A one-time stock photography model keeps seeing her face staring back at her over the years, hawking tea, online dating sites and mobile phones. She’s got a great sense of humor about it.

This story reminded me of something. Driving through the empty expanse of California’s central valley once, we passed a giant billboard for an Asian massage parlor, with a young Japanese girl’s face smiling down on Highway 99, seemingly eager to massage every greasy trucker passing through. It was a stock photo that could have been used for any product or service— ice cream, accounting software, laundry detergent— but someone paid the licensing fee to plaster her exuberant face on a sleazy massage billboard in the middle of nowhere.

We wondered, what if that girl happened to drive past the billboard bearing her likeness one day? Would she regret her decision to sell her face for a few bucks? Would her family be ashamed of her? Or maybe she actually did work at the parlor and really enjoyed her job.