7 Times Google Image Search Caused A PR Nightmare

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.

Finding the perfect image to go with your next Twitter post isn’t always easy. After all, the internet provides us with thousands of options to choose from, each one seemingly better than the one before it. It’s almost as if they’re too good to be true—and some of them are, because a lot of them aren’t actually real, or just not what you think they are.

image
iStock

As it turns out, there are a lot of people out there who wish they would’ve taken a closer look at their photos before they used them.

News outlets apparently don’t know what Donald Trump looks like.

We kind of don’t blame them, though—after all, Alec Baldwin did a great job impersonating him on Saturday Night Live, so who wouldn’t confuse the two? That’s exactly what happened in 2017 when a newspaper in the Dominican Republic, El National, published a photo of Baldwin playing Trump on SNL to go along with a serious news article.

image
El National

You might think they deserve a pass because they’re not an American news organization, but American publications have gotten politicians and SNL actors mixed up too!

image
TIME

In fact, it’s happened a lot throughout the years, like when Fox News published what they thought was a picture of Sarah Palin when it was actually Tina Fey impersonating her on SNL.

Speaking of Trump…

Regardless of what you think of our current president, you do have to admit that he’s said and done some questionable things throughout his candidacy and term. One of his most ironic moments came shortly after his inauguration when he was given the reigns to the @POTUS Twitter account, which his team immediately scrubbed to remove all traces of former President Barack Obama.

image
POTUS/Twitter

They even changed the header for the account’s page, and that’s actually where the magic happened—they changed it to a stock photo of a crowd from Obama’s 2009 inauguration.

image
Chuck Kennedy-Pool/Getty Images (via Boston.com)

The image was taken down around an hour later and replaced with a generic American flag background and later with a photo of Trump whilst fully staring out the Oval Office window thinking about…taco bowls? Who knows.

Thor, god of… brotherly love?

When Thor: The Dark World was preparing for release in 2013, one theater in Shanghai was doing its best to prepare for the film’s arrival. Through an online search, employees found the poster they wanted to use for the box office and proudly displayed it for all to see. Oh, and did they see.

image
A.V. Club

Anyone who knows anything about Thor knows that the man he’s passionately embracing in that photo is his brother Loki—oh, and that Thor and Loki don’t like each other and would probably never hug like this. The image that the theater used was actually made by a fan of the movies using Photoshop, replacing Natalie Portman’s character, Jane Foster, with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.

image
Traders Community

Its creator, a user on Weibo (think China’s version of Twitter) named bbqfish2012 posted the image on the platform where the theater likely found it. The theater later apologized for their mistake and took the poster down but, clearly, the internet never forgets.

What’s this “traditional marriage” you speak of?

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know the stance that Fox News takes on equal marriage rights but, if you’re somehow not aware, we can tell you they don’t really like it. However, it’s clear they don’t even always know it when they see it, as evidenced by the picture they used in one of their articles.

image
iStock

Writer Suzanne Venker, who is a known anti-feminist, wrote an article for the Fox News site in 2013 entitled “To be happy, we must admit women and men aren’t ‘equal.’” The photo they picked to go with that article?

image
imagelib.com

A lesbian couple on their wedding day. The “groom” in the photo was a woman who didn’t abide by traditional feminine standards of appearance, which is likely why the news outlet mistook them for a heterosexual couple. However, the writer probably wouldn’t have wanted any strong female figures to come anywhere near her article anyway, with lines like, “[Women have] been taught instead to honor sex, singlehood and female empowerment.”

image
iStock

Realizing their error, they promptly took the photo down and issued an apology to…people who hate beautiful weddings?

Have you ever been told that you died?

Most people will agree that the 2017 Academy Awards show was a bit of a mess. The awkwardness definitely peaked at the end of the show when La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner of the Best Picture award, when the true winner was Moonlight. However, another strange occurrence that many people might not have noticed came during the “In Memoriam” segment.

image
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Plenty of people feel some strong emotions during this part of the show as they gaze into the smiling faces of their beloved colleagues who have passed away, but no one probably felt as strange as Jan Chapman did when she saw her own face on one of those slides.

image
ABC

Though Chapman’s name wasn’t on the slide, her picture appeared alongside the name Janet Patterson, a costume designer that Chapman actually knew. In fact, prior to the awards show, Chapman actually called the agency that represented Patterson while she was alive to make sure they had a good photo of her to use for the slideshow and was told the Academy had it all covered. Sort of, since they at least got the name right.

Does Disneyland have a mayor?

We’d think it’d be Mickey Mouse, but apparently, a woman named Kimberly Williamson Butler once wanted the spot. In 2006, Butler announced her candidacy for mayor of New Orleans. She released a smiling photo of herself on the streets of her city, although there was just one problem with it—despite the fact that she lived in New Orleans, that’s not where the picture was taken. It wasn’t even taken at all. Members of Butler’s team superimposed her smiling image onto a photo of Disneyland’s New Orleans Square.

image
www.disneypix.com

Butler and her team later received threats from lawyers at Disney because one of the theme park’s trash cans was visible in the picture. You’d think that would prompt Butler to go out onto the streets of her city and take a real photo there, but that’s not what happened—the trash can was simply Photoshopped out. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise to you, but she didn’t win the election.

Meet the rebels…of the record industry.

In 2015, the Spanish news program La Mañana released a story about the transformation of the Syrian city Raqqa as power there was transferred from Al-Qaeda to ISIS. Perhaps they got the actual story straight, but that symbol he’s pointing to? It’s the symbol for the Rebel Alliance in the Star Wars films.

image
rtve.es

The full Arabic-esque logo was taken from a record label in Puerto Rico named AlQaeda’Inc, whose only plot to take over the world seems to be getting the sweet sounds of music into ears across the world.

image
iStock

We’re not quite sure why it didn’t cross the minds of anyone at the news station to double check the source of that photo, but we can only hope they learned their lesson from the mishap. Who knows—maybe the Star Wars franchise even gained a couple of new fans that day.

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

Caring For Houseplants: Tips, Tricks And Products You Need

Follow these helpful tips to provide the best care for your houseplants.

How To Spot Multi-Level Marketing Scams, And How To Avoid Them

If you're on social media you've probably seen people making posts trying to sell products or asking you to join their "new business" ventures. Chances are you might be witnessing a multi-level marketing scam in action. Here's how to spot these scams and also how to avoid them.

Salvation Mountain And The Last Free City

Salvation Mountain is a man-made mountain built to spread the idea of love for one another, and visiting it is a real interesting experience.

Want to stay up to date with the latest news?

We would love to hear from you! Please fill in your details and we will stay in touch. It's that simple!