Whether you're a taxpayer or a student you're never safe from exploitation; 'Never Fully Trust Anyone- Smart People Know Why'

Roll up, roll up - free enterprise for multi-million dollar conglomerates to capitalise on another chance to screw students for free, cash in now.

When I returned to education in 2012 to a course called 'Scriptwriting for film & television' so not only could I develop my passion, I could have more time in my day to work on what was really important to me, little did I know that I would end up spending the best part of the last three months designing an entirely new face for a company for free, especially given that I am one of the first people to be paying the new £8,000 - £9,000 per year tuition fees.

The idea is "said" to bring digital media design, radio, television production and scriptwriters together and to work up a viral campaign that extends itself over a variety of cross media platforms under the professionalism of a non-fictional client.

Personally, my designated company was a charity so at least it was noble but what about clients such as 'John West' & 'L'Oreal Paris' who have a reputation that extends years back who are capitalising on this opportunity to make students do all the work for them and not pay them a thing?

Is no-one concerned about how far this could go and how long until other companies start doing the same?

Just to clarify, we're not just talking about asking members of the public some market research questions. No, we're talking fully responsive and comprehensive websites, as professional as you could expect on your typical google searches.

As project manager on my group, not only did I have a job writing up a radio and television advert script to promote a client but designated the responsibilities of my group members and the look of the project overall. Undoubtedly, these built skills which I appreciated and personally I did not suffer as much as most of my friends had done because I was permitted to retain my hard work for all the time, energy and even more money it cost me.

As far as 'John West' & 'L'oreal Paris' were concerned they didn't let their groups keep their work, under threat of damaging their corporate responsibilities, which is totally understood but asking for all this and then students having nothing to show for it when it comes to building their showreels to make them more employable in their careers, which they've paid to do you've got to ask;

a) Was that totally a waste of their time?
b) Why couldn't it have been a fictional company?
c) Who's to say that they've just paid for a clients new marketing campaign out of their own pocket, if they 'do' choose it? (I've got proof that this has already happened)
d) What's to stop this from happening again?


I attempted to speak up on this with my unit lecturer, who for this project picks up the role of 'Programme Leader' yet most groups including my own found her completely redundant, yet her salary is being paid by students to actually take an interest in their futures - go figure!
Trying to address my concerns, even as delicately as I tried, did me no justice and in fact got interrupted very rudely by "NO, are you LISTENING...? Are you LISTENING to me?" as if she was telling off a child, whilst she blindly wondered into telling me that whatever any first year student produced at this point probably wouldn't be good enough to be used on our showreels anyway... TOTAL crapp of course, most groups turned in A-rate stuff, even I was surprised how amazing we did & by the looks and feedback of these clients, to hell with showreels, they wanted that work straightaway.

Admittedly, a couple of students may get swept up by these people but so what, that's a couple and its their choice and what about working with more related clients such as BBC, C4, Sky or ITV? Another thing to mention, where on Earth were the PR & Marketing students during this entire process? After producing this work, we were then expected to tell them how they were to use it. NOBODY in that room was pursuing this field, apart from a close friend of the uni who was eager to take the credit and then said "I'd like to thank the programme managers & clients on your (the students') behalf."
- despite the voice we'd provided for all these clients, he obviously thought we were incapable of speech. Clearly, another individual who had been spending most of his life talking instead of listening if you ask me.

Everything you have just read you're forced to absorb and move on or you don't complete your degree, c'mon - open your eyes. Another reason why the raising of the tuition fees makes no sense towards creatives.

This world will always need people like us, so how about a bit of respect, we've bloody earned it & proved it from this example alone.