Imagine this scenario: You’re a finalist in the Butterfinger video contest. You now have a one in four chance of winning ten thousand dollars. All you have to do to get the money is to get the most votes in the competition. To vote for videos on the butterfinger site, all you have to do is open a yahoo account. Now, imagine that you are just 200 or so votes away from winning the ten grand. How tempted would you be to take a day off work and do nothing but register and vote for your own video all day long?
Voting ended yesterday in the “Nobody’s gonna lay a finger on my Butterfinger” video contest and even though the vote counts of all the finalists are right there on the website for the world to see, no winner has been announced yet. The Butterfinger site says they are “tallying” the votes and a winner will be announced on October 1st.
What the heck is there to tally? The winner of the contest was supposed to be determined by a public vote. The votes are in and one video clearly has the most votes. Here’s the final results of the butterfinger contest:
I have a feeling that by “tallying” Butterfinger really means “checking for vote fraud.” I’ve been checking in on the voting in the last few days and it seemed really suspicious. Why did 2 videos peak at 9210 and 8046 votes while two other videos both made it past 12,000 votes? Is it because they are way more hilarious than the other videos? Not really. All four videos are pretty much equal in quality though I guess my personal choice would be “Robochop.” But according to the votes, the winning video is Butterfinger Phone App by David Markus.
First place. Prize: $10,000
As I said, I kept checking on the voting during the final days. As it got down to the wire, the number of votes coming in really seemed to jump. The top 2 videos were gaining hundreds of votes a day. Was some kind of advertising done to draw more people to the butterfinger site in the last days of the contest? Or maybe the people who made those top 2 videos remembered they had hundreds of friends and family members they hadn’t asked to vote yet?
During the final two days of the contest, the vote counts of the top two videos both were going up so steadily that it did seem like maybe 2 people (or two teams of people) were racing each other to the finish line. Maybe the reason the bottom two videos didn’t make it past 10,000 votes is because the people who made them saw that something fishy was going on and decided not to even bother after a certain point. So in the end, the “winner” was whoever had the willpower to crank out the most votes for themselves. This kind of vote fraud would be easy to prove if yahoo kept tabs of the IP addresses where the votes came from. I guess we’ll find out if they did that if they final scores have been adjusted when the winner is announced on October 1st.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the results of HP’s “You on You” video contest. The winners were announced yesterday and I immediately recognized the work of the first place winner. Here’s the winning entry:
First Place. Prize: $40,000
The guy in that video is named Lucas Ridley and he is a frickin’ genius. Frequent video contesters all seem to have their own favorite gimmicks and no one proves that better than Lucas Ridley. Not only is he a filmmaker, he’s a hang glider and he’s shot numerous video contest entries that feature himself hang gliding! According to his blog it looks like he’s entered at least 20 video contests and his hang glider is the main subject of most of his videos. Here are a few examples:
Post-it notes contest entry:
Taxslayer.com contest Entry
Excedrin Speed Challenge Entry
THAT EXCEDRIN VIDEO WON LUCAS $10,000 LAST FALL! Is that crazy or what!? After a 10K win I probably would have retired that particular gimmick but maybe that wouldn’t have been the best call. This dude has found the most perfect hook imaginable. Video contest organizers love videos that feature totally over-the-top stuff and what could be more over-the-top that some crazy guy using your product while hang gliding? And that taxslayer entry aside, usually this guy doesn’t just film himself hang gliding and call it an entry. He seems to have some serious post-production skills. His work in the HP video is really, really slick.
Ok, back to the HP contest. This one was huge. In all, $300,000 in prizes were up for grabs. Judges picked the finalists but the winners were picked by voters on youtube. Ug…youtube voters. It only takes like 60 seconds to set up a youtube account! It’d be so easy to cheat in a competition like that. Fortunately, I think one of the best finalists won. Here are some of the other winners:
Second place. Prize: $20,000
Third place. Prize: $15,000
In addition to those giant awards the first, second and third place videos also got a laptop and $2,500 as finalist prizes. In all, HP gave 100 laptops to the finalists! Too bad they didn’t give out 100 hang gliders. Watching all those hang gliding videos makes it seem really fun.
