You create. They decide.

The Big Ad Gig 2010 Contest
Official Rules

The Big Ad Gig Contest ("Contest") is open only to legal residents of the United States age 18 and over who are interested in pursuing a career in advertising but are not currently employed full time by an advertising agency. If you do not meet these specific criteria, you are not eligible for the Contest. No purchase or payment is necessary to enter or win the Contest.

  1. ELIGIBILITY: The Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, who, at the time of entry are 18 years of age or older and who are not employed full-time by an advertising agency. Entrants who have previously performed professional advertising services for an advertising agency, but who are not currently under a full-time contract, are eligible to enter. Employees, officers and directors of Atmosphere Proximity ("Sponsor"), and The New York Times, The Ad Council, Microsoft Advertising, Pointroll, Ogilvy New York, Crispin Porter and Bogusky, TBWA\Chiat\Day, (together with Sponsor, "Contest Entities") their respective parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotional, fulfillment and marketing agencies, and members of the immediate families (parent, child, sibling and spouse) or households (whether related or not) of any of the above are not eligible to participate in the Contest. By entering the Contest, entrants agree to release, discharge and hold harmless Contest Entities, their respective parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, retailers, agencies and the respective officers, directors, employees and agents of each of the foregoing, from and against any and all damages whether direct or indirect, which may be due to or arise out of participation in the Contest, or in Contest-related activities, or the acceptance, use/misuse or possession of any prizes that may be awarded to them. By participating, entrants agree to abide by and be bound by these terms and conditions ("Official Rules") and the decisions of the Contest Entities and judges, as defined in further detail below, which shall be final and binding in all respects. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. All applicants to the 2009 Contest may reapply for the 2010 Contest, except for the four (4) winners from the 2009 Contest who each received 30 day freelance positions.
  2. HOW TO ENTER: Limit one (1) Contest entry per person for length of the Contest. Subsequent entries from the same person will be disqualified. Potential winners who are discovered during prize verification to have entered or attempted to enter more than once may be disqualified at the sole discretion of the Contest Entities.

    The phases of this Contest are as follows:
    1) Contest Entry: The Contest Entry begins at 12:00:00 AM Eastern Time ("ET") on July 20, 2010 and ends at 11:59:59 PM ET on August 23, 2010 , which is the deadline for all entry submissions. Entries received after 11:59:59 pm on August 23, 2010 will not be considered and will be discarded.

    2) To submit an entry into the Contest, go to the following Web site address: www.thebigadgig.com (the "Contest Web Site"). Entrants will be asked to complete a registration form and must enter their true and correct information in all required fields ("Entry Profile"). Once all required fields are entered, the entrant will click the "Submit" button to register. Entrants will also be required to submit an Entry Resume and an Entry Portfolio (both described below) to complete the registration process. Once the registration form is completed, entrants must submit their full submission, including their Entry Video to be entered into the Contest. (See "Entry Details" below).

    Entry Details:
    Following registration, entrants must submit the following to enter the Contest: A) one 60 second or less video or video slideshow of entrant's creation, which must include at least at least one complete clip of the five provided video clips made available for download on WWW.THEBIGADGIG.COM ("Entry Video"). The Entry Video may include other portions of any or all of the provided videos, but at a minimum, must include at least one (1) of those provided videos. B) In addition entrant must submit his/her Portfolio of samples of his/her own creative work ("Entry Portfolio"); and C) his/her updated resume ("Entry Resume") (collectively, with Entry Video, "Contest Submission"). A link to The Entry Portfolio should be submitted and Entry Resume should be uploaded to The Contest Web Site (WWW.THEBIGADGIG.COM ). The Entry Video should be uploaded to the entrant's YouTube Profile. Entrants must submit a YouTube link to their Entry Video and a link to their Entry Portfolio and upload their Entry Resume to their Entry Profile on the Contest Web Site. The video must be sixty (60) seconds or less, inclusive of the clip from one of the Contest-provided videos required for entry. Should entrants experience any technical difficulties with any aspect of submitting to the Contest, they may send an email to thebigadgig@gmail.com. Requests will be answered promptly.

