5 People Who Unwittingly Became The Faces Of Ad Campaigns

In a weirdly prejudicial twist, the man was wearing weapons owned by his great-grandfather in the photo -- weapons he'd used to fight the Turks years earlier when Greece separated from the Ottoman Empire. So of all the yogurts in all the world, they put his face on the yogurt of the people who once tried to kill his family. And man, did he not like that. In fact, it was the idea that he might be mistaken for a Turk that offended him more than merely having his photo stolen.

To be fair, "stolen" may be too strong a word. The Swedish yogurt barons swore they licensed the image from a stock photo service, which is entirely possible. Photographers are known to snap photos of people in public and sell them to such services. Still, after suing for several million Euros, the man was awarded 160,000. In retrospect, this does kind of seem like the face of a dude whom you should probably ask before sticking him on a dairy product.

Meanwhile in Europe, some guy who couldn't pass the entrance exam at supervillain school took a job at Swiss biomedical firm Genoma. He used Becca's image in giant banners for a genetic testing process called Tranquility, which Genoma advertised in Spain. Like in the previous example, the firm said they got the image from a stock photo company, which sidesteps the point of how they're advertising a way to avoid having the very child they're using in their ad. They also said the images were only meant to be used internally, so it was one of those cases of an accidental giant banner being displayed in public that we hear about in the news all the time.

Parents in Spain were offended as soon as the ads appeared, and when Hoos got word, she was obviously very upset. The company took them down and apologized, which is nice, but "It was all a horrific mistake" isn't much comfort from a firm in charge of testing people's goddamned DNA.

It's a simple photograph, and not in any way lascivious, or even connected to anything that happens in the movie. It's also a self-portrait from a photographer named Lara Jade Coton, and she was 14 when she took it.

Lara Jade Coton/TVX Films"Yes," said the lazy porn graphic design goblin. "This will be fine."

Coton had a DeviantArt page where she posted her work, including said photo. A fan of hers messaged saying that they, uh, recognized the image. When Coton tracked down the producer of the DVD, she got the following message. This is exactly as they sent it to her, complete with caps and a crippling lack of self-awareness:

I'M SURE BY THE END OF THE MONTH YOUR FACE WILL BE HISTORY. WE HAVE STOPPED SELLING THE DVD UNTIL COVER IS REPLACED. WE HAVE FURTHER CHECKED OUT YOUR NAME AND ITS NOT LIKE IT'S A HOUSE WHOLE NAME. ACTUALLY, REMOVING YOUR IMAGE WILL HELP IMPROVE THE SELL OF THE DVD ..... SO FAR IT BOMBED

Honestly, I'm not sure what else I'd have expected. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot Coton could do at this point. She lived in the UK, and the company that pilfered her picture was in Texas. Without a lot of money to toss around, no UK lawyers were eager to try to sue an American company. But a Florida-based attorney got wind of the story and took the case, which she eventually won after several years, netting her $130,000.

Shane Morgan and his husband Landon hired an attorney after the ad, depicting their own wedding, showed up in the mail. Not that it was addressed specifically to them; it was just one of those shitty mailers that go out to everyone in a district when some kind of election is on the horizon. Which meant everyone in the area had to see it. The men's faces were blurred, but only in that lazy way that makes it look like you poked yourself with your own intolerant finger for a moment. Beyond the aforementioned hiring of a lawyer, there's not much to report. These things usually take years.

In the same vein, Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois mailed out a bunch of ads touting his pro-life stance that featured him surrounded by a bevy of ladies all eager to never have abortions for any reason whatsoever, because in America you should only kill people accidentally and/or on purpose with guns, or in prisons, or if they're too poor to live, or if the police don't like the way they look, or if they're trying to get into the country, and maybe out, we'll see.

Adam Kinzinger/Illinois Republican Party

The problem with Kinzinger's ad -- well, one of the problems -- was that those women weren't pro-life advocates. They were actually from the Voluntary Action Center in DeKalb. They were at the center making meals when the photo was taken two years previously, when Kinzinger showed up to do that thing politicians do wherein they pretend normal humans don't recoil from them and get photographic evidence of it. The Center provides services for members of the community -- things like Meals on Wheels and transportation assistance for seniors who need to get to the doctor. None of that involves shilling for a local politician's half-assed mailers.

True to form, the party passed the blame onto someone else, claiming a third-party vendor was responsible for the mailer. Because you can't enter politics anywhere on Earth without knowing how to throw absolutely anyone under the bus at the drop of a hat.