Second search for Cannes Lion winning Panasonic and McDonald’s print campaigns draws a blank
A second media monitoring service has failed to find a trace of the Cannes Lions winning Panasonic and McDonald’s print campaigns running in Australia, with Nielsen’s Advertising Information Service (AIS) unable to locate the campaigns across the publications it monitors.
Questions have been raised about the legitimacy of campaigns, by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney for Panasonic in-car air conditioning and a DDB Sydney text-only ad for McDonald’s Australia, after media monitoring service Ebiquity was previously unable to find evidence they had run. However, Nielsen noted that it does not monitor everything, and only visually verifies a portion of regional papers.
Both agencies as well as Panasonic and McDonald’s have refused to reveal where the adverts ran, whilst Cannes Lions chairman terry Savage said they are “legitimate”. Mumbrella is currently pursuing Savage for further answers on the campaigns.
Nielsen issued the following statement after checking for the campaigns:
“Nielsen’s Advertising Information Service (AIS) did not pick up these advertisements across the titles and locations that are currently monitored in their service.”
“Scam” ads are a constant issue in international awards shows, and created in order to win advertising awards rather than to solve a business problem. Scam ads either do not run in media at all or are placed cheaply in a minor publication to reach minimum entry requirements.
According to Cannes policy on scam, work has to have been approved and paid for by the client and run in media space paid for by the client.
Nielsen’s monitoring covers daily newspapers across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Tasmania plus the two major national dailies, with all ads visually verified. Coverage of classified includes all display advertisements of 10 column centimetres or above, with loose inserts also monitored.
Regional daily publications are also monitored, however suburban press is not. Display ads of 40 column centimetres or above are monitored however classified are not. Nielsen also monitored 160 plus consumer magazine titles including newspaper inserted magazines with all ads visually verified.
Saatchi and Saatchi, the agency behind the Panasonic campaign, and McDonald’s agency DDB Sydney have declined to disclose where the campaigns run.
Panasonic’s media agency UM told Mumbrella it had not booked any ad space for the campaign. And Panasonic’s marketing boss was quoted as saying that the ad was not published in Australia and the brand had not booked the campaign.
Terry Savage, chairman of the Cannes Lions, has told Mumbrella the campaigns were “legitimate”. However, he declined to answer further questions about where they had run or if he was satisfied they had been commissioned, saying it was “not appropriate” to do so.
The response from Savage came after Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes posted an open letter urging the brand custodians of McDonald’s, Panasonic and Cannes Lions to answer questions around the campaigns.
Panasonic, Saatchi & Saatchi, McDonald’s and DDB are continuing to decline to disclose where their respective ads – Blissful Dog, Confused Dog and Windblown Dog; and, Darth Vader and Superman – ran.
Miranda Ward
Don’t we live in a world of big data? If these ads are truly the pinnacle of human creativity, surely somebody who saw them tweeted/instagrammed/facebooked it? All the more likely given they were probably a single column, upside down in a regional paper.
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My self-moderatng brand karma disallows me from commenting on this brand dogma – but I am following the Second Coming of Dr Mumbo on this issue with great interest… keep at it for everyone’s sake
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typical bullshit from industry leaders with complete disregard for everybody else who plays by the rules.
Basically you can count on many more entries next year in many more competitions which are scam – and all you have to do is refuse to answer legitimate questions.
I think some blunt questions need to be raised with Michael Rebelo (CEO Saatchi & Saatchi) & Andrew Little (CEO DDB) regarding how they participate within the industry – as they will have serious consequences on the industry as a whole if they are not dealt with seriously and honestly.
cheers
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The link to this article from the newsletter was wrong – which is probably why this is only the 3rd comment.
Shoot it out again on Monday and keep going! Pressure on the so-called advertisers/clients is the way to go!
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Guaranteed that there are some fairly stressed PR people just waiting for this to go away and hoping that you get tired of asking the same questions. They’ll be assuming that if there’s nothing new to report the story will die a death. Keep digging, Tim! This is too much fun. And remember, the truth is out there.
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Alternatively, what if you bring the McDonalds ads to the attention of the owners of Superman and Darth Vader trademarks? After all, aren’t these ads passing off (the ad names too) If they did run, you’d expect those companies would want royalties or at least give approval to run them.
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“look, over there.. a blue car”
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This is turning into an absolute abomination that is not only reflecting very poorly on the parties involved, but on the entire advertising industry which will inevitably be tarred with the same brush. That said, the best solution is to release it from the confines of the industry and send it mainstream. When you are talking about the sort of revenue achieved by the awards organisers, the competitive disadvantage to those that play by the rules, and the fact that agencies actually win contracts as a direct result of winning scam awards, this story is easily worthy of an expose in the national press. It is astounding that the suspects believe it is acceptable, in this day and age, to continue taking a silent stance. Turn up the heat Mumbrella. Contact the newspapers, the networks, the radio stations and anyone else who can see the value in this story, here and abroad, and encourage them to blow up the phones and melt-down the email accounts of the implicated parties until they come clean. You will retain the kudos for cracking the story, but it’s always handy to have an army of willing soldiers fighting the good fight along side you. Top journalism in a world sadly lacking top journalism
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As if that Maccas ad ran!! Haha, wow. I know I’m late to this but how the hell could anyone think that it’s a legit ad?
