James Deakin Is Taking Legal Action Vs. a Fast-Food Outlet That Used His Photo in a Social Media Post
Even before the age of digital marketing began, there is one simple and uncompromisable rule one has to follow when using pictures or any other asset such as people, brand names and products: get permission. Without any clear endorsement and approval from the asset owner, it’s just plain wrong, and could actually be illegal.
There’s one up-and-coming fast-food restaurant who might just find out about this rule the hard way. The restaurant made the mistake of using a popular celebrity endorser’s photo for its social media post. Popular host, influencer and motoring journalist James Deakin recently posted on his Facebook page about this but did not name the establishment.
“Imagine a fast-food company blatantly stealing your image and passing it off as an ad, even going as far as using the image on their illuminated menu board since 2019,” Deakin said. “And once their attention is called, sila pang galit. (and they’re the ones getting upset) Wow. Could have been easily resolved with apology sana. Time to lawyer up.”
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Deakin also said that, although he would love to call out the establishment publicly, his lawyer advised him otherwise. Instead, the host said he plans to raffle off food from the restaurant’s competitors “to celebrate once everything is over.”
When asked by Esquire Philippines if he has ever been invited to any of their events or even just to try out their restaurant, Deakin said, “No, I didn’t attend any event of theirs. They took this from an old episode of Drive on CNN and repurposed it as advertising material for commercial gain. I was doing a food tour through Manila on a scooter and stopped by their stand.”
Drive was a motoring show Deakin hosted on local news channel CNN Philippines.
“They did not ask me permission much less compensate me, and if they try to use the angle that they were just sharing the content, they should have shown context. As it appears, it is a paid endorsement that they have profited from for the last four years,” Deakin added.
The restaurant first posted the image of Deakin in November 2019, but it was only in the first week of July, when one of his friends congratulated him for another endorsement deal, that he found out about the unauthorized post.
The post has been taken down by the restaurant from its Facebook page but has gotten over 500,000 views, 2,400 likes, 239 shares and 332 comments based on the screencap before the post was taken down. This level of engagement rate seems to be much higher compared to almost all of the establishment’s posts in recent months, many of which only had only one or two likes per post. It’s clear proof that having a celebrity or an influencer’s photo can help ramp up engagements on social media.
According to IPO Philippines, “A person who is found guilty of committing copyright infringement may be penalized with imprisonment from one to nine years plus a fine ranging from P50,000 to P1.5 million, depending on the number of offenses committed,” according to the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPO PH). “Additionally, the infringing work may be taken down if it was posted online or pulled from the market to prevent its further circulation.”
This means that aside from the celebrity endorser, CNN Philippines can also run after said restaurant for copyright infringement.
Deakin’s manager reached out to the said restaurant and didn’t get a reply until after the host posted the infraction on his Facebook page.
“They only reached out to get on a call after I posted,” Deakin said. “Their last message was—'We took it down na, what more do you want?’” Deakin replied on a private message by saying “At least you should not be arrogant and apologize like a decent human being.”
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