Matt Bors brought Obama’s latest outrage to my attention.
Obama’s “Art Works for America” contest asks graphic designers to come up with a poster advocating the passage of his American Jobs Bill (never mind that it would not create any jobs). But I wouldn’t call it “Art Works.” “Work” implies pay. Here’s how much Obama is offering artists, who have been savaged by the Depression even worse than other workers:
Nothing.
Obama for America is seeking poster submissions from artists across the country illustrating why we support President Obama’s plan to create jobs now, and why we’ll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years.
Your poster can address the broader themes of the President’s plan or pinpoint a specific aspect, from supporting small businesses to rebuilding roads and bridges for the 21st century. For more on the desired specs, read the creative brief.
We’ll pick the 12 best submissions received by November 4th, 2011, then put the finalists to a vote. Three winners will receive a framed print of their poster signed by President Obama and a limited edition of their poster will be sold in the
campaign store.
The winner doesn’t even get to retain his or her own copyright.
This is the sort of vile “contest” you expect from a witch like Arianna Huffington, who doesn’t have a “model” that pays her bloggers and artists. I admit: I knew Obama was evil, but wow.
If you are an artist or know one, please pass this on. This is exactly the kind of disgusting “contest” that is killing the ability of talented artists to earn a living in the United States.
Obama plans to raise $1 billion for his 2012 campaign. Surely he can spare the standard rate for something like this: at least $50,000 (yes, really). Or something. Anything.
In the 1930s the federal government hired cartoonists and other artists. Now they’re wading into the private marketplace to destroy that.
It makes me wonder what kind of jobs Obama, who endorses slave labor for artists, wants for other Americans. What’s the point of a job that doesn’t pay? Exposure doesn’t pay rent.
He has a $1 billion budget.
Please pass it on.
16 Comments.
Ted,
You’ve hit on a big point. It isn’t just artists. My beloved journalism died because the cost of employing trained professionals became too large. Now it’s a free-for-all race to produce just-good-enough material for the lowest price the market will pay. A recent New York Times article pointed out that low-end legal work is now being outsourced to China and India (lotsa luck paying off those law school loans).
But you know what, Ted? When you try to tell the youngsters about this, they get snotty.
“Hey, kid, you can’t pay Visa with your portfolio. You’ve got to get paid.”
“Excuse me. Did I ask for your opinion? How dare you tell me how to run my career. I’m 26, and I know everything.” In a lot of ways, Ted, it’s like a panic during a fire in a crowded theater. You know what to do — Don’t work for free — but that won’t help when fiscal pinheads are offering material for free.
Just one more shameful aspect of this presidency, although small compared to the big picture. You should list the artists and photographers who covered the Great Depression, becoming famous because of their great work. And they were paid. Perhaps President Franklin Roosevelt had the foresight to publish their work, and show how Americans back then suffered. But Obama is no Roosevelt, is he? Not even close. I know countless people who won’t vote for him a second time, much less campaign for him…
Lord knows, I’m no defender of Obama…like many others I feel he did a “bait and switch” on us all….but…maybe the idea here is not necessarily to screw the artist but perhaps they’re looking at it like providing an opportunity. I mean, it’d be something of a big deal to say you won this thing and there’s probably be some income from the ltd ed which would go up for sale. Perhaps for artists who are trying to get a leg up somehow, this just provides another opportunity to get their work out.
Let’s see what Harlan Ellison (the soul of tact and diplomacy) has to say about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE
I can’t add to it. He says it pretty much exactly.
Yes Ted, but think of all the EXPOSURE you’ll get. That should be payment enough, right? Maybe you’ll even get a photo-op with Obama. Talk about compensation!
Don’t make me cry. Not for free.
Not to defend the Emperor but he’s not pointing a gun to anyone’s head and making the doodle. If anyone is foolish enough to submit their work for an *autograph* of the Wise One, then she deserves it!
That’s like selling copies of Mein Kampf outside a Jewish temple–no one is forcing them to buy one. The point is, it’s offensive. Artists are being destroyed by the economy, which sucks mostly because Obama refuses to try to do anything about it.
Bucephalus,
As Ted said in the column, “This is exactly the kind of disgusting ‘contest’ that is killing the ability of talented artists to earn a living in the United States.” Harlan Ellison also covered the point in the youtube video I linked to. At least a century ago, Frederick Douglass mentioned it in his autobiography.
The person looking to be paid for his labor cannot compete against someone doing the same labor for free. When someone is “foolish enough to submit their work” under the circumstances described, that person’s foolishness is also condemning all the non-foolish as well.
The fool might deserve to starve, but does the person who understands that his work has value deserve to be dragged down too?
“Give your stuff away for free! You’ll eventually get paid! Obscurity is worse than poverty!”
Bullshit.
Mostly, now, yes.
It used to be OK. When I started out, I did free cartoons for tiny pubs who couldn’t afford to pay. I valued the exposure because it led to paying work.
The difference now is that outlets that can afford to pay (AOL Huffington Post, Obama) choose not to pay.
What’s the point of exposure if it only leads to more exposure?
You think this is bad, try an audio engineering trade school. It’s the new frontier — you pay a couple grand for the privilege of interning in a dying industry.
Ooh, ooh. I know that one, Ted.
Eventually, you can die from exposure.
A friend of mine had one of those inspirational posters, wayyyyy back in the late 1990s. One particularly noxious line from it was “Do what you love and the money will follow.”
I wish I could find the person who made that poster and beat him to death with a stack of free newspapers.
The point is, it’s offensive
Maybe so, but then again, so what? No one has or should have a right not to be offended. Obama and the whole Federal junk do far more offensive, nay criminal, things on a more regular basis.
I wasn’t calling for a Constitutional Amendment banning this kind of thing. I am pointing out that it’s disgusting and that Obama should stop it.
Ted,
I don’t think it’s so much “disgusting” as it is “tacky.”It elicits some disgust, but mainly it triggers that feeling I used to get when I’d wait tables, and a customer who was clearly well-to-do would leave a minuscule tip when the service was fine. “Jeez, mister. Is this how you were raised? To be a cheap prick? Wow! What an admirable trait.”
I’m not saying throw the money around like the world’s coming to an end in two days, but at least try to demonstrate that the premise of being paid for one’s work still matters. If you can’t afford the tip, don’t eat in the restaurant. If you can’t pay an artist, then have someone who is already being paid by the government for an art-related activity put the damned thing together. But don’t act like you’re doing anyone any good.
Christ, I can’t wait for this guy to be gone.