Red herring from TribalPundit.com
You’ve had it happen frequently–a friend asks you to vote for his dog, song, design, story, or dance so he can win a prize. You go to vote, because your friend is, well, your friend. When you arrive at the voting place, your friend’s entry is clearly not the best. Do you still support your friend?
Well, that’s what friends are for, right? I’m having some trouble with this. If the competition is for talent or skill, is it fair to turn it into a popularity contest? Wouldn’t it be easier to call it that, and eliminate the red herring of a talent contest?
A few months ago, the Desert Botanical Garden sponsored a free wedding, much like the Today show does. And, just as happens on the Today show, the bride and groom enlisted their friends who have time and can vote multiple times. The public vote was supposed to choose the “deserving” couple, but we know from the beginning that the couple with the most friend and family members are going to enlist the gang to vote for them. Even a simple switch to make it possible to vote only once would help even the odds.
To me is seems like a wink and a nod at cheating, at encouraging people to enlist their friends to help them win something that may not be theirs–and while I don’t mind the weddings, it does bother me when talent is involved. What do you think? Is enlisting your friends to swing the vote the American way, or is it unethical?
–Quinn McDonald is a writer, artist and creativity coach who spends a lot of time wondering about ethical dilemmas when two right choices are involved–it’s fine to support your friends, but it’s also fine to want your vote to go to the top talent.
There used to be rubber stamp talent shows on the internet with small prizes from the sponsors of the shows to whoever won the most votes but it was always only one vote per email address allowed. I would tell my friends about the show but would just tell them to go vote for their favorite (never labeled by artist name). Sometimes I would win and sometimes I wouldn’t. No biggie and lots of fun to use the products if I did.
That sounds like a much better solution, and exactly what I would know you would do!
Another motivation: the more people vote, the more site traffic, thus the higher the ad revenue. If you vote by texting, that’s more texting traffic for the phone system provider, and a small but maybe measurable incentive (I want a Verizon phone so I can vote for my favorite Idol; that sort of thing. It’s not about winning the voting — it’s about the voting.
It’s like Google: their software is free because it’s not a product. YOU are the product. Which may be a pretty reasonable deal, frankly, as long as you realize what’s going on.
That last sentence is the killer part–I don’t think most people understand that.
This is how Bristol Palin will win Dancing with the Stars.
I don’t watch, but it seems like a good bet!
I would not ask my friends to vote for my work in a show…that’s putting too much onus on them.
I think so, too. It’s not something you’d ask a friend to do–or at least I wouldn’t. It seems more like an obligation than a contest. But maybe what’s at stake isn’t art or talent, it’s the size of your friend pool.
If its a talent contest it should be just that — and if its a popularity contest
it should be labeled as that, also. One vote per person per contest — I
think most contests now are really popularity contests and a “who owes who”
type vote — very political. Discouraging to the person who is wanting to
believe its a talent contest.
Here in Europe, the “call in” and vote shows are making money for each call casting a vote. I suspect some of the internet contests are also a bit self serving, and maybe they allow multiple voting because it increases the traffic at their sites and ups their marketing appeal to advertisers. What makes me so sad is that there are artists or performers who have their heart set on what they’re doing and they’re at the mercy of a completely unfair selection process. Great post! Thank you.
Of course, it’s all about the business money. Yep, you are right.