Casey Knowles and the Things That Come Back to Haunt You

"Sign here, please."

Several years ago someone said that to the parents of Casey Knowles, and her likeness was authorized for use by People of the Future.

I got the story from Sharon Cobb, who got it from king5.com, who talked about Casey's TV work.

It's stock footage from eight years ago when she worked as a TV extra - footage owned now by Getty Images....

Well, eight years later, some people got together and put a commercial together. Perhaps you've seen it. I posted it. (No, not the third one.) Whoever assembled the commercial wanted to put together some powerful video images, so he/she went to Getty Images and purchased some stock footage.

What could go wrong?

She may only be 17, but Casey has some very strong political opinions. She turns 18 - legal voting age - in April, in plenty of time before the general election.

"It's perfect timing because I have a candidate that I really identify with," she said.

"I've been campaigning for Barack Obama for a few months now," she said. "I was actually a precinct captain at the caucuses a few months ago. I attended his rally a few months ago and I'm a very, very avid supporter."

Of course, Hillary isn't the only person to have used footage of a non-supporter. Here's another example:

Rudy's [September 14, 2007] political ad attacking Hillary Clinton features multiple pictures of General Petraeus in uniform -- but now the Pentagon says that the General "has not condoned" the use of his image in Rudy's ad or any other political ads, adding that it was done "without his consent."

But there's one big difference - actually, three - between General Petraeus and Casey Knowles.

• Petraeus is a public figure, and there are some circumstances in which public figures can be used in media campaigns. Casey Knowles, at the time of Clinton's ad, was not a public figure.


• Casey Knowles was a minor when the stock footage was filmed.


• Knowles - or, more specifically, Knowles' parents - made some amount of money from having that stock footage taken.

Yes, I realize that the Knowles family acknowledges that they do not have any control over how those images are used. And that's the point. When parents consent to do such things for (or in some cases to) their children, they don't necessarily think of the ramifications.

Actually, Casey Knowles is VERY lucky that the footage ended up in a Hillary Clinton ad.

It could have been worse.

She could have ended up in an ad with this guy.

[mrontemp business] | [mrontemp politics] | [mrontemp technology] | [mrontemp del.icio.us tags]

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