Why I never join the Greatest Baker contest or other similar contests online
if it smells fishy, it's fishy
Rethinking 'Greatest Baker' Contest: Financial Gain vs. Charitable Giving
Dear friend,
As a baking enthusiast, I was intrigued by the "Greatest Baker" contest some time ago. However, after thoroughly examining its structure, particularly the financial aspect, I have chosen not to participate or support it through voting. This is purely my personal stance based on my understanding and observations.
A Personal Experience with Solicitation: A friend's mother recently approached my mother, requesting votes for the contest. This simple ask quickly turned into a nudge on the website towards using a credit card for paid or "donation" votes.
$250 = 250 votes…
My mother asked me why a credit card was needed when she tried to vote for my friend, and she seemed confused and thought something was fishy, even though Mom’s the trusting, gullible type anyone can scam.
Even after making it to the top of this round, my friend would have multiple more rounds to compete in, each needing more friends and family to “donate” to get more votes beyond their one free vote a day.
Another troubling fact is there are multiple groups of contenders, so even if you are the top contender in your group, you will have to keep going through rounds of voting…
And let’s say you have 100 friends voting for you on the first day. You will lose to someone with one friend who pays for 250 votes that same day…
Hypothetical situation:
This method of soliciting financial support by leveraging personal relationships felt quite uncomfortable.
Only 50% is donated… Hundreds of thousands to millions may be donated, and the simple fact that 50% is for-profit for an online contest seems wildly inefficient, as per a peer.
Hypothetical Financial Overview: Let's consider a hypothetical scenario: suppose the contest gathers $500,000 in donations for the year 2023 for a non-profit like DTCare. After deducting 50% for various fees and costs and considering DTCare's 1% retention, they would end up with about $255,000. Reflecting on these numbers leads me to ponder the transparency and distribution of these funds. (The deductions and retention percentages are from the contest’s rule page found here.
Last Year's Earnings: With $1.5 million raised for charity last year, as per this source, was a similar amount pocketed as profit (fee deductions and costs) from votes, totaling a little less than $1.5 million?
We have not dived deeper into DTCare, but here are their numbers, and if you’d like to dive deeper, we welcome you to. In 2021, they received nearly $500,000 in financial donations. About $22,000 that year went to wages/salary…
Ethical and Transparency Concerns: In my opinion, the contest's association with charitable organizations like The Andrew McDonough Be Positive Foundation and unclear details about DTCare's involvement raise questions. In my view, there are more straightforward ways to support charitable causes – direct donations or participating in events where a significant portion of the proceeds directly benefit the charity.
A Plea for Fair Practices: From my perspective, the contest seems to prioritize financial transactions over actual baking talent, resembling aspects of multi-level marketing. I advocate for contests that focus on skill and creativity, where success is determined by talent, not the ability to solicit paid votes. The mix of charitable giving with what appears to be high-profit margins is, in my opinion, a cause for concern about the contest's true purpose.
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A critical aspect of my reluctance stems from the apparent emphasis on financial transactions in determining the contest winner. It seems that contestants who can solicit the most votes, especially paid ones, are more likely to win. This approach shifts the focus from baking talent to financial capability, which I find problematic.
In conclusion, while I strongly support charitable causes, I'm cautious about endorsing platforms that may exploit participants for significant financial gain under the guise of charity. I believe in transparent, ethical, and skill-based competitions that truly honor the art of baking and the spirit of giving. This, of course, is just my opinion, and I respect that others may view it differently.
I encourage you to form your own opinions and judgments, and I won’t judge you for participating. Don’t, however, solicit me, my family, or my platform and community for votes.
*this is an opinion piece by a food journalist and I implore investigative journalists to dive deeper into this
Further reading:
https://www.classaction.org/news/hero-votes-favorite-chef-contest-is-an-illegal-lottery-class-action-alleges
https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/dining/2021/02/24/favorite-chef-competition-scam-controversy/4546938001/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/u4e5as/update_on_crow_vote_llc_americas_favorite_pet/
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