Who do I contact?

[Ed62]

Okay, LOML came up with an idea for a great commercial for General Motors. Who do we contact to see if they're interested in her idea? I mean, I know we don't contact Ford Motor Company, but should we contact someone at GM, or are the advertising agencies, who work for GM, responsible for handling everything?

Ed

[sparkeyjames]

GM hires hi priced ad agency's for this sort of thing. Find out who they use submit your idea and get a rejection letter of your very own suitable for framing.

[LCHIEN]

Generally its a land mine for companies to accept outside ideas. They will often send them back as a matter of policy. The people who make decisions don't look at them.

The reason: Suppose they just committed to spend $10M on a campaign to develop a product or a advertising campaign. Shortly after they start they get a letter from someone who suggests somthing similar, or mabye just has one element of what they're doing, it doesn't have to be exactly identical. Fundamentally they have developed the idea on their own however, once they look at an unsolicited idea that has some of t he same elements, they are open to charges that they stole this person's work without compensation. A lawsuit on that person's behalf could be very expensive, time consuming and embaressing, even if the idea was previously developed independently and beforehand.

For that reason, its hard to get an original idea accepted or even looked at by a large corporation.

If its a product or invention, the best thing to do is to patent it and secure your rights (at a sizble cost to you) and when you see someone infringing on your patent then you have the legal right to pursue them in court. This tkae legal representation as well as someone keeping an eye on applicable industries to see who may be using your idea. Of course you might get lucky and maybe the company will buy your patent or a license when they see the patent.

With promotional ideas its much harder to patent or copy right, I suppose a copyright could be obtained preventing similar slogans or promotions.

It's not easy for the independent inventor/idea guys.

[Ed62]

Thanks for the replies. That's pretty much what I thought. I'll get a spot ready on the wall. I've always wanted a framed rejection.

Ed

[Ken Massingale]

Ford may pay more to keep it off the air!

[Stytooner]

I have folders upon folders of rejection letters for my cartoons. It's that folder with the acceptance letters that I value more. It really helped because they were accompanied by checks.

Loring is correct. Unsolicited submissions won't even be looked at. If the company is accepting submissions, you need to call or write to requestions submission guidelines and formats as well as who exactly to submit to.

There are many places to look for a start. The best I have found is writer's market annuals. They are filled with info you might need as well as addresses and formats.