Regional "Emmy Award Winners" are frauds and should go to prison.

Eric Coughlin

Eric Coughlin

Veteran
Here's why. So, there are the Primetime (Nationwide) Emmy Award's and congrats to all those who win those as those are not easy to win. Then there are the regional Emmy's which from what I've gathered all you have to do to win is pay the entry fee, submit, and you'll probably end up winning something. Ridiculously easy. Now you can call yourself an "Emmy Award Winning" filmmaker.

Except, the deceit lies in that when you put this on your website, tell you clients, etc., most "Emmy Award Winners" in the video industry do not clarify that these are just regional Emmy's, which are ridiculously easy to win and hold very little real merit. So, they're basically lying and misleading clients to believe they've won some big national award when that is not the case. Then, these clients who have all heard of the Emmy awards and assume the video company won a Primetime award hire and pay money to the video company often based on this lie. The biggest problem with this is just how rampant the deception is as I see so many video companies listing themselves as Emmy award winners while not clarifying they were just regional Emmy's.

Now, the Emmy organization uses these regional awards as a cash grab and it's in their best interest to give out as many awards as possible to get more people to sign the entry fees so more people can get awards. Thus, the only way to end this is to spread awareness of the misleading marketing tactics that many in our industry are using, and from our end here on a video forum, to hopefully discourage people from using such misleading marketing tactics. Now if one just wants to go to these ceremonies, hang out with friends, win awards, pat each other on the back, etc., I see no problem with that. It's when they use it as a fraudulent marketing tactic that it becomes problematic.

I'm not aware of having personally directly lost any clients myself due to this (though indirectly I wouldn't be surprised if I have), but I do know one video production company owner who said he lost a client to a competitor who the client had said was an "Emmy Award Winner," whose video production work was low quality, and trying to explain to the uninformed client that a regional Emmy is a meritless award wouldn't be likely to rectify the situation. So, yes, using regional Emmy's can potentially boost your business and apparent credibility, but as far as I see it, it is fraud.


The definition of fraud is...

"wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain."

"a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities."

In conclusion, people who are regional Emmy Award winners and lead on clients to falsely believe they are Primetime Emmy's, and don't make an effort to clarify the "regional" aspect to clients, are frauds and should go to prison.

And should be shamed.

 
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I hear you on this in theory, Eric. I recognized that weird discrepancy between primetime and regional Emmys years ago and have always reacted negatively to those who have flaunted their regional Emmys (but then again I have a knee-jerk reaction to anybody who self-describes themselves as "award-winning" when it comes down to it). I would have to say though that it is only fraudulent if they claim to have won a Primetime Emmy if they have not. The regional ones are unfortunately still considered Emmys, so there's nothing misrepresentational there.

Even amongst the Primetime ones there is some inequality. On the broadcast/live TV side they hand out statues to crewmembers like candy--most regularly working live TV camera operators I know have a cabinet full of them. While it is incredibly competitive for the two cinematography Emmys, ironically the way to get one as a DP in the broadcast world is to make sure you have operated a camera yourself--I got shut out of a nomination a few years ago while the operators I hired got named!

Ultimately, one gains a bit of perspective on all of it. I have become less impressed with that type of "recognition" knowing that it is a highly political game often coupled with a lack of comprehension from the voting body on what they are even voting on. But that's a whole other rant.

Casting back to when I worked in a small market and constantly dealt with the kind of issue you describe--yep, that's frustrating all right.
 
CharlesPapert said:
(but then again I have a knee-jerk reaction to anybody who self-describes themselves as "award-winning" when it comes down to it).
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Well if someone won an Academy Award for say Best Cinematography for example and called themself an Academy Award winning cinematographer, I think that would be well deserved. Sure, the bigger awards may still be full of politics in who wins, but I'd still say it'd be impressive regardless and worth advertising oneself as. From what you described, a Primetime Emmy for Cinematography would be a big deal as well. Not saying the Academy Awards are perfect, but I am glad they don't have regional Academy Awards to confuse things with.

At the smaller level I like to participate in, the 48 Hour Film project you can win locally, but the worldwide competition is called by a different name, Filmapalooza, so there is a differentiation between the local and the national winners. This is good, and unfortunate that the distinction with the Emmy's is less clear since both the regional and primetime Emmy's are both called Emmy's, and many fail to put in the "regional" part of their award.


CharlesPapert said:
I would have to say though that it is only fraudulent if they claim to have won a Primetime Emmy if they have not.
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Perhaps as far as the letter of the law is concerned, but from an ethical standpoint, deception is deception. If one intentionally leaves out the "regional" part when listing "Emmy Award Winning" on their site or wherever, they are likely intentionally trying to deceive clients into thinking it's a primetime award.
 
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Eric, I brought that argument here before with one of awarded editors, wouldn't make you popular here, get ready for downvoting.

