Citizens, the ‘Hugs’ campaign and the danger of photos from image banks

Hence his motto ‘Vote hug’. So far, so good. The problem has arisen when choosing the photos that illustrate the campaign.

–

The images of the people that appear next to the slogan ‘Vote hug’ on the electoral posters of Ciutadans in Catalonia have given much to talk about on social networks. The posters have provoked jokes, memes and the joke of the Internet.

–

For some tweeters, the grandfather in the image seemed to have been given a heart attack, more than a hug.

–

There were even Reasonable similarities.

–

Returning to the first tweet that accompanies this news, the worst thing is that the images that illustrate the Ciutadans campaign come out of an image bank to which everyone has access, Shutterstock. Image banks are gigantic collections of generic photographs that are offered to the media to accompany their news and publications at very low prices.

–

Image bank from which the Ciutadans campaign has emergedNIUS / Shutterstock

—

Depending on the plan subscription, the price to legally get the image without a watermark can be as low as 0’19 €. Citizens probably had to pay for the enhanced license, which allows the use of the image for promotional content. Still, we are talking about low-cost images.

–

Original image in the image bank.Shutterstock

—

The orange formation has opted for a low-cost campaign, in which even the photographer and the models have been saved. A saving that, however, it puts them in a very vulnerable situation to malicious users and possible manipulations.

–

Someone could, for example, look for other photos of the same model in the same image bank and with a little Photoshop give a totally different meaning to the message that C’s sends.

– .