Firefox Flicks Video Contest Winners Announced
SAN FRANCISCO - April 27, 2006 - Mozilla today announced the winners of its Firefox Flicks video contest at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The winning videos were selected from nearly 300 submissions created by Firefox enthusiasts from around the world, who responded to the opportunity to help promote Firefox through short film.
The grand prize winner, “Daredevil,” will be short-listed for the NY Festival of Advertising’s 2006 International Advertising Awards in May, and the finalists’ Firefox videos will be incorporated into Mozilla’s 2006 marketing activities. The contest and today’s announcement of the winners wrap up the initial launch of the Firefox Flicks campaign, which will continue throughout 2006.
The winning submissions are:
Grand Prize
“Daredevil” by Pete Macomber
http://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/?id=19326
Second Place
“Wheee!” by Jeff Gill
http://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/?id=19542
Third Place
“Fox Fever” by Andrew N. Green
http://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/?id=21146
Honorable Mention
“This is Hot” by Danny Robashkin
http://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/?id=20674
Honorable Mention
“Give Me the Soap” by Chris Wedding
http://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/?id=19836
“Daredevil” was directed by Pete Macomber, who creates music videos, commercials and screenplays from his Venice, Ca. home when he is not out chasing waves. With “Daredevil,” Macomber captures, in documentary-style, the youthful energy and approach to life of a girl whose “other browser is a surfboard.”
“The coolest thing about the Firefox Flicks contest is that everyone wins,” Macomber said. “Aspiring directors showcased their skills before a wide audience, inspired by a revolutionary organization, and now Mozilla has more than 250 sweet spots for Firefox.”
Accomplished entertainment and advertising judges — including the talents behind Charlie’s Angels, American Pie, and Six Feet Under — had the difficult job of selecting the winners. Mozilla announced the winners following a screening of selected Firefox Flicks and a panel discussion on the emergence of community-powered video on the Web, which included speakers from Butler, Shine & Stern, Creative Commons, Current TV, and Revver.
“The response to Firefox Flicks has been fantastic with entries from as far away as Australia, but the unifying theme has been passion,” said Asa Dotzler, Mozilla community coordinator. “This contest provided a unique way for our community to become a part of the Mozilla project. We thank everyone who participated for helping us launch the ongoing Firefox Flicks campaign with such a big bang.”
“The energy and enthusiasm of our community continues to inspire us as we roll out grassroots marketing campaigns to bring Firefox, and the better Web experience it delivers, to people everywhere,” said Mozilla’s Vice President, Marketing, Christopher Beard.
In November 2004, Spread Firefox volunteers designed and underwrote a two-page ad in the New York Times to announce the release of Firefox 1.0. The New York Times campaign kicked off Mozilla’s unique approach to grassroots marketing. Today, tens of millions of people worldwide are enjoying the better Web experience offered by Firefox. This year, the community has raised the bar with Firefox Flicks, the first large-scale community-produced video campaign for a software product.
To view the Firefox Flicks videos, visit: http://www.firefoxflicks.com
Firefox is available as a free download at: http://www.getfirefox.com or through the Mozilla Store at http://www.mozillastore.com.
About Mozilla Corporation
Mozilla Corp. is charged with the development and deployment of Mozilla technologies and products around the globe. The corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, and continues to further the mission of the Mozilla project to preserve choice and innovation on the Internet. For more information about Mozilla, please visit: www.mozilla.com.
Contacts
Mary Colvig, 415-336-5938
mcolvig@arpartners.com
Judi Palmer, 650-762-2812
jpalmer@arpartners.com
April 27th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
I don’t care that I lost - the winners are great and totally deserve it. But, if this is how Firefox treats the community… I don’t want to be part of the firefox community. It’s a porn browser.
April 27th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
man, no offence but I can’t believe daredevil won. I’m REALLY disappointed in you guys. It’s an old tired idea done poorly and it doesn’t even bring across any of the Key Ideas that were suggested (can be found on the “about” page on firefoxflicks). And then there’s Fox fever, which was pretty cute, but there were other cute ads that didn’t slag on other browsers.
