Politickles

A woman posted this ad on Craigslist St. Louis yesterday:

contest for designing logo for husbands co. (st louis)
Date: 2011-02-14, 12:12PM CST
Reply to: gigs-bbq2u-2214107877@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

My husaband is starting his own structural design firm the name is CSS
I am wanting creative people to design a logo for him as well as letterhead and blah blah blah
the winner gets

* Location: st louis
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: 100.00

PostingID: 2214107877

An indignant designer responded with this ad:

RE: contest for designing logo for husbands co. (st louis) (yourecrazytown)
Date: 2011-02-14, 2:21PM CST
Reply to: gigs-xrarz-2214399028@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

I’m having a contest too!
I need structural design firms to design a building for me. The winner gets $100.
I have no website or official rules. But trust me, I promise I’ll pay the winner.

Now let’s see some amazing designs!

* Location: yourecrazytown
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: no pay

PostingID: 2214399028

Boy can I identify with these recent posts from the “creative gigs” section of CraigsList St. Louis:

• My husband and I work freelance and have for years. We have a mortgage, health insurance, and food bills too (hell- I’m pregnant!), and it does get tiring to read the ‘barely there’ offers of many placing postings for Creative Services on Craigslist. (PostingID: 1195907390)
• I get asked to write articles for blogs, for a measly $5 a post, and they want me to produce 800-1000 word articles. Sorry, if I can’t write it in five minutes, it isn’t worth doing. That kind of article is worth hourly pay of at least $25, if not more. If you don’t have the skills to do it and want to hire someone, then expect to pay. (PostingID: 1193090406)
• I think it’s so funny the number of ads I see where the job is “a great addition to your reel/portfolio.” The job is little or no pay and they want to see your reel in order to get the job! At what point is someone’s reel/portfolio good enough to get a job and actually get paid for it? (PostingID: 1191325347)
• The same thing applies for illustrators and print/web designers. It’s always “We’re looking for someone with 5 years experience, intimate knowledge of photoshop, illustrator, indesign, dreamweaver, corel, powerpoint, excel, flash etc. MUST KNOW actionscript, css/html/xml/perl/c++,” etc., etc. With pay listed as $8 as hour. (PostingID: 1192432710)