Cannes Lions deadline edition of Rouse Hill Times also carried one-off Band-Aid ads
The April 30 edition of suburban newspaper The Rouse Hill Times carried a second campaign for a big brand which was entered for the Cannes Lions, Mumbrella can reveal.
The Band-Aid campaign, by creative agency JWT, ran on pages 20, 22, and 29. It ran immediately after a McDonald’s campaign by DDB which won a bronze in the Press Lions category.
The issue of “scam” ads is a growing one for the advertising industry, with claims that some work is created to win awards, rather than solve clients’ marketing problems. A hallmark of scam advertising is when work for a major brand appears only once, in a low cost publication, close to an entry deadline.
DDB had consistently refused to answer questions about where the campaign had run until it yesterday emerged that it appeared in the newspaper on the final day of eligibility for the 2014 Cannes Lions. The Rouse Hill Times is understood to be the cheapest newspaper in the News Local group for placing ads, with half pages offered at a rate card price of $949.21 including GST.
Mumbrella understands that JWT’s Band Aid press campaign has never run in print elsewhere, however it is part of a campaign currently running in a series of outdoor executions across Sydney since mid-April, and are expected to extend across Australia in the coming months.
Although the two campaigns which appeared in the Rouse Hill Times were created by different creative agencies, both McDonald’s and Band-Aid share a common media agency in OMD.
Jenny Willits, JWT Sydney’s GM, told Mumbrella: “We did have a print execution which ran in Rouse Hill, it was distressed media which we had the opportunity to enter.
“Band-Aid’s global positioning is about ‘heal the hurt’ and aimed at parents of active children. The three executions bring that to life showing the kids doing everyday activities and how mishaps can happen. We hope there will be a few more we can run in the course of the 2014 – 15 year”.
JWT Sydney created three executions – titled “Soccer”, “Skateboard” and “Tree Climb” for the Johnson & Johnson-owned Band-Aid. Although entered in the Press Lions, the campaign – featuring images of active children drawn in blood on the back of a plaster – failed to make the shortlist. (The campaign can be viewed online via the NewsLocal viewer – search for the Rouse Hill Times and April 30, and go to page 20 onwards.)
Questions had originally been raised by Mumbrella readers about how widely DDB Sydney’s McDonald’s campaign had been run, along with that of Panasonic’s Silver Cannes Press Lions winner created by Saatchi & Saatchi.
Johnson & Johnson and OMD had not responded to Mumbrella’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Meanwhile, Mumbrella has still been unable to find evidence of Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney’s winning campaign for Panasonic in-car air conditioning. We welcome all information via anonymous email if preferred to alex@focalattractions.com.au.
Band-Aid executions:
Now I want to book some space on page 5.
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Shame on JWT. The fact that its distressed media doesn’t change the fact that it’s clearly scam work. And I’m surprised at Johnson & Johnson for agreeing to this….
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i couldn’t figure out what the drawings were supposed to be
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As an aside, I just find those Band-Aid ads so revolting, urgh …
Good work, Mumbrella!
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That was a very happy coincidence then Jenny that the ads you lovingly crafted WITH NO PLANS TO RUN ANYWHERE managed to get a distress spot in a local rag on the very last day of Cannes eligibility.
i’m missing something that these big agencies seem to be onto – none of my clients pay me to do really creative, award-winning work that they have no intention of using. Great gig if you can get it.
I think some marketers may be scrutinised for such wasteful use of agency resources by their bosses on the back of all this stuff. Because the work is client-commissioned, right?
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Scam, Scam, Scam, Scam!!
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I’ve shot campaigns all over the world and I’m sorry to say that this is common practice all over – particularly in the MENA and South East Asian regions. I don’t agree with it, because we all know how clients can compromise great work by making uncourageous decisions!
It’s not fair that ‘real world’ (actual running campaigns) run against these ‘ideal world’ campaigns for awards, but it’s what happens at every awards show.
