Historian Manu S Pillai Featured As ‘Engineer’ In Ad, He Responds

Historian Manu S Pillai.

There have been several instances where companies and brands have used pictures of people without seeking permission for their own benefit. Manu S Pillai, a popular writer and historian, had a similar experience when his photo was used in an advertisement for Unacademy.

Mr Pillai took to Twitter to share his ordeal. The advertisement was for Unacademy Group’s upcoming product NextLevel, which is being marketed as a LinkedIn alternative. Gaurav Munjal, the founder of Unacademy Group tweeted the same. It appears that Mr Munjal was unaware of the error. He wrote, “Credentialing is broken. We still rely on random Degrees and Certifications to measure how good someone is for a particular Skill. And LinkedIn feels like a Product from early 2000. It’s time to change all of this. NextLevel is launching next week.”

The historian shared the same on Twitter and wrote, “Apparently I am “Sagar Chauhan”, senior frontend engineer. Not the first time this is happening. Somewhat miffed that I have such a generic face, it gets lifted for all kinds of random advertisements.” 

Apparently I am “Sagar Chauhan”, senior frontend engineer.

Not the first time this is happening. Somewhat miffed that I have such a generic face, it gets lifted for all kinds of random advertisements 😅 https://t.co/mTH2uD4V9b

— Manu S Pillai (@UnamPillai) December 14, 2022

He went on to share another example from a student testimonial on Dhurina that incorrectly identified Mr Pillai as a student – Mohit Gaur.

“You were also Aman Shah on Trainman just a few months ago..now they’ve changed the face though,” an internet user said responding to Mr Pillai’s tweet. The author further shared another instance while responding to the user. “Ah yes i had an exchange with them and they took it down. Damn annoying. There is also a website somewhere that shows me as a young office goer who got a good salary package etc using some service. Or something along those lines,” he said. 

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In another tweet, he said, “But these chota-mota ones were amusing. Something like Unacademy doing this is…surprising. And not in a reassuring or pleasant way.” In a separate comment, he stated that some agency must have included his image in their stock photos of “Average Indian Man” or something similar.

A few hours ago, Mr Munjal tweeted that they had fixed the image on their advertisement. “Sorry about the miss yesterday. We have fixed Sagar Chauhan’s NextLevel Profile,” he said in a tweet. 

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