In today NY Times "weekend arts" section, at the bottom of the page ran the Met Museum Ad campaign "It's Time We Met". Clever and I like it. It shows a couple kissing in the 19th Century Galleries. The most interesting thing about this picture is the photo credit and it reads: "6:35 pm 19th Century Galleries. Photo by Laura P Russell via Flickr". Yes Flicker. So look up Laura profile.
In short, she a mom and happily married. Loves to take pictures and is not a professional but would love to get paid by it. Read if you will.
What strike me is that this a national if not a worldwide AD campaign for the Met. They pulled an amateur photograph to do the job. I think the photo works well for the campaign. It shows everyday people doing everyday things at the Met. Very human and believable. When I did some research, the Met has their own Flicker page which is great. They are doing a contest and rules are there.
So, the prize if you win is $250 cash plus a one year Met Net membership at a $60 value. I did e mail Laura to ask if she was paid and Laura did e mail me and said "Thanks for the shout out. Yes, we got paid, got credit, and retain rights". If you look up on Corbis Stock site, an images with 1/8 in size worldwide rights, in a Newspaper for three months is $1925 priced out. You can argue this is not a professional who took the picture. I would say, this an image being "used" professionally for an advertisement. So what is the difference? If an images is going to be used professionally does it matter who took the picture? Should they not all get paid about the same?
So, could this be the new wave of Marketing? Put up a contest and and the winner get a much "under value" price to use the image for however long? Or do people want to have less of "polished" look. Chase Javis right hand man Scott talks about "imperfect" image on Chase Blog the other day.
I know contest have been around forever. I just wonder though is this ploy to take advantage of the amateur photographer or just a new look, trend or economic hard times? Should the professional be worried? I say no for now. Not until creative start pulling from the social web sites for other campaigns.
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1 comment:
Actually, just to be clear, the flickr account is mine (Cindy's), who is one of the subjects of the picture. Laura is my stepdaughter who was with us that day and took the picture at our request. I actually wanted to take it of her and her boyfriend, but she was too shy for that, so my husband and I posed instead.
Despite the fact we were probably underpaid by professional standards, we are perfectly pleased with what we received and are honored to help the museum in this way. The Met found the image on flickr.com independently (we did not send it to them) and we were thrilled to get the call.
Cindy
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