Rise of the marketing doppelgangers?

Last week, the local ad industry was riled by the tiff between the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and local design agency DoodleRoom, where the latter accused STB of recycling its work without its permission, and not inviting it back to pitch the following year for the account.Who was in the wrong?While several agency executives expressed outrage at the client on Marketing’s social media feed, several local agency chiefs have said STB’s response is justified."I'm not sure what business DoodleRoom is in but in our business when a client pays for an idea/artwork they own it. That's why when accounts move from agency to agency, the outgoing agency has to handover all artwork, commercials etc.  to the incoming agency,” said Anand Vathiyar, managing director of Up & Up.“The truth is we are guns for hire in an oversupply business. But if we are good, clients will return,” added Vathiyar, suggesting that STB not reaching out when the RFP was called was a possible indication it did not actually have the best experience working with the agency.Dominique Butler director of BS Advertising had a similar view, saying the responsibility lay on the agency to understand the contract. “IP (intellectual property) and usage rights are not unique to the advertising or design business. Ultimately it is up to the agency to read and understand any contracts it enters into or specify usage and rights before commencing any projects. If in doubt, get a lawyer!” said Butler.Others felt the fault was with the client. Theodore Choo, former president of the 4As commented on the earlier article run: “In Singapore, the clients always win due to intimidation and holding [sic] agencies ransom for future work. The mentality and behavior of clients need to change. And the 4As can help by changing its charter so that they have the power to resolve such conflict and abuse. On this issue, even professional courtesy was not accorded! This coming from a governmental agency promoting Singapore as a first world country [sic]. Someone needs to go for business ethic and professional etiquette classes,” commented Choo.The 4As did not respond to this at the time of publishing.Meanwhile, on Marketing’s Twitter feed, several readers have expressed outrage at STB. Here's what some of them said:Doppelgangers galore W Hotel & The Relay RoomSTB and DoodleRoom's tiff is but one of many. Another supposed doppelganger has surfaced. The W Hotel recently put up its ang bao design for Chinese New Year on its Instagram account, only to be accused by several users of being a rip off of a design from local agency The Relay Room. Neither party could be reached at the time of publishing to clarify this.[gallery link="file" ids="34026,34014"]SingTel & StarhubLast year, when both SingTel and Starhub ran campaigns with strikingly similar taglines, the latter accused SingTel of being a copycat, while SingTel’s then agency BBDO chalked up the similarities to coincidence. Read more here.Philippines Tourism Board campaignIn 2012, the Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DOT) copped flak for its campaign tagline, "It's more fun in the Philippines.", which was the same tagline used in a 1951 Switzerland tourism campaign -  "It's more fun in Switzerland". Read more here.Is this a huge problem for both agency and client? If you've seen more incidents like this, reach the writer at elizabethl@marketing-interactive.com