Spring Break
Utah based company lures "door-to-door" salesmen
By: Chris Hokanson
Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: News
The chance at TV stardom and a mountain of cash isn't one many people pass up. For many college students, the thought of a reality show combined with summer employment was too good to ignore.
But a promising job quickly turned into a nightmare for many students who were recruited for the reality TV show, "The Prodigy." While they were led to believe they would be filmed for the show all summer, "contestants" spent the summer selling security systems door-to-door for Orem, Utah based Firstline, a bundled technologies company. From dog chases and policemen to fights and suspicious sales tactics, three students came away from the summer 2007 with plenty of stories to tell.
In March 2007, representatives from Actuality Entertainment stopped in College Station during their nationwide casting call. They interviewed almost 100 students and told them they would be competing for a prize worth $1 million in a format unlike other business reality shows - contestants would have a job with a real company. Instead of the glitz and glamour they were promised, they spent the summer focused on selling security systems.
Jerod Justice, a senior animal science major and a district manager for Firstline, told The Battalion at the time of the casting call that "everything is going to be filmed…"
Shea Stone and Chris Aaron, two Aggies who signed up with Firstline, went to Spokane, Wash. to sell security systems, Stone as a salesman and Aaron as a technician. Stone, a senior agricultural leadership and development major, said "The Prodigy" was promoted a lot by recruiters, but not much after the casting call.
"They definitely made it sound like it was going to be on-going filming throughout the summer." Stone said. "After the casting call, all of the emphasis was on the door-to-door sales. They emphasized so much that we weren't selling anything, just advertising, that we were advertising directors. But basically, it was door-to-door sales, everyday but Sunday, nine in the morning to nine at night.'"
But a promising job quickly turned into a nightmare for many students who were recruited for the reality TV show, "The Prodigy." While they were led to believe they would be filmed for the show all summer, "contestants" spent the summer selling security systems door-to-door for Orem, Utah based Firstline, a bundled technologies company. From dog chases and policemen to fights and suspicious sales tactics, three students came away from the summer 2007 with plenty of stories to tell.
In March 2007, representatives from Actuality Entertainment stopped in College Station during their nationwide casting call. They interviewed almost 100 students and told them they would be competing for a prize worth $1 million in a format unlike other business reality shows - contestants would have a job with a real company. Instead of the glitz and glamour they were promised, they spent the summer focused on selling security systems.
Jerod Justice, a senior animal science major and a district manager for Firstline, told The Battalion at the time of the casting call that "everything is going to be filmed…"
Shea Stone and Chris Aaron, two Aggies who signed up with Firstline, went to Spokane, Wash. to sell security systems, Stone as a salesman and Aaron as a technician. Stone, a senior agricultural leadership and development major, said "The Prodigy" was promoted a lot by recruiters, but not much after the casting call.
"They definitely made it sound like it was going to be on-going filming throughout the summer." Stone said. "After the casting call, all of the emphasis was on the door-to-door sales. They emphasized so much that we weren't selling anything, just advertising, that we were advertising directors. But basically, it was door-to-door sales, everyday but Sunday, nine in the morning to nine at night.'"
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