Nikon has struck a deal with Flickr to place Nikon branding on the site, including small logos next to photos that were taken with their cameras.

In addition, there will be branding on the login pages as well as special Nikon-only photo galleries. As Mediapost notes, this is the first major brand advertising campaign to run on Flickr, which to date has only had text links.

It will be interesting to see how the Flickr community reacts to these ads – particularly the ones that appear next to their photos. Many shutterbugs are loyal to one particular camera brand. So I can see Nikon lovers really taking to the campaign and those who take to other brands not liking the promotion. I sure hope that Flickr makes this optional for Pro users because a backlash could erupt. People should have the option to opt in or out of companies putting certain banners around their photos. (Disclaimer: Edelman works with Canon, a Nikon competitor.)

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Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.