ADC draws the line on scam ads

According to the statement, the ADC Annual Awards is a serious competition for legitimate work, and all entries must conform to program guidelines of how and when the work appeared. Any entry that raises suspicion is put under additional scrutiny, with more elaborate authorization and confirmation details required from both agency and client. Entries, which violate the guidelines, are disqualified from competition.

The club wants the industry to know the following:

Your secret is not safe with us. If we find an entry to be fake, the agency and client in question will be disqualified. Then, for the first time starting this year, we'll take the additional step to communicate directly with other industry awards organizations and inform them about the scam ad so they too can be on the lookout and take action. We call upon other awards organizations to reciprocate.

ADC realises some interesting creative ideas never get approved or run. In cases like this, agencies may enter the work in the ADC Annual Awards Playground category, created four years ago specifically for work that for one reason or another was never approved by the client, or never ran.

By taking a leadership position in driving this collective information-sharing effort, as well as offering the Playground category as an alternative outlet, ADC believes it can work together with other awards shows to substantially reduce the opportunities for scam ads to make their way through the judging process.

ADC provides a forum for creatives in advertising, design, interactive media and communications to explore the direction of these rapidly converging industries; go to www.adcglobal.org for more.

For more:

• Previous scam ad stories