Agency Nil Challenges Crispin And Losing Bidders Of Their eBay Intern Auction

We mentioned the creation of Agency Nil recently. And some of you may have heard of Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s latest effort, where they auctioned the services of 40 of their interns for 3 months, via eBay. The winning bid, by Brammo, if anyone is wondering, was $17,655!

Agency Nil has now challenged CP+B, as well as all the losing bidders of the auction. They will complete a project in the same period of time for half the price, i.e $8,827.50, with a caveat that says that if the person who accepts the deal feels the final output is worth more or less, they only need to pay that much, in keeping with Agency Nil’s business model. The first person or client to accept this proposal will get their business, but if more than one bidder surfaces, Agency Nil has enough resources – drawn from top graduate programs and advertising agencies – to do two.

The motivation behind this is best explained by Hank Leber, who set up Agency Nil. He says:

This is not how “pay what it’s worth” is supposed to work, because the way this one came about (an eBay stunt riding on Crispin’s platinum equity) got Brammo into a deal where they’re paying $17k for work that is often done for free, or in Crispin’s case, minimum wage.

And for the interns, a whopping $465 per person for three months of working equates to 2 extra cups of coffee a day.  So they’re working as interns work – because it’s there and because they’re told to – and the work they will do will be intern work.  The same intern work that is done at most of the fine agencies all over the country, for free.

This is not a slam on Crispin’s quality.  They are certainly deserving of all acclaim and respect, but their interns aren’t – and that’s what Brammo bought.