Nothing Phone 3 advert uses stock professional photos - Nothing commentary

Nothing got into a scandal. Under the guise of photos taken on a smartphone, stock photos from the Stills platform were placed on advertising stands.

The five photos were titled "Here’s what our community has captured with Phone 3"., but users suspected that the vanilla photos were a hoax. The suspicions were confirmed, the photos were found on a stock image platform, and their EXIF data indicated that they were taken professionally. Some of the photos were posted in 2023, when the Phone 3 did not even exist as a prototype. One of the photographers who created one of these images, who wishes to remain anonymous, confirmed that the photo was taken with a Fujifilm XH2s camera.

What did Nothing say?

Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis apologised and explained that these were temporary placeholders (placeholder images) used at the stage of approving the banner layout, and they were supposed to be replaced with real ones before sending them to print. Due to a mistake by the marketing department, this did not happen, but it was a simple mistake that had no malicious intent. The company promises to update the demo stands, replacing all the fakes with real images taken by the Phone 3.

The excuse doesn't sound very plausible. Why pay money for professional photos if absolutely any images could be used for a temporary mock-up? The use of professional shots only increases the likelihood of a mistake if a person who is not familiar with the situation is going to be involved in the future.

Nothing has already been caught lying. Moreover, the company lied about the camera. In its comparison of video quality, the company presented videos that seemed to be shot on the main Phone 3a modules of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. But in fact, the iPhone was shooting video with an ultra-wide-angle camera, whose sensor and optics are significantly worse. Then Nothing also apologised and said that it was a mistake that was not made on purpose.