Every so often, students walking through the McMaster University Student Centre are met with faces of The Beatles, large maps of the world and even prints of Banksy’s most popular works.
The Imaginus poster sale, which has been touring Canadian university and college campuses since 1975, is a staple of the university experience. It is not uncommon to see their posters plastered over the walls of dorms and off-campus housing.
The Imaginus poster sale is happening right now in MUSC!
Make sure to check it out before they leave tomorrow 🙂#McSU pic.twitter.com/FfDqEesAgc
— MSU Campus Events (@msucampusevents) January 31, 2019
At first glance, the poster sales seem innocent enough. For under $10, you can get away with two good-sized posters of your favourite band or quote — what could be wrong with that?
A lot, actually. The Imaginus poster sale has been critiqued in the past for selling posters that promote cultural appropriation, and poster sales in general have been scrutinized for the ethics of selling reproduced and borderline copyright-infringement artwork. This can especially raise eyebrows as it is rare that the collected profits ever reach the original artists.
But beyond the possible problematic nature of the content of their posters, the Imaginus poster sales take away opportunities from student artists. As it stands, McMaster University students cannot sell their artwork on campus for a profit.
According to the Policy on Student Groups, student groups on campus “may not engage in activities that are essentially commercial in nature.”
This policy is what caused the shutdown of an art sale by McMaster’s Starving Artists Society last year. The club is made up of student artists and creatives that are looking to expand their portfolio and reach a wider audience.
The event that was shut down was meant to be an opportunity for student artists to market their artwork to their peers and even profit off of their hard work. Many of Mac’s student artist community are involved with SAS and were negatively affected by the university’s decision to shut the event down.
Essentially, the university has allowed Imaginus to have an unfair monopoly on selling art on campus. For a university that already arguably disvalues the arts, to dissuade student artists from profiting from their work is a serious matter.
This brings to light a larger issue at hand. Why should any students be disallowed to sell their products on campus — especially when outside companies are given space in our student centre to sell their products?
This situation unfortunately reflects the situation of many non-student local artists within the community. In our corporate world, it is extremely difficult to establish a reliable clientele and profit off of one’s work. Mass commercialized products inherently cost less and as a result, this drives away sales from local artists.
As the university makes a profit from the poster sales, and in general from any vendors on campus, it is unlikely that this issue will be addressed anytime soon.
Until it is, you can support local and student artists through sharing their work, reaching out to them and contributing towards their sales. The SAS also runs art crawls and other events where students can get in contact with student artists!
Everyone has a Friends poster in their house. When you buy local and student, not only are you supporting your peers, but you’re likely acquiring higher quality and truly unique works of art.
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By: Saad Ejaz
The second annual Great Canadian Sales Competition is underway this year. With 60 participating schools, the competition is beginning to gain momentum. This is partially due to its major sponsors, which include Google, Air Canada, Xerox and Purolator.
The GCSC is one of Canada’s biggest national student competitions, and invites universities and colleges across the country to take part this year.
The aim of the competition is to make students more aware of the sales industry. Sonya Meloff, the cofounder of the Sales Talent Agency and Great Canadian Sales Competition believes this will help a new generation become interested in sales.
“There is so much misconception of sales as a profession. There is a real lack of knowledge, and sales just isn’t highlighted as an area of study . . . Our intention with the competition was really to highlight sales as a profession, celebrate sales as a profession and promote the profession. And we hope to be a conduit to getting students in front of amazing employers and hopefully getting as many as possible into amazing job opportunities,” said Meloff.
The competition consists of three rounds, and participants are required to use their sales skills to advance through them. To enter the competition, students are required to submit a video pitch about a product or service of their interest. After making it to the second round, participants work with one of the competition’s big-name sponsors to create a pitch for a novel product or service in line with the company’s interest.
Michael Coté, the Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Purolator showed his enthusiasm for upcoming GCSC. “It is pretty rewarding internally for the sales leaders at Purolator to help and work with our sponsored competitor and help them succeed . . . We help prepare our finalists, and where I feel that most of the fun for us next is to see them presenting in the final round and cheering them on,” he said.
The final round consists of finalists presenting their pitch to a panel of judges made up of executives from Canada’s leading companies. Coté is one of the judges this year in the final round.
All the finalists of the competition win a trip to Toronto, up to $7,500 and a chance to meet the executives from Canada’s leading companies.
Finalist from last year’s GCSC, Rachele Benjamin, stated that although she did not pursue a career in sales, she was able to learn valuable skills and lessons from the competition. “It's important that if you're looking for a career, you approach every opportunity with an open mind. Guaranteed, if nothing else, you will learn a lot from entering and giving it your best shot,” she explained.
The ability to network, construct and present ideas are skills that are pivotal to many jobs in the workforce today. The ability to build on these skills is a fundamental aspect to learn before entering a professional setting and the GCSC hopes to continue helping students find their niche in the field.
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