Yesterday, AIA Singapore got into the crosshairs of the creative industry for being the latest multi-million dollar company asking for the usage of images for free — offering only credit as renumeration. Fed up with yet another case of getting the offer of “exposure”, freelance photographer Tan Zexun of Pandawithacamera did not take it lying down.
Further follow ups saw the social media agency running AIA Singapore’s Instagram account contacting Tan directly about the viral display of contention. DSTNCT — the agency representing the insurance company — clarified that their idea was simply to run a crowdsourced social media campaign that’ll pick out worthy hashtagged photos on Instagram. They do insist however that professional photographers hired for their commercial pieces are provided fair remuneration.
Tan remained unconvinced by their logic.
“While I am appreciative of DSTNCT reaching out to me once for our potential collaboration that got canned and the second time today in response, by logic, they are still advocating that asking for photographs and offering to credit is okay,” he wrote in a Facebook post, deconstructing DSTNCT’s intentions.
“That is what’s troubling.”
Read on about what he had to say in his two cents regarding the issue, and the state of the creative industry.
As the villain would say, “Any last words?”Well yeah, last one. I will not comment on the current situation between…
Posted by Zexun Tan on Friday, 4 March 2016
