A ghost ad from Oman 
by FP7 Muscat in which they seem to have put John Doe to rest 
Advertising Agency: FP7, Oman
Creative Director: Noufal Ali
Art director: Noufal Ali
Copywriter: Noufal Ali
Graphic Designers: Renjith Pillai, Sanoop
Photographer: Suresh Anthikad
Client Servicing: Ajay Menon
Client: Rasameel
Agency: MEMAC Ogilvy
Country: Kuwait
I have checked Statex and found no reference whatsoever that these ads were ever published in Kuwait; yet they were submitted to the 2009 Dubai Lynx.
Related post: Heart broken
This is the Direct entry in the 2009 Dubai Lynx
Client: Kromozone
Agency: Impact & Echo BBDO
Country: Kuwait
and this is the print entry in the 2009 Dubai Lynx
notice that there is no call for action. no website. no phone numbers. nothing. nadaaaa. zilch.
they could have probably gotten away with the Direct but Print
also check this post for relevance: ca$h
This ad was published in Pint media daily newspaper ONCE!!! on the 25th of February 2009 and the deadline for eligibility to enter work in the Dubai Lynx was the 29th of February…What a tight window of opportunity; just four days only :) they made it. oh and for the recored this ad was only published Once to legalize the entry. i guess they think that the award organizers will fall for it.
NB. The level of advertising in Kuwait has become so bad that even with cheating they can not win
These are the ONLY ads that were actually published in the entire year of 2008 (One in February and One in March) in Pint media…i doubt they were paid for but that can easily be checked from the media vehicles however it is at least evident that a client that published only Three ads in the entire year has one of them entered into a competition without showing a product or making his logo bigger or demanding to feature his website or phone numbers or even the logo of the mother company (as per the above ads) or the template
Related post: http://idology.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/the-cowardly-lions/#comment-267
Client: Al Ghanim Travel
Agency: Impact & Echo BBDO
Country: Kuwait
The above three ads were entered into the 2009 Dubai Lynx print category.
Even though according to Statex only two of them actually ran (only once) but not the third only a few days prior to the closing date of the Dubai Lynx in an successful attempt to legalize the entries and compete unlawfully.
NB. Impact & Echo BBDO is the in-house agency for Al Ghanim industries which Al Ghanim Travel is a part of and no other ads for the same client were ever published the entire year.
Source: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-4025494-climbing-golden-ladder.html
Client: Wataniya Telecom
Agency: Zenith Media
Country: UAE – Dubai.
The main visual and core concept of the ad is clip art!!! Check out an older post on this blog relating to this: source of inspiration
Clip art, in the graphic arts, refers to pre-made images used to illustrate any medium. Today, clip art is used extensively in both personal and commercial projects, ranging from home-printed greeting cards to commercial candles. Clip art comes in many forms, both electronic and printed. However, most clip art today is created, distributed, and used in an electronic form. Since its inception, clip art has evolved to include a wide variety of content, file formats, illustration styles, and licensing restrictions. Clip art is generally composed exclusively of illustrations (created by hand or by computer software), and does not include stock photography. source: wikipedia.
Published in the Times of Oman English daily newspaper. Tuesday August 18, 2009. Business section. Page: 22.
Published in Business News magazine. October 2009. Page: 46.
Published in Osrati magazine 2010.
Published in Al Maraa (woman) Magazine. Page: 33.
Client: Pink Moon
Agency: Impact & Echo BBDO
Country: Kuwait
The above campaign was entered in the 2009 Dubai Lynx Outdoor category even though no one has seen it but there is a good reason for that since it is no where to be found even by media monitoring log in Statex. it is a ghost.
I hope that the Dubai Lynx will once and for all take out the in-store poster from the outdoor category which has been used so many times as a loophole to participate with ghost ads in outdoor. it would also be a good idea to ask every agency participating next year to attache a media monitoring report with each entry; that would dramatically help in sorting out real work from scam work.
it is not the first time Impact & Echo BBDO Kuwait has entered and won with ghost ads or copy-cat ads, check these links if you have time:
The list is long but i guess these are enough to make my point clear. for now at least.
Client: Al Ghanim Electronics – Canon.
Agency: Impact & Echo BBDO
Country: Kuwait
The above was entered in the 2009 Dubai Lynx Outdoor category even though no one has seen it before and the fact that Al Ghanim Electronics are NOT the agents for Canon!!!
Client: Dar Al Shifa hospital
Agency: MEMAC Ogilvy
Country: Kuwait
The above were entered into the 2009 Dubai Lynx in both the print and outdoor categories even though no one has seen them!!!
Notice that the logo is a copy-cat Hand it over…and quick
I have received an interesting phone call from Elie Bochayaa the creative director of Memac Oglivy Kuwait in which he discussed with me many posts in addition to this one and told me that this outdoor is actually a poster which was hung in the hospital for one day only and that the print ad is actually the hospital in-house newsletter!!! which explains why i could not find any referance to this work on Statex.
however I have posted below the Statex report with the only reference to the client and blood donation that actually got published and the visual as you can see for yourself has nothing to do with the work that has been submitted to the 2009 Dubai Lynx. One more thing it was a different artwork and in Arabic only!!!
Even if what he said in defense of the entries is true then it still does not give them the right to enter it into the Dubai Lynx or any other award.
Oh yes before he ended the call he managed to pose an interesting question which in not so many words sounded something like this “who gave you the right to post or to comment on other agencies entries in any award?” I gave him a long answer.
Published in Mediaweek 14/22 March 2009
www.mediaweekme.com
Special thanks to sender.
I do agree that (unfortunatly) copy-cat and spoof/ghost ads “is always going to be a problem in the industry” but why cant it at l east be marginilized? Lets colectivly attempt to confine this “problem” and do our best NOT to make it spill out to the Creativity Awards. is that too much to ask?!!! what do you think?
Related post: http://bloganubis.com/2009/01/17/7ven/
Lateral Thinking: When a low probability line of thought leads to an effective idea, there is a “Eureka” moment and at once the low-probability approach acquires the highest probability. – Edward De Bono. Excerpt from a book by John Townsend & Jacques Favier titled The Creative Manager’s Pocketbook. Page: 2. ISBN: 1-870471-69-5.
A copycat is a person that mimics or repeats the behavior of another. The term is often derogatory, suggesting a lack of originality. The expression may derive from kittens that learned by imitating the behaviors of their mothers. – Wikipedia.
Plagiarism: The abuse of another’s original work by copying it and passing it off as one’s own. As defined in Alastair Campbell book titled The Designer’s Lexicon. Page: 293 ISBN: 0-304-35505-4.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of thievery” excerpt from a book by Capsule titled Design Matters. Page: 84. ISBN -13:978-1-59253-341-1.
ANUBIS was a very old god of the ancient Egyptians, universally worshipped throughout the land and became considered the gatekeeper and ruler of the underworld; the “Guardian of the veil“ he was “Lord of the Cleansing Room” and the opener of the roads of the North. “He observed the weighing of the deceased’s heart against the feather of Maat [Truth] and reported his findings to the jury of the gods.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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