Who is exploiting who?
A friend of mine who runs a popular social paintball site (*cough*www.socialpaintball.com*cough*) asked me what I thought of his new feature Paintmates. In fact Iz asked many females in paintball what they thought. As I sat back and watched their video confessions of what they thought of the series both good an bad one word came up often in a couple of the responses – EXPLOTATION. Hmm…thats a good one. But did they really know what it means? Highly doubt it. They used the word loosely and in a negitive manner to which the subject it was pointed at. (just a reminder this is a FEMALE point of view of the controversial situation). Im not against the videos yet not totally for them either. Read on for futher explantion. BTW…if you are easily offended then close this browser window NOW! I think what I want and I say what I think…sometimes I’m wrong but this is my blog and I write what I think.
According to Wikipedia:
“unjust benifit”
- Taking something off a person or a group that rightfully belongs to them
- Short-changing people in trade
- Directly or indirectly forcing somebody to work
- Using somebody against his will, or without his consent or knowledge
- Imposing an arbitrary differential treatment of people to the advantage of some and the disadvantage of others (as in ascriptive discrimination)
- Using somebody to buy/provide things for you and never paying them back.
According to Dictionary.com
- use or utilization, especially for profit
- selfish utilization
Lets take a closer look at the defination of exploitation and how it applies to this situation.
- Was paintmates taking something off these girls that rightly belong to paintmates? In the dictionary under redundant see redundant. These girls love their bodies and are willing to show them off. Nothing wrong with that is there?
- Was the paintmates short-changing the girls that were in the videos? It seemed and according to Iz these girls did this willingly with out force. The site got attention and the girls got attention and materials to use for their own websites and portfolios AND were paid. Sounds like a WIN-WIN-WIN so far.
- Were these paintmates directly or indirectly forced to work against their will or morals? Nope not in the least. As stated above all the participants were ready willing and able.
- Was any of the paintmates used against their will or without consent? Nope there again all willing participants and infact all participants signed an agreement.
- Were any of the paintmates discriminated against or received differential treatment than others? Not really the case here as females in paintball or portraying paintball is quite limited so in fact its just the opposite. These girls were treated with the utmost respect while filiming the video spots.
- Were these paintmates using someone to get them to buy things they wanted, loan them money or something else that they never intended to payback? Again not the case here as these girls are models in some form, were paid for the shoots and not using anyone really.
- Were the paintmates used for profit? No since the site does not generate revenue through the sales of these videos. The videos are in fact free to the public to view via YouTube
- Were the paintmates an object of selfish utiliztion? Nope not really the site shares the videos for free via YouTube, I think Iz was quite unselfish myself with these videos. Sharing them with all the people in paintball regardless of sex or sexual orentation.
Now that I’ve clarified that a bit I need to continue my rant about this. Sex sells. End of story. In marketing and advertising the utilization of attractive objects, whether it be a nice shiny sports car, or a lovely half dressed girl on that shiny sports car, attraction is the name of the game. Making a person desire or want a product. In the paintmate videos thus far the site has utilized the attraction of women to the predominatly male dominated sport of paintball. The site has made very good use of its cooperative partners products in the videos as 95-99% of the entire video the paintmate is holding, wearing or using a partnered product. From an advertising-marketing standpoint I’d say the goal was achieved. I agree with some of the responses in general such as maybe the girls should have atleast TRIED the sport first before modeling for it. A suggestion is maybe have some clips in the video that includes them actually playing.
However there are people in the sport whom I would say exploit the sport to their benifit. Keep in mind this hypothetical person in my example is a mixture of several people I know in paintball and does not point directly or call out one specific person. For the sake of the example we will call this person Andi. Andi is a somewhat young cute girl who has been in paintball for a few years. She has a hugely sucessful following on all the social sites. She “reps” a couple of different clothing sites. Andi is nice to those who have something or think they can help her futher her celeb status. She tweets what seems like philisophical tirades but are more or less words of a spoiled brat who did not get their way. Those who disagree with Andi become the enemy and usually blocked from her social sites. Is Andi the one exploiting the sport? What does she do for these companies? Does she give anything back? We see Andi’s like this at every event. They bat their lashes, wear tight clothing, get free stuff, hang around the pros – but for what reason? Do the people on the receiving end of the batting eyelashes get something in return – such as photos or product review on a popular website or in a magazine? Yes I know MANY Andi’s. I have know whole teams of Andi’s. People who thought that everything should be handed to them because they are Andi. Nothing to offer to the sport/company/team in return. They manulipate people to get what they want when they want with no intention or missguided intentions of returning the favor. I see Andi’s at every event I go to. Usually walking around in free jereys, holding stacks of free merchandise pretending to represent this company or that company but in reality its just a ploy for attention. I’ve seen Andi’s on the net. Leaving messages on pages like “Hey XX , where’s my stuff? Did you send it yet? I gotta have it by such and such day!” To me its a bit tacky. If one has a geniune business relationship/sponsorship with a company send a email not blab it across the whole social community. My advice to the Andi’s out there – either help out the sport or get out of the sport. Give more than what you take, and when you get something atleast have the courtesy to say thank you and lend a hand. Whether it be a few minutes in a vendors booth or maybe handing out flyers/stickers/promotions at an event. Every little bit counts.
So who’s exploiting who?
