It looks suspiciously like a pay-for-award company that gives out awards to just about any product for parents/educators/related to children or parenting, as long as you pay the “application fee” (although they specifically say an award isn’t guaranteed).
I mean looking at their website they seem to give out an awful lot of awards, and they mention that for $500, you’ll get to use their award seal on your product and receive 100 award stickers, and for $1,500 you get more stickers, plus they’ll post about your product on their website.
Call me crazy, but I’d think that if an award isn’t guaranteed, they’d make you pay for the initial application to start with, and then (assuming you “win” an award) they’d offer to promote your product for an additional payment, once they’ve decided that you’re eligible. The fact that they talk so openly about how paying a larger application fee gets you promoted on their site (and some other stuff) makes it seem suspiciously like a pay-for-award scheme to me.
For Level Two applications that don’t meet the criteria for an award, a refund is
issued for the licensing portion of the application fee less any applied discounts.
An award is not guaranteed. Marketing and publicty benefits are
only extended to applicants who meet the criteria for the award.
Apparently they’ll only feature you if you’re eligible for an award and refund you the enhanced part of the application if you’re product is ineligible. They do have the criteria for eligibility further down the page and it seems pretty open to interpretation.
It looks suspiciously like a pay-for-award company that gives out awards to just about any product for parents/educators/related to children or parenting, as long as you pay the “application fee” (although they specifically say an award isn’t guaranteed).
I mean looking at their website they seem to give out an awful lot of awards, and they mention that for $500, you’ll get to use their award seal on your product and receive 100 award stickers, and for $1,500 you get more stickers, plus they’ll post about your product on their website.
Call me crazy, but I’d think that if an award isn’t guaranteed, they’d make you pay for the initial application to start with, and then (assuming you “win” an award) they’d offer to promote your product for an additional payment, once they’ve decided that you’re eligible. The fact that they talk so openly about how paying a larger application fee gets you promoted on their site (and some other stuff) makes it seem suspiciously like a pay-for-award scheme to me.
I had heard of diploma mills before, but not award mills.
Haven’t you heard about the Guinness Records?
Apparently they’ll only feature you if you’re eligible for an award and refund you the enhanced part of the application if you’re product is ineligible. They do have the criteria for eligibility further down the page and it seems pretty open to interpretation.