Great…Another contest.

On an industry forum, a new spec contest has come to light. Absolut Vodka is holding a creative contest. The winner gets a whopping $500.

Whooptie-do.

$500 from a company that makes millions. Less than the janitor probably makes per week mopping the floors at their corporate headquarters.

Somebody excitedly posted the link (I've changed the name to indicate my true feelings)...
Absolut Bullshit Contest

Those that follow me know how I stand on this subject. But somebody in the industry wrote a response to me on the forum voicing my disapproval…

“This one wouldn't be bad practice for someone with little to no experience in the real world + you get to work on an Absolut Brief so it's not all bad.”

Here’s my response…

It's all bad. How does anyone get into the real world when the real world is the fact that Absolut (and all the others that do these demeaning contests) are taking work away from their agencies? No work = no agency. By contributing to these contests, what you are in fact telling these corporations is that we work for free. Our education means nothing, our money invested means nothing, our time means nothing.

Go call 20 dentists, have them all pitch to whiten your teeth, and tell them that the winner may get a long term client. "May" being the correct word. Or 10 mechanics can try and fix your car, and whoever succeeds, "may" get paid.

In every industry, they will tell you straight out to fuck off (I believe using profanity is appropriate in this situation).

In ours, the majority of us don't do a damn thing. Except for a select few (and don't think we don't rat these companies out to design organizations who in turn, write and bombard them with tastefully crafted nastiness), we continuously (as an industry) take it right up the ass.

And what's absolutely amazing is that many of us take it with a smile on our face.

Sad.

I'm going to write Absolut and tell them to send over a dozen crates of different flavoured Vodkas.

If my friends and I have a great time (over the course of around a month), I will be sure to "mention their name" as a winner in my books on Facebook and Twitter. I'll even pay them a little something for their trouble.

Absolut: Please make sure you ring the doorbell when you deliver.

I'm waiting.

For more info on this subject, please visit
www.no-spec.com