking. It is interesting how people attempting to promote a meme incorporate an appeal to credibility by tying it to planking.
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