Today marks the official start of the 2010 Dorito’s Crash the Superbowl commercial contest. Until today, the site was locked but it is now open for business. New this year is a really interesting feature. There is a multi-chapter commercial tutorial hosted by the winners of last year’s competition, the Herbert Brothers. The videos are pretty funny but they are also chock-full of good advice about stuff like writing, production and copyright. The brothers even explain how the USA Today AD meter works and what kind of videos do well in it. Spoiler Altert: The entire AD meter rankings are decided by 300 subjects in two locations. Crazy. I plan on shooting a Doritos entry myself and I’ve been focusing all my attention on one single idea. But watching the video about the AD meter made me realize my idea would be kinda dark and would turn off too many viewers. (It would have been hilarious though!)
The tutorial videos are actually helpful for anyone interested in shooting entries for any type of video contest. So you might want to check them out even if you’re too chicken to shoot a Crash the Superbowl ad. DEADLINE TO ENTER THE DORITOS SUPERBOWL CONTEST IS NOVEMBER 9TH!
I had planned to just do a short little post about this but the more I look into it the more suspicious this whole thing gets. Something shady seems to have happened with the “Conan, please blow up my car” video contest. Let me start from the beginning before I lay out the case….
Shortly after taking over the Tonight Show, Conan O’Brian decided that there had to be a more interesting way to dispose of a “clunker” than just trading it to the government for some cash. So he announced the “Conan, please blow up my car” video contest. If you had a really crappy car you were supposed to create an interesting, creative video explaining why your car sucked and why you deserved to have it blown up and replaced by Conan with a brand new Lexus.
Since this contest was promoted on the Tonight Show for a few weeks they got a flood of entries. In all, 951 videos were submitted. Earlier this month, this video was selected as the winner:
Grand Prize Winner. Prize: A new Lexus Hybrid
Sure that’s a really crappy car but the video is as simple as can be. The rules of the contest encouraged participants to create over the top videos though. Judging was supposed to break down the score like this: Originality (50%) and Creativity (50%).
So was that video original and creative? No…not one bit. It was just a guy talking about his suspiciously crappy car. Commenters on the Tonight Show’s website are pretty upset that this video was chosen as the winner. Some even charge that some kind of fix was in. And you know what, as much as I love Conan I have to admit that I think something shady did occur. Consider these points made by commenters on the Tonight Show web site:
1. One poster points out that the entry should have been ineligible because the video features a business’ logo (A “Pizza Pirates” logo on the hood of the car and on the guy’s shirt) and that was prohibited by the rules.
2. Another mentions that he car is also totally illegal to drive because the seat-belts don’t work and apparently the car had to be a drivable clunker.
3. Yet another poster asks a question so brilliant it would make Columbo proud: “If this guy drives with one lft arm holding the door (oh pity me, could of said you used bungies mr. wizard). Can you imagine the right arm making gear changes and turning the steering wheel at same time. People this whole thing was preplanned to appear as a clunker. Aha!!!” (While that move might be tough it would at the very least make the car illegal to drive.)
4. The most astute observation came from a poster that suggested that this particular car was chosen because it was so wrecked that its make and model are a complete mystery. In the video, the owner of the car refers to it only as a “1980.” So instead of blowing up a crappy Ford or Toyota or whatever, Conan got to keep the car companies happy by destroying a completely anonymous car.
The damage to the car also seems kinda suspicious too. As the guy says, he intentionally cut the roof off because it would get hot while he was making his Pizza deliveries. But who wants to eat a pizza that’s been wind-cooled by a ride in a homemade convertible? Near the end of the video the guy shows of a bunch of mysterious dents in his driver’s side door. He said that one day at work someone threw eggs at his car and shot paintballs at it. But look at those dents! Were those eggs shot out of a 44 Magnum? And listen, I have played paintball before and I don’t think they could do that to a car door. If paintballs really could dent metal, would it be legal to shoot them at fleshy human beings? Most suspicious of all though is the guy’s front license plate. It looks like someone took a hammer to that plate. And even if he didn’t, how can it be legal to drive around with a license plate that is so bent that it can’t be read?
