David, I worked for one publishing house in Ukraine, where were working a lot of young, happy and always smiling pesonnel :-)We even shoot them for covers of our news magazines (and these covers were selling issues quite good:) I guess you are not against of models per se, but against the idea of using stock photos, where they are better not to be used. Everything is good in certain proportions. No one will put pictures of not photogenic employees on their website or in their ad campaign. Why would they want to do that? Also some companies have issues with website/ ad campaign when the employee leaves and the picture stays...So Just say NO to pretty models does not really work. But I fully agree with you sometimes too much of smiling young faces annoys(not that I like exhausted and tired faces of old ladies..) But guys be reasonable. It's like one and the same voiceover actor is used for Tide ads and for the ads of a bank.Different target audience- the same voice and the same intonations. And then you hear the ad and think "Ok again Tide, Glade, whatever is advertised...) But no, it was message from some bank, and I missed it. Because someone didn't do their homework and didn't check if this voice was used by some other brand in their ad campaign recently (or at the exact period of time you're planning to use it). And sometimes you notice that big brands do these mistakes. With their budgets and huge amount of counsultants, brand managers, ad agencies etc,etc... So, before using any stock photo, any voiceover actor, any video, any model for shooting... just do the homework, check, if some other company used it in it's ad campaign, website, etc. not so long ago, and think how it may affect your brand and your ad campaign.

Really, Adrian has good and easy 2 read writing style. REally enjoyed his posts. And he knows how to build readership.