Man proves hipsters look alike by mistaking hipster photo as himself
- 5 years ago
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS — An angry bro threatened to sue a magazine after claiming his photo was used in an article, only to later learn that it wasn't actually him.
According to CBC, MIT Technology Review published an article in February on the "hipster effect", a phenomenon in which anticonformists all end up looking the same.
With the article came a Getty stock photo of a stereotypical bearded hipster decked out in flannel and a beanie, which pissed off a reader claiming the photo was of him.
On Twitter, editor-in-chief Gideon Lichfield wrote that the man accused them of slandering him by implying he was a hipster, and threatened to sue.
He even had some unkind words about the study, which was simply a mathematical model explaining how folks who turn away from mainstream fashion will see their individual style choices sync up eventually.
All in all, nothing scandalous, unflattering, or even remotely controversial.
The publication contacted Getty Images to check that everything was A-ok, which in turn prompted Getty's legal team to dig into the matter.
Turns out the model in the photo didn't have the same name as the angry emailer. And when Lichfield's team wrote back to the dude saying as much, he conceded, but didn't offer up an apology.
So ironically, by misidentifying himself as the hipster in the photo, the man ended up proving the study's premise true. Guess that's 1 point for science and a glaring 0 for the beard.
According to CBC, MIT Technology Review published an article in February on the "hipster effect", a phenomenon in which anticonformists all end up looking the same.
With the article came a Getty stock photo of a stereotypical bearded hipster decked out in flannel and a beanie, which pissed off a reader claiming the photo was of him.
On Twitter, editor-in-chief Gideon Lichfield wrote that the man accused them of slandering him by implying he was a hipster, and threatened to sue.
He even had some unkind words about the study, which was simply a mathematical model explaining how folks who turn away from mainstream fashion will see their individual style choices sync up eventually.
All in all, nothing scandalous, unflattering, or even remotely controversial.
The publication contacted Getty Images to check that everything was A-ok, which in turn prompted Getty's legal team to dig into the matter.
Turns out the model in the photo didn't have the same name as the angry emailer. And when Lichfield's team wrote back to the dude saying as much, he conceded, but didn't offer up an apology.
So ironically, by misidentifying himself as the hipster in the photo, the man ended up proving the study's premise true. Guess that's 1 point for science and a glaring 0 for the beard.