But forget all that stuff. Here is the biggest red flag of all; The guy in the video says he delivers Pizzas for a place called Pizza Pirates. I googled Pizza pirates and guess what? They have several locations but the guy with the clunker works in Ontario, California…..a mere 52 minute drive from the Universal Studios lot where the car was blown up by Conan. The winner lives in Chino, CA which is basically a suburb of Los Angeles.
Wow, how convenient
I hate to do this but I officially call “shenanigans” on Conan O’brian. Can you imagine how much money NBC would have had to spend if the winner of this contest was from New York or Florida? By picking a guy who lived in the LA area they probably saved at least $10,000. Besides paying for a trip for two and a hotel room for the winner, NBC would have had to get the clunker to LA! NBC lawyers would never let someone drive the winning “clunker” to the west coast so the chosen vehicle would have had to have been shipped inside a big ass truck. That would have cost thousands of dollars if the winner was from the East coast. Oh! And then NBC would have had to get a new Lexus Hybrid to that guy! The actual car that the guy won was presented to him at the Universal Studios lot after his car was exploded. If the guy lived 2,000 miles from LA would he have had to drive the Lexus all the way home? Of course not. NBC probably got 1 free car in exchange for all the publicity and they again would have had to ship it to the guy’s house. After all, how many Lexus Hybrid dealerships do you think there are in the middle or Georgia or Montana? Not many I’m guessing so they couldn’t just make arrangements with a local dealer if the winner lived outside of the LA area. Because the winner lives in Chino he would have been able to drive that car right home after the taping.
While googling I found the Pizza Pirate’s Facebook page and they seem very proud of their employee and the death trap he drove while working for them. Several “fans” of Pizza Pirates have commented on the company’s wall that they have seen that beat up car driving around Ontario, CA many times. One girl says….
“haha dude that’s awsome. my school is like right by there and we use to walk by and see that car all the time,lol. so when we heard in was going to be blown up on tv we were like omg..haha.”
Kids say “dude,” “OMG” and “LOL” in every internet comment they make….right? That might be a little suspicious but like I said, a number of people on facebook have said that they will miss seeing that crappy car drive around town. So it probably was a real car at least.
So what’s the final verdict? After looking at all the evidence I believe that:
1. The car that won the contest was real and was a total mess.
2. The winner of the contest might have done a few things to the car to make it look even crappier.
3. The winning video should have been deemed ineligible to win because the car was not legally drivable and because it featured a company logo. (Pizza Pirates isn’t just one store, it’s a small chain with 3 locations.)
4. The judges of the contest that picked this clunker totally disregarded the judging (Originality/creativity) criteria outlined in the rules and picked this car as the winner because:
a. It was funny looking
b. No potential advertisers would be offended that one of their cars were being called a “clunker” since only an expert could decipher its make and model.
c. NBC would be able to save thousands in transport costs because the winner and his car were located just across town from the studio.
In conclusion, here’s what I think happened: The contest was announced and someone at the Tonight Show remembered seeing this beat up Pizza Pirates car driving around the LA suburbs. The car was easy to track down of course and someone contacted Pizza Pirates and the owner of the vehicle got a discreet call. Someone from the Tonight Show encouraged the owner of the car to create an entry so that they could pick a local winner with a really funny-looking car. Conclusion: Shenanigans abound!
To add insult to injury, the actual blowing up of the winning car was really lame! It didn’t EXPLODE at all. It just kid of popped and then was engulfed in flames. Here’s the video of the “Explosion:
For the record I should probably mention that I am not a disgruntled contest entrant. I did not enter a video into the Conan Contest and I have no stake in this unsavory affair.
