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Samantha Marshall at Crain’s NY Business reports that “Toyota’s getting cheap labor from students at the Art Institute of New York City.”
The auto giant has commissioned the students to design an ad campaign for its new Yaris through an education partnership called the Yari Debut Challenge. With only a $2500 budget, the students are designing an online campaign using blogs, mySpace.com and www.search4yaris.com to generate awareness about the product and their campaign, which culminates on June 3 in a downtown Manhattan scavenger hunt.
It’s easy to see what Toyota gets out of the free work. As for the students: the age-old appeal of doing free work is said to be the exposure and practical experience it provides. As the plethora of citizen created media attest, people will go to very elaborate lengths and spend lots of time and money to get a chance to have their work seen. I bet they also give all rights to Toyota.
Those who come up with the strongest campaigns will also get a chance to present to Toyota executives at their North American headquarters in Torrance, California.