Re: To play devil's advocate...
they could have made a big noise about having a project to create these pictures for wikipedia, without having to include their branding in the pictures themselves.
Indeed they could have. But they didn't.
North Face are arseholes for this campaign. Let's hope it destroys their brand name so they, and others learn. They make good products, at vast prices -- they can now look to spending some of that money on either re-branding or an expensive campaign to rebuild trust in their brand with the Internet generation.