A Compromised Virgin . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
July 24, 2007

The internet has gone positively atwitter in recent days over the news that a major company, Virgin Mobile in Australia, has done the unthinkable in an ad campaign entitled "Are you with us or what?"

With the help of its ad agency, the mobile phone service provider has portrayed non-professional models in an apparently derogatory fashion without getting releases from the victims. The images were on billboards, in newspaper ads and on a web site, according to reports. The photographers who made the images and posted them to flickr, apparently offered them for free under Creative Commons licenses.

To date, there have been no reports of lawsuits being filed, but the potential for legal action is high. At least two of the subjects have publicly expressed concerns about the faux pas.

Molly E. Holzschlag, who has authored two books about web site development and provides consulting services, writes that she is one of the subjects depicted in an add that runs with a headline that says, "People Who Talk in Lifts Have Bad Breath."

In her blog at Molly.com, Holzschlag writes that the four people in the image did not sign releases.

"Not sure what the next step will be legal-wise, if any, but I’m looking into it you can be sure," Holzschlag adds.

One person who posted a comment about the ad on Holzschlag's blog pulled no punches in saying what he thought of Host –– Virgin Media's ad agency for the campaign.

"The creatives behind the campaign where stupid. They should of known that they needed model releases," wrote Nick Cowie.

A woman who posted to a flickr message board expressed surprise at seeing herself in an ad with the headline saying "Dump Your Pen Friend."

The woman who uses the name "aleeviation" on flickr wrote,"hey that's me! no joke. i think i'm being insulted. . . can you tell me where this was taken?"

There is clearly some confusion among flickr posters about who is responsible for getting releases for Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Some posters wondered if the photographers should have obtained model releases before making the images available. Others suggested that it is up to the end user to make sure the images are released.

"Not to be a wet blanket –– and I am as far from a subject matter expert as you can get –– but I kinda thought that it would be (the photographer's) responsibility to get model releases before licensing the photos to Virgin (which he did by putting them under a CC license)" wrote a poster using the name "wjkocik."

However, a poster named Daniel Morrison wrote: "My personal understanding is that CC licensing does not equal or imply a model release. Further reading leads me to the same conclusion, though it is far from clear."

Flickr is owned by Yahoo.

 

The current "Are you with us or what?" web site can be found at: http://www.areyouwithusorwhat.com.

For flickr discussions of this issue, click here, or here.

For Molly E. Holzschlag blog entry, click here.