The Day I Pissed Off Cher’s Fans

As much as any straight man in America, I love Cher. Her career speaks for itself. Her eulogy for Sonny Bono was among the most poignant speeches I’ve ever heard and said as much about her as him.

I follow Cher on Twitter along with 3.53 million others. Sunday afternoon (not an NFL fan) she posted:

Would anyone like to play around with a Logo for…
“The Cher Show”
Focus is on letters,
Intricate Designs take attention away from from point

This is a sensitive subject to anyone who makes a living as an artist. It is the stuff memes are made of! For a variety of reasons you shouldn’t ask people to work without offering to compensate them.

I saw Cher’s tweet as it entered the system. I responded quickly enough that it was noted by her fans.

Cher — Please don’t do this. Of course your fans will provide you with designs, but isn’t this something you should be paying for to help support the increasingly difficult job of being a designer? I know you mean no harm.

Let the flames begin!

My reply to Cher was liked 103 times, an astronomical amount for one of my Twitter posts. It was also disliked in a bunch of comments.

Lmao wouldn’t the publicity an upcoming designer receive from something like this be way more valuable in the long run? Think outside the box of monetary compensation

That’s a pretty typical gut level reaction. The designers who responded said, “No.” A lot of people overvalue working for publicity alone.

In the end I hope Cher heeds my message. The best way to encourage artists is to pay them fairly.

7 thoughts on “The Day I Pissed Off Cher’s Fans”

  1. I totally agree with you. cher can cerrtainly afford to pay for the design of a logo. I would hope that was her plan all along.

  2. Sadly, this kind of logic (working for free) is prevalent in the literary field. Too often a lot of small e-zines want people to contribute stories to them, lock them in with restrictive, punitive contracts and tell them they should be “happy” with the exposure.

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