Ben and Allison’s Honeymoon Photos Used in Flickr Commercial

Last March, Ben and Allison had a lovely wedding, and spent their honeymoon in Iceland.

Both Allison and Ben are avid photographers, and take some fantastic pictures. It’s easily proven too, since Flickr decided to use some A LOT of their honeymoon photos in a recent ad campaign for Photo Session.

It’s kind of mind-blowing, when you take a step back. Here, see for yourself:

A few things to clear up: No, that’s not Ben’s voice. They got some actor to do the voice-over. All the photos included don’t belong to Ben and Allison, but most of them do. And yes, they did receive compensation for this and Flickr was good about contacting them, and got permission.

How cool is this? When I first saw the commercial a day or so before it became public, it totally blew my mind. I remembered seeing all the photographs, but seeing them in such different context was very surprising and fun. I’m not sure just how Flickr came across these photos (possibly due to the video they made, possibly due to the Creative Commons license Ben used, possibly due to all the photos being awesome). But it’s great that they were found, and became such a central part of the campaign.

It’s neat that Flickr has taken a snippet from Ben and Allison’s life, and held it up as a source of travel inspiration for others.

I’m reminded of that moment where someone told me that Liz and I looked happy – it came from someone I didn’t know, but served like some kind of impartial, outside proof or validation.

Here’s an interesting fact that Allison pointed out: she and Ben are now part of the “We’ve been in a commercial” club. I’ve done a commercial (for a toy called Linkits), and Justin did a spot for Trail’s End Popcorn.

Chris and Leslie? This is me, checking my watch and looking in your general direction…

Related:
Ben and Allison Get Married
Magic Icelandic: Ben And Allison’s Honeymoon Video
My Linkits Commercial (1987)
Trail’s End Popcorn Sales Training Video, Featuring Justin Stephenson
Finding Out Liz And I Look Happy

This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. There’s a good chance we’re going to have to birth a child star for us to get into the commercial club. Already working on my camera coaching techniques.

    Chris Reply


  2. Yay! What fun. I was daydreaming all day yesterday about our next trip to Iceland with kids in tow!

    @Chris I can TOTALLY see you and Leslie bringing a child star into the world… perhaps similar to this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woi_2Ay0Y-U

    Allison Reply


  3. What fun. Thanks for the mentions!

    Ben Reply


  4. YEAH! Another proud member of the commercial club!

    …I wish I could find mine online.

    Mellzah Reply


    • What was your commercial again? With so many people digitizing things nowadays, I gotta believe it’s *somewhere* on the web…

      avoision Reply


  5. Odd question…. since a Creative Commons license was used for the pictures, did fickr talk to them in advance, or did they learn about the commercial when it was on TV?

    Scott Reply


    • Flickr did talk to them in advance. Though Ben did use a CC license on several of his photos, there was definitely a discussion regarding permission, prior to Flickr incorporating them into an ad campaign.

      Not sure what type of CC license, and whether it was Attribution Non-Commercial. But everything was done on the up and up, from the sounds of things.

      avoision Reply


    • Hi Scott. Just to piggyback on Felix’s comment, they were very good about contacting for permission (doing so about a month in advance), at which time Ben negotiated compensation. Everything was very much on the up and up.

      Allison Reply


  6. Lastly note: none of the photos that contained pictures of allison were set to CC.

    Ben Reply


  7. Thanks for following up. Glad everything worked out for you guys. Awesome pictures

    Scott Reply


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