Everyone is sharing a story that is just too good not to share. It started over the publication of an article about why all hipsters look the same.
Interesting enough.
But then the publication got a FURIOUS email from a hipster who was ANGRY that they used his photo without his permission!!!
A few days ago we ran a piece in @techreview about some research purporting to explain the "hipster effect"—the fact that nonconformists often end up nonconforming in the same way. We used a stock Getty photo of a hipster-ish-looking man. https://t.co/8LB6qLSmgS
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019
And then, hilarity ensues.
We promptly got a furious email from a man who said he was the guy in the photo. He accused us of slandering him, presumably by implying he was a hipster, and of using the pic without his permission. (He wasn't too complimentary about the story, either.)
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019
Now, as far as I know, calling someone a hipster isn’t slander, no matter how much they may hate it. Still, we would never use a picture without the proper license or model release. So we checked the license. https://t.co/uFPXXNlEid
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019
The image does have restrictions—e.g., if you use it “in connection with a subject that would be unflattering or unduly controversial to a reasonable person (for example, sexually transmitted diseases)”, you should say that the person in it is a model. https://t.co/sYNmqJYZ2g
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019
We weren’t implying that the model had an STD, only that he was a hipster. We didn't think this met the definition of “unflattering or unduly controversial.” But we thought of swapping it out for a different picture anyway, because, you know, who needs the hassle?
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019
But Eric Mongeon, @techreview's fearless creative director, said, "Over my dead body are we taking down a perfectly good image because some dude doesn't like being called a hipster." Or words to that effect.
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019
Eric contacted Getty Images. Getty looked in their archive for the model release. And came back to us with the surprising news: the model's name wasn't the name of our angry hipster-hater.
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019
In other words, the guy who'd threatened to sue us for misusing his image wasn't the one in the photo. He'd misidentified himself.
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019
All of which just proves the story we ran: Hipsters look so much alike that they can’t even tell themselves apart from each other. /ENDS
LOL!! I mean, that’s pretty perfect right? It’s another way that human nature sneaks into our interactions without our intending. We’re naturally tribal creatures and we copy each other and end up in a uniform with those we agree with. It’s hard to really find a true free thinker given our nature. That is something that has been made excruciatingly real to me in this current political climate. Also, #MAGA!!!