It would be very easy for me to get angry about this little piece of news: Conde Nast (publisher of mags like Vogue) is offering advertisers design help…for free. This move obviously hurts creative professionals as it devalues their part in the extremely lucrative advertising financial system. The injury starts with the designers/art directors (obviously) and their agencies, but it is only a matter of time until this slides into photography.

Now, historically, publications have offered to make the ads they publish for years, usually for a small price, though sometimes for free. However, the publications in question have not been of the stature of CN’s holdings.  This is some ugly creep.

But rather than get angry, let’s think about what can we do to stop it. Well, there is always the classic boycotting of these pubs–both in purchasing and in creating art for them. I rather think, however, that this will not have enough of a market impact on this company (though I love the idea–boycotts can be very effective when you get enough participation). The one thing we can and MUST do is agree that when that call comes to shoot one of these ads for nothing or for very little (”it’ll be great for your book!” you’ll be told) we have to make it clear that this is not an acceptable deal.

We have to agree to this now, before it happens, and we need to get the word out to as many photographers as we can–no free or cheap shots for Conde Nast publications in-house produced ads (actually, any ads, but let’s stay focused here).

So please, post to your various forums, share with your local communities, get the word out. I’ll be sending this post to my list, just to help get the ball rolling.