Becoming a Web celeb is a very easy thing to achieve these days. Just look at the he/she/it cried and cried about Britney after the VMAs. Obviously he/she/it knew it would garner some attention and he/she/it took full advantage. In some instances you can grab a lot unwanted attention because someone else thinks it’s funny and finds a way to exploit you. Alison Chang’s case isn’t quite Web celeb worthy, but she did hit mainstream media and the results were devastating.
You would think your life was over if you were a 16-year old girl whose picture was being plastered all over billboards with phrases like: “Dump your pen friend” or “Free text virgin to virgin”. This is what Virgin Mobile did to Alison and others whose pictures were taken from Flickr and used in an ad campaign in Australia. The family is crying foul:
It’s the tag line; it’s derogatory,” said Damon Chang, 27. “A lot of her church friends saw it.
I want to be in a Virgin Mobile ad campaign.
Hey Virgin,
Check me out in the ‘About’ section, my Flickr link is there.
K, Thx.