Android smartphone maker Nothing is in hot water after using images from a stock library to promote its phones – with one image taken on a Fujifilm XH2s camera back in 2023!
The offending images were used at a retail demo to promote the Nothing Phone 3 in New Zealand. ‘Here’s what our community has captured with the Phone 3,’ the company claimed, along with the hashtag #WithNothing. Except it turns out they weren’t all taken with a Nothing Phone 3…
Things started to go south from there, especially when a photographer contacted the Android Authority website to reveal that the images Nothing used to show off the phone’s capabilities were in fact licensed from the Stills stock-image library.
One photographer, Roman Fox, later confirmed that his image of a car headlight used in the Nothing promotion was actually shot on Fujifilm XH2s two years ago – before the latest Nothing Phone 3 was even released.
Nothing to eat but humble pie
Nothing founder Akis Evangelidis subsequently issued a statement on X/Twitter, putting it all down to a misunderstanding involving the use of temporary ‘placeholder’ images in the marketing campaign before it was fully rolled out. ‘This was an unfortunate oversight and I wish to emphasise that there was no ill-intent,’ he said, adding, ‘we are also investigating internally to make sure such an event does not happen again.’
Evangelidis deserves the benefit of the doubt, but this not the first time that camera and phone makers have fallen into a similar trap. Last July, Panasonic apologised for using stock images to promote its cameras and lenses on the company’s websites and social media. Some of these images had been taken on equipment from Nikon, Canon, Tamron and other rival makers. Ouch!
Huawei and Samsung were also accused of using images shot on digital cameras to promote their phones.
