A few days back my wife drew my attention to an advertisement in the papers about Father's Day. She said it looked like an ad that was done by the Agency I work at for Mother's Day last month. So, I took a look at the ad in particular and lo and behold, it was pretty much the same concept and even the same image arrangements! Can you believe it? I couldn't but I'm not all that surprised though. Plagiarising of ads is pretty much rampant nowadays.
The ad we did for Mother's Day was for a respectable and reputable fine dining client and the copy-cat ad was for a reputable food and beverage company. How low can one get? If it was some Ah Chong, Mutu or Ali restaurant (no disrespect to all those Ah Chong, Mutu or Ali restaurants out there), then I can understand the need to just copy off someone's ad, but a reputable and respectable food and beverage company? Come on, don't they pay their Agency enough to think? What happened to respect for intellectual property? If you're gonna plagiarise someone else's work, then at least be a little intelligent and modify the layout a little instead of copying it exactly!
There, I've let it off my chest! Now I can move on!
ps.
I would love to have posted both the pictures of the actual ads here but that would cost a whole load of problems that I'm not willing to deal with, I've got enough work on my hands as it is ... LOL!
I suppose it is somewhat of a back-handed compliment. Obviously it was good! I bet the company who hired the other ad agency didn't know that they copied the ad. Let them know, maybe you could steal the business from the cheaters! Good luck! Man that must be frustrating!
ReplyDeleteHey Barrett, thanks, I never really did think of it that way ... hehehe ... the back handed compliment I mean :) Yeah, you're probably right about the company not knowing. Frustrating is an understatement. Thanx for the visit though:)
ReplyDeleteI've been in the advertising and marketing business too long :). I find this usually happens a lot when people run out of ideas. Sometimes it's so hard to re-invent everything that has been re-invented three times over plus, plus.....
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's good or not, knowing that the competitor is looking at your work and deeming it "copy worthy".
I'm glad you got it off my chest!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Thanks for the visit!
Ann
A Nice Place In The Sun
Hey Sharon, I guess you've seen your fair share of copy-cat ads in your lifetime :) I agree that's it kinda hard to re-invent something but that's why they pay those creative people sinful amounts of money! I'll take it as a good thing that competitors are willing to copy our ads. LOL!
ReplyDeleteAnn, yeah, glad I got that out of my system but it felt good bitching about it though. LOL!
Hi Nick, take it as a compliment, that way you won't be too pissed off knowing that other ppl think your copy is wow enough to be copied! :) Hmmm, wondering what ad it was though!
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're right. I'll take it as a compliment:) Now, that makes me feel so much better. LOL!
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