“Over the last three months, Postie Plus has copied every ad we’ve done for The Warehouse,” laments DDB CD Retail Kim Ellison.
“We did a leaf graphic for autumn – they had one on tv the next week. We did a subtle snowflake graphic for winter – they did that the next week.
“And last night [June 6] they launched a balloon ad.”
Postie Plus’s agency is Y&R.
Could these synchronicities, do you think, be mere coincidence?
Last month’s Candida Art of the Envelope feature caught the eye of Evergreen Marketing’s Lauren Edwards – for all the wrong reasons.
Her focus was on the winner of the NZ Post Mailed Masterpiece, an envelope that looked like a milk carton. Instead of milk, it contained a Telecom broadband offer for Fonterra’s rural market (delivered in the morning post). It was the work of Aim Proximity.
“I couldn’t help pointing out to all who would listen,” says Edwards, “that it was eerily similar to Seth Godin’s launch of his incredible book, Purple Cow, delivered in purple milk cartons some years ago.
“At least we know there is someone at Aim who also reads really intuitive and compelling stuff like this book – or at least we presume so.”
Could the two, do you think, be close relatives?
“Appropriation of the month?” wondered Susan of Herne Bay after viewing AdMedia May’s Ad of the Month (Nature Fresh out of Mojo).
Susan thoughtfully sent us a startlingly similar execution, which appeared in Eye magazine last year. Similar? Damn near identical, we think.
The other images fall, perhaps, more into the category of ‘inspiration’ than appropriation - but they, as you can see, are also very, very similar. And they also appeared last year (in a Wellington exhibition titled From the Netherlands: Words & Images).
These were sent in by Polly Cantlon of Waikato University, who informs us the Mojo ad inspired her, too - to use it and the Spanish posters “to introduce students to issues of originality, inspiration, plagiarism and appropriation in graphic design”.
I just seen a picture in your Ad Nauseam rubrique at www.admedia.co.nz [an ‘Are they Related?’ item published in AdMedia June 2006, alleging that a Mojo Nature’s Fresh newspaper ad was “startlingly similar” to work displayed in a touring exhibition from the Netherlands]. You’re showing one of our pictures (published in Eye magazine) compared to three other pics, saying that they are very similar. Please note that the new pic (for the bread) has also been made by us so it’s not a copy – it’s by the same author! Actually, the ad agency wanted the same thing as we made before.
Therefore, we’ve seen a lot of plagiat of our work in France, especially that sort of “ramifications”.
Please note we have a big exhibition in Paris and a new book (see www.antoineetmanuel.com/compilation.htm).
Manuel Warosz
m@antoineetmanuel.com
* Good to see this unwarranted longstanding slur on Mojo’s rep finally laid to rest. – Ed
“I was flicking through the September AdMedia this afternoon when I came across Colenso’s Adshel for V Black,” writes Advertising Works Ogilvy deputy CD Robin Powell.
“I presume you must have mistakenly put this in the What’s New section as it quite clearly isn’t new. Take a look at the Panadol ad we [SO&M] did about three years ago. A bit of a slip-up, wouldn’t you say?”
The V ad invited attention because, unlike most cases of ‘synchronicity’ which usually connect with an offshore piece of creative, both the V and Panadol campaigns were domestic, and both used Adshels.
And attention it’s got – no fewer than six readers have pointed out the similarities with the earlier work for Panadol Gel Tabs from SO&M writer Paul Kayser and art director Leighton Howl - see www.thepond.co.nz/leighton3.html
Apparently writes somebody who signs themselves This Ain’t Leighton Speaking, “V stimulates the body and mind but does sweet FA for your short-term memory.”
Even ‘Zachary Boss of Porirua’ is sympathetic: “I’m sure it was an honest mistake – just like the Milkaholics campaign.”
Mojo’s newspaper ads for Hanover Financial Services (aka Elders Finance) will never win a creative award – but they must be working their socks off.
How else can we take the phenomenon that sees Hanover competitors St Laurence Investors and Nathans Finance aping the Mojo work almost word for word (not to mention, graphic for graphic).
The St Laurence ads have even appeared on the same page in the NZ Herald.
The copycats appear not to have an ad agency. And why would they when they can borrow so freely?
Alert Reader of Pt Chev, who forwarded us the Leibniz image (right), was unable to supply a date for the campaign, which appears to be European. AdMedia Googled up plenty of references to the product (most of them in Polish or German) but found no references to actual ads or campaigns.
The Mini Burger Rings campaign, of course, is the work of Mojo. It took out five Silvers and a Bronze at AXIS (many thought it should’ve won gold) and was a finalist in the Look Billboard Awards.
Alert Reader found the Leibniz ad (and the Mini Burger Rings ad) at coloribus.com/admirror/?action=detailedView&item=260&language=en.
Coloribus.com provides no details for either work.
Interestingly, it seems Mojo ECD Nick Worthington has also visited the site – the two images are accompanied by a comment posted by ‘Nick Worthington’ who noted, “This site would be a lot more useful if they were dated”. Amen to that.
“Have you seen Sugar Free Sweet As L&P Justin?” wonders Alert Reader of Pt Chev, alerting us to the fact that it bears some similarity to a viral for Accolo Recruiting USA that was doing the rounds a couple of months ago.
The Accolo ad itself is a spoof of a Paris Hilton burger commercial.
“I imagine that the L&P and Accolo ads were filmed about the same time,” continues AR, “but the casting is scarily similar.”
You be the judge. L&P Justin can be viewed at www.caanz.co.nz/v2/showcase_view.asp?memid=&page=2 while the Accolo ad’s at www.accolo.com/pages/spicy.shtml. The Paris Hilton spot is at http://www.carlsjr.com/ontv.
Below left we have images from 'I'd Like', an award-winning Xenical tvc created by Jeremy Taine & Roy Meares of Meares Taine (now MTC) and shot by Silverscreen's Melanie Bridge in January 2000.
Bridge's rather gorgeous ad helped launch her stellar directing career, winning two silvers and two bronzes at AXIS 1999, a Gold EFFIE in 2000, two Globals (international pharmaceutical awards) in 2000, two silver pencils and one bronze at AWARD, two golds at Montreux, and a New York Festivals medal in 2000.
Quite a haul.
The image also featured on the cover of AdMedia in March 2000.
Below right we have an image from 'Worry', an eyecatching pro-bono television commercial created by Sauce for the New Zealand Health Sponsorship Council's World Smokefree Day (May 31).
The ad was (and maybe still is) available for viewing at www.worldsmokefreeday.co.nz (from where we obtained the images on this page). It ran on network television throughout May.
The moody style of the visuals & music on both are eerily similar, as is the ad's storyline (both feature a young woman expressing a series of wishes, culminating in a powerful closing message).
Could they be, do you think, related?