I’m really really REALLY upset that none of the videos that actually highlighted Firefox’s goals of bringing CHOICE back to the market didn’t make it on the mention list, but *two* that slag other browsers did. Especially when something as quality as The Briefcase Syndicate http://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/?id=22191 available, or if we want to go along the lines of Fox Fever, Polka Madness http://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/?id=21904
I wish this hadn’t been announced until after all the clips were put up cuz this has really killed my buzz on all this.
Seriously though? Daredevil?
/me sighs and walks away
April 27th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
*wonders wtf “A member of the community” is talking about*
April 27th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Thanks for the support, Majken!
It would be nice to see if there’s a way to have The Briefcase Syndicate display in the correct dimensions. Can someone on the firefox team let me know if there’s the possibility of re-uploading the video. The error is due to my video being deinterlaced, but it shouldn’t be a tough fix.
April 27th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
I’ve posted but I have a felling that people will see it here:
the only concern I have about the judging is that the 5 winners were among the first 25% up… I’m not to good at stat but doesn’t that mean the odds of that happening unintenionally (5 hits within 25%) 1 in 1024(4^5) (or one could even argue 20% (5^5: 1 in 3125))? If the first ones up were a “cross-section” as noted earlier doesn’t that imply that they weren’t the best of the best? …sorry if that was a bit confusing
I just think that this is where the arugument is coming from…as long as my commercial gets up by the end of this year I could care less at this point.
“# Asa Says:
April 25th, 2006 at 8:16 am
cleancut, I don’t think it was purely our idea of “the 50 best ones”. We posted what we thought was a good cross-section of ads, from humorous to serious and everything in between. We certainly tried to launch the site and build early momentum by highlighting a set of ads that we thought would be compelling and entertaining to a broad audience.
- A
“
April 27th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
You will have to excuse me for my venting, but I have been waiting for this official announcement to get some stuff out in the open.
I think that the winner’s of this contest are a complete disgrace.
Let’s take a moment to look at the RULES that were supposed to be the judging criteria and how they fit in with the 3 winners.
“Daredevil”
1) Concept (30%)
2) Production Quality (30%)
3) Script/Screenplay (20%)
4) Use of Firefox Logo, Name, or Tagline (10%)
5) Jingle or Soundtrack (10%)
I think my biggest issue with this one is the fact that the concept is a complete rip off of recent coca-cola and american express campaigns. The shots were nice, the music was cool and the script was adequate. Also, the connection between surfing and web surfing was clever, but it could have been done in a creative fashion, instead of stealing someone else’s ideas. I would be ashamed to have this copycat ad represent my company.
“Wheee!”
1) Concept (30%)
2) Production Quality (30%)
3) Script/Screenplay (20%)
4) Use of Firefox Logo, Name, or Tagline (10%)
5) Jingle or Soundtrack (10%)
This one disgusts me the most of all. While I recognize the fact that it became somewhat of an Internet phenomenon that should have nothing to do with how the judges score it. The concept is lame, the production quality is mediocre at best, the script is a disgrace and even manages to put Firefox in a bad light, while the final product is an unairable, lawsuit waiting to happen. I would love someone to explain to me how this met the criteria laid out in the rules.
“Fox Fever”
1) Concept (30%)
2) Production Quality (30%)
3) Script/Screenplay (20%)
4) Use of Firefox Logo, Name, or Tagline (10%)
5) Jingle or Soundtrack (10%)
Sure the concept had its moments, but the production quality looks like high school’ers run amuck. Can someone show these people how to deinterlace please!
And to top things off, I think giving “This is Hot” only an honorable mention is crazy. Of the 5 commercials that “won” that one is clearly worthy of a higher ranking.
To the people that run this, you should be ashamed of how this contest evolved and finally crashed and burned with today’s announcement. I may just have to stop using the Internet all together.
