NEW DELHI: A war of words has erupted between Lowe Lintas and
Ogilvy & Mather, with India's top creatives hurling charges at each
other.
The row broke out after Lowe Lintas executive creative director R.
Balakrishnan charged that O&M's national creative director Piyush Pandey
and ad film maker Prasoon Pandey sabotaged his agency's chances of
winning big at the Bombay Ad Club Abby Awards. Balakrishnan alleged that
both men had described Lowe Lintas' campaign for indya.com as a copy of
the John Miller shirts.
Balakrishnan then pulled his agency out of the Abby Awards, the
country's most prestigious awards show.
Piyush countered: "I must be a rather influential man to sway the
opinions of 20 industry stalwarts."
The indya.com campaign won the coveted Campaign of the Year in the early
March Advertising Agencies Association of India show, which O&M stayed
away from.
In a letter to the Bombay club, Lowe Lintas demanded: "All current
judging should be set aside, new committees should be reconstituted and
a complete re-evaluation should be done."
However, the club is standing its ground. "We explained to Lintas that
we had re-examined the judging process following the complaint, and had
found nothing unfair whatsoever," said Sumit Roy, a member of the club's
executive committee.
