I spotted a shared post from my contest buddy Serena on my Facebook timeline. She used the ‘headline’ STOLEN PHOTO WINS MOXIE CONTEST. Of course, I had to investigate.
After a bit of research, I decided the story would make a fantastic blog post. I wrote it all up, embedded the posts from Facebook, and published them.
The embedded posts didn’t work. UGH! Facebook!
I decided to go back, screenshot the posts and link to them. By the time I got back to Facebook, Moxie’s had deleted their post announcing the winner. It’s a good thing I was still on their cached Facebook page and was able to grab a screenshot!
The Contest Timeline
On June 11th, Moxie’s announced their BBQ contest:
It didn’t take long for the Internet to figure out it was a photograph ‘borrowed’ from Flickr, the owner of the image, Joe Carrow, was found, and he began commenting on the post.
It was outright wrong of Dan to steal the image from the Internet. It was worse than Moxie’s didn’t do their due diligence before announcing him as the winner. As there has been such an outcry from their followers, I am sure they are selecting a new winner and, this time, confirming authenticity before giving out the prize.
MARKETERS TAKE NOTE
What companies must do to confirm each submission is to: Google all recipe names and images to see if they are authentic.
TIP: Being in the photograph helps confirm authenticity as you are you. (I know images can be Photoshopped, but it is less likely.)
Moxie’s has contacted Joe. He posted:
I have received a phone call from Moxie’s, and they have disqualified him and apologized for the situation. It’s unfortunate that somebody was dishonest when they entered the contest, but I think that Moxie’s did act quickly and fairly.
It will be interesting to see what they choose to do next. (As a Sweepstakes Marketing Specialist, I would have loved to have sat in on the meeting to discuss how they were going to get out of this social media faux pas.)
What would you do if you entered this contest and lost?
After seeing the photo and thinking it looked too professional, I used TINEYE to search it and found out it was Joe Carrows. Immediately sent him a message with screenshots of the Moxie page, which started this whole ball rolling. If you want to use any of my original screenshots of conversations and wall postings, let me know and I will gladly share them. Your a facebook friend 🙂
I wouldn’t enter, Napoleon Grills are not the best out there. Scale of 1 – 10 Ill give it a 2.
I use Tineye all the time also, very useful tool (though there are ways to trick it).
As for Moxie’s not doing their “due diligence”, while in retrospect it’s pretty easy to agree with that, I think at worse they underestimated how much people cheat in online contests, doing everything from using other people’s photos to buying votes or setting up multiple accounts to get better odds. Don’t even start me on bloody voting contests. I’m sorry, but I disagree with you Carolyn about what they should have done, for a stupid subjective giveaway – they should have to do research? I think having a disclaimer saying that the photo has to be yours, is more than enough.
As for Susan Nelson’s comment “I wouldn’t enter, Napoleon Grills are not the best out there. Scale of 1 – 10 Ill give it a 2.” – that’s a complete and utter bullshit thing to say. Being critical of the prize they’re giving away? What’s fair about that?As someone who’s sponsored several giveaways/contests over the years, I’d honestly say that people being ungrateful & feeling entitled about what they should get – is one of the things that make marketers re-consider whether they should even do contests at all. And let’s be honest, if you were on a “contest run” & you saw it and was simple & quick to enter – chances are you would have entered, we all know that.
If you read the conversation thread on Facebook, the image used does have Joe’s watermark. The Serena spotted it right away. If she could see it quickly, why didn’t the marketers? I don’t have access to the rules, but most would say the image does have to be yours and that alone is enough to not award the prize once the cheating came to light.
I agree with you. No one should slag the sponsor. That said, I like to keep my site open for different perspectives. Unless the comments are racist, degrading, hateful, etc. I leave them up.
As always Carolyn, my whole point comes down to this: I am right, you are wrong 🙂
As for Serena (or whomever) feeling the need to check out whether the people running the contests is doing their “due diligence”, my response is: *sigh*rolls eyes*