Ellen Tamati in front of a Hobson's Pledge campaign, which used her face without authorisation. Photo: Supplied / Aukaha News
"Still hurts, still angry ... bloody traumatising," a distressed and tearful Ellen Tamati told Aukaha News, a small multi-media outlet covering Tainui, Te Arawa and Tauranga Moana.
Ellen's story ended up as national news after Aukaha News reported earlier this month that Ellen's face appeared on a billboard opposing Māori council wards, alongside the slogan: 'My mana doesn't need a mandate.'
The campaign was run by 'one law for all' pressure group Hobson's Pledge. But Ellen and her whānau told Aukaha News - in no uncertain terms - she strongly opposed it.
"She was brought up in that generation that got the reo beaten out of them and ... they're using her image against her to promote an opposite view. I'm angry," her daughter said.
Hobson's Pledge instructed the billboard company Lumo to take down the ads featuring Ellen Tamati. Last week the Advertising Standards Authority told Aukaha News it had received more than 140 complaints over the ad.
"Next time Hobson's Pledge ought to use one of its own supporters - of which it claims to have many - in its advertisements," columnist Matthew Hooton wrote in the Herald.
"It might also give greater attention to telling the truth, after its advertising about the foreshore and seabed in the New Zealand Herald was found by the Advertising Standards (Authority) to be materially misleading."
But how did Ellen's image end up on those billboards opposing a cause she actually supports in the first place?
The Spinoff's Ātea editor Liam Rātana explained Tamati was photographed at Waitangi this year by travel photographer Rafael Ben Ari.
He licensed several photos to two stock imagery websites used by media and advertisers - iStock by Getty and Shutterstock.
Customers effectively hire the images for publication without royalties - but there are T's and C's.
Hobson's Pledge leader Dr Don Brash told TVNZ the image had been purchased "from a regular photography supplier ... and we assumed we had the rights to use it."
But the image of Ellen Tamati was designated 'editorial use only, meaning they should only be used in a newsworthy or human interest context, rather than for commercial or promotional purposes.
Later Dr Brash told The Platform it was The Campaign Company that organised and designed the ads.
The Campaign Company is run by Taxpayers Union founder Jordan Williams. It created another recent ad campaign for the Sensible Sentencing Trust which ended up falling foul of the advertising watchdog The Advertising Standards Authority for the way it co-opted the Greens' images and branding.
How can this be avoided?
Truestock Photo: ANNA MENENDEZ PHOTOGRAPHY
"Something like that would not happen with Truestock - and the content license agreements that they have in place. All of the clients that I photograph have their own release forms and we agree not to misuse the image", photographer Erica Sinclair told Aukaha News.
Truestock is owned and run co-operatively for photographers to supply authentic New Zealand images to publishers and clients.
"For stock image libraries worldwide the general model is that you have a group of contributing photographers and videographers who will create content, sometimes based on the information that the stock library has provided them based on what's in demand," Truestock chief executive and founder Tanmay Desai told Mediawatch.
"When the images or the videos sell, they get a commission from that payment. Traditionally these stock libraries have been started in America or overseas, so they have a lot of American-looking photos. We wanted to tackle that."
"We offer the highest commission in the world to our photographers, which is 50 percent. Some of the international libraries are between 15 and 30 percent."
"The photos that you see on the American stock libraries are just not representative of who New Zealanders are, and what we look like," Desai told Stuff in 2021.
But in the case of the Hobson's Pledge billboard, the image of Ellen Tamati had T's and C's attached.
Tanmay Desai, chief executive and co-founder of Truestock Photo: supplied
"With the editorial license, a photographer can capture people and you sell it as an editorial image, much like you would if you're in a war zone or at a political rally."
"What you can't do is sell that image for commercial use (for) the advertising world or marketing. You could see your face in a news story, but if you see your face in an ad, it's a very different story."
"Every stock library has a content license agreement you have to agree to. If any client has bought an image with an editorial license and then they go on to use it commercially without any communications with the stock library, the onus is on the client purchasing the image."
"Truestock doesn't sell images on an editorial license - only a creative license or a commercial license for advertising use."
"We've got a content license agreement and there are set clauses that talk about what the images can't and can be used for - especially in these sensitive cases. The clients get in touch with us to ask whether an image can be used for a certain subject because they don't want this situation to happen - a campaign being pulled."
AI image ethics
Waatea News created this AI image for a series on poverty "to protect the mana of real-life whanau." Photo: Waatea News
Ellen Tamati clearly didn't want her image used in a campaign against Māori wards, but eyebrows were also raised recently by another image that doesn't feature anyone real at all.
A Waatea News articles about families struggling to afford food Part two is illustrated with a picture of a woman and two children and an empty trolley outside a supermarket.
All have strikingly similar unhappy expressions. A note below the article says: "Images for this feature are AI-generated to protect the Mana of real life whanau."
Part one of the series featured a version of the same image without any AI acknowledgement.
"The intent there is good because they want to protect someone's identity and not use someone as the poster child for that campaign. But there are heaps of ways to authentically represent what's happening out there . . . rather than relying on AI," Desai said.
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