Netflix's upcoming fantasy series Shadow and Bone, based on Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy and Six of Crows duology, will premiere on April 23d, and after the release of a high-budget teaser trailer the promotion is in full swing. As part of the efforts to publicize Shadow and Bone, the Twitter account for the series posted a contest addressed to fan artists, inviting them "to enter an original design inspired by the Netflix Original Series Shadow and Bone that you believe worthy to hang in the Little Palace for a chance to win this most esteemed honor."
Fans were asked to use the hashtag #grishaart to submit their entries. Besides "honor," the only prize offered was a single annual subscription to Netflix, valued at USD 167.88. However, the actual conditions of the contest included a clause that took all rights to the art away from the winner and any fan artist who submitted an entry, as well as the chance that they would not be credited at all for use of the art in the show's promotional material. The submission guidelines indicated that all artwork should be submitted without any watermarks, which would make identifying the artist even more difficult.
This didn't go well with fans of the books, who up to this point had been supportive and happy that Leigh Bardugo's work was getting its own series. Many comments pointed out that for almost nine years the community had thrived on fan art and that Netflix's marketing campaign was exploitative; they should, at the very least, offer a real monetary prize for the winner of the contest and commit to crediting their work across any media -- or better yet, to properly commission and pay one of them.
Author Sam Sykes chimed in, noting that Netflix had enough money to pay artists fairly for their labor. Courtney Milan, a successful romance author and lawyer, commented that at the very least Netflix would be liable if people submitted other artists' work without their consent, and Netflix used it.
However, the campaign's loudest detractors were the biggest fans of the books, who proceeded to flood the #GrishaArt hashtag with purposely bad art quickly sketched on simplistic software.
A day after announcing the contest, Shadow and Bone's Twitter account announced that submissions were closed due to the many concerns that had been raised by the fan community on both Twitter and Instagram.
Marketing campaigns disguised as contests can be effective, but the minimal consideration and legal language designed to protect Netflix from liability left the existing Shadow and Bone fanbase feeling exploited. A similar incident took place on May 2020 when Disney+'s Twitter Account posted two tweets that led fans to believe that Star Wars was claiming ownership of the #Maythe4th hashtag.
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