Summary: Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara is suing Venus Concept, a beauty company, for using her name and likeness in their advertising campaign without her permission.
Sofia Vergara won’t shill for just anybody. The stunning Modern Family actress is suing beauty brand, Venus Concept, for $15 million, Us Weekly reports. She states that the brand has been using her name and likeness to promote their product without her permission.
Vergara’s public relationship with the company began in August 2014. She posted a selfie on the social media platform, WhoSay, of her getting the Venus treatment called Legacy. In the caption, she wrote, “What is so funny Marilyn?? Legacy massage at @drlancerrx.”
While Vergara appeared to just be documenting her life experience, Venus used her treatment as an endorsement. In her lawsuit, she alleges they used her name and likeness thereafter in an international campaign, and she states she did not give them permission. In fact, she thought their product sucked.
“For someone to just slap her face and image on something that she doesn’t even like, she just feels like she’s cheating her fans,” a source told Us Weekly.
While the fair use of social media images is debatable (she technically did promote the product herself with the selfie), the lawsuit claims Venus used blown-up photos of Vergara’s face and name to promote their products online and at trade shows. On Yelp, for instance, professional Venus ads using Vergara’s name and likeness appears to have been posted, but they have since been removed.
Vergara claimed she was not paid for the use of her name and likeness, which seems to command top dollar. After all, she has officially endorsed big brands such as Head and Shoulders and Covergirl.
Source: Us Weekly
Photo courtesy: Covergirl
Photo courtesy: WhoSay
Photo courtesy : Yelp