Volunteers have since removed the images or cropped out North Face logos. The company itself has since apologized, acknowledging that its behavior was “inconsistent” with Wikipedia’s goals. It has ended the marketing campaign and vowed that teams and vendors would be “better trained” on Wikipedia’s policies.

The incident underscores both the advantages and pitfalls of Wikipedia’s crowdsourced approach to knowledge. While it makes information accessible and contributions relatively easy, that same openness also makes it possible for self-serving contributors to twist the site to suit their own ends (however temporarily). Moderators and the site itself may have to be more prepared for surreptitious plugs like this, even if they’re unlikely to happen again in the near future.