Primero Fitness, a company selling exercise equipment in Singapore, made used of a local fitness trainer's image without his knowledge or permission to endorse its products.

Fitness trainer Carl Chia was alerted to the endorsement he didn't give by a friend who came across it.

Changed his identity

In the ad, Carl is identified as "Justin Chua, gym enthusiast".

The testimonial he didn't give reads:

"Definitely the most affordable rubberized weight sets online!"

Which seems like an oddly specific thing to say, even if one was indeed a fan of Primero Fitness.

Fitness trainer responds

Carl learned of the testimonial and posted a response to his Facebook:

"Hey Primero Fitness,

I didn't know that I'm also known as Justin Chua.

I also didn't know that I'm good-looking enough for you to use my photo for your business without my permission. Neither did I give you a testimonial.

Looking forward to your response.

Cheers,

Carl Chia cum Justin Chua"

Changed ad instead

However, it appears that Primero Fitness did not reach out to Carl or apologise for the testimonial.

Instead, they took it down and replaced with another ad instead -- featuring another face.

There's no word if this new guy knows his photo is now being used to shill for a line of weights.

[related_story]

Backlash

The backlash has already begun, with some Facebook users leaving one-star reviews on Primero's page.

When contacted, Primero Fitness's founder Jordan Toh had this to say:

"It appears that Carl Chia's photo was used in a picture of our testimonial, but not in an advertisement. The testimonial was given by one of our customers, who did not wish to provide a profile photo.

Unfortunately, we learnt that our external web design team went elsewhere to pull a photo off the internet, which is how his photo got on our website. We apologize for the mistake and have taken the photo down immediately after being notified. We'll be taking steps to ensure that such a mistake doesn't happen again."

Remember that while online testimonials may be fake, the work you need to put in to get a body like Carl's remains unfortunately real.

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Top image courtesy of a reader.