We all did it once in our work life: Purchase a stock image. It is so convenient and so cheap, how could we resist it? Nobody actually cares about the fact there is no exclusivity. The probability that your direct competitor use the very same image in his communication is very small, but yet.
Here is a perfect example how stock images could tarnish an organisation reputation. The press shared yesterday how Lucien Terragnol, a nationalist party candidate running for an Eastern French city civic election, has used a stock image on his propaganda flyer. As you can see Terragnol is posing with what seems his direct collaborators, but in fact at least one of them is not and it can be proved.
This revelation has not only discredited the candidate: He is now seen as someone using "fake" people to make his party more attractive. But by ricochet this news has also affected all other organisations or companies using the very same image.