I would post a link to that post, but censorship here is too strong.
From 391 posts I made here, only 196 show up.
And server throws errors when want to go through archives.

This make any attempt to leave written trail on any subject futile.
Why would you invest time to make a research and then you find out it's gone?

Anyway, I respect the right of having different opinion on subjects, but please let the reader decide what's the weight of given argument.

Sometime society couldn't comprehend the given conception, sometimes we are just plain wrong, but please leave it as is.

Because communication is the key for society to prosper. And people do change.
 
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Eric Coughlin said:
Well if someone won an Academy Award for say Best Cinematography for example and called themself an Academy Award winning cinematographer, I think that would be well deserved.
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Deserved perhaps, but it's hardly humble to describe oneself that way, one leaves that up to others (or your publicist, ha). This is just a personal reflection of mine, I don't necessarily expect others to agree. It's like carpet-bombing a short to 150 film festivals then slathering your promo materials with laurels--other than for show and ego, I don't get the point.

Literally anytime I see a bio that describes the person as "award-winning", I flinch. And yes, I flinch a lot.
 
I had no idea that it was so easy to get a Regional Emmy, now all I have to do is save some money and... oh yeah, ethics. :(
 
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I'm surprised in your body of experience you have not ran into this before Eric, it's so common in our business. I discovered what a sham awards are back in the 90s when I had a salesperson for our company
do the same thing for my company, they signed us up for every pay for play award on the market at the time, mainly to fill up our awards cabinet we had in the lobby where
very occasionally, clients would sit.

The Cindys, Tellys, Regional Emmys, all of these awards that you have never heard of (other than the Emmys) are a scam to make money for
the organizers, you pay an entry fee, they award you some bogus category award, then you pay them a few hundred bucks for a stupid hunk of plastic or glass. I remember the
trophy cabinet kept getting more and more full and I had little to nothing to do with "winning" the awards in that I didn't enter them or pay for the trophies (directly), someone at
my company did. I never tracked if those stupid hunks of plastic ever got us more business. I recall when we moved, I spent a few hours chucking them into the
dumpster out back. That was fun.

Awards in general, in life, mean very little and fortunately these days, I find most clients dont really care about them or are impressed by them. The HBO film I shot for my director friend that just won the Critics Choice Award,
I'm happy for him but in the world of landing work, nobody has hired me because I shot it, I don't use that in marketing because who cares? It may help him to secure another film sale to HBO, possibly, but for me, it doesn't do
much. Life's too short to worry about what schmuck competitors are up to, you're a talented, solid DP and a funny guy, that should get you more work than you can handle. Those people you see doing this, roll your eyes and get
on with your day.
 
puredrifting said:
I'm surprised in your body of experience you have not ran into this before Eric, it's so common in our business.
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Oh, I've seen it plenty before. I just came across it again today which prompted the topic.



CharlesPapert said:
Deserved perhaps, but it's hardly humble to describe oneself that way, one leaves that up to others (or your publicist, ha). This is just a personal reflection of mine, I don't necessarily expect others to agree. It's like carpet-bombing a short to 150 film festivals then slathering your promo materials with laurels--other than for show and ego, I don't get the point.

Literally anytime I see a bio that describes the person as "award-winning", I flinch. And yes, I flinch a lot.
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Going to Emmanuel Lubezski's website I see his Academy Awards are listed on his resume.

https://wp-a.com/clients/emmanuel-lubezki#narrative

https://admin.wp-a.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/LUBEZKI-Emmanuel-DP.pdf


I think if you win an award that is an actual challenge to win, that requires talent and skill to win, there is nothing wrong with using that to help market yourself. It's these awards like the regional Emmy's that bother me because they mostly just take an entry fee to win, not actual talent, along with in the Emmy's case, are often confused by the uninformed with the Primetime Emmy's, and thus often are used by people to mislead clients.

I guess I do mostly agree as I also get annoyed when a filmmaker describes themself generically as "award winning." Because the follow up is always, "What award did you win? Anyone can win an award. What's the point of saying you did what anyone can do?" That said, when I see, "Academy Award winning," that actually means something, like how trailers often list the Academy Award winning actors in the cast list. If you told me there was a movie coming out with 10 Academy Award winning actors in it, my initial thought would be, "That sounds like a really good cast."

I'm rather proud of the 48 Hour Film projects I've won as the competition for them can be stiff particularly at the worldwide level, and I do use that to some degree in my marketing, though I've never anywhere described myself generically as an "award winning filmmaker."
 
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CharlesPapert said:
Deserved perhaps, but it's hardly humble to describe oneself that way, one leaves that up to others (or your publicist, ha). This is just a personal reflection of mine, I don't necessarily expect others to agree. It's like carpet-bombing a short to 150 film festivals then slathering your promo materials with laurels--other than for show and ego, I don't get the point.

