So this was weird.
A nice pal on facebook hit me up and let me know that they’d come across this little image in the web-o-sphere:
That’s an old press photo of mine that I guess can be sourced pretty easily via Google images. I can only assume the good people of Rage Against Vaccines were so taken by my adorably bemused face that they were most excited to use it (without permission) to represent the (apparently) universal confusion around the practice of immunising people against deadly diseases.
Now I’m not a doctor or a scientist and I’m all up for questioning common practices and reasoned debate informed by facts.
But I think it’s pretty hands-down bullshit to use the face of a person with a public profile on your propaganda without their permission, thereby associating that person with and implying that that person endorses your cause.
My management and I contacted the group in question and, luckily, they addressed the issue:
Apparently the shortlist for the best image to ridicule the claims of those who are pro-vaccinations was
1. Tom Ballard
2. A chimpanzee
Now I’ve got a whole new set of body image issues to deal with.