Ireland’s senior government party Fine Gael has been forced to apologize to tennis legend Bjorn Borg for improper use of his image on social media.
The Swedish superstar made a formal complaint to the party after his image was used in a referendum campaign poster on Facebook.
The Irish Times reports that Borg served notice of his displeasure after a shot of him was used in the party’s Seanad (senate) abolition campaign.
The image was removed from the party’s Fine Gael Facebook page after complaints were made by Borg’s management team.
Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s officials had to admit they had used Borg’s image, shot after a Wimbledon win, without his consent.
The Facebook post was part of a three-image campaign highlighting countries that had abolished their upper houses.
The image used for Sweden was an iconic one of Borg celebrating a victory over his great rival John McEnroe in the Wimbledon men’s singles final in 1980 according to the Irish Times.
The caption read “He seems happy. The Swedes got rid of their Senate in 1970.”
A party spokeswoman confirmed to the paper that permission had not been sought for the use of any of the three images and that Borg’s was deleted from the Facebook page immediately upon receipt of the complaint.
She said the campaign had been ‘intended to run for one day only’.
Images of a Great Dane dog and Maori dancers were also selected by Fine Gael for the campaign to highlight the fact that Denmark and New Zealand had also abolished their upper chambers.
Comments