Filed under: Comment
The new SONY Bravia ad from Bates Asia …
[Now compare that to basically Balls or the Guinness ad that ripped off the Honda Cog commercial which was probably inspired by the Miller Lite spot]
Just because you’re on the other side of the World doesn’t mean you can rip off ads and get away with it.
Maybe someone should tell BATES Asia [not to mention my ex-client, SONY] that there’s this thing called the ‘internet’ so when you do make an ad – however nice – that is a blatant rip off some other agencies hard work, then you come across as a try hard without an original thought in your head.
Saying that, BATES obviously don’t care as they have the audacity to make a ‘MAKING OF‘ clip to go with it …
[You have got to watch it, it features some of the most corporate toady comments you’ve ever heard and I wish one person – ONE PERSON – had pointed out that the strategy, creative and client aren’t that ‘brave’ because not only have they been done before, but also for the same bloody client!]
Look, I’m all for being a magpie and taking great learning’s and ideas from others to make something greater elsewhere – but this is just ridiculous.
Can someone please tell me where all the creativity has gone in today’s [Asian] creative department?
Thanks to Age for this.
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ha, always happy to inspire anger you in Rob, just as it’s not anger AT me!
i was tempted to bring up the blatant Guiness rip off, but went off on the whole “feel something” tangent. Anyways, agree totally…
Comment by Age October 17, 2008 @ 11:55 amGiven towards the end I copped so much shit for my ‘FEEL’ strategy, it’s sort-of a kick in the nuts they have sort-of kept it and sort-of celebrate it … but hey, nothing should surprise me in adland and it’s still miles better than where they were at about 4 years ago.
I just want to point out this has nothing to do with sour eggs – SONY may of been hard work at times but they were good to me/us and we were all genuiely sad when we said our goodbyes for the corporate reasons I have already detailed previously – which is why my anger is directed at BATES rather than the SONY client, but I’m sure they couldn’t give a flying fuck and to be honest, I don’t blame them, hahaha!
Comment by Rob October 17, 2008 @ 12:06 pmI thought you guys were on to something with the whole FEEL thing. Oh well…
Comment by Age October 17, 2008 @ 12:12 pmWe were 🙂
Comment by Rob October 17, 2008 @ 12:15 pmJust a thought here.Is it possible that the brief received by the agency was along the lines of: do a similar thing to all the previous ads, we liked them and consumers liked them too.
Ripping off another agencies work is still lame…I’m just saying.
Comment by Ben October 17, 2008 @ 1:43 pmwonder what people [ that don’t work in ad land] ‘feel’ when they see this spot- Tracking study for “Guinenes, Balls and Honda brands” will show higher recall now, I guess 🙂
Comment by bhaskar October 17, 2008 @ 3:51 pmI guarantee the brief said “show the range and vibrancy of colour you get on a Bravia and make sure it has an Asian feel” … so naturally the response was to do the same as a bunch of other ads (that SONY said they didn’t like) but shove the storyline in India for local (read: SONY Marketing Department) relevance because naturally the people of India don’t understand international work.
Actually, given all the prejudice that lies under the surface of this region I’m more inclined to think it’ll put the entire Chinese population off the “Indian friendly” Bravia brand than make them look on in awe.
Sarcasm might be the lowest form of wit but it’s still the best … especially when there’s more than an element of truth in what I’m saying.
Comment by Rob October 17, 2008 @ 4:51 pmyou thick fucks the reason theyre ripping off a bunch of ads isnt because theyre a bunch of talentless hacks who couldnt come up with an original thought if you threatened them its because sony bravia replicates images as close to the original as you can get so they decided the best way to do this was to “copy by numbers” a bunch of widely known and ever so fucking slightly better produced spots.
makes sense now doesnt it except its all fucking bollocks so if i hear any planner at bates use that for justification of their creative laziness i will fucking fly over there and bomb the bastards
Comment by andy.cynic October 17, 2008 @ 7:41 pmComment of the decade.
Comment by John October 17, 2008 @ 8:40 pmyou have excellent fucking taste dodds
Comment by andy@cynic October 17, 2008 @ 10:02 pmI like the fact that SONY obviously even take care to copy the creatives. The SONY “Balls” was done by Juan Cabral. This one was done by a creative director called Sonal Dabral (as you can see in the making of). That’s fucking hilarious.
Comment by Seb October 18, 2008 @ 4:25 amI like the fact that I’m shitfaced. I hate everything about this piece of stolen shit. I didn’t even like the original(s).
Thing is. It doesn’t matter.
Comment by Marcus October 18, 2008 @ 4:47 amIf sarcasm is the lowest form of wit that doesn’t change the fact that imitation is the highest form of flattery. How uninspired was that. But seriously it’s frustrating that they’ll say ‘well our asian audience has never seen or heard of the other one’. And that’s what makes the world go round.
Comment by Andrea October 18, 2008 @ 5:40 amSeb, that is fucking hilarious! BTW, i chose to be the annoying purist and post my comment on Age’s blog, who posted about it originally…. 😉
Comment by lauren October 18, 2008 @ 6:41 amseb you fucking evil legend. campbell its your job to make sure everyone in asia knows the name similarity. humiliate the thieving fucks and it doesnt matter that no one in the real world will care like marcus says, the creative community will and that might stop them being so fucking blatant in their theft next time. depends if they have talent that goes beyond forgery
Comment by andy@cynic October 18, 2008 @ 8:01 amAndy for president.
Comment by Pete October 20, 2008 @ 8:24 amBrilliant. Andy that’s your best comment ever.
Comment by Rob Mortimer October 20, 2008 @ 4:56 pm