Superbowl Suckers - One Year Later
So, last year, at about this time, we wrote about the laughable Five Point Productions, who sought fame and fortune (Free photos (and $13 Superbowl ads)) "winning" a Dorito's contest.
Their last blog entry was from a year ago, where they were ever so excited about all their media appearances, which translates into more advertising exposure for Dorito's. I'd say that's because they're so busy they don't have time to blog, but judging from their portfolio, I highly doubt that's the case.
(Continued after the Jump)
On their blog, they note: "This whole experience feels like we've just won the American Idol of the business world... and in a big way."No, atleast the American Idol winners get some money and a record deal, you get nothing of the sort.
What have they done since then? Well, an ad for the "Wedding Chapel of Love", a local A/V company, another religious chapel, and, a "proof of concept" (read - not really a paid ad) for a local auto dealership.
Wow - these guys have really swung into the big time since a year ago! What happened to all their big dreams? Crashed in the crush of a $13 superbowl sucka-punch from corporate America.
Welcome to the real world, and thanks for further devaluing creativity.
Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.
4 comments:
John,
I value your knowledge on the business side of photography. However, I find your constant snide remarks and entries off-putting. Your blog has regressed from a reputable online source of business advice to an asshole-ish collection of holier-than-thou musings on the failures of others.
I have your book - I'll stick to that for my business advice. If I want to read a childish blog that revels in the missteps and shortcomings of others, I'll go to TMZ.com. I find it somewhat ironic that a blog on the profession and 'being professional' has turned into this.
Hey Arch
Keep your asshole-ish thoughts to yourself, if your musings warranted reading; we would be going to your blog and reading them there, but alas we're not.
As far as John’s blast of 5 Point Productions; I say I for one am truly glad he calls it the way he sees it.
I see where he is going with this….. and I’ll admit that I’m quite interested in what happened to these wonderfully creative folks from NC., who made this noise about the 13 dollar cost of the material it took to make the entry.
It was 5 Points who bragged that they made their entry to that "contest" for in their own words "less than 13 dollars" and it is 5 Points who in their sorry attempt to “pump up their own PR" made themselves look like idiots. Why fault John for bringing up history to see if the business model that was used to win the contest, was working for them now that they’ve been in business for a year? With all that exposure and the 10K first prize they surely should be doing extremely well in the marketplace, shouldn’t they?
We’ve found that doing things on the cheap and then bragging about it has never worked well in a professional business environment. Once clients find out what your true costs were for the job, they wind up asking for the same old deal. Can you “do it for cost this time; we promise that we’ll call you for another job in the future and you can charge us full price then”.
Well it looks like Five Point has found that out too.
One of the great difficulties with bluntness, forwardness, and plain-speaking is that, when the topic is about unhappiness or stupidity or foolishness, it confuses readers: we readers quickly confuse a writer's tone ("these circumstances are despicable!") with the writer's personality.
Imho, it's a case of shooting the bearer of bad news.
Thank you John for defending our craft. Those who wish to do it for fun are welcome to enter contests and give their rights away. In all fairness it is our right as working for a living artists to defend our craft and give it value. if that means shoving it back in the face of Corporations who devalue us with contests of this sortn or any other means of selling us short, than by all means it is up to us to bring it up and educate those who are new or coming into the business on why and how this business model does not work and only devalues our craft.
Post a Comment