If his LinkedIn job title is correct, General Motors pays him $219,000+

Car news pundit All Car News noticed something familiar about a render sketch of a GMC Sierra Denali EV posted by the official General Motors Design Instagram on their feed earlier this week (Oct. 22, 2022) it looked a lot like an “old” press photo by Rivian.

Confirmed by the original photographers themselves, it looks like a General Motors Designer might’ve got a bit lazy and photoshopped a Sierra Denali EV render onto a Rivian Press photo without so much as giving the original photographers credit.

The Instagram gallery post is still up, albeit it’s edited, the offending image removed.

But since this is the internet where nothing ever gets deleted, it’s been posted on Twitter by @AllCarNews with all the receipts.

The image was so familiar that, inevitably, the OG photographers were tagged and even had a mini-reunion of sorts in the Instagram comments.

Photogs Ryan Betke and Ben Moon chat it up in the commens.

“First photo is a direct copy of the Rivian R1T shot released years ago,” Ryan Betke aka @betke_ commented. “Same exact photo, just flipped.”

The unedited Instagram post, before they got caught out, is credited, as the image above shows, to a Thomas Bergeron, name now removed.

@AllCarNews was able to easily locate Bergeron’s profile on LinkedIn. Bergeron lists his job title as Director of Design at General Motors, a job he’s held for seven years.

Before that, Bergeron was a designer for PSA Peugeot Citroën for six years and before that, an exterior designer for Toyota for five years.

And, if Glass Door is to be believed, GM is paying Bergeron somewhere in the range of $219,000+/yr.

$218,000 to photoshop old photos?

General Motors Design’s Instagram post appears to be a handful of sketches to whet the appetite of the motoring press and public ahead of the release of their all-electric Sierra EV Denali, low on the scale of PR events leading up to its full introduction.

Regardless, if you’re a designer with a long and tenured history in the industry and are getting paid north of six figures by General Motors, this slap-chop type of work is unacceptable.

I’ll be curious to see if he updates his LinkedIn profile in light of recent events.

H/T – @AllCarNews

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