Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, making any kind of beauty pageant subjective. It then follows that if you are having a beauty pageant, you must look at it as a contest, and in most parts of the world that means you will also need to have Official Rules for your contest, and predetermined criteria within those rules. If you want to run a beauty pageant here are some things to consider as you develop those rules to keep your contest legal!

1. Post Clear Entry Parameters

In your rules, you will need to include clear details on who can and who cannot enter. If you are having a “Blondes Have More Fun Beauty Pageant” and you expect to have entrants that are a certain gender, or only blondes that use a certain hair product to make it that color, you have to specify that in the official rules. Be as specific as you can – you don’t want someone to show up and have their cute blonde dog steal the show because you didn’t specify that entrants had to be people.

2. Get Parental Permission

Cute kid contests may be a great way to get your brand name out to parents, but privacy laws regarding children need to be followed. Verifiable parental permission must be obtained before entry of any child under 13 in the US, and under 18 in the EU. This means you can’t collect data from kids, including preliminary data with just their names or even their emails, until parents give permission.

3. Consider the Implications of Voting for Winners

Voting for finalists or on entries by the public is a terrific way to engage your audience and brand awareness. However, voting can be problematic if guidelines are not set up and fraud prevention measures are not put into place. Check out our voting best practices to help if you include voting as a way to determine your beauty pageant winners.

4. Think Through the Use of Entry Fees and Product Purchase to Enter

Many beauty pageants do charge an entry fee. Other contests want entrants to purchase and use certain products in their beauty stylings. But be careful as some states or countries have rules regarding paying to play or a purchase requirement be made, so be sure to check local laws and regulations. It is perfectly acceptable to make your contest free to enter, or free product samples available to entrants, which we highly recommend brands do. If you do charge an entry fee, you might consider using the funds to go to a non-profit partner or scholarships and prizes for the winners.

5. Plan for Due Diligence

Let’s face it: no one is perfect. But some people may be a little less perfect than others. Some have criminal records or may have a questionable past that would not reflect well on your brand. Be sure to include in your rules if you plan on running background checks or doing other checks on potential winners before they can be declared the actual winner.

The next time you want to run a beauty pageant, contact us! We can help you from ideation to execution to finding judges.

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