Pretty vacant: Paris Hilton threatens to sue billboard firm for using her face to advertise space for hire

Posted by lena on Nov 10, 2009 in News | 0 comments

Paris Hilton has threatened legal action against a billboard company who suggested she was ‘vacant’.
A New Zealand company plastered her face across a roadside sign advertising free billboard space.
The word ‘vacant’ was printed in huge letters across the photo of her partying.
The reality star is reportedly fuming and plans to sue Media5 for using her image to advertise billboard space in Wellington.
Her manager, Jamie Freed, claims the company does not have permission to use the picture and insisted to local media that the star plans to settle the matter in court.
Spokesperson for Media5, Adam McGregor described the advert as ‘a bit of fun’.
‘Paris has a proven ability to laugh at herself,’ he said. ‘We assume that the agency has taken care of the rights to the image of Paris, but we will ask the question. We’re not trying to offend anyone.’
He told a New Zealand newspaper the company was not using Hilton to endorse their billboards.
‘We wanted to draw some attention to some of our unsold display as we expanded, so we briefed a friend who runs his own boutique agency to work up a range of creative concepts. We liked the ones he came up with using high-profile public figures the best because they were fun.
‘We were thinking about using [politician] Winston Peters, but Paris is much prettier and she has a proven ability to laugh at herself.’
He said that if Hilton’s lawyers asked for her image to be removed from the billboard, the company would probably oblige.
Earlier this year, Woody Allen received ?3million in damages for the unauthorized use of his image in a billboard advertising campaign for clothing giant American Apparel.
source: dailymail.co.uk