O&M and McCann Mumbai, India are known in India for doing ghost ads.
Or they run it once just so that it can "qualify" for award shows. (Like"Tension")
If they get caught the top creative directors pass the buck to some poor junior who gets the sack.
India leads the way in scam ads followed by Singapore and Brazil.
It was not even approved by the client!
Leo Burnett’s Grand Prix winning work at the Abbys 2008 — Luxor Highlighters — seems headed for controversy. Though Leo Burnett’s work may have resulted in it winning a Grand Prix, Luxor is, in fact, Lowe India’s client. What’s even more interesting is the fact that company officials appeared to be clueless about the body of work that Leo Burnett has showcased.
When ET spoke to Luxor Highlighters managing director Pooja Jain, this is what she first had to say: “Our official agency is Lowe, and I have no idea about the campaigns that won awards at the Goa Fest. The authorisation may have been given by our VP marketing, Arvind Krishnan, who is not employed with the company any more. However, the only person who can authorise such work is me and I have not commissioned any ad for Luxor Highlighters, to the best of my knowledge.”
However the real question to be posed is why on earth do creative souls resort to such deceptive tactics? We know the symptoms. Let’s get down to the cause of this disease.
It’s easy to dismiss these tricks as shameless attempts at glory, but let’s begin by asking is there any shame in left in advertising?
Honour? Dignity? Integrity?
As a profession we are just above used-car salesmen in terms of respect.
The brilliant American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.”
Account executives and media planners can get away with ‘”I handled megabuck brands”.
Art directors and copywriters everywhere are judged on their portfolios, awards won, and these days, the number of times they have employed the services of cricketers and Bollywood stars to endorse their clients’ brands.
On the other hand, all through the year they are asked to churn out drivel that would insult the intelligence of a two-year old.
They are commanded by their leaders to come up with cookie-cutter ideas that are in line with a client’s global brand guidelines.
The very same leaders who encourage the creation of ghost ads (and will shout from the rooftops if one of them wins the Norwegian Toe Nail Clippers Association Award for best ad for a pedicurist).
I can hear them say, “Hey, it’s December! Time for those tantrum-throwing creative types to let off some steam. Let’s get them to do some ghost ads. Keep the troops’ morale up.”
“There are real clients out there who need real solutions” is a platitude.
If a brilliant idea was to be handed on a platter to the client servicing team, would they be able to sell it?
Good ideas are scary and ads these days hardly leave me wetting my pants.
This brings us to the cause of the disease: a system that has failed to produce account executives who can sell good ideas.
Rather than just slam scam ads, we should focus on creating an environment that encourages account executives to sell ideas, as opposed to merely going back and forth like glorified peons.
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Saki,
The Asian mentality ( bar Japan) is to condone rip-offs and hog the credit for someone else's work
Is it any wonder that Singapore and India lead the way in rip offs and scam ads?
Bollywood is littered with rip-offs galore.
FYI:
TIME Asia story
It's True.
Asians Can't Think
Until it abandons its twisted Confucianism, the region will trail the West
By SIN-MING SHAW
Can Asians think? That's not a racist slur, it's the title of a book by Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani. While he offers no answer, the question he poses is excellent and long overdue.
The facts are not in dispute: 1,000 years ago China under the Song Dynasty was the world's most advanced nation. Even 300 years ago China under the Qing rulers was first among equals. Yet in the past 100 years, the West's superiority over Asia has widened exponentially over any advantage the East ever enjoyed. No civilization with such a commanding lead, not even classical Greece, has declined more dramatically. The issue is not about economic growth or engineering dexterity; Asia's record in these areas is indisputable. It's about originality of the mind and its resulting influence over how mankind shapes the world.
Read the rest at:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990531/shaw1.html
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