April 27th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
I CANT BELIEVE THESE ARE THE WINNERS!?!?!! Why dont you just put Mr. Dodo in first place while your at it! But seriously, whats the deal?!?! I cant believe it! Was this a hoax? Were there really judges? I don’t think so. Its going to be a huge surprise to them when they find out that their pictures are being exploited on this site without their involvment. I mean…sheesh. I’m overcome with confusion and embarassment for Firefox as a company. Think about it, if “Whee” wasn’t posted as soon as it was, and didnt become this goofy internet phenomenon, there is no way the “imaginary judges” would have picked it! Its L-A-M-E! I’m mind boggled right now. OK, Devil is nice, but lets get right to the point…ITS BEEN DONE BEFORE. I assume origionality is a part of the judging right? Why dont we just have the 3 Firefox frogs like the Budwiser campaign. I mean, lets be serious. The Ad industry has to be laughing at the outcome of this contest. Woah.
Thanks for everything Firefox. GREAT F%*#ing JOB!
April 27th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
HEL-LO PALOOKAVILLE!
wOT YOUSE PAWR MUGS GOTTA RE-LIZE IS DAT WEN DEY MAKES YIZ TAK DA DIVE, DA TITLE AINT WORT DIDDLY.
AN HEAH’S ONE FO YOU #280: PICK–SHA DA GREAT LEE. J. COBB SINGIN A KARAOKE MEDLEY OF ‘CALIFORNIA DREAMING,’ ‘ROCKY MT. HIGH,’ AN, iI DON KNOW–DOES HALLMARK HAVE A TEME SONG?
April 27th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
@Lets read the rules… Yep, you’ve nailed it. But I disagree with knocking Fox Fever about quality. Come on, this is about the idea really for those who have a low budget, even though I’m sure they could have tried a bit better. I have nothing to do with the ad, just think it’s unfair to criticize that point.
But then again, with judges like that… what did you expect?
April 27th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Yes, I don’t like the idea that production quality has such a high percentage. I’d have liked to have seen it cut in half and have “execution of concept” get a certain percentage (although I assume that should be covered under either the concept mark or the production quality mark).
It would be interesting to, along with the rating, be able to mark a flick as your favorite and see which ads the fans pick (this should work out a bit different from the ratings as you can only give one “5″ as it were, and while everyone is giving whee! a 5 they might have a less popular one as their favorite). Would be cool to implement this after all the clips are up.
April 27th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Esteemed Contestants:
The winner went up on April 11. The contest ended April 14. The other 4 were among the first 33 posted. Look at when their blogs were posted. Look at who went to Vail. Listen to the thundering ‘no comment’ from ff concerning the facts of the judging. It may not be about which ones won, but rather when and how they won, and whether even three quarters of their “competitors” ever had a chance. Draw your own conclusions.
April 27th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Definitely not what I expected. I’m very upset.
April 27th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
I don’t care much for the order of the winners, but from what I’ve seen I’m glad that “Daredevil” and “This is Hot” are among the winners. Those really are great ads and totally deserve to be up there. I still hope so see my work up someday though.
April 27th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
A job well done, firefox - clearly, everyone was happy to be a part of this!
April 27th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
[…] 并且Firefox Flicks还组织了一个竞赛，评选出最佳的视频。现在我们来看一下 2006年4月27发布的竞赛结果。 [VIA Firefox Flicks Video Contest WinnersAnnounced ] […]
April 27th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
[…] 去年年底的时候Mozilla展开了Firefox广告大赛，经过4个月的角逐，Mozilla在其大赛BLOG上宣布了最后的结果。 […]
April 27th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
Inquiring Mind Says:
@Lets read the rules… Yep, you’ve nailed it. But I disagree with knocking Fox Fever about quality. Come on, this is about the idea really for those who have a low budget, even though I’m sure they could have tried a bit better. I have nothing to do with the ad, just think it’s unfair to criticize that point.
——————————————-
Good point .. if it is so much about the Idea… what about Firefox VS. Ninja.. proves the idea isnt THAT original.
http://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/index.php?sort=rtg&id=20098&c=false
April 27th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Earlier this week the ff toolbar was on Google, which is promoting it. The libraries and publishers of the world are at odds with Google over it’s move to digitalize copyrighted material. The two tech enterpreneurs are obviously on the same webpage when it comes to appreciating the creative efforts of others. Someone remember how technology was going to enhance culture?