Here’s a tip to anyone interested in winning video contests: If you come across a contest that has a “barrier to entry” you may want to consider going after that contest. What do I mean about a “barrier to entry?” I mean that there is some rule in place that makes entering the contest difficult. When the barriers to entry are too high, most people give up and look for an easier contest to enter.
I would like to have 5 of these
Gearmax, a company that makes a very cool looking brand of folding backpacks held a video contest where entrants were supposed to film a short script that the company had written or make a unique video that promoted their backpack. They offered a bunch of prizes: $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000 plus 5 runners up would get two free backpacks. Oh, and each of the top three winners would get 5 free backpacks each. That’s a lot of prizes but in the end Gearmax got only 6 entries. That means TWO runners-up prizes went unclaimed! What a waste.
So why did they get so few entries? Two reasons I think. First, the rules required that videos must be submitted to Gearmax on DVD. I couldn’t believe that when I read it. Why not just let people post them to youtube? Gearmax had to upload them to the web anyway to post on their site. So the DVD thing must have been a big turn off. But I bet what really kept the entries from coming in was the fact that the video had to feature a Gearmax backpack. That makes sense of course but I looked all over the Gearmax website and there is no way to order one of these packs online. They have a list of stores where you can go and buy them IN PERSON but they are scattered around the country.
So if you were determined enough to hunt down one of these packs you would have had a serious shot at winning one of the cash prizes. Here are the videos that did win:
First Place. Prize: $2,500
Second Place. Prize: $1,500
Third Place. Prize: $1,000
Pretty decent. The first place winner is really slick and does a nice job showing off how the backpack works. Just try not to spend too much time wondering why the backpack was on that roof or why that skateboarder just picked it up and took off. The other two videos were based on the “Area 51” script that Gearmax posted to their website.
You can see the other three entries here. If you watch them you can see that Gearmax picked the only three videos that were good enough to make it to the top three. One guy made two really nice entries but he didn’t win for two very obvious reasons; he didn’t show the backpack for more than a split second and he showed the backpack doing unrealistic things like being able to hold a computer…and his mom.
I don’t know if this story is more depressing or more infuriating. This week, some moron in Houston was charged with criminal mischief after he was seen running around his neighborhood posting copies of the “Obama as the Joker” poster. Why did he do that? To win what is undoubtedly the most douchebaggiest, video contest ever.
A right-wing radio talk show host named Alex Jones is holding a video contest via his website infowars.com. Now before I go any farther, let me say right here that if I’m anything, I’m a political moderate. I don’t like jerks, liars or vandals of any political persuasion. In my book, people should be judged by their actions more than their ideas. So if you want to believe that 9/11 was an “inside job” or that the president is somehow going to take away your food(!?) then you go ahead and believe that. But when you start propagating lies to push your agenda forward or if you encourage people to damage private and public property, well….then we’ve got a problem. And that’s the kind of garbage that’s going on over at Infowars.com. Actually, Alex Jones and his fans seem to have a bigger beef with the government in general than they do with Obama. They are equal opportunity protesters and they have plenty of anti-republican and anti-George Bush. Anti-John Mccain stuff on their site too. So I guess this isn’t really a left/right issue. It’s more of an assholes/non-assholes issue.
Anyway, back to the video contest in question. This Alex Jones guy is giving away 3 prizes; $1,000, $500 and $200 to the three best videos he receives of people hanging up the Obama as the Joker posters. This is from the instructions he posted on his site:
Alex Jones says "Hey kids, juvenile delinquency is fun and now it can win you big bucks!"
“The posters can be related to any subject you like, whether it be the swine flu vaccine, fluoride in the water, police brutality, genetically modified food, or the man-made global warming hoax. Pick any issue you like, make a poster and then film yourself posting it in public and upload the video to You Tube or similar websites.”
