The Long Tail - Aug'08

TBWA’s Cannes ambitions bite back

TBWA Worldwide infuriated Chinese bloggers following revelations the agency, which had created the Cannes-winning work on Chinese pride for client Adidas, was also responsible for another Cannes winning China campaign – this one on behalf of Amnesty International, in an ad which criticised the emerging superpower’s human rights record.

Adland
http://commercial-archive.com/

Blogger: Dabitch

The post: TBWA are two-faced, according to Chinese netheads.
What it says: Dabitch responds sarcastically to a statement made by a Chinese blogger, on Netease.com, who called for all Chinese employees in TBWA to resign. And she, like many other bloggers, also rips apart TBWA chief executive Tom Carroll’s comment on the controversy which said, “Had TBWA management known about this ad... it would not have been produced. This is the action of one individual at our agency working on a pro bono account”.

“Say, what? The Amnesty campaign wasn’t a one-man job, there were five people credited both here and at the Cannes Lions.”

Debbie Schlussel.com
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/

Blogger: Debbie Schlussel

The post: Advertising Agency Whores to Chi-Coms . . . & Chi-Coms’ Enemies
What it says: Schlussel, who is a conservative political commentator, says the whole incident exposes not just the “whoredom of the morally bereft ad industry” but also the “cowardice of Amnesty International”.

“What a fraud. Or rather, several frauds: Amnesty International pretending to be on the side of human rights, then rolling over for the Chi-Coms, allowing its ad agency to pretend it’s a real ad for a competition, and the agency pretending to be on both sides of the Chi-Coms.”

Copywrite, Ink.: Words. Concepts. Strategies.
http://copywriteink.blogspot.com/

Blogger: Rich

The post: Advertising Conflict: TBWA Worldwide
What it says: Rich isn’t sure whether its always a good thing consumers want the message makers to be as transparent or at least as authentic as the clients they are writing for - but what’s more obvious to him is “agencies and clients lose anytime the
decision to do something is tied to awards”.

“Awards are easy. Results are not. While these ads were creative, all they really succeeded in doing was damage everyone involved. And no matter how you spin it, that is not very effective at all.”

Glass House
http://glasshouse.waggeneredstrom.com/

Blogger: Frank

The post: Global communications conflicts
What it says: Frank cites passages from the WSJ’s reporting to put into perspective how people living in China are participating in the conversation in a much more direct way than ever before.

“What certainly appears to be happening is that the state-run media is a bit unprepared for the way the Chinese blogosphere is picking up and amplifying its stories. I would bet that the last thing the offi cial communications folks want is a ton of focus on an ad campaign, but that’s what they now have.”