April 28th, 2006 at 4:58 am
Hello Mozilla Corp!
Is anybody home there?
In case you haven’t noticed all of the movies are in Apple Quicktime format. If you check with your tech guys you will discover that there is no Linux plugin for Quicktime. So as a Linux user I can’t even view these videos. Just open Firefox under Linux and see what happens.
What were you thinking?
This makes me worried about the future of Mozilla, really worried, since you don’t support a large proportion of your users in this one of your major promotions.
April 28th, 2006 at 5:33 am
This is a community effort, yet it seems 90% of the community is disappointed with these winners. I’m one of them. “Whee” is good for a quick laugh, but definitely not a real ad. “Daredevil”’s better, but certainly nothing special.
April 28th, 2006 at 5:33 am
@FF Contest Staff
Did you say that? Out loud? Yikes.Why that would mean…all those fillmmakers spent all that time, energy, money? And then they just crawled away with theier tails between their legs…how do you get away with it?
April 28th, 2006 at 6:01 am
im dissapointed with the winners…
April 28th, 2006 at 6:02 am
/me hopes apalled realizes that anyone can put anything in for a name…
April 28th, 2006 at 6:03 am
Lame. You guys assured us that the popularity of the spots wouldn’t determine the winner, and that clearly doesn’t seem to be the case. How about refunding all our money for shipping our spots to you in a timely fashion, only to not even get a fair chance of getting them out there? You guys really dropped the ball when running this contest, why wouldn’t you just take a few weeks and release them all at the same time? Give everyone a fair chance? That dude that won even got TWO spots up online before more than half the people got their ONLY spot online (60% still don’t even have theirs up). And what does it matter at this point anyway? You’re going to continue to put up spots even though the contest is over? I feel sorry for the guy who’s 250th in line, any chance someone’s gonna watch his spot when you guys finally upload in next January? I think not. You lost a customer, and I’m gonna make sure everyone I know knows how you gave everyone a “fair” chance and made a lot of hardworking, loyal users waste weeks of time helping you guys out. Creeps.
April 28th, 2006 at 6:26 am
A complete cock-up!!!! Why in the first place did you lay-out contest rules???
What about those judges? Esteemed panel??? Your mom and dad? You probably picked out the winners yourselves, they were allready online since the beginning. Saves you the effort to go through all these boring videos? Leave us alone, we are a bunch of old-skool nerds just trying to pass the day….
It’s a complete disgrace you fooled all the hard-working honest participants. You can’t make me believe that there wasn’t one other really good entry within all the videos you received.
It’s time to grow up and build a professional team aroud firefox. You people make firefox look bad. It certainly deserves better!!!
April 28th, 2006 at 6:40 am
@Majken
Are you talking about some kind of fraud?
April 28th, 2006 at 6:41 am
Well, I was sort of disappointed with the results, especially to see “wheee” up there on top. Anyway, I respect the judges’ decisions. It would have been nice if all the spots were up on the site before the results.
But there is still one thing you guys can do to counter some of the extreme comments on this page - why don’t you send all entrants detailed results for each of their spots. It should contain how each judge rated the spot on all the different criteria. It should not take too much time since the judges must have seen each video and rated them to come up with the winners, its just a matter of compiling all the results and informing the contestants. This way, you can assure the everyone that the contest was not a sham and there was an effort to treat all the spots fairly.
April 28th, 2006 at 6:52 am
(in case you haven’t noticed all of the movies are in Apple Quicktime format. If you check with your tech guys you will discover that there is no Linux plugin for Quicktime. So as a Linux user I can’t even view these videos. Just open Firefox under Linux and see what happens)
-in case you haven’t been been using Linux very long, there are plenty of quicktime reading plug-ins available for every distro.
And on a side note, the judges are lame for their decision. I say, let the best man win, and the best man here clearly was not any in the top three….
April 28th, 2006 at 7:02 am
I think you all should really be ok with daredevil winning. Even though the way the ad was done is a slight rip off, the fact is the connection between surfing and the internet is pretty briliant.