Literally anytime I see a bio that describes the person as "award-winning", I flinch. And yes, I flinch a lot.
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Flinching right there with you - I completely agree with this, Charles. In fact, I've learned from 25+ years of experience that is it usually those with the biggest egos - or at least those who prance & preen for attention the most - often have very little talent. And conversely, those who are very talented usually let their work speak for itself.
 
markfpv said:
Flinching right there with you - I completely agree with this, Charles. In fact, I've learned from 25+ years of experience that is it usually those with the biggest egos - or at least those who prance & preen for attention the most - often have very little talent. And conversely, those who are very talented usually let their work speak for itself.
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That's why I market myself as an "award-losing filmmaker." Jk
 
I judged Emmy's one year in my area and all I can say is, it was an excruciating experience. Much of the work submitted was literally just 3 or 4 camera coverage of stage performances. And, there's a minimum duration you have to watch each piece in order to judge it, which as I recall, wasn't even 1/2.
 
I truthfully could not name even one Emmy Award winner with certainty. Although I could probably guess many big names who might have one.

If that's me - someone who probably should know who exactly won some of these awards - I assume the rest of the population outside of this specific circle, industry might not know either.

___

IMO, in today's world, all of these awards blur together. I think the only award that matters is the one where your work is forever remembered by millions...for at least one century.

Like Vince Gilligan. I don't know how many awards he won, or what he won, or didn't win, but I know he created BB.

And that understanding and knowledge that millions of people have about him is much more important than any trophy you could possibly ever receive.

___

That's the kind of award I'd want in a life of pursuing this kind of goal.

Being the best and acknowledged by the world that you've created something that's universally considered the best.
 
I see local news shows promote their broadcasters in commercials as regional Emmy winners fairly regularly.
 
I think it is great that you have an award system to recognize excellence in television, like you have one for film. The Emmy Awards, have a special place since so many more people have access to the programming than cinema since not everyone goes to the movies so to speak. The regional Emmy awards I guess have a place I guess too but should probably be renamed. I can certainly see Eric's point and see this use of the Emmy award often in other user groups and sites where some authors or reviewers list as their qualifications a dozen and a half Emmy awards. Does not impress me, because I know and understand that they are all probably regional awards. The person may be good, not saying they are not, just as Charles mentioned, they might need a dose of reality or humility. The down side is definitely when it comes to clients, who see these bona fides as a guarantee of excellent work and then perpetuate the farce. Up here north of your border we have awards but I would be at a loss to name them, don't really give a damn about them either. Best award is a sincere thanks from the last client you work for that helps you get the next client you are gonna work for..... Together with the recognition of your peers with a "did you shoot that? Nice work!" that is in my mind the bottom line. Happy New Year!
 
These are real awards. Solid metal. No silly virtual laurels. Only for the films that made the public laugh. And you can use them as a paperweight.

Sadly only online now. But a bit of fun during the corona lockdown: stay home stay save and watch comedy
https://goldensmile.festivee.com/

award.jpg
 
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Everything is relative though. You could be a 48 Hour Film Festival winner in a small city without much competition or you could be a winner in LA or NYC. Either way you’re still a winner against a pool of competitors that was determined by your geography.

Regional Emmys are the same way. They are to award content creators that made content specifically for their own region. I suspect the region that includes LA has much stiffer competition than some other areas of the country, but that shouldn’t minimize someone winning an award in a less competitive market.

The “big Emmys” - assuming you mean Primetime Emmys and not all of the other national Emmy award competitions (Daytime, News and Documentary, Sports, Engineering and International) isn’t a step above regional Emmy competition per se, it is a different competition altogether that awards national television programming, that is content that was created for a national audience that aired between 6pm and 2am - hence bigger audiences, bigger budgets, stronger competition, and more mainstream, national prestige for winning the award because more people have heard of the programs that win.

One doesn’t win a Regional Emmy because they weren’t good enough for a Primetime Emmy, just as one wouldn’t win a Sports Emmy because they weren’t good enough to win a Daytime Emmy, they win because out of everything that was submitted they created the best regional content intended primarily for their regional audience. For example, if Spielberg makes a great commercial for USC Film School and it only airs in the southwest part of the country, it’s not eligible for any of the national Emmy awards, it’s only eligible for a regional Emmy. If USC submits it for a regional Emmy and it wins, should Spielberg not accept the award in protest?

I see your point with people perhaps posturing as a Primetime winner, but if you make something that is eligible to win an Emmy award in your region and you beat out your competition and win an Emmy should you not say that you’re an Emmy award winner? Should someone that wins a Engineering Emmy add their own asterisk on their trophy that says “Not a Primetime Emmy”?
 
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I picked up a "Sports" Emmy nomination year before last (for some work I did for NBC for the Winter Olympics). Is that one a fraud too, or are they different from "regional" Emmys?
 
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