As real as it gets

Due to misrepresentation and highly unrealistic imagery in media, advertising, and on social media platforms, today’s youth in Germany feel more anxious and uncomfortable with their bodies and sexual identities when compared to the youth of 10 years ago.


To tackle this issue, H+K, Reckitt Germany and its brand Durex, assessed the root of where this highly unrealistic imagery is reproduced over and over again: stock photos.

We teamed-up with a panel of young diversity experts, influencers, stock photo platform EyEm and a talented photographer from Gen Z to bring to life the first unstaged, unretouched, and truly authentic stock collection of real young people with their real bodies. Along with the collection, an expert guideline for creating more diverse, authentic, and inclusive advertising materials for future usage was developed.


In addition to generating significant earned media and social reach – the Gen Z collection got accessed over 17,000 times on EyeEm – making it one of the most popular collections of the stock platform in 2022/23.

The images got downloaded by over 200 professionals and brands, now being used in official brand communication by companies like EY and skyscanner – increasing the authentic representation of Gen Z in public and media, contributing to a more confident and healthy generation.


In order to bring the developed guidelines to life, Reckitt produced his own photo collection together with the young photographer Kane Holz, who is best known for his natural style. The images show young people of different origins, orientations and bodies in natural life situations and thus convey a genuine and authentic style, look and tonality. The special thing about it: The people photographed are a real, young group of friends who act openly and naturally with each other in the pictures.