A Cape Town model has slammed a clothing chain after they allegedly used his face on their merchandise without his permission.
Aden Ajam blew up Instagram on Monday evening when he reached out to his almost 11 000 online followers and made the allegations against The Fix, a popular retailer which tries to keep the youth up to date with the latest trends.
In a video viewed by just over 9 500 IG users, Ajam captioned it: “Stop stealing from us creatives @thefixza. Please share and spam their comments to spread the awareness.”
He started the video saying: “This one goes out to The Fix for blatantly using my face on their T-shirt, having it hosted at whatever museum about their new range …”
Ajam claims the retailer stole his photo from a campaign and is using his face without his permission.
“I am not getting a cent from it,” he wrote.
Kathryn Sakalis, head of business for the TFG marketing and e-commerce division, said its retailer will be discussing the matter with Ajam.
“We would like to assure you that The Fix are in contact with Mr Ajam and did revert to him on Instagram. They will be initiating further discussions with him asap.”
The video shows an advert by The Fix of a white T-shirt with a picture of a guy wearing a bucket hat, a mask, sunglasses and a chain.
Ajam has provided the original photograph taken of him, which looks identical to the one on the T-shirt, except for the mask.
undefinedANA looked into the post from The Fix.
It shows five T-shirts of different styles in the photo, captioned: “Taking inspo from our new normal, we created our Covid mask graphic tees as a reminder to mask up & protect each other 'cos #dowhatsright is what we're about.”
Ajam had commented on the post, stating: “Thieves. Don't support them. They have no rights to these images. Stop stealing from us creatives.”
To which the retailer responded: “Woah! Thanks for alerting us. We take this super seriously & will investigate with urgency.”
African News Agency (ANA)