Gibson Fails To Deliver Prize To Contest Winner
Jan 26th, 2008 by Guitar MX Admin
| Gibson Guitars co-sponsored the Lollapalooza ‘Last Band Standing’ contest in 2006. To compete in this contest, musicians uploaded an MP3 of their music and had it judged by the folks at Lollapalooza. Whoever’s song was liked best won the following prizes, copied directly from the site: |  |
- A spot on the lineup: an opening slot on a feature stage.
- Artist passes for the entire weekend with access to catering, the artist lounge, and everywhere else bands get to go!
- Rooms for the weekend at the House of Blues Hotel.
- Festival tickets for your friends to see you play.
- $10,000 worth of equipment from our friends at Gibson. (yes, believe it!)
- An interview and in-store performance at Virgin Megastore.
- Band promotion on the homepage of Lollapalooza.com and partner websites.
- Plus countless other Lolla goodies and schwag.
The winner of the contest was a Hip Hop artist named Tonedeff. In the year and a half since the contest, he has still not received the $10,000 worth of equipment from Gibson. On his blog, Tonedeff documents his email exchange with the Gibson Entertainment Liason, and some of the tricks that have been played. From the exchange, it appears Gibson was making up the rules as they went along.
The fact that the winner was a hip hop artist apparently didn’t sit well with Gibson either. After winning the contest, the Gibson Liason told Tonedeff :
I mean, this is kind of weird, because you know, you DON’T play the guitar or drums.
Maybe so Gibson, but a deal is a deal. You can read more about this story at here.
Well, I think that it had no commercial value for Gibson. A guitar player receiving the prize is worth showing and interviewing and all this. A hip hop player receiving Gibson equipment, well, isn’t it a bit of a joke? Does Gibson make equipment for hip hop? Was it about guitars or drums or about any equipment?
I’m with admin. A deal is a deal. Gibson should have thought about that possibility before sponsoring the contest.
Besides, if I were Gibson I would be looking at this as a blessing in disguise. With little creativity perhaps they could promote some of their other products – amps, pianos, jukebox’s – to a whole new market (for them anyway).
Plus with a guitar or two around maybe Tonedeff or his posse would find room for guitar parts in his music.
-Corey
Good point Musicgoat
I’m not a fan of hip hop and I own a Les Paul. That said, they dicked him around big time. Shame on Gibson. If you make a deal, you stick by it. You don’t use tricky language and you shouldn’t be able to use the MSRP in your calculations. MSRP is a fictional number. NOTHING is sold at MSRP, EVER! It’s just a way to make stupid people think they’re really getting 40% off.