Talk about an EPIC Fail...

[SoCalDem]

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/07/11/us-firm-apologises-over-use-of-murdered-couple-s-photo-91466-24127647/


US firm apologises over use of murdered couple’s photo

Jul 11 2009 by Robin Turner, Western Mail

AN AMERICAN company has been forced to apologise after using a picture of murdered honeymooners Ben and Catherine Mullany in an online advertising campaign. An image of the couple, who were shot dead in Antigua last summer, was used by the US firm MyDishBiz alongside in an area of its website featuring testimonials from satisfied customers. The company last night apologised to the couple’s family, and said it had “not knowingly included the picture” on its site.

But its appearance has been criticised by Welsh Secretary Peter Hain as “diabolical”, while a friend of the family described it as “like some kind of terrible joke”. Ben and Catherine, both 31 and from Rhos, near Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley, were shot dead in a bungled robbery at their holiday bungalow on the Caribbean island of Antigua on July 27 last year. It was the last day of their honeymoon.

Catherine died instantly from head wounds while Ben died a week later having been transferred in a coma to Morriston Hospital in Swansea. The picture used on the American website showed a smiling Ben and Catherine, and was accompanied by text suggesting the pair were “Frank and Mary from New York”, complete with a gushing testimonial purportedly from them about MyDishBiz. The picture had in fact been taken in the run up to the couple’s wedding in the Swansea Valley a year ago this weekend.

The image of newly qualified GP Catherine and trainee physiotherapist Ben, an ex-soldier had apparently been downloaded from an internet tribute to them, and paired with the bogus testimonial. The testimonial said: “We have made $1,000 alone with your MyDishBiz internet business opportunity. “We are very happy with this program. This is the best opportunity we’ve ever seen online. Thanks again.”

The company has now issued a humble apology and has blamed either a disgruntled ex-employee or someone “with a warped sense of humour”.

snip...

[NashVegas]

1. Unscrupulous Advertising Agencies, Website Developers LOVE LOVE LOVE Social Media

Recently there was a story in the news about a St. Louis family whose vacation photo was lifted from a hosting site and wound up on a huge billboard - in freaking Prague!

A friend of the couple was a tourist, saw it and notified their friends. The restaurant owner apologized.

http://www.extraordinarymommy.com/blog/are-you-kidding-me/stolen-picture/

FYI, if you use an image hosting site, READ YOU TOS VERY CAREFULLY. Facebook, MySpace and other sites claim use of copyrights and if they want to sell them for stock, they can.

[SoCalDem]

2. I once responded via email to a complete stranger

I googled "tutu", and up came these pictures of two darling little girls..when I clicked to make the pics bigger, there was an INVITATION with a MAP..inviting the family & friends to their family picnic.. phone number too..

I told the mom that I was a Mom too, and had no designs on her little girls, but she should remove that stuff.. she never wrote me back, but the site was gone the next day..

[crickets]

3. Ouch. Good for you for saying something

instead of just wondering "don't they know any better?" and moving on. Sometimes people just don't think and they don't realize something like Google images scrapes up everything, even from their tiny little corner of the web. :thumbsup:

Now, advertisers know exactly what they're doing. They have no excuse for being too lazy to at least stage their own photos for fake "testimonials."

[NashVegas]

4. They Have the Perfect Excuse

500 ---> 3,000 excuses, actually, as opposed to a stock license.