by: Stefan Kolle (via Business & Games)
After some mixed reactions to the announcement of the Coke Virtual Thirst contest (see also my previous article), Coke has responded by tweaking the contest a bit, and adding a 'cash' prize of 500.000 Linden Dollars. More importantly however, they have released a video on Youtube, responding to the critics.
Where they went wrong in their response to the Coke/Mentos hype, by going corporate on our asses, this time they show their human face.
It's a shame the legal complaints can't be addressed, but it does help having them explained in plain words.
It's nice to see big corporations moving up on the learning curve this quickly
Original Post: http://businessandgames.com/blog/2007/05/coke_virtual_thirst_update.html
HI Steffan / All,
If you have a really great idea for this competition that you think they might want to steal... why not officially register and copyright it. I'm guessing that national copyright rules will take precedence over competition entry rules if it ever gets to court ;)
The copyright issue is one that advertising agencies are forced to fight on a regular basis in pitches. We're asked to provide groundbreaking / innovative / breakthrough thinking and then refused participation if we don't sign away our intellectual rights - this would be crazy in the real world!!
As for this guys comments (I guess he works in marketing and employs agencies) can you imagine Coke running a pitch that included the term "If you've got a really great idea maybe keep it to yourself - as otherwise we will steal it and pay you nothing". Brilliant - I'd love to see the presentations!