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"Name our newborn baby with your brand / corp." By Outsider artist Fred Cruz Read this diary of the event that started as a social commentary and quickly became a prank pulled on 3000 plus internet users aroound the world. Click to view painting July 27, 2001: The Today Show airs story about a couple, Frances Schroeder and Jason Black, who could not figure out what to name their baby-boy-to-be. So, the couple started looking for a corporate sponsor to pay $500,000 for their yet unborn son's name with a corporate brand name. They seek to raise the money by auctioning the privilege to name their baby on ebay.com the money to go towards the purchase of a new home for the family. July 27, 2001: A few hours after this story aired on NBC I painted this picture of a baby with no name as a social commentary and placed the painting on ebay. The auction title for my art work is Name our newborn baby with your brand / corp. July 28, 2001: It is 10:00 AM with 426 visitors to my auction and I have already begun to recieve plenty of angry emails, some directed at me and my artwork and some intended for Mr. Jason Black. July 28, 2001: It is 3:48 PM This date and time is an estimated guess as it was some time later that google.com had indexed the page at WhatTheHeck.com. WhatTheHeck have mirrored the baby auction page from ebay on thier server. As of August 2004 I still recieve about 340 hits a week from their indexed page of the auction. July 29, 2001: It is 10:03 AM with 1533 visitors to my auction and the emails keep pouring in. I have created this news update page and will post a few of the emails I received in regards to my art auction of the No Name Baby. Sample of emails sent to artist Fred Cruz: No.1 You are a capitalist scumbag. Even in jest, your auction is disgusting. You are the mental equivalent of an uneducated, backwater HICK!!!! God-forbid you don't consider the child in the future ( I smell name change in his future). This life is NO ONE'S CORPORATE WHORE. You people are sick excuses for humans. No.2 I feel sorry for anyone who pays for your amateurish, so called art work. It is time to realize your destiny of reciting "would you like fries with that" 75 times a day. No.3 that is sick!!!!! That is a baby not a money maker!!! No.4 May I suggest a name for your baby...My parents are idiots. No.5 You've hit the nail on the head with this painting. Those parents of that new baby should be locked up and a new home found for that little one. No.6 I think you people are sick in the head! How could you put your new born son through such stupidity. It's people like you that should be fixed so you can't have kids. Like life isn't hard enough! Your parents should rename you JACKASS!!! You should be ashamed of yourselves!!!! No.7 Why would you let someone else name your baby. That poor thing was concieved out of love not greed. How hard up for money are you? This has to be the craziest thing I have ever seen. You would risk your baby's life for the sake of money. Have you really thought of how that kid is going to feel in school? How many times he is going to come home with a black eye? Or how many times you are going to make trips to the hospital or school? I feel really bad for your child. Do you think how of much he is going to hate you because you put his name up for auction. The child is going to grow up hating you, and I dont blame him. I am really sorry that you are that hard up for cash. If anyone does take the bid and gives you atleast your askng price are you going to save it for your childs education???? I feel really sorry for you!!!! No.8 You are sick! This is wrong. You are a terrible parent. That is just a small sampling of the emails I have received from around the globe I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I have. July 29, 2001: It is 11:00 AM and I just received an auction cancellation notice from ebay regarding an auction I had bid on titled "Naming rights to my new born baby name NO RES" Here is the email from ebay; Dear Fred Cruz, Please be aware that auction: "1621473266 - Naming rights to my new born baby name NO RES" in which you were a bidding participant, has been ended early by eBay as it appears to offer an item or contains material which is prohibited for sale on eBay. Because the auction was ended early, you as a bidder are not required to complete the transaction. The auction was for the naming rights to a baby goldfish, a goldfish has more rights than a human? Am I missing something here? ebay is still running the auction to enslave a human with a corporate brand name as of 11:00 am 7-28-2001 July 29, 2001 12:12 PM: listed new painting with ebay titled No Name Fish. He is looking for a good home and a name. No Name Fish Auction Listing July 30, 2001 9:30 AM: The counter on my auction page hit overe 2000 last night at around 8 PM, and this mornining at 9:15 AM it was at 2544. The email keeps pouring in at the outrage of the Jason Black family auctioning their child's name. I am in no way associated with the parents of this baby. Let me state for my readers I am an artist and I created this artwork as my social commentary as I do with much of my art. I think Pablo Picaso said it best, "Good art is that which inspires emotion". I may be paraphrasing here but you get my point. I am just glad to perform my function as some kind of an emotional safty valve. Let's all hold the thought that the baby in question will receive plenty of love, care, and a perfect and ideal name. July 30, 2001 10:05 AM : I have received several offers for interviews from publications and radio, so it appears this story has produced quite an audience. I will post air times and locations right here when possible. July 31, 2001 9:00 AM: The emails have slowed to a crawl and the newspapers and radio stations actually thought I was the guy with the baby, duh. There are a couple of new "Name Our Baby" auctions today and ebay pulled another one off the server. I like the "name our baby kitten" auction but that will probly get pulled by ebay soon. There is some computer company with a "Stop the name the baby auction" going on with a big plug for his computer company and their services. Hey, I thought I was the only "No.1" from the list above! Maybe we are related somehow? Ever see us at a party together?
July 31, 2001 4:58 PM: With over 3,495 hits on my auction and 24 bids placed with the high bid of $500.00 for my artwork, ebay has pulled my auction but continues to run the Jason Black auction! What's up with that?
July 31, 2001 5:42 PM: I have uploaded the hot metal of my ebay art auction to this server so you can click here to find out what all the fuss was about. Click here Name our unborn Baby to see my painting. August 1, 2001 8:15 AM: The Jason Black auction that started it all has been pulled from ebay with just over 2000 hits and a high bid of $1300.00-plus when I checked last night. There are a few more copycat auctions and one with a $75,000.00 minimum bid with one bidder registered. You know, if people are giving away money I'd just like to say for the record that I used to be a baby myself and I would love to live in the house $500,000.00-plus would buy. And I don't really care what you call me, I can always use free money. Hey, think of it as an artist's grant that will let this once-newborn baby boy fulfill his artistic dreams. Fred Cruz UPDATE: In January of 2003 The artist dropped the old handle and began selling on ebay.com as Fred Wilder. you can find his current work by typing FWILDER into thier search engine at ebay.com.
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