To be honest, this is a pretty good idea for a video contest. Participants have to include the name of the website on some or all of their posters so it’s a nice way to get a lot of cheap advertising. Plus it gets people’s attention. Hey…just look how many times I’ve had to mention Infowars.com in this post! So it is effective. But it also very irresponsible. Alex Jones is basically saying that if you commit vandalism you might win some cash. Ok, actually he says the opposite of that. Again, here’s a warning from his website:
“Note: Obama Joker posters should be posted in public commons where other fliers, public announcements, handbills, etc., are posted. Please do not post on federal or private property as this will be considered vandalism and will be counterproductive and diminish the message of the Obama Joker poster.”
Great. Alex Jones does not condone vandalism. Oh…except that he totally does. The contest has actually gotten a lot of entries and many of them show people breaking the law like crazy! Here are a few entries from the Infowars site. Keep in mind, these aren’t some videos that I pulled off of youtube. These videos were embedded on Infowars.com by someone who works on the website.
Both of these videos show people doing exactly what the Infowars website says they shouldn’t. Yet the website promotes and displays them anyway. The people in these videos are seen postering public and private property. The 16 and 17 year old kids in the second video are actually hanging up posters with propaganda-filled bumper stickers. They’re sticking them on glass doors and vending machines for God’s sake. Vandalism that leaves a sticky residue is the most annoying kind of vandalism if you ask me.
These are just two of the many, many entries that show people breaking the law in the name of winning a stupid video contest. I don’t want to post anymore but you can see the other entries right here: http://www.infowars.com/the-obama-joker-1000-video-contest/
Wait, I will post one more. This video not only shows a bunch of idiots in clown make-up defacing things like newspaper boxes and parking signs, it features an especially bat shit crazy dude harassing some goofball reporter as he’s trying to do a story about the traffic or whatever. The clown make-up guy unleashes a tirade about the media and though he seemed a little freaked at first, the reporter goes on to handle himself pretty well. Notice that video cuts out when it’s the report’s turn to start talking. I’m guessing his best, most intelligent retorts didn’t make the final cut:
This dumbass video contest has been going on since August and 2 participants have been “detained” by police in at least two separate incidents. The first (a teenager in Florida) was questioned but never charged. He will probably have to make restitution of some kind though. He admitted to hanging 500 of the posters and sometimes used GLUE to stick them up.
The guy that was stopped by cops the other day also used F%^&ing glue to stick his posters on public and private property. People defending these guys say that their first amendment rights are being abused. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Do I even have to point out that the First Amendment does not give you the right to smear glue all over lampposts and newspaper boxes and street signs?
Vandalism caused in the name a video contest
Here’s an article about the guy in Houston and it includes a news clip. In the video, you can see the aftermath of his handiwork; posters that can’t be fully removed because some jerk stuck them up with glue.
One final point, I’m not hating on this contest because I’m offended by the Obama as the Joker/Socialism poster. But I am hating on it in part because the posters are stupid. Can someone please tell me WTF The Joker has to do with SOCIALISM!?!? In the movie, The Joker robs from the rich and gives to NOBODY! If he took all that money and sent to it to AIG that would be one thing but he doesn’t. The Joker burned his money because he’s a psychopathic anarchist not a “Socialist.”
Alex Jones claims to be the “creator” of the Obama/Socialism poster. Actually he just stole the image from some artist’s flickr account and stuck the word socialism on there. So not only is Alex Jones an instigator of vandalism he’s a content and credit thief.
The video contest is still open for another 2 days. So if you’re a jerk and you want to enter I guess there’s still time.
This is really starting to get annoying. It seems like half the contest results I post include one video that should have been deemed ineligible by the contest’s judges. Today’s example is the first place winner of the 20/20 For Life video Contest. In this competition, people were supposed to create a video that promotes eye health and that illustrates themes set forth by the advertisers, blah, blah blah. First prize was good for $2,000. I can’t embed the winning video so click on this image to see it:
Not bad…well edited and written. They even got a good actor and filmed inside a real eye doctor’s exam room. So what’s wrong with it? The video is called “Boomer Magoo” and features a quick sound clip from a Mr. Magoo cartoon. That’s 100% copyright infringement right there chief. Also, I’m guessing that if the person behind this video didn’t care about infringing on the Mr. Magoo copyright then they probably didn’t bother to make sure the music in the video was royalty free. Here’s what the 20/20 “rules” say about doing stuff like that:
“Video must not contain any materials that are subject to third party ownership, including without limitation copyrighted materials such as music, videos or artwork; third party trademarks or names, likenesses, voices of third parties for whom Entrant does not have express written permission.”