Now Weeee, is a joke.
And that F’ing Brit Comedy, orbitz knock of is just plain rediculous.
I am very disapointed in the judging.
I can’t believe That is Hot did not hit the board on production value alone.
April 28th, 2006 at 7:04 am
dang
yeah
wow
im speechless
to put it simply, Firefox, you guys have lost the respect of most of the entrants
This contest was the most unstable contest ive ever entered
Wow
Whee??
what the crap
there is no serious way whee is even close to a good AD.
Its awesome for the laughing matter in it
its actually hilarious
but does it explain firefox
no
not in the least
asa, when you post this video as an add for your company, i hope the world knows what firefox is before you post it, becsue it sure as hell doesnt explain what firefox is in the first place
That like haveing the bull from meryll lynch and the green square from h&r block having a verbal battle
Its funny, even for the few that get it, but it does not explain what it is
this is such a discgrace to advertisement
i could give a crap less if i won, but to see these win?
wtf
April 28th, 2006 at 7:10 am
Very few comments from the staff. I think they know the messed up big time. Come clean and save face before the community offs your head. Wasn’t IE 7 beta 2 released this week?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPZ31ufCYdo
April 28th, 2006 at 7:20 am
@daks
You’re on the right track there. but how can anyone get back all they’ve spent ?
April 28th, 2006 at 9:08 am
FF team isn’t posting. Tuckered out from yesterday’s big doings? Or are their feeelings hurt because all their hard (paid?) work isn’t receiving the reception they felt entitled to? Maybe they’re on the phone with their lawyers trying to figure out if they really got away with disregarding the criteria they themselves set forth.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Lucky me, I didn’t finished on time ;) I’d feel horrible seeing my ad lose against those shitty “videos”. I’m just an innocent bystander, but I think I can share this:
I’ve been downloading the files as they were uploaded, and when the quality of the submissions started to rise this past few weeks, I tought this could become a REAL contest of skill. I wanted to see some blood. Guess that never happened, second and third places are just plain crap. As many of the guys above, I like ‘Daredevil’ and have nothing against it. The logo at the ending could be used better, but it seems that kind of image manipulation is not one of the author’s strenghts (Check out the ending of “Joyride” for another copy-paste-and-go logo).
Bad thing the ads fulfilling the “rules” didn’t make it to the top. BAD thing that directors who spent time and effort in serious production AND original ideas got beaten by such a cheap pack of “videos”. A shame that videos as The Briefcase Syndicate (hell of a shooting trip!), The Solution (animation and ORIGINAL music!), One Window for Every Reason (superb EDITION!) or Web For All (truly FUN and well crafted video!) didn’t get a mention.
Watch the videos I mentioned, they could be my top four, in no particular order. I am on the 3D bussines and OF COURSE This is Hot would complete the five, maybe going straight to the top. Which ones were your favs?
Sad that the toilet paper creep wasn’t uploaded on time. It was a winner, for sure! LOL
April 28th, 2006 at 9:12 am
FF team isn’t posting. Tuckered out from yesterday’s big doings? Or are their feeelings hurt because all their hard (paid?) work isn’t receiving the reception they felt entitled to? Maybe they’re on the phone with their lawyers trying to figure out if they really got away with disregarding what they themselves set forth.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:23 am
I think that this contest was actually a secret effort by Microsoft to undermine the Firefox browser as they are releasing their new version of Internet Explorer.
Prior to this contest I loved Firefox…now I am not so sure. Any company that would treat a community of it’s viewers with such disrespect is appalling.
Clearly I am not the only one with this complaint. Someone from Firefox MUST address these issues. They NEED to respond to how ads like “Wheee” could win this competition.
As for picking on ads like “Firefox Fever” for production value, I do think it is a valid point. When production value is supposed to be 30% of the judging criteria, and there are ads like “This is Hot” and “Improve” that look ready for broadcast, how can ads like “Firefox Fever” even be considered in the same class…let alone beat them out and win.
