D&AD joins One Show against scam ads

MarkLives!com recently reported that a stringent new policy regarding scam ads has been set in place by The One Club. The One Club then went on to call on other international award shows to follow suit with similar policies.

According to new rules set by The One Club, agencies that enter an ad made for nonexistent clients, or made and run without a client's approval, will be banned from entering The One Show for five years, as will the creative team behind such an entry. An agency that enters an ad that has run once, on late night TV, or has only run because the agency produced a single ad and paid to run it themselves, will be banned from entering The One Show for three years.

Validate the eligibility

D&AD CEO Tim O'Kennedy and D&AD president Paul Brazier further announced yesterday that beginning with the 2010 D&AD awards show, the executive creative director or an equivalent officer of the entrant company will be required to validate the eligibility of every item, ensuring that work does not slip through without their knowledge. “A plea of ignorance is not an acceptable defence.”

Locally, the Loeries has broken ranks with its international peers by stating that it will continue to encourage ‘pro-active' work - that is, “work done on behalf of a client but perhaps with a small flighting and production budget.” This is despite the recent ruckus caused by a local ad agency which saw it stripped of its Silver Clio for entering work not approved by client.

The discussion that followed here on Bizcommunity.com tended to support the stance that the practice of creating and running scam ads is acceptable to the local industry (which now seems increasingly out of step with its international counterparts).

“Judges aren't familiar”

Andrew Human, CEO of the Loeries, released the following statement on the matter:

Generally speaking, international shows such as the One Show and the Cannes Advertising Festival suffer more from this problem because it is very difficult for judges to determine the validity of a campaign. This is because work comes from all over the world and judges aren't familiar with regional brands and agencies.

“With the Loeries we have two main things in our favour: Firstly, the judging panel is very aware of the local brands and it is difficult to enter a large media campaign for an unknown hair salon (for example) without being exposed. Secondly, the Loeries attracts a lot of local attention from consumers and marketers so it's not really possible to enter fake work - and then win - without this coming to the attention of the brand custodian. Having said this, our rules clearly act against scam work (work that has not run and/or has not been approved by the client).

On the other hand, we do differ somewhat from the One Show in that we encourage ‘pro-active^*' work - that is work does on behalf of a client but perhaps with a small flighting and production budget. In many instances, pro-active work has won awards and subsequently received far greater flighting. Part of the aim of these awards is to promote better work and pushing pro-active (and legitimate) work is an element of this.

^*The One Club defines “fake ads” as: ads created for nonexistent clients or made and run without a client's approval, or ads created expressly for award shows that are run once to meet the requirements of a tear sheet.

In practice, this generally means the agency comes up with a concept it thinks can win awards and then pays for the production and flighting of said ad. Finally, a smallish brand gets roped in to support the ad (it should be the other way round folks).

•Adapted from original blog posts D&AD takes tough stance on scam ads and Loeries encourage ‘pro-active' work on MarkLives!com