Jim Bakus (AKA Mr. Magoo AKA Thurston Howel III) does not approve
As a bonus violation of the rules, I’m guessing the people who made this video didn’t dig up Jim Bakus and ask if they could use his voice.
Even though there were $3,500 in prizes up for grabs in this contest, only 15 people entered this one and most of the entries are not great. The Boomer Magoo video was the best video entered but legally it was ineligible. Why is it that filmmakers are expected to follow the contest’s rules to a T but the contest organizers can do whatever the hell they want, whenever the hell they want? The “Rules” of a contest are supposed to be a legally binding contract between the contest organizers and the participants, aren’t they? They promise in writing that if we do A, B and C they will respond by doing D, E and F. Obviously the contests have to have a lawyer write up their contest rules. So where are these lawyers when it comes time to enforce these rules? Isn’t anyone worried about getting sued? Seriously, the second place winner in the 20/20 contest has a slam dunk small claims court case here if he wants.
Doritos must be very, very VERY happy with the attention they got with their last “Crash the Superbowl” commercial contest because on Thursday the company announced that they would be raising the stakes for the 2010 competition. The 2009 installment of Crash the Superbowl was easily the biggest in the (short) history of video contests. The 2009 winners were a pair of brothers from Indiana and not only did they get to see their work air during the Superbowl, they received a one million dollar bonus when their ad was named the top commercial of the game in USA Today’s annual Superbowl Ad Meter.
It was huge news when the work of two dudes from Indiana beat out all the high priced ad agencies in the USA today poll. Doritos must have loved all that free publicity because this time they are challenging filmmakers to capture ALL THREE spots on the Ad Meter and as incentive they are offering more that 5 MILLION DOLLARS in possible prizes! Can you believe that shizz or what?!?! Here’s how it all breaks down:
-Doritos will select 6 finalists from all the ads that are submitted. Each finalist will be awarded $25,000.
-The public will vote on the finalists and 3 of the 6 will be selected to air during the 2010 Superbowl.
-If one of the videos ranks #1 on the Ad Meter it wins a $1,000,000.
-Ranking #2 on the Ad Meter wins that video $600,000.
-Ranking #3 is good for $400,000.
-And finally, if the Crash the Superbowl commercials rank numbers 1, 2 and 3 on the Ad Meter each video wins a one million dollar bonus.
So if you do the math that’s $5,150,00. That is just mind blowing. I think it’s a safe bet that this will be the most entered video contest ever. But it’s definitely not impossible to win. Check out the very great winning video that aired during the last Superbowl:
That commercial cracked me up when I first saw it. But not only is it funny, it was “TV ready.” What do I mean by that? I mean it didn’t look and sound like garbage! Apparently it was shot for $2,000. That’s astronomical for a video contest entry but any video that will be good enough for air will have to have some production value behind it. Here, check out the other 4 finalists from the last installment of Crash the Superbowl:
All of those have a professional feel to them. That means that if you shoot a video with your cell phone or if you don’t pay attention to lights and sound then you won’t make the final round no matter how funny your entry is. So while three thousand people might enter the contest only a small percentage will be serious contenders. That means that if you’re willing to invest some time and money you might just have a shot.
Of course, the winning video of the 2007 Doritos’ Superbowl contest literally had a budget of only 12 bucks so what do I know?
The contest officially starts accepting entries on September 21st so there’s plenty of time for you to write, shoot and edit your masterpiece. Here’s where the magic will happen: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/
