Feel the grassrootsfulness!

Update: Brad Johnson at ThinkProgress has MUCH more.

Earlier today we reported that Adfero, a DC based PR firm, was hosting FACES’ website. The site which allowed you to see who Adfero is hosting was then blocked throughout the day, but has now returned. Fortunately, our friends at DeSmogBlog were smart enough to grab this screenshot below. As of this second, you can also see for yourself here.

Adfero’s mission, according to its website.

Our mission is to provide the most sophisticated public relations services to advance our clients’ public policy or business agendas.

Doesn’t sound that that grassrootsy to me. Again, props to Jim Hoggan, Kevin Grandia, and DeSmogBlog for bringing this information to light. I’m sure they’ll continue to pull this thread and uncover more information about who is behind this organization.

Additionally, and significantly, FACES may not only lack support outside the stock-photo world, but they may also be in violation of istockphoto’s terms of use.

According to parker parrot at DailyKos:

We all love iStock BUT…there are rules about use. This is prohibited:

Use that depicts personal endorsement by model

See here.

They are operating on a fine line here. I think I’ll let the owners of the images know and they can decide if the images are being used correctly.

Recently, the GLBT organization Good As You caught an opposing organization using images in such a manner. That organization was forced to change the photos on their website. Check out their story.

Also, FACES is on Twitter (@FacesofCoal), and a compilation of all these iStockPhotos is their twitter background image. Just sayin…