One Club rules on scam ads

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

New rules and penalties

“For 2010 and onwards, the One Show will be adopting the following new rules and penalties,” stated Swanepoel.

1. An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad made for nonexistent clients, or an ad made or run without a client's approval, will be banned from entering the One Show for five years.
   
2. The entire team credited on the ‘fake' entry will be banned from entering the One Show for five years.
   
3. An agency or regional office of an agency network 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.
   

The One Club reserves the right to review ‘late night', ‘ran-once' and ‘launch versions' at its discretion. If it is determined that the ad was created expressly for award show entry, the penalty will hold.

The One Club is also in the process of developing an initiative that will call upon individuals and agencies in the creative community to monitor and eliminate ‘fake' ads at their source. Detailed guidelines will appear in the 2010 One Show Call for Entry.

Call for award show support

The One Club exists to champion excellence in advertising and design in all its forms. It will stringently enforce these rules and penalties to ensure that The One Show remains the pinnacle of advertising and design created for marketers and brands.

“The One Show encourages other international award shows to follow suit with similar policies and, perhaps even more importantly, calls on our industry as a whole to end the practice of ‘fake' advertising,” concludes Swanepoel.

For more, go to www.oneclub.org, follow @OneShow on Twitter and join the Facebook group.