    Once the Contest Submission along with other required entry materials (i.e., Contest Registration) is submitted ("collectively", "Contest Entry"), entrants will be officially entered into the Contest. Contest Entries should not be revised or altered once submitted. Contest Entries will be deemed made by the authorized account holder of the email address submitted at time of entry. In the event of a dispute regarding the identity of any potential winner, the potential winner will be deemed to be the authorized account holder of the email address submitted at time of entry. The authorized account holder is defined as the natural person who is assigned an email address by an Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization that is responsible for assigning email addresses or the domain associated with the submitted email address. A potential winner must provide Contest Entities with satisfactory proof that he/she is the authorized account holder of the email address associated with the potentially winning Contest entry. Contest Entries generated by a script, macro or other automated means will be disqualified. Contest Entries that are incomplete, illegible or corrupted are void and will not be accepted. By entering the Contest, entrant recognizes and agrees that the entry information provided by entrant will be made available to Contest Entities; use of such information will be governed by the privacy policy available at WWW.THEBIGADGIG.COM.. By participating in the Contest, each Entrant unconditionally accepts and agrees to comply with and abide by these Official Rules, the Terms and Conditions of YouTube found at http://www.youtube.com/t/terms and, if applicable, the Terms and Conditions of Use of Facebook found at http://www.facebook.com/terms.php?ref=pf and the decisions of Contest Entities which shall be final and binding in all respects.

    By entering, each entrant represents and warrants that his/her Contest Submission: (a) was created by entrant alone and is wholly original (other than for the clips from the provided videos); (b) does not incorporate or include anything that would require the consent of any third party; and (c) does not violate any copyright, trademark, publicity right, privacy right, or any other right of any third party.

    Information regarding Contest Entries:
    The Contest Entities shall have the right to disqualify any Contest Entries that they deem to be obscene, vulgar, sexually explicit, lewd, derogatory, inappropriate, or otherwise not in good taste, as determined by the Contest Entities in their sole discretion.

    LICENSE: Entrant grants Contest Entities and their designees the right, but not the obligation to edit, remove, modify, publish, license, print, transmit, display or otherwise use the Contest Entry, including any portion of the Contest Submission, the description, and all accompanying personally identifiable information entrant submits, via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity, without notice to entrant and without compensation.

    Contest Submissions submitted in connection with this Contest (a) must be intended for viewing by the general public and contain only content that, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the Sponsor, is suitable for a general audience; (b) must not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the Sponsor, contain any sexually explicit, disparaging, libelous or other inappropriate content; (c) must not contain any trademarks, copyrighted works or other intellectual property for which entrant has not obtained permission from the rights holder to use. Any elements appearing in the Contest Submission, including without limitation stills, clip art, supers, or other materials (collectively, "Elements") used must be entirely original and created by entrant, or used under an appropriate license. Use of any Elements or other materials that are not original to entrant, not in the public domain, or that are not used pursuant to a proper license may result in disqualification.

    All Contest Entries may be posted on the publicly accessible Contest Web Site and on Sponsor's YouTube page and Facebook page during and following the Contest Entrants can also allow Sponsor to update Entrants on the status of their application on their Facebook Profiles' Wall using Facebook Connect with information such as when their videos have been posted and if they have been chosen as a Finalist, and if their attending the event or other matters related to the Contest. Contest Entities assume no responsibility for any use or misuse of the Facebook Connect application. The Contest Entities are not responsible for late, lost, illegible, incomplete, stolen, garbled or misdirected Contest Entries, all of which are void.
  3. CONTEST JUDGING: All Contest Entries properly submitted pursuant to these Official Rules will be evaluated by a panel of judges, composed of employees of "Contest Entities" beginning August 24, 2010 . The selection process will take place in one stage as follows:

    1. Initial Judging: : All qualifying eligible Contest Submissions will be judged by judges using the following criteria:
      1. Meet assignment requirements – 10%
      2. Originality of video concept — 40%
      3. Quality of portfolio — 50%
      Judges reserve the right to contact any Entrant to determine his/her suitability for The Big Ad Gig. Judges may also seek the advice of the Contest Entities and/or partner Advertising Agencies in helping to determine the top seven (7) Entries. Contest Entities will contact the seven (7) top rated Entrants on or about September 7, 2010 to confirm that Entrant can attend the Advertising Week event. If one or more cannot attend the event, in judges' sole and absolute discretion, judges will contact the next highest ranked Entrant until there are seven (7) confirmed finalists. The decision of Contest Entities and judges in determining the top 7 Entrants is final and cannot be challenged by any Entrant or any other entity.
    2. People's Choice Awards

      A new feature to this year's contest will be the inclusion of a "People's Choice" finalist. One (1) of the 8 finalists will be chosen based by public voting. All Contest Submissions are eligible to be voted upon (if the People's Choice coincides with one of the judge's top picks, we will pick them as the People's Choice, and continue down the line of judge's finalist picks). Voting for the People's Choice award will begin the same day as the contest beginsPeople's Choice applicants will enter the contest the same way as all applicants (since all applicants are People's Choice applicants and vice versa), and be required to submit the same materials in order to qualify.

