I’m sure everyone remembers that controversial pro-life abortion ad that was plastered on a building in Soho…the ad to some was an attack on the African American community and to others they felt it was the truth about African Americans. Either way the ad caused an uproar and now little Anissa Fraser’s mom is not happy with her daughter being used for the ad that stated:Â “The most dangerous place for African Americans is in the womb.”
Anissa was four her mom took her and three sisters to a one-hour modeling shoot in 2009 at a Manhattan studio, expecting that the images would be used for the personal portfolio of lensman C. Camarena.
She ended up on the massive poltically-charged billboard at Sixth Ave. and Watts St., blindsiding the family and their friends.
“This isn’t at all what the family signed up for,” lawyer Andrew Celli said Tuesday. “This was a modeling shoot that they were told was a family album-style presentation.”
The Manhattan billboard got yanked by Lamar Advertising Co. in February, after getting blasted by city politicians, Planned Parenthood and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, said Life Always also used Anissa’s image on a billboard in Jacksonville, Fla.
“The mom did sign a release,” Celli said. “But the release was very clear that the image was not to be used in a way that would defame her daughter or hold her up to ridicule in public.”
Representatives for Life Always did not return emails seeking comment on the defamation suit, which accuses the group of promoting a “offensive, racist message.”
The fallout from the billboard blowup has cost Anissa interest from “photographers, advertising agencies and other entities that hire modeling talent,” the suit says.
“Her reputation has been seriously damaged,” Celli said.
The suit says a Life Always representative said the billboard was designed to “provoke a visceral reaction” and that Arissa was a “prop” whose picture was chosen “because of her innocence.”
