Stock Photos Put a Damper on Lithuania's Tourism Campaign

Recently, Lithuania's Tourism Department launched the "Real is Beautiful" campaign in order to showcase the beauty of the country to prospective tourists.  Unfortunately, some of the photos of scenery used in the campaign were stock images taken in other countries like Norway, Finland, and Slovakia.

This controversy has caused the head of the Tourism Department, Jurgita Kazlauskiene, to resign from her position.  After the nearly $150,000 bid for the project of two agencies was accepted, a competing company soon noticed that more than half of the 700 photos needed for the campaign were not unique photos.  These photos turned out to have been bought inexpensively from sources such as Shutterstock.

The Tourism Department defended their actions, noting that they didn't object to the use of generalized photos and that they had allowed the contractors the use of stock photos to complete the campaign.  One contractor additionally stated that the location of the photos plays no role and identification is nearly impossible.  This fiasco shows the importance of honesty in social media marketing.  While using stock photos is much easier and cheaper than unique photos, it is more important to uphold the values of the campaign (ironically, "real is beautiful") and avoid a PR nightmare that the agencies, Tourism Department, and Lithuania are currently experiencing.