Toy Cars *R* Us!

Can you believe this one? Two identical ads-gags in "new and interesting media" (not unusual) winning - get this - the same dang award separated only by a few years!

a real windup......

Agency: TBWA Amsterdam

AD: Wil Oortgijs CW: Robert Oostinga, Martin Boog CD: Martin Boog

Ad is: A small fiat with Toys R Us logo and a key that actually turned when the car was driven Spotted in: Epica Awards 1994.

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, London

AD: Dorte Nielsen CW: Vicki Maguire CD: Patrick Collister

Ad is: A London black cab, complete with toy store logo and..Hold on.. A key! (if it turns or not is not mentioned) Spotted in: Epica Awards 1999

The most amazing part of this story is not that two creative teams did the exact same thing, nor that for once the original was not the british one..

The truly amazing part is that both of these ads won Epica awards - five years apart - in the same category!

Every year the Epica is judged by a select bunch from the trade-press, in 1994 the Jury was made up of representatives from: Resume (sweden) Creative Review (GB) Archive (germany) Strategia (Italy) Marketing Week (GB) and so on...

In 1998 the jury was made up of representatives from:Resume (Sweden) Creative Review (GB) Archive (germany) Strategia (Italy) Marketing Week (GB)... and so on and so forth..

Kindly donate some money to the representatives that make up the jury each year so they can get their alzheimer's treatment and a new pair of glasses.

I prefer the Toys"R"Us version - but only because I'm laughing at Fiat. Voice your opinion!