For the second year running, there's a whiff of controversy
surrounding the Asia-Pacific region's less-than sparkling performance at
Cannes. Indeed, even before the region has had a chance to live down
last year's scandal involving the Taronga Zoo entry, another one is
threatening to raise a new stink.
The question on the industry's mind is: did Ogilvy & Mather Singapore
take home prizes for a scam campaign and work that had been allegedly
plagiarised? O&M insists it's done nothing wrong on either the work for
Guinness or the Churches of the Love Singapore Movement.
However loudly it may shout its case, the agency's submission of the
Guinness campaign remains highly questionable, especially since the work
broke well after the account had been globally re-aligned. Here's the
plot so far: the client says it did ask for the campaign, but didn't
approve its rollout as the creative was completed after the
re-alignment.
Despite this, O&M proceeded to run the campaign on behalf of two Gaelic
Inns pubs, which reportedly paid for the ad. If Gaelic coughed up the
cash for the media, why did O&M then see fit to list Asia-Pacific
Breweries as a client? A clerical error when something so big is at
stake is going to be a difficult explanation to swallow. O&M is not
going to shake off this controversy easily.
The industry at large is suspicious of what it feels is the O&M
network's cavalier attitude to scam ads. It's a suspicion nurtured by
past comments made by the network's global creative chief Neil French on
the issue.
French famously said: "Who cares if a few scams win awards. " (media,
November 10, 2000). Opinions on O&M's conduct can swing either way. That
the agency was simply being proactive by not letting a good piece of
work go to waste, or that it sold a campaign to an unwitting third party
in order to enter Cannes. There are no easy answers, but the cloud
hanging over the win is yet another black mark on the integrity of
Asia's advertising work.
