Rolling Stone: Obama Solicits Designers to Work - Unpaid - on ... Jobs Poster!

RollingStone ^ | 10-19-11 | Tim Dickinson

[tcrlaf]

The Obama campaign has more than $60 million cash on hand. In an economy this bad, you'd think a presidential campaign that flush would be happy to pay good money for a talented designer to create a campaign poster.

But the folks at Obama campaign have taken a page from the Arianna Huffington book of economic exploitation and called on "artists across the country" to create a poster ... for free.

And here's the kicker. It's a jobs poster. "All submissions will become the property of Obama for America," according to the fine print.

Yes, the Obama campaign is soliciting unpaid labor to create a poster "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."

If you win? You get: A framed copy of your own poster, signed by the president ("approximate retail value $195").

And if you don't win? Well, that's too bad. You've not only lost the contest, you've also surrendered your intellectual property.

[rolling_stone]

I think he is limited to $100 a month for cigarettes while in prison...

[Tublecane]

“But the folks at Obama campaign have taken a page from the Arianna Huffington book of economic exploitation and called on ‘artists across the country’ to create a poster ... for free.”

I will look for almost any excuse to bash Obama, but this isn’t “exploitation,” is it? There’s nothing wrong with asking people to volunteer. Happens all the time in political campaigns, whether or not the candidate has a war chest. I’m sure these people knew what they were getting into, just like the bitter Huffpo hacks.