Feeling cheated

Working with brands often feels like going to the casino. The house always wins. Agencies use bloggers and twitter vocalists to punt their wears and in return we’re occasionally offered a small piece of the pie.

I recently fell prey to one of these PR schemes in which I gave off my time, took pictures, wrote the blog posts, as well as included the brand on my radio show. The brand got exposed to the maximum number of people I could gather. And while the exchange was not monetary the proposed “prize” was enough to have me interested. Well, that was until I arrived at the final event and realized that I had been used, as were all the other bloggers. This gamefied experience was nothing more than a PR stunt and I was the arsehole. Fun.

I was promised some type of recognition for the genre of content that I produce and instead some random person swooped in and took the limelight. It’s not their fault, I blame the agencies. When I explained this to a once-Loerie winner he said that it was clever of said agency. But is it really? Is it clever to be a deceptive, cheating slime ball? REALLY??

Digital freelancers need a standard. We need the terms of engagement to be out in the open. I for one am tired of wasting time and resources on executions that do nothing for me. I am tired of being taken advantage of.