I don't get the hate towards Corporate Memphis. I'm not sure what would be better instead; a stock photo seems just as bad.
To me the problem isn't in what the ad looks like, but that the ad is there. I also don't like that the ad is shown to a particular group of people, i.e. ones who aren't doing what lies in the company's best interests.
I think it's just the fact that it reeks of the kind of focus-grouped design language where all the edges have been rounded off so that it can't possibly be objectionable to anyone. When you pair this with poor corporate citizenship like this, it just creates a bizarre dissonance between a company which is trying to project a warm and human aesthetic, while they are mistreating users with their actual actions.
But at the end of the day, I don't think it's Corporate Memphis' fault - it just happens to be the design aesthetic which is often paired with this kind of shitty behavior which nobody likes. If somebody is constantly feeding you bitter medicine on a silver spoon every day, you might grow to hate the spoon.
I think the point is that it's not the design of it you (or I) hate, it's the infantilization. And like GP said, before that it was stock photos of three wonderful, beautiful people in front of a computer pointing and smiling and being happy and all, surely because of the crapware being sold by whatever you're looking at. It's just as infantilizing. IMO corporate memphis is just a new style and tbh, I find it a bit more honest than stock photos at least.
To me the problem isn't in what the ad looks like, but that the ad is there. I also don't like that the ad is shown to a particular group of people, i.e. ones who aren't doing what lies in the company's best interests.