Archives for June 20th, 2005

A billboard for Ljubljanske Mlekarne. (Ljubljana Dairies)

Since
Slovenian companies occasionally run roughshod over ideas like
"copyright" and "fair use," I’m always curious about what’s been legitimately paid for or not. This ice-cream advertisement featuring pop star Christina Aguilera is a perfect example. My instincts tell me that Ljubljanske Mlekarne
couldn’t possibly afford using Aguilera’s image — at least not without
endangering the company’s survival. On the other hand, American stars
have been known to appear in strange advertisements abroad (see: Japander)
knowing that it won’t hurt their image at home. Perhaps Aguilera agreed
to let her photo be used in a small, relatively unknown country in
exchange for a few thousand dollars in shopping money? It seems
possible.

But it’s still odd to think that her face is being used to
promote a product she’s probably never tasted, from a country she
probably couldn’t find on a map, and made by a producer whose name she
almost certainly can’t pronounce.

Then again, maybe it’s not even
her — just a carefully chosen lookalike. Goodness, the questions just
keep coming one after another like rain drops. It’s enough to make your
head hurt.

Perhaps it’s best to ignore billboards like this, and concentrate all your attention on ones like this. (Or maybe just ignore them all…?)

UPDATE: Slovenian super-sleuth Domen discovered from the agency that did the commercials that it IS Aguilera and that they bought the image from a Getty photo bank — sps was right!