What a complete, lowdown, disgusting, humiliating, Internet Explorer loving shame…
Shame on Asa
Shame on Rafael
Shame on Paul
Shame on Blake
Shame on Cheryl
Shame on Chris
One of you should step forward and speak out about this travesty. You all must know at this point that things were not done properly. I have not heard 1 single post that was satisfied with all of the winners.
And I only spare a shame on these judges because I have serious doubts as to if they were even given the opportunity to screen all 280 ads. If it is taking weeks to get all of these ads up online, by people whos job is to run this contest, I would really love to know how all 280 ads were viewed by 7 very busy judges in less then 10 days.
Download the new Internet Explorer here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx
At least they don’t hide the fact that they don’t give a damn about their users. Rock on Microsoft!
April 28th, 2006 at 9:35 am
For the sake of the actual firefox team, most of those involved are not the same people that actually bring you firefox. Marketing doesn’t code. Infact NONE of the judges listed have anything to do with Firefox. Also, I’m a little miffed that I didn’t notice before, but none of the judges have boobs. Clearly it was flawed from the beginning. I think there should be some real voting for a fan favorite and give that person a prize as well.
*ALSO* Firefox has always been a community project and the same can be said for these flicks. Obviously Whee! had a viral affect. If you really liked a flick, then blog about it, share it, hype it up. Just because that vid isn’t being sent to this particular competition, doesn’t mean you can’t support its makers with publicity. And like I said before, the videos advertise firefox, not the judges, so boycotting the ads themselves or Firefox isn’t really affecting the people who made the decision you don’t agree with.
As for not having heard anything from the *flicks* team, I suppose with all this negative feedback they’d rather take a few days and come up with a good statement rather than comment in this blog.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:46 am
To add on to “Let’s read the rules,” let’s look at the Key Messages they wanted, which are still available on the site:
Quote:
“Key Messages
You don’t have to incorporate all of these messages or ideas. These are here to show you what we’re interested in getting across. Pick and choose.
1. Firefox offers a better way to experience the Web. It’s secure, easy to use, and customizable.
2. Having a choice in Web browsers matters.
3. The Web is too important to too many people to let a single company decide how we all get there.
4. The Web browser has a dramatic impact on the user’s experience of the web. ”
So… how does “Daredevil” incorporate ANY of these messages, except MAYBE 4? How about “Whee?” Even “Fox Fever” focuses too much on the specific capabilities, which they specifically said they don’t want to do (wisely; IE is coming out with a tabbed version and I’m sure will be doing things to block popups).
If I were a marketing company given the above guidelines and produced commercials like the three winners, I would be fired. There were plenty of ads that DID incorporate one or more of the above messages, and did so fairly well.
—
Side note: though they say “Mail (will not be published)” when you go to post a response, I can see not only the name but also an e-mail address from the most recent post in the “Leave a response” form… as a consequence there is no way I’m putting my e-mail address in that slot.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:58 am
I still remember that post about the IE ad with state of the art production, with Blake saying: “I would be proud to have Flicks submissions of this caliber…”. Then I see “Wheee!” and “Fox Fever”………… -_-;
http://www.firefoxflicks.com/backstage/2006/03/22/keeping-an-eye-on-the-competition/
April 28th, 2006 at 10:01 am
We should start our own contest with these same ads and determine our own set of winners. Here is my top 5 (in no particular order), and I encourage you all to post your’s as well:
This is Hot
Improve
Daredevil
Breifcase Sydicate
Pass The Soap
But, this could definitly change after we are given the opportunity to view the rest of the ads…
April 28th, 2006 at 11:06 am
‘Fresh?’ Not decoded yet. However ‘take risks’ in this context seems to mean ’skate close to ripping off middle-of-the-road already successful work paid for by reputable company.’
April 28th, 2006 at 11:25 am
The code machine is saying ‘Legalize or jibberish or a combination of the two. Cannot decode. Consult Professional.’
