Crown Princess Mary is in Australia with her family, largely for private holidays. She and Frederik have also carried out several official duties. When she first arrived, Mary went out to a local store and bought Huggies (disposable diapers.) Photographers got a few snaps of the princess and her purchase. Of course, Huggies would be pleased, and they have done a story on their website about this.
http://www.huggies.com.au/BeingAParent/FeatureArticles/AllAboutMum/Princess-Mary-Buys-Huggies.asp
The producer of the website would have purchased the photo from Rex, the agency that owns the right to the photo. This has nothing to do with Crown Princess Mary. She bought the diapers at a local store, and editors that run the web sight saw an opportunity to write a feature article in their parenting section. This is not advertising, per se.
Crown Princess Mary was out in public, and was photographed by a Rex photographer. Huggies, which is owned by Kimberley-Clark, an American company, does not need permission from Crown Princess Mary to use the photo because the photograph is not being used as an advertisement. The story and photograph appears in a feature article section for parents on the Huggies website. Some people cannot tell the difference between an advert and an article.
The print version appeared in this week's New Idea magazine in Australia, as an advertisement. The cheeky people at Huggies have said they won't run it again but they can't believe the publicity they've had!
ReplyDeleteTechnically, it is not illegal because the photo was taken in public. But the story on the Huggies site is not an advert, but a story about Mary buying Huggies.
ReplyDelete