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What is all the fuss about? The ads are sat here next to me on the sofa. Or at least they were – that damned Harold Holt has just walked off with them
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This isn’t going to go away.
In fact, until the hard questions are answered properly, I suggest Tim hold a monthly competition to create an ad on why people shouldn’t enter Cannes kind of like an ‘anti-pitch). Fuck it, if they want scam ads, let’s give them scam ads.
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@Terry’s P.A. bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
@mumbrella. You will probably miss out on an invite to next year’s Cannes, but you clearly have the appreciation of a great many readers. Keep it up.
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People here are quick to dump on PR in the blink of an eye, usually for some atrocity committed by a kid. This fish smells distinctly malodorous and the perp is the ad industry. How ironic.
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Draws a blank, can’t be found, might be a scam?
Fuck me, that’s hard to believe. Are we sure?
Next we will find ex CD’s who are alleged to have Ned Kellyed ideas. What is the world coming too?
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The McDonalds piece was part of their pitch to McDonalds for the legends campaign. It never ran.
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Sadly, the organizers of cannes know better than to bite the hand that feeds.
The advertisers and agencies in question would like all this to go away.
Almost all award shows are BS and created to make money off the egos and insecurities of creatives.
Injecting fairplay, legitimacy and integrity now is too late in the game.
Keep asking questions Tim, but I wager that you will get no straight answers from anyone.
They will keeping popping the bubbly as the industry eats itself up.
Will the last principled ad professional kindly turn off the lights?
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LOLOLOLOL
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seriously Rebelo and Little front up and admit you’ve both done the dodgy… as they say OWN IT…
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Soo….. guess you could say, told ya
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Keep up the good work Tim!
Thanks for doing your job.
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They’re ligit now, having ran in Mumbrella. And @8, are you inciting trolling?
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A bronze or silver press lion won’t make the careers of senior staff, or win new business. Press had been dying for years, and I don’t remember the last time I saw a Cannes winning press ad that looked like it had run.
Press lions are a consolation prize for junior creatives who have been stuck making shit retail all year.
The only people you’ll hurt by this are those creatives who are trying to get noticed in an increasingly competitive and cut throat environment. If they get banned from entering in the future, it will wreck their careers, as the agency will just use other creatives to create scam ads.
And no, I don’t work at either agency, and am quite proud to say, I’ve never won a lion for scam.
And don’t pretend that this article was created for anything more than entertainment, just as Cannes is created for profit.
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Great stuff Tim. Keep it up.
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@think of the children
The trouble with today’s ‘it’s not my fault’ generation is they always never fail to play the victim card.
Those names named knew perfectly well what they were doing.
Lance Armstrong’s ‘other people cheat too’ defence didn’t wash either.
Everyone involved in these obvious scams should be ashamed of themselves.
Not for cheating. But for doing such a piss poor job at it.
If these children wanna play the creative game like the pros, grow a pair and cheat smart.
It really isn’t that difficult.
Any idiot can do it. And many have.
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TIA
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Have Saatchi & Saatchi or DDB offered up any reason for not explaining themselves?
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The dog ad for Panasonic is … a dog. Nobody would ever believe that was a legit ad because it is so ugly and more likely to turn people off. This whole thing is a huge con and illustrates the disconnect between the creatives giving each other bogus awards and the unimpressed consumers.
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Someone today put it to me that the advertising industry would be completely different if Cannes (and the like) were voted on by clients rather than members of the industry themselves. Could only lead to a more authentic reality where work that solves problems wins, with scam nowhere to be seen.
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The masters of Communication wont communicate? So advertising people have failed to camouflage the thin veneer of proprietary that is Cannes.
And they have adopted the Abbot immigration policy in response – “Tell em nothing”.
Apart from some private operators who retain a modicum of care. Many leaders seem to have had their moral compasses confiscated. Its all about what ‘I’ get and they really don’t care what impact it has………….creeping precedents –
1980’s “you cant do that its not right”
1990’s “that’s a little but naughty..but push the envelope’
2000’s “what are the consequences if we get caught”
2010’s ” damn the peasants, – let them eat cake”
In reality any basic ‘hard edged’ ROI analysis (not factoring in those that respond to bodgey awards) would have most attendees reluctant to front up the special ‘Cannes Brand’ pricing which has been developed. This is an indulgent party for creatives not a growth exercise.
Among the stimulants (no not that kind, – but I hear Cannes has much available)
I am sure Cannes has potential to be a great sharing of minds and culture. But this appears to be a rort on so many fronts. Its like a big culture party with key financial benefits to Savage and co. Lots of special people invited on the proviso they do not pay for it themselves.
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If you ad guys spent as much time creating campaigns such as the two above, as you do trying to catch each other out and following rules, there would be much better work out there full stop.
Let the creativity flow, people. Let the creativity flow.
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