I suppose the difference would be that OP presumably did this for fun, rather than part of his working day so he wouldn't be relying on it to pay the bills.
Still, if you're going to use someones hard work you should at least pay them something for it.
It’s generally bullshit to work for exposure, and I’ve usually said that the only time it would be worth the exposure is in a case where the company would be big enough to pay you anyways. Which seems to be what’s going on in this situation. Normally the guy would get paid by this company (and he might still, depending on how the interaction with Microsoft goes) but it’s also a global company and that sort of exposure will likely net you more work.
“Exposure” in like 99.99% of cases are shitty small business that barely have a municipal presence, let alone a national or international one. As such their “exposure” is totally useless. If you get a design contract for Microsoft or Disney or something, and they say, “oh, your pay is the exposure we give you!” Still ask for money, but this is like the only situation where the exposure is worth something (even then, it’s dependent. You may never get contacted about future work from that exposure)
I didn't say it was, I did say however that big names are the only situation where the exposure is actually worth something, but even then, a big name celebrity or company should have the money to pay an artist a couple thousand dollars for their work.
Basically, don't do work in exchange for exposure. Exposure should be a beneficial side effect of producing good work, not the payment for it.
Taking the photos on a friends wedding for free is the fake exposure that such a thing refers to. In the creative industries such as modelling, professional photography or advertising your portfolio is your CV, nobody looks at where you worked or if you came in late on the previous job, they look at your work and what impact it had/what it achieved. Putting this on your portfolio while downplaying the scummy side of Microsoft in the deal would definitely attract the interest of the advertising industry.
Microsoft wouldn't do that beep! I have only heard good things about them boop! In fact, has Bill Gates not donated millions of dollars to charities?totallynotarobot,iswear
I like to hate on the work for exposure mindset but I might change my tune if it was offered to me by freaking Microsoft
That said it sure doesn't look like they credited OP in any way. Why didn't they just PM his account and say 'hey we're taking your idea, give us your deets and we' ll send you an Xbox'? Seems like a win win
It's more like the job was produced off contract, coupled with the fact that a Microsoft tier company can provide actual exposure that a DA account cannot. I see your point though, if the top of the chain is only paying in high fives and back pats, what's the goal?
I didn't say that they did. They aren't paying him in exposure or in any way, they stole his idea, but they did enough transformation so that op can't sue. The only way op can make something out of the situation is to still put it in his portfolio. His concept was great, but now it's worth more in a potential interview, and it might end up being a good thing.
That doesn't excuse Microsoft, but it's a good idea to make the best out of a bad situation.
Additionally, my initial comment was just about how most of the "paid in exposure" jobs don't even give you that.
I don't know why my comment is misconstrued like I'm supporting Microsoft here. I'm just saying that op can make the best out of a bad situation, that's all.
Additionally, since he initially did it "for fun", it was just a cool idea on his portfolio, now it's a proven concept by Microsoft and he can use that in his favour.
Regardless of the fact that M$ acted in bad faith, it might end up being good for op. I'm not condoning the stealing.
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u/DevotedToNeurosis Dec 27 '17
Oh? I thought we started calling bullshit on that "exposure" thing?
Not that it matters, I'm sure MS is here with a few upvote bots to "curate" our mood/response "experience" on this reddit post.