It’s 2022 and if you think you can get away with posting photoshopped photos and stealing other people’s images for ads and campaigns then you’re mistaken. Neither Rohit Sharma did, nor this company will.
Author and historian Manu S Pillai was recently shocked when he found his face plastered on an advertisement published by an online learning platform, Unacademy.
Unacademy Group used his picture, obviously without his consent, to promote their upcoming product ‘NextLevel’. The blunder came to light when Gaurav Munjal, the founder of Unacademy Group, tweeted an advert that had Pillai’s photo on it.
Retweeting Munjal’s promotional tweet, Pillai sarcastically wrote that his face is so generic that he now has multiple identities thanks to people lifting up his pictures and using them to advertise their products.
“Apparently I am ‘Sagar Chauhan’, senior frontend engineer. Not the first time this is happening. Somewhat miffed that I have such a generic face, it gets lifted for all kinds of random advertisements .”
Apparently I am "Sagar Chauhan", senior frontend engineer.
Not the first time this is happening. Somewhat miffed that I have such a generic face, it gets lifted for all kinds of random advertisements 😅 https://t.co/mTH2uD4V9b
— Manu S Pillai (@UnamPillai) December 14, 2022
Apparently, this isn’t the first time something of this sort happened with the historian. Earlier, another e-learning platform used his picture for promotional purposes.
In the past I have been Mohit Gaur who liked to make free pdfs. pic.twitter.com/GskT8WrRlp
— Manu S Pillai (@UnamPillai) December 14, 2022
Well, he was also ‘Aman Shah’ on Trainman a couple of months ago, according to a Twitter user.
You were also Aman Shah on Trainman just a few months ago..now they’ve changed the face though pic.twitter.com/KeGOPX8vRS
— Sindhuja (@sindbadrose) December 14, 2022
Incidentally, several websites have been using his images without his knowledge.
Ah yes i had an exchange with them and they took it down. Damn annoying. There is also a website somewhere that shows me as a young office goer who got a good salary package etc using some service. Or something along those lines.
— Manu S Pillai (@UnamPillai) December 14, 2022
This is how people reacted to this bizarre incident.
I think you should just build this alter ego online- Sagar Chauhan and embark on a few adventures. Mohit Gaur doesn’t cut it.
— Rahul Biddappa (@rahulbiddappa) December 14, 2022
It’s almost unbelievable how companies can pull this on a regular basis – yet, casually blame it on some@“3rd party”, when caught.
— hmgblr (@hmgblr) December 15, 2022
I feel for you bro. Really sad to see this happen. As a rule when we build products in our company we try to use a real staff member’s pic with his/her consent Ofcourse.
Tell unacademy to take it down. Or ask Munjal to atleast acknowledge its you.
— FAISAL FAROOQUI (@FAISALmouthshut) December 14, 2022
Hilarious. Isn’t this the case of breach of privacy?
— Anubhav (@Anubh30) December 14, 2022
Its time to write, “How I became the generic face for advertising?” I learnt in 7 years, will teach you in 7 tweets. 😛
— Ashish Pandita (@apandita_1992) December 14, 2022
It’s better being used for a swachh bharat campaign for toilets. I was shown to be a happy beneficiary because I had tweeted a happy photo with a toilet during a reporting trip.
— Swagata Yadavar (@swagata_y) December 14, 2022
Congratulations 🎉 Such a photogenic face that everyone keeps stealing your photo! You can hire someone in legal and start suing them to charge some money😄
— Shantinath Chaudhary (@shantihp) December 14, 2022
They use free photo, and you provide them free advertisement. Neat.
(Downloading your photo in background…)
— Hiran Venugopalan (@hfactor) December 14, 2022
This happened with a popular public figure. Imagine who’s using our pictures. Privacy is a joke these days.