A Montreal photographer last week did an assignment for The Globe and Mail about an Olympic athlete and the car she drives. The athlete lives in Laval, Quebec, and she happens to drive a BMW Mini vehicle.
A Laval BMW Mini dealership saw the story and contacted the photographer to ask permission to use the picture for its Facebook marketing. The luxury car dealer offered the photographer a credit line.
Instead, the photographer asked for a nominal $150.
The car dealership refused and then just took the photo from the newspaper’s web site and reused it without any credit line.
Today, after having found out the car dealer has been using the picture for the past week, the photographer asked the dealership where she should send an invoice for the use of her photo.
At first, the dealership claimed it received permission from the newspaper. Later, its Director of Marketing replied:
I was under the impression that when a photo was posted on a major news outlet, such as the Globe and Mail, that it becomes available to the public.
The BMW dealership then took the photo down.
Let’s review:
1) The fact that the dealership contacted the photographer and asked permission proves that it knew something about copyright laws. The fact that it went ahead and used the picture without permission shows wilful intent.
2) Credit lines are the law in Canada and can’t be bartered.
3) BMW Canada’s own web site lists its own copyright restrictions (and here) on pictures being taken from its site. The company is well aware of copyright laws.
4) BMW Canada employs a few “Digital Media Specialists” whose job is to “build and promote the organization’s Social Business Strategy” and “Develop social media programs” for platforms such as Facebook. Obviously, BMW Canada takes its Facebook marketing seriously. This means the car company is fully aware of how to properly use Facebook and the Web.
5) A luxury car dealer tried to cut corners and save a few bucks and then hoped not to get caught. How reassuring is this to its customers?
Here we have an expensive luxury car dealer trying to be cheap – the exact opposite of its advertising. Marketing is what you do, not what you say.
I guess BMW stands for Bad Marketing Wanted.
