is there pride when an ad agency wins an award on an ad that was plagiarized or copied from another agency?

i hope WAWAM!, the blog owner does not mind this post of mine. i just think it's a great topic to discuss.



dm9 jayme/syfu (philippines) won an award for the ad on the left, above for gabriela, a bronze cannes media lion 2008 award. garbriela is non government organization for the protection of rights ow women in the philippines.

the ad on the right, one done by saatchi & saatchi poland, released in 2005 for amnesty international looks almost exactly the same as the gabriela/dm9 ad. the talents are different, clients different but the concept and executional details of the ad are exactly the same. the dm9 ad is a copy of the saatchi ad, that's pretty obvious.

question, well actually there are two questions:

• does dm9 deserve to win award for work that was just copied?
• is there pride and honor in winning an award for work that was just a copy of another ad agency's work?

let us hear your views, please.

read other posts on this topic here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/DM9Jayme%2FSyfu

dm9 jayme/syfu - the duct tape ad that had something stuck to it

this is an article that appeared in adobo magazine (http://www.adobomagazine.com/global/module.php?LM=news.level1&id=1217825194648) and it is next here in WAWAM!


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DUCT TAPE AND A GOOD CAUSE WIN THE PHILIPPINES' FIRST MEDIA LION

DM9 JaymeSyfu, a Manila ad agency affiliated with the DDB network of communications companies, was awarded a Bronze Lion in the Cannes International Advertising Festival in France last June 17. It won the prestigious metal in the festival’s Media Lions competition for its “Duct Tape” posters for women’s rights group Gabriela. Aimed at friends, families and neighbors of abused women, the Gabriela posters drew the judges’ attention because of its ingenious use of duct tape. Not only did it hold the posters in place, it dramatized the physical and psychological oppression of domestic violence. At the bottom of each ad, the text appealed to readers to help release these women from bondage.

Because of this, DM9 JaymeSyfu was awarded the Bronze Media Lion, which is given to “media efforts that generate access to consumers in ways that are simultaneously innovative, engaging, encompassing and effective.” It was one of 2,000 entries from 76 countries that vied for 31 bronzes, 17 silvers, five golds and one Grand Prix in the Media Lions. The agency’s Chief Creative Officer Merlee Jayme attended the award ceremony in Cannes. Initially, her agency had four finalists in the running, and when the first three failed, she had written their performance as a total loss. “So when I attended the awards ceremony, I was pleasantly surprised. A first for our country! This is certainly something that our agency has been dreaming of!” It is quite an achievement for the creative hot shop, which opened its doors less than three years ago. Led by Jayme and Managing Director Alex Syfu, it services clients like SMART, Schering-Plough, the Department of Tourism, Max’s, Discovery Suites and Greenfield Development. From Manila, Syfu said, “It’s a blessing.

When we heard that we got into the finals, we were ecstatic, and winning just doubled our joy. It’s a very Pinoy campaign. It’s a victory, not just for us and our client Gabriela, but for all Pinoys who are working to eradicate spousal abuse.” It is the country’s first Media Lion.

There were many attempts, and twice, two local ads managed to get on the judges’ shortlists. One was the simple but timely late-night campaign for Extra Joss by creative agency TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, and the other was a Rejoice music video initiated by media agency Starcom. A panel of the world’s most powerful and influential media experts judges the Media Lions.

This year’s competition was presided over by Dominic Proctor, worldwide CEO of MindShare. The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the most prestigious international annual advertising awards as well as the world’s largest global conference for creativity in communications. Now on its 55th year, more than 10,000 registered delegates from 85 countries and around 12,000 total visitors from the advertising and allied industries (including 30 Philippine delegates) attended to celebrate the best of creativity in all major media, discuss industry issues and network with one another.

Along with the ads that vied for the Media Lions, over 28,000 pieces of work from 85 countries are competing in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Ten juries, composed of top international creatives, judge all the entries in Cannes and award the coveted Lion trophy to the best Film, Print, Outdoor, Design, Interactive, Radio, Sales Promotion, Media, Direct Marketing, Integrated and Titanium which recognize ground-breaking creative work.