To even the playing field, either the watch dogs need to do their jobs properly before awarding ads, agencies need to provide greater documentation of ads running, or we need to just cancel this rule altogether and let creativity run wild.
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Keep up the good work
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Does anyone have any time for real work?
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scam scam scam…
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No-one in Rouse Hill worked out that the blood represented active children. No-one.
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The real winner here is the Rouse Hill Times. Can we all club together and buy them a trophy?
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This ad is really bad anyway? It’s heaps shit
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Well if I can’t afford the next advertising annual, I’m just going to pick up a copy of The Rouse Hill Times.
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Why don’t they name the Awards “The Rouse Hill Awards” and hold them at Rouse Hill. I would if I was them. It would be very very creative.
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i defy anyone to figure out what those blood stains are supposed to be.
i had no idea
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Distress space in the Rouse Hill Times…….…I hear the local fish and chip shop and funeral parlour both pulled their campaigns at the last minute.
How diligent of OMD to phone all their clients about distress space in the suburbans.
The Rouse Hill Times must have been delighted to fill the space with exclusive campaigns from 2 Blue Chip clients with multiple insertions on the same day.
Congratulations all round…will OMD be submitting their achievements for any media awards?…..it’s a unique approach…..highly localised ‘point in time’ saturation….ownership of the paper across multiple clients, categories and audiences…….best use of a minuscule budget…….
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Can we get the credits of those behind these ads?
i bet they were AWARD grads.
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Scam: an ad campaign created with blood, but no sweat or tears.
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Thats why I’ve never entered an award
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@Willy good call. They can be the “Rouseys”……the agency scammers get to go to Rouse Hill for a few cans to celebrate, rather than the south of France. Much more fitting.
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I work for the Rouse Hill Times. I dont see what the problem is here.
Happy to run any ad at ay time.. We guarantee to reach all households within the Rouse Hill and surrounding districts.
Rouse Hill rocks!
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Great journalism here!
Tim you could of been a detective.
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TAKE 2:
I still can’t m*ntion bra*d ka*ma coz I’m still s*lf-moderating but I do w*nder if we’ll see an ad with wh*te cro*ses on the ro*d in the R*use *ill Tim*s sometim* so*n
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creating scam ads 27 years after you’ve left award school is embarrassing enough in itself
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OK here goes: Blood stain one = Bertolucci inspired low shot of two soccer players advancing on the ball.
Bloodstain Two = Skate boarder coming a cropper.
Bloodstain three+ Pole vaulter about to break pole and collapse
Not one is convincingly a used band aid in my opinion.
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Does The Rouse Hill Times fall under the Murdoch paper business? Therefore is it part of ‘News Local’? Could this space therefore have been booked centrally with somebody at News head office in Surrey Hills? Would the agency who booked it have received a commission from News Local?
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Ruse Hill? 😉
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Distressed media?????
WTF?
I think I am going to change my non de plume – I like the sound of that – distressed media – sounds kinda – global?
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This is genuinely Walkley winning work on Tim’s part. True journalism. True dogged determination. Showing no fear of his peers and no favour to those who should now be suitably shame-faced for their lack of ethics
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It’s mind numbingly bad ads like these that beg client intervention and/or research for basic comprehension.
What a waste of production time and media money!
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Great work! I would love to see a full-time Mumbrella team dedicated to uncovering this kind of bullshit that ‘reputable’ agencies are trying to get away with.
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Oh look, you’re all just jealous. Rouse Hill gets some of the best advertising around while all we get is in the Surry Hills Postal is tragic pictures of homeless people who own cafés and make home made pickles.
Tim, I’d love to see an investigation into ALL print ads and their media schedule over the last few years – and yes, even just the ones entered. I’m sure there are quite a few agencies who picked up last year without a media schedule.
Print’s dead. Just ask that homeless guy the next time he’s instagraming the double flat white he just made you with artisanal milk art. He’ll tell you straight.
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Honest tea, you’re a tool.
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What’s worse?
Winning with a scam or get outted that the scam you entered didn’t win?
Really JWT-is that really worth entering?
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