      The actual way in which the public will vote for the People's Choice is by using the Facebook "Like" button, which will be embedded on to the Contest website www.thebigadgig.com. The Contest Website will be the only place where the public can vote on their choice for People's Choice. If a voter clicks the like button on their Facebook page, the vote will not register, all voting must be done from www.thebigadgig.com. In order to enter their vote for the People's Choice selection, individuals must have a Facebook account and be logged into their profile.

      Individuals may vote for as many people as they would like. If individuals who previously clicked "Like" on an entry deactivate their "Like" of that entry, their vote will be removed from the video's tally of votes (this is due to the votes being based on the Facebook "Like" button, which can be de-selected).

      The winner with the most "Like" button selections on August 31, 2010 at 11:59:59 pm will be selected as the People's Choice. If they are not able to attend the event, or are deemed ineligible, we will select the second highest vote recipient, and so on.

      We are not responsible for any problems or mistakes in counting votes that arise from a problem with Facebook's system. Facebook is not a sponsor or otherwise affiliated with this Contest.
    3. Judges will select seven (7) finalists (each a "Finalist") to join the one (1) "People's Choice" finalist to attend the 2010 Advertising Week Conference in New York City, where the Finalists will compete for one of five (5) 30-day freelance positions, each at a participating advertising agency. Each Finalist will be notified by email on or about September 7, 2010. Each Finalist must be available to travel to New York the week of September 27, 2010. Finalists that do not reply to the notification and/or are unavailable to travel to New York the week of September 27, 2010 will be disqualified. In such a case Sponsor reserves the right to select an alternate Finalist, which will be the Entrant with the Contest Submission with the highest rating which was not initially selected as a Finalist. All entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decision of the judges, whose decisions are final. Each entrant selected as a potential Finalist must comply with all terms and conditions set forth in these Official Rules, and being a Finalist is contingent upon fulfilling all such requirements.
    4. Finalist Judging: Finalist Judging will take place on September 30, 2010 in New York City. Each Finalist will be judged by a panel of industry leaders in front of a live audience. On or about September 24, 2010 each Finalist will be given a creative brief assignment, which they will use to create a Final Creative Presentation ("Creative Presentation"). Details of the brief will be provided at the time the assignment is given. Judging will be based on: A four (4) minute live presentation by Finalist of his/her Creative Presentation before the panelists and a live audience. The Finalists judgeswill select five (5) winners (each a "Contest Winner") who will each receive a 30-day entry level freelance position at an advertising agency ("Freelance Position"). The winner will be decided by judge's determinations. The results of judges voting during the Contest will not be shared with any Entrant or any other entity, except as required by law. No entrant may challenge the determination of the Contest Entities.
    5. By creating a Creative Presentation and entering it to be judged in the Contest, each Finalist hereby irrevocably grants, transfers, sells, assigns and conveys to Sponsor, and each of their respective successors and assigns, all present and future right, title and interest of every kind and nature whatsoever, including, without limitation, all copyrights, and all rights incidental, subsidiary, ancillary or allied thereto (including, without limitation, all derivative rights), in and to the Creative Presentation for exploitation throughout the universe, in perpetuity, by means of any and all media and devices whether now known or hereafter devised (including the right to publish and display Creative Presentation for purposes of advertising, publicity and/or trade, in whole or in part). Sponsor shall have the right, in its sole discretion, to edit, composite, morph, scan, duplicate, or alter the Creative Presentation for any purpose which it deems necessary or desirable, without the need for any further compensation by them, and each Entrant irrevocably waives any and all so-called moral rights they may have in the Create Presentation submitted by him or her.
  4. PRIZES

    Finalist Prizes: Finalist Prizes: Each Finalist (8 total) will receive one (1) 2010 Advertising Week pass, as well as Microsoft merchandise. Contest Entities make no representation with regard to any of the prizes. Prize will not include money for expenses, nor will it include travel to and from New York City, accommodation while in New York City, or any other expenses while in New York City. Any expenses beyond prize are the sole responsibility of Finalist. Approximate Retail Value ("ARV"): $500 per pass

    Contest Grand Prize: Each Contest Winner (5 total) will receive an offer for a 30-calendar days entry level Freelance Position at one of the participating advertising agencies, with a $3,000 salary (there will not be overtime pay). Position will begin anywhere from one to 60 days after the event date.