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read previous posts on this winning ad and dm9 jayme/syfu here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/DM9Jayme%2FSyfu

dm9 jayme/syfu's garbriela ad - a big misunderstanding, a new strategy at winning awards, copyright infringement

the ads are practically indentical and the implementation is exactly the same. so, i'm thinking there could just be a huge misunderstanding about dm9 jayme/syfu's gabriela ad.

they are actually not calling it as a print ad, they call it "ambient" advertising which is the use of unexpected and unorthodox medium for advertising, just like the use of electric posts and trees. it goes over and beyond non-traditional. and that does it, the gabriela effort is exactly what the amnesty international effort is.

so it's very possible the gabriela ad is a pool-out of the amnesty international ad.

question is - did saatchi & saatchi poland and amnestry internationl on one hand and dm9 jayme/sayfu and gabriela on the other talk about it and agreed to its duplication? amnesty international and gabriela are about the same kind of organization and it's most likely gabriela is affiliated with amnestry international (this is yet to be confirmed).

i am assuming they did. because if they did not, then dm9 jayme/sayfu has just exposed themselves to a copyright infringement lawsuit from saatchi & saatchi poland if not from amnesty international. it's clearly an exact copy, there is no way to go around an intelectual property rights violation. for our peace of mind, let's assume somewhere in the filing cabinets of dm9 jayme/sayfu is a written letter of consent for them to use exactly the same creative concept and execution.

which leads us to the last third of the title of this post. the gabriela ad won a bronze award in the 2008 cannes lions awards and that leads me to conclude "originality" is not a criteria in that ad competition. you can actually submit an ad for competition that is a copy of another.

i think we have found another strategy for winning ad competitions, specially in the cannes lions or maybe even other international ad competitions!

it's a simple strategy : to win an international award, copy the work of another award winning ad of years ago! a very simple and most likely a very effective strategy. the success rate must be phenomenal.

but before the creative types and ad agency people reading this blog call a special meeting of their exe com to enshrine this as an ad agency core strategy, please do not foget : it exposes your agency to a copyright infringement lawsuit and it violates intellectual property rights. you can lose huge amounts of $, yes US$ if you lose the case in a court of law.

who ever said life in an ad agency is simple?

dm9jayme/syfu's gabriela ad - a pool out

the whole creative concept and it's elements are exactly the same and the execution of taping the poster to a post/tre is the same as well. therefore, it looks like the gabriela ad is a pool out of the amnesty international ad. never mind that the time frames are far apart, the brands/clients are different (amnestry international and gabriela), the messages are different and there are two different and very separated countries where they ran the campaigns. those are minor things! it's a pool out!

just in case we all forgot, the dm9jayme/syfu gabriela ad won in the 2008 Cannes Lions awards. does it mean the cannes media lion awards do not have originality as a criteria for their winning ads?

http://www.canneslions.com/

DM9JaymeSyfu's award winning Bronze Cannes Lions 2008 Garbriela ad - separated from birth from Saatchi & Satchi Poland Ad?

the above ad is the award winning ad of DM9Jayme/Syfu at the 2008 Cannes Lions Awards held recently. it won the bronze award. this ad is for gabriela.

another blog, Pinoy Advertising Tsismax (link below), released the comparison, below, the ad being compared to is from saatchi & satchi poland for amnestry internations. from the comparison, it is obvious the two ads were serparated from birth. they were twins, a female and male, with exactly the same creative elements, including the electric post on a street setting and the all important creative concept of masking tape over the mouth. the last one is the strategy visual of both ads.

aslo, merle jayme is the creative in the shop ,whose name is on the name of the company. before DM9, she worked for ace saatchi & saatchi for many years.

shame! shame! or creative minds across time and space, lots of it always churn the same kind of ads? just a coincidence?

taken from : http://advertizzzing.blogspot.com/2008/06/hhhhhhhhmmmmm.html

comments / reactions, anyone?