Is the Baby of The Year Contest Legit or a Scam?
As a mother of two adorable children – a nine months old and a two year old, I’m pretty much sceptical about contests involving kids. When I received the notification for Good Housekeeping Baby of The Year, I doubted its legitimacy then decided to do an Investigation about the contest. Here’s what I discovered;
- The website ‘babyoftheyear.org’ was registered on March 2024 and expires on March 2025. It could either shut down by then or be renewed for a 2025 baby of the year contest.
- The contest is hosted by Colossal Management LLC, which is actually just a “Professional Fundraiser sometimes called a commercial fundraiser for charitable purposes.
- The Baby Of The Year Competition is actually part of a fundraising campaign for DTCare. This information could be found on babyoftheyear.org Disclosure page.
- It’s endorsed by Jessica Alba, an American actress whose Honest Company was sued by shareholders for alleged fraud for failing to disclose essential details about sales and the coronavirus .
Good Housekeeping Baby of The Year – A Fair or Foul Contest?
The competition which has been dubbed ‘Good Housekeeping Baby of The Year’ claims the cutest baby will appear on ‘Good Housekeeping’ magazine and also take home $25,000.
However, what they don’t tell parents beforehand is that everyone wins the first round which is free. The next rounds involve fierce contesting via paid votes to progress in the competition.
While I understand that the money gotten from the paid votes are donated to charitable causes, there’s something pretty sketchy about the contest.
Is It a Scam?
Collosal.org is mentioned as the organization powering the contest. They get people to pay money for votes which they claim are donated. Reading the rules page, Only 50% is donated. The “Fundraising Campaign” operator – DTCare – takes LITERALLY 50% of all donations, which they justify as “competition fees” (36.5%) and “variable costs” (13.5%).
Hundreds of thousands to millions may be donated.
Let’s break it down: suppose the contest gathers $200,000 in donations, after deducting 50% for various fees and costs, they would end up with about $100,000. Reflecting on these numbers leads me to ponder the transparency and distribution of these funds. The simple fact that 50% is for-profit for an online contest seems wildly inefficient, as per a peer.
My Opinion
From my perspective, the Good Housekeeping Baby of The Year contest seems to prioritize money over talent or should I say beauty? The aim for this contest is mainly for profit purpose and not for charity. A total of (up to) 51% of any person’s donation goes to the middleman. Then the rest goes to the charity they actually promote.
The free votes done through Facebook sometimes is problematic. After voting my facebook account got flagged for suspicious logins and was subscribed to some colossal facebook page.
My investigations on past winners of Collosal.org contests yielded conflicting results. I don’t think there are actual winners in the end.
Having discovered all these, I’m backing off from the contest. Would you pay for votes? Please share your opinion in the comment section!
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maria