April 28th, 2006 at 11:35 am
You pay for a professional marketing agency ( http://arpartners.com/about/index.shtml ) and make such big mistakes? The “best extension” contest was a disaster, this becomes a disaster… I hope, that the future development of Firefox wont turn out to be a disaster, too! (OK: version numbering, missing “Places” and Firefox 1.1 are already bad enough…)
April 28th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Obviously I’m a contestant. Obviously I lost. And this board seems to be comprised of similar “losers.” Many of us would be annoyed and knock the winners no matter who won, because that’s what losers often do. Considering that, I hope Asa and the Firefox team do not overlook the complaints that members of this community have.
It’s not a question of just sore losers.
I commend the Mozilla team for offering this contest, inspiring me to take a camera out and do something pro-active with my time. Thankfully thousands of people were able to vote on my spot because I was one of the earlier posted spots. That made this experience thrilling for me, regardless of not winning in the end. Exposure in this cluttered internet world is a wonderful thing. I can’t say this experience would be equally thrilling for me if I were one of the unfortunate ones who haven’t had their stuff posted until now or later. I’d be pretty annoyed. Justifiably. And I’d want an apology, not an excuse. Somtimes a “sorry, we did screw up,” goes a lot farther than a “We never promised we’d get them all up, we actually did you a favor by getting any of them up when we did.”
I also thought it was important when entering this contest to accept the fact that I’d probably not win. You’ve got to do this for the experience or to promote your own “faux-internet-dancing-for-this-comp-sale” phenomenon. Having said that, I did look at the contest rules to see how I can maximize my chances of winning. I question how this actually broke down, if “Wheee” really could pass through the other more evenly produced spots with a zero on production value and points solely on concept. But maybe they thought it was good production value? That’s their right. The soundtrack was killer!
Many of us hesitate to break rules, especially copyright rules, because why should contests for original material reward copyright violators. I would never have come up with the concept of “Wheee” but at the same time, I wouldn’t allow myself to think about an ad that would cause so many legal headaches.
How could that win? I’m no lawyer. So maybe it’s OK to bastardize other companies logos. Surely that’s the message Mozilla is sending, which is funny cause in entering this contest I read detailed lists on the precision placement of the Mozilla logo. Has anyone read this:
Can I modify your logos and distribute the result?
No, sorry. The logo files themselves (e.g. the ones distributed with the apps) are copyrighted, and so making and distributing any derivative works would be a copyright infringement.
You can find more of Mozilla’s logo policies here:
http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/faq.html
There’s a lot of things you can’t do with Mozilla’s logos.
Man, lucky for us Microsoft’s team isn’t on the ball the way Mozilla’s team is. Mr Gates’ poor legal planning allows us to turn their logo into a moronic symbol going “wheee!”. Oh, wait, Microsoft does indeed have policies too? Well, that’s ok: They’re the big bad guys.
But wait!!! Here’s a post from the Firefox Flicks FAQ:
Can I use 3rd party trademarks or copyrighted materials in my commercial?
Not without permission from the owner of those materials.
Now I understand: Apple, Microsoft, and Netscape gave Jeff Gill permission to use their logos. So kind. You can find this and other meaningless answers to Frequently Asked Questions here:
http://www.firefoxflicks.com/faq/faq.html#14
Perhaps “Whee’s” brazen disregard for legal considerations, ignorance of contest rules, and it’s flat out assault on the other companies, is what made it so popular in the first place? And that sort of disrespect and free-spiritness is what the internet is all about. So congratulations “Whee!” for being a net hit. That’s your reward. I think your spot is funny (though all my friends who don’t know Firefox and have never seen Safari, didn’t get it! Fools!) And firefox got tons of hits from this. Probably from people who already have the browser, but no press is bad press, right?
So why go farther and legitimize this sort of thing by placing it any higher than Honorable Mention? We love Mozilla, why would we want to cheapen Mozilla’s image by pushing the lowest form of advertising?
Mixed messages, indeed.
While I’m ranting about copyrights, I hope that the music in Daredevil is composed originally or has a an open license. The music is really good, and I think strengthens the ad tremendously. Kudos to you guys if you have the license for that music. I suspect if you didn’t have one, you’d still win. Just a hunch.
