Many of you probably saw
news coverage of Hillary Clinton’s red phone ad over the past week.
Stock Footage Actress is
Reluctant Participant in Clinton’s Red Phone Commercial
The ad focuses on Clinton’s claims that Barack Obama lacks the experience to serve as President. It shows a series of sleeping children and asks voters which candidate they would want to see answering a 3 a.m. emergency phone call to the White House. One of the sleeping children in the commercial is Casey Knowles. The depiction of Knowles is from stock footage made eight years ago. Getty Images now owns the footage.
It turns out Knowles is a staunch supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy. Knowles has campaigned for the Obama campaign, has attended his rally, and served as a precinct captain for the Washington caucus. Knowles has laughingly suggested getting together with the Obama campaign to produce a counter ad.
The Downside of Stock Material Usage
There is nothing wrong with using properly licensed stock footage. Producers do it all the time. However, as I discuss in The Permission Seeker’s Guide Through the Legal Jungle and as the Clinton campaign has learned, using stock footage can carry some downsides: