Campaigning for an Award

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

[sub]Is it MPSIMS? Is it IMHO? Is it the Pit? Is it GD? I just don’t know…[/sub]

Lately I’ve heard talk of a billboard near Madison Square Garden which encourages Heisman Trophy voters to vote for a specific player.

I also note that, around Oscar® time, trade publications will print ads from studios encouraging Academy voters to select their movie/director/star etc. for whatever award.

Does anybody besides me think that to campaign for an award is to somehow lessen it? For instance, let’s say the Cecil Adams and Ed Zotti establish the award for Best Work of Non-Fiction Ever Published, Excluding Works by Cecil Adams or Ed Zotti. If I won the award, it would be a great honor. But if I won the award in part or in full because I vigorously campaigned for it, wouldn’t that make it a bit less of an honor?

Does anybody else understand what I’m getting at? Does anybody else agree with me?

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I understand you perfectly. For the most part, I agree with you.

However, in the case of the Oscars, while the campaigning is unseemly and results in things like “Chocolat” getting shoe-horned into Best Picture nominations, there is some merit to the idea that if you don’t advertise a little, you won’t stand a chance, because no one will bother to see your movie. And you may in fact be completely deserving of the award. So smaller, lesser known films campaigning I can understand. I

But overall, I think you are right.