    The Contest Entities and judges determinations shall be final and binding throughout the selection process and in the determination of the Finalists and the Contest Winners. It is the sole responsibility of the Contest Winners to make arrangements with his/her employer and obtain any and all necessary permissions, as appropriate, so that he/she can perform the duties of the freelance position including all requisite travel. Each Contest Winner must complete, sign and return the adverting agency's standard freelance agreement without changes or negotiation ("Freelance Agreement"). If a potential Contest Winner fails to return the completed, signed Freelance Agreement within the indicated time period, the Contest Entities reserve the right to rescind the Freelance Position offer and will have no liability or obligation to such potential Contest Winner. In the event of any inconsistency between these Official Rules and the Freelance Agreement, the Freelance Agreement will prevail, govern and control. Contest Winner (after completion/signing/return of Freelance Agreement) will NOT be an employee of the advertising agency. The Contest Winner will instead be an independent contractor of the advertising agency, and will NOT be entering into any of the following relationships (either expressly or impliedly) with the advertising agency or Contest Entities: employer-employee, principal-agent or master-servant. The Contest Winner agrees to be solely responsible for payment of all taxes and statutory payments for compensation received under the Freelance Agreement and is not entitled to any other payment or benefits from the advertising agency and/or Contest Entities.

    DISQUALIFICATION: Contest Entities are not responsible for: (i) electronic transmissions or entries that are lost, late, stolen, incomplete, illegible, damaged, garbled, destroyed, or misdirected; (ii) any problems or technical malfunctions, errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects, delays in operation of transmission, communication failures, destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries; (iii) failed or unavailable hardware, network, software or telephone transmissions, damage to entrants' or any person's computer and/or its contents, or causes beyond any of the Contest Entities' reasonable control that jeopardize the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest; (iv) any entries submitted in a manner that is not expressly allowed under these rules; or (v) incorrect or inaccurate entry information whether caused by entrants or by any of the equipment or programming associated with utilized in the Contest. All incomplete or non-conforming entries will be disqualified. If for any reason this Contest cannot be executed as planned, including but not limited to infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of Sponsor that corrupt or affect the security, administration, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest, or if this Contest is compromised or becomes technically corrupted in any way, electronically or otherwise, or if fire, flood, explosion, war, embargo, government requirement, fraudulent, criminal or grossly negligent acts, security breaches, civil or military authority, terrorism, acts of God, acts or omissions of carriers, or any other cause beyond Sponsor's control, interferes with the Contest proper conduct as contemplated by these Official Rules, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion, the Sponsor, may, without prior notice, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest, in whole or in part. Sponsor may terminate the Contest at any time for any reason, and Contest Entities have no obligation to select Finalist or Contest Winner(s). In the event of termination of the Contest, Sponsor will post notice regarding the termination on the Web site. Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify and prosecute any individual who tampers with or attempts to tamper with the entry process or who enters using any automatic or programmed entry duplication method. Contest Entities reserve the right to cancel the Contest at any time for any reason without prior notice and to not award any prizes in the event of such cancellation.

    The Contest Entities do not assume any responsibility for termination of the Contest or for any disruption in the Contest caused by circumstance or other unforeseen events outside of the control of the Contest Entities. In the event there is a discrepancy or inconsistency between disclosures and other statements contained in any Contest materials and the terms and conditions of these Official Rules, these Official Rules shall prevail, govern, and control. Sponsor reserves the right to change these Official Rules at any time by posting the new Official Rules on the Contest Web Site. All changes to the Official Rules will be effective when posted, and your continued participation in the Contest after the posting will constitute your acceptance of, and agreement to be bound by, those changes.
  5. TAX INFORMATION: All federal, state, local, and other income taxes on prizes are the sole responsibility of the applicable winner.
  6. GENERAL INFORMATION: Any and all disputes will be resolved in the appropriate courts in New York, exclusively, and subject to the laws of the state of New York. Should there be a conflict between the laws of the state of New York and any other laws, the conflict will be resolved in favor of the laws of the state of New York. Entrants irrevocably consent to the personal jurisdiction of said courts and waive any claim of forum non-conveniens or lack of personal jurisdiction they may have.
  7. WINNERS LIST: To receive a list of winners, send a #10 self-addressed stamped envelope for receipt by November 1, 2010 to: Michelle Parks-McCourt, Atmosphere Proximity, 1285 Avenue of the Americas, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10019
  8. SPONSOR: The Sponsor of this Contest is: Atmosphere Proximity 1285 Avenue of the Americas, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10019