Legal trouble may be brewing for the agency that produced a controversial anti-AARP ad for the conservative lobbying group USA Next.
The ad, which appeared on the American Spectator's web site last month, purported to illustrate "The Real AARP Agenda" with two photographs: a crossed-out soldier in combat gear on the left, and a check-marked gay couple (kissing, of all things!) on the right. USA Next, seeking a way to combat the AARP's enormous clout in the war over Social Security privatization, was breaking out the heavy right-wing artillery: patriotism-besmirching and gay-baiting.
Although pictures in advertisements are regularly staged, it turns out that this one wasn't. It was taken last March by a photographer for the Portland, Oregon Tribune and shows two Portland residents, Rick Raymen and Steve Hansen, standing in line outside the Multnomah County building waiting for a marriage license.
It seems that someone working for Mark Montini International found the picture on the Tribune's web site and, according to a Tribune account published last Friday, used it in the ad without permission—a claim the paper says Montini has confirmed. After the unauthorized use was discovered, Montini attempted to buy a similar photograph "for private use" but had his money refunded after a Tribune employee called him to check his purpose for placing the order. (He claimed that he was just trying to figure out how the paper's photo policy worked. About time.)
Then, the paper says, after Montini was told in no uncertain terms that the photograph was not available for commercial use (the Tribune will not sell pictures for such use without the express permission of the people pictured), Montini tried to pay for the photo anyway by sending $600.00 via PayPal. This payment, too, was refunded.
The Tribune points out that the photograph was under copyright and says that its lawyer "is considering how to address the issue".
Meanwhile, Raymen and Hansen are understandably incensed to see their images misused to such a purpose. "We never signed up to be Harry and Louise for a hate-mongering group", said Raymen in a press release last week. The couple's lawyer has written to USA Next to demand that the group cease using the picture and issue a public apology for actions the letter calls "illegal" and "actionable".
Raymen, an aspiring photographer, has shut down his online photo gallery in an attempt to protect other gay Portlanders from having their images misappropriated.
Note: Following my previous story on the USA Next ad, a reader, referring to the "AARP doesn't support the troops" thing, asked the very reasonable question, "where did THAT come from?"
The chairman and CEO of USA Next, Charles Jarvis, explained it this way to Judy Woodruff on CNN's Inside Politics: "[T]he soldier was there because they [the AARP] do not take a position on veterans and combat veterans health and support in expansion of their assets. And we do." Case closed.
Jarvis, by the bye, is a former executive vice president of Focus on the Family, according to www.crooksandliars.com. Any surprises here?
