Ad agency TBWA has launched a thing called ‘The Big What Adventure’. (See what they’ve done there?). It’s billed as "An experiment whose goal is to both seek out and nourish creativity, wherever it may be." The TBWA site invites visitors to "submit ideas for real briefs", and come up with creative concepts for ad campaigns.

The site promises a "reward" for anyone who comes up with an idea which is used. However, as spotted by a few observers, the small print on the site says…

In submitting your user content you understand that TBWA and its clients will be able to use, reproduce, develop, implement, adapt, distribute and promote all user content in any form and in all media, anywhere in the world, for any purpose, without payment to you.

Some have accused TBWA of getting the public to do their work for them. Planning director Neil Hourston says on Gamestyle.net, "Thebigwhatadventure.com is an experiment in open source creativity – nothing more, nothing less.

"More and more creative ideas and campaigns are non-traditional in their form, often relying on what we would conventionally call ‘consumers’ to at the least participate in – and often construct – the campaign itself.

"We are not relying on ‘outsiders’ to crack the brief – we have invited them to participate in the creative process with the full consent of our clients," he continued.

"If and when an ‘outsider’ cracks the brief, we will reward them appropriately – in much the same way as we would reward one of the many work experience placements that travel through our creative department on a regular basis."

This isn’t entirely accurate as creative placements tend to be paid a salary rather than a fee for ideas that get made. And given that placements usually earn not far off minimum UK wage, the offer is not exactly a fast track to riches.

Before you rush to the site to post piss-taking spoof ideas (as I was tempted to do) be warned that it’s not as open source as all that. Another extract from the small print:

"thebigwhatadventure is a monitored site.  All user content submitted is reviewed first by a moderator and screened for inappropriate content before being uploaded onto the site.   TBWA has no obligation to post any user content submitted.  TBWA may edit, remove or delete any user content which it does not consider is acceptable."

Hmmm. I wonder if ‘inappropriate’ includes ideas that are just crap.

I guess at least TBWA is trying to do something a bit different. But I’ll be amazed if any of the ideas submitted to the site get past creative director Steve Henry and turn into reality.