Comms Council CEO urges agencies dealing with illegitimacy claims to be transparent
Zabel
Agencies dealing with claims of illegitimacy around campaigns entered into awards should be transparent about them, Communications Council CEO Margaret Zabel has told Mumbrella.
In response to questions about the industry body’s guidance on scam advertising Zabel said: “In terms of dealing with claims of illegitimacy, obviously transparency is helpful in these cases. Reputation is very important, but there are also sometimes confidentiality restrictions around the release of certain details. It’s up to the agency and the client to discuss and agree on the best and most transparent way of responding.”
Her comments come after questions arose some ads entered by Australian agencies in this year’s Cannes Lions competition coming under scrutiny, which included Saatchi & Saatchi’s Silver Lion winning work for Panasonic and DDB’s Bronze winning McDonald’s executions, with those agencies and clients refusing to reveal where the work had run.
Why cant there just be a requirement on award entries, to state 3 examples of exactly where and when the ad ran? And then this is published when the winners are announced.
Surely this alone would help reduce the scam ad issue by 90%.
No one’s seriously going to enter a Cannes award saying it just ran in The Rouse Hill Times?
(With apologies to the Rouse Hill Times)
The only farce in this article is the CEO of Comms Council.
“It’s up to the agency and the client to discuss and agree on the best and most transparent way of responding.”
To write that comment only proves how entirely removed Margaret is from both advertisers and agencies.
Do agencies still pay heavily to be part of the Comms Council? Really?