That’s a good spot, though. There’s a lot of good spots. I knew I lost this contest when I saw some of them. Why some of these really clever, well-produced ads didn’t win or place is beyond me. As a community member, I will always wonder why Firefox pooled a vast community of talented people for something original and exciting and picked something tame and middle of the road?
In conclusion:
I will always laugh when I watch Whee, but it’s kind of like cheering for an athlete on steroids.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Umm, I’m sorry, but Wheee! won.
Wheee!: 21687 votes total.
Daredevil: 6869 votes total.
What the heck happened? Was the vote rigged?
I have to say, this is the first time that I have been disappointed by Firefox.
Redrisro
April 28th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Not a bad idea, but let’s wait ’til “all” of the submissions are up.
April 28th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
redrisro - the votes didn’t matter. if you read any of the other parts of the site, you would have seen that the judges were the sole deciders….not the votes of people online. that was just for “fun.”
April 28th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
—- If it is taking weeks to get all of these ads up online, by people whos job is to run this contest, I would really love to know how all 280 ads were viewed by 7 very busy judges in less then 10 days.
—–
Ditto. There’s no way on earth they could have screened all the ads. We were very, very stupid, believing in that “extended deadline”.
April 28th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Why did you make a poll if the results didn’t matter?
I’m very confused.
Was it just for advertising?
I hope the FF-team makes a statement to all posts.
Well, Firefox rules but I’m dissapointed with this kind of …how can I call it… stultification.
April 28th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
weren’t there 48 comments? now there are 46. 45 and 46 took a long time to post. 47 and 48 must have been humdingers.
April 28th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
dissapointed … wheeee is wonderful, but for geeks . daredevil: yes it is good, but i think the 2nd time you see it on TV you would change the channel. fox fever: funny for already loyall Firefox users, but pontetially silly and “bizarre” for the rest of people
my choice:
“give me the soap” or “this is hot”
April 28th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Daredevil as the winner. I bet you that Pete Macomber guy made that thing years ago, and just slapped a Firefox logo on the end of it.
What a sham this contest has been. And Firefox is too afraid to admit that not all entries were viewed by judges.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
I’m not a participant, but I’m a little disappointed too. Couldn’t they at least post all the videos first? Were these guys overwhelmed by their job?
What happened to the women? Not allowed to judge?
I agree - the judges should show what they rated the different vidoes in each catagory. I’m having a hard time believing that they used it at all. :( At least the really bad ones didn’t make it to the top (think “Ride with Firefox” & “Are You Cool Enough?”).
_______
Side note: though they say “Mail (will not be published)” when you go to post a response, I can see not only the name but also an e-mail address from the most recent post in the “Leave a response” form… as a consequence there is no way I’m putting my e-mail address in that slot.
_______
Same here. Fix it quick, people!
April 28th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Alright, now based on the large amounts of negative posts as to the way the contest was run and the silence from the Firefox team, I’m guessing we should be seeing a nice PR/Legal/Coporate approved message letting us know that our feedback is welcome and that the contest was ran in the best way possible at the time but that they’ve learned some lessons. Maybe there’ll be a line in there about admitting some minor mistake(s) and an apology for any “inconvenience” experienced on our part.
So having predicted your MBA marketing approved language so often seen posted by companies, Mozilla, please surprise me and prove me wrong with a genuine apology and make things right by having all the entrants receive the scores of their entries based on what the judges said. If these wonderful industry types saw my video, I’d like to know if they thought it was crap, alright, decent or good.
All these negative posts may be 100% wrong…or they may be right…just prove it one way or the other and end it on your terms…well I guess you could also just ignore this, shut down the Flix site and never get into the contest arena again…just some rants.
Thanks
April 28th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
A few things here:
- The judges picked the winners of the contest. We all have our favorites. Some of your favorites won and some of them didn’t.
- We’re not done promoting all the great submissions that we received. Far from it. We’re going to be doing more to promote all this great work.
- We are of course taking all the feedback in these posts and see how we can do better the next time. Mozilla’s been around quite a long time so we’re very used to criticism, constructive or otherwise.
Congratulations to the winners and all participants! You all did a great job. We’re all very impressed with the effort and the creativity.