To be annoyed when asked if my picture can be taken to promote someone else's business on Instagram?

[petpeevesgalore]

I've had this happen more and more often. You attend an activity, course or event. You are having a reasonably good time and enjoying the experience. Then all of a sudden or towards the end, the organiser or business owner asks attendees if they wouldn't mind having their picture taken to post on Instagram.

This puts me right off. I feel like an animal in a zoo, dehumanised and feel not much more than marketing material to line somebody else's pockets.

I'm prepared to be told I'm totally overthinking this and IABU. But that's how I feel.

What are your views on this?

The gym I attend posts short videos of some of our classes - they don't ask! I cringe a bit when I see myself, grimacing madly & sweating but don't mind too much.

@EarringsandLipstick this could be against GDPR legislation if you (or anyone else) is recognisable from the images.
there may be a clause hidden away in lengthy T&C for your membership, but I have a feeling they aren't supposed to do this - requests to use your image have to be more up front. not buried away.

threaten to report them to the information commissioner if they keep doing it.

sorry, I didn't meant to include the quore and paste the comment.

I was at a gym exercise class sweating away and the instructor insisted on taking a video of us all to put on the internet to advertise her personal business (as opposed to the gym, by the way). I said I wasn’t happy with that and didn’t consent, and she stopped the class to argue with me for 5 minutes, then sulkily said she’d edit me out and took the video anyway. I don’t believe she edited me out and felt extremely upset and stressed for the rest of the class.

OMG, this happened to me as well! It was a few years ago, I wonder if it was the same instructor. At the time (when Instagram was not even that common) I thought it was another whole new level of cheek. She was quite loud and bossy. I didn't bother arguing and just left the class.

I’d MUCH rather hear from genuine customers than mates who are ‘filling up the space ‘

You have no way of knowing whether customers are genuine or enjoying the service. They may have been pressured and ambushed in the way I describe, and be too embarrased to say 'no'.

This sort of thing happens increasingly often I’ve found it is quite common to get a negative reaction from the person who was asking you as a formality. If they even ask

I know. They manage to ask in a way that is so casual and imply somehow that you will invariably agree. When you don't, they struggle to hide their disgust. It's incredibly uncomfortable.

How do you cope with genuine problems? Just wondering as having a meltdown about something so benign is ott, I can’t imagine how you would handle a real issue

I agree that it's not a major issue in the grand scheme of things. But as it happens again and again it has really started to upset me.

The thing is, I get the feeling that we are being increasingly objectified in various ways. We are made to feel we are a product, only valued as a part of a huge marketing machine. We are being pushed to download apps, our personal data is being harvested and sold on, etc.

Perhaps when somebody does it to your face, it seems all the more shocking, offensive and out of order.

I went to a beautician and at the end of every facial/treatment she would ask if she could put a photo on her Instagram. I would say no every time, but she kept asking. I found another beautician. I saw photos of other women on her Instagram who may not have felt confident to say no. None of them looked happy to be in the photos.

A make-up artist I know often posts 'before and after' photos of her clients on Instagram. Some of the 'before' pictures are awful. Almost as if they had been taken so that these women looked like 'wrecks' on purpose. I wonder if the customers regretted agreeing to this once they saw the pictures she decided to post.

The make-up artist in question is very self-absorbed, pushy and generally 'grabby' (which makes it worse).

This sounds like something one of the conspiracy

Nothing to do with conspiracies* *🙄

your hyperbole is ridiculous. If you think this is ‘dehumanising’ and ‘objectifying’…open a newspaper

I used to work for a local charity that ran events both in schools and for the general public, all of our events were sponsored, we had no core funding. We would like to have happy smiley photos to help persuade the funders to support future events. We had very detailed photo /name permission forms with tick boxes for different levels of permission from giving complete permission to share photo/ name, being happy to be photographed from behind in a group with no name attached right down to an absolute no to permission to share anything.
We were meticulous in applying this especially when photographing children, no permission- no photo- no problem as far as we were concerned. We also only had 1 controlled person taking photos.
i don’t believe we traumatised anyone by asking.

I don’t believe we traumatised anyone by asking

The charity environment is somewhat different IMO (although many charities get a lot of funding from the government and big donors, so less sympathy there). It's reassuring that you were so thorough.

However, in my examples and PP's, it was businesses who were inconveniencing paying customers with their requests

Perfectly reasonable to say no if you don't want your photo used.

Really bizarre to feel that a simple and understandable request 'spoils the whole thing' for you.