ANUBIS

Once again an inspiring fact in the words of passionate creatives, I couldn’t have stated it better myself “Scam ads -Are unethical. It’s fraud. You’re cheating against me, us, your peers. You are basically padding your resume, not very different to using steroids in baseball, falsifying sources in journalism, or faking a test. It’s wrong, plain and simple. -Damages brands. In the digital age, unapproved communications can fly around the internet causing a PR nightmare. This also sets up a ripe opportunity for libel suits. -Lots of awards mean better jobs. Unfortunately, this is true. There are too many egotisical rockstars who’ve gotten those jobs based on faking it, at the expense of the many talented people who haven’t needed to fake it and who do the real work. Yes, there is a role for outlandish ballsy risktakers. But there should not be a role for unprofessional cheaters. -Creates a false sense of talent and ability for agencies. Creativity is one thing. Being able to make it for a real brand is another. An agency that wins tons of awards but who’s real work is less than stellar really is only fooling themselves. Sadly though, they also end up attracting talent who will be disappointed with the real output. Same with the clients who thing that are getting a great agency. If they’re willing to fake their entires, what about timesheets, billings, etc? What’s the line when it comes to professional ethics? -Ruins the process and creative department’s overall credibility. Award shows should celebrate the best work that gets produced. That’s our job. That’s the hard part. If you can’t make a good scam ad with no brief, then frankly, you must suck. If you’ve ever worked with CD who’s built a career on scam, you’ll see how hard it is for them to create great work with real briefs. Talented as they are, they often fail to do what their job is – sell. Creativity and selling go hand in hand in this thing we call advertising, and that should be rewarded. Scam doesn’t ‘raise the bar’ of creativity. It lowers it. And lowers the credibility of the people, agencies and shows who promote it”.

many agencies compete unethically with other agencies in creativity award competitions by either submitting an altered version of the published ad or even worse submitting an ad which was created to win awards without even the ad getting published or sometimes not even working for that brand.

Scam, doctored layouts (not in accordance to the Bank Muscat CIM), wrong color of client logo, never ever been used in any outdoor in Oman (where i reside), perhaps published once (maybe) in a low circulation magazine to bypass the rules of the competition. No paying client (for these ads)…yet….

Three shortlists in the Print category of the 2013 Dubai Lynx. WINDOW STEPS TARGET and Four shortlists in the Outdoor category of the 2013 Dubai Lynx. WINDOW STEPS OPEN BOX TARGET

I brought this to the attention of the organizers and they took appropriate action close but no cigar.

Mounir Harfouche seems to be following in the foot steps of Shahir Zag of Y&R here are some examples of his “creativity” that i accidentally came across, Forever young, ancient idea by Mounir Harfouche and It took Lowe MENA four years to copy Paragon Marketing Communications awarded work shall we conduct an official dig? I mean a visual audit of Harfouche “creativity” over the past decade and see the number of “coincidences”  and “telepathic” ideas he had to scam to get to where he is today  

The following are the ads with that actually got published for Bank Muscat which are in accordance with their visual identity..

Continue reading ‘Mounir Harfouche of LOWE bankrupt entry for Bank Muscat in 2013 Dubai Lynx’

Once again an inspiring fact in the words of passionate creatives, I couldn’t have stated it better myself “Scam ads -Are unethical. It’s fraud. You’re cheating against me, us, your peers. You are basically padding your resume, not very different to using steroids in baseball, falsifying sources in journalism, or faking a test. It’s wrong, plain and simple. -Damages brands. In the digital age, unapproved communications can fly around the internet causing a PR nightmare. This also sets up a ripe opportunity for libel suits. -Lots of awards mean better jobs. Unfortunately, this is true. There are too many egotisical rockstars who’ve gotten those jobs based on faking it, at the expense of the many talented people who haven’t needed to fake it and who do the real work. Yes, there is a role for outlandish ballsy risktakers. But there should not be a role for unprofessional cheaters. -Creates a false sense of talent and ability for agencies. Creativity is one thing. Being able to make it for a real brand is another. An agency that wins tons of awards but who’s real work is less than stellar really is only fooling themselves. Sadly though, they also end up attracting talent who will be disappointed with the real output. Same with the clients who thing that are getting a great agency. If they’re willing to fake their entires, what about timesheets, billings, etc? What’s the line when it comes to professional ethics? -Ruins the process and creative department’s overall credibility. Award shows should celebrate the best work that gets produced. That’s our job. That’s the hard part. If you can’t make a good scam ad with no brief, then frankly, you must suck. If you’ve ever worked with CD who’s built a career on scam, you’ll see how hard it is for them to create great work with real briefs. Talented as they are, they often fail to do what their job is – sell. Creativity and selling go hand in hand in this thing we call advertising, and that should be rewarded. Scam doesn’t ‘raise the bar’ of creativity. It lowers it. And lowers the credibility of the people, agencies and shows who promote it”.

Short listed at the 2013 Dubai Lynx in the outdoor category!!! 

Continue reading ‘Fuel your creativity instead with Impact BBDO Beirut at 2013 Dubai Lynx’

New York, NY – March 28, 2013:  The Cannes Lions advertising awards announced today that they are changing their judging system after what Advertising Age described as “Last Year’s Media-Judging Scandal” with “widespread accusations of cheating.”  Now Cannes Lions has copied the New York Festivals’ four-year old judging system whereby a large jury selects the shortlist and then a jury of 30 senior judges selects the trophy winners using a new scoring system.

“It’s unfortunate an organization as large and successful as the Cannes Lions cannot improve their judging system without copying our innovations and risking another scandal and lawsuit. We created the two-tier judging system four years ago and now have a patent pending on our revolutionary matrix scoring system to protect our intellectual property from being copied by others. Both of our systems are widely heralded by the international advertising community as being revolutionary and the best judging system in the industry.” said Jim Smyth, CEO of the International Awards Group, LLC (“IAG”), which owns the New York Festivals International Advertising Awards, for the World’s Best Advertising® as well as five other international award competitions.

Continue reading ‘Cannes Lions Copies New York Festivals Two-Tier Jury and Patent Pending Matrix Scoring System.’