A Brooklyn woman who does not have HIV is suing Getty Images for selling her likeness to the Division of Human Rights, which used her smiling photograph next to the words "I am Positive (+)" and "I Have Rights." There was a Friends episode that tackled this same issue. Isn't there always?
25-year-old HIV-negative Greenpoint resident Avril Nolan filed a $450,000 lawsuit against the company on the basis that it "allowed her image to be used improperly," forcing her into several awkward conversations with friends, employers and "potential romantic partners." (Man at Bar: "Hey, don't I recognize you from somewhere?" Nolan: "I DON'T HAVE AIDS OK.") Adding insult to HIV, the STD-free Nolan was forced to hear about the ad from her Pilates instructor.
The photo, which ran in amNew York on April 3, wound up in the paper "through a series of unfortunate mistakes," photographer Jena Cumbo told the Daily News, though it turns out Cumbo, an acquaintance of Nolan's, was never given official permission to sell the photo in the first place.
“A lot of people dropped the ball,” Cumbo told the tabloid. "I made a mistake. I didn’t understand my contract (with Getty)." Nolan works in public relations, and posed for the photos "years ago" as part of a fashion feature.
In many ways, though, Nolan may have dug her own social grave by not letting the ad slip quietly away. Hasn't she heard of the Streisand effect?
