TWO GOLD LION FINALISTS DISQUALIFIED AS SCAMS "Clear Violation of the Rules" Says Jury President June 19, 2001 By Laurel Wentz CANNES (AdAge.com) -- Led by Bob Isherwood as jury president, this year's Press & Poster jury at the International Advertising Festival cracked down on scam ads by throwing out of the show two print ads from Spain and Germany that would have Photo: Anthony Vagnoni.. Cannes Lion sign that looms over the Palais des Festivals. won Gold Lions at tonight's Press & Poster award show. Scam ads -- work that is created specifically to win prizes at ad shows -- are a hot issue this week because after last year's festival Lowe Lintas & Partners Worldwide's Australian agency had to return two Bronze Lions when it was revealed that neither ad had run. Mr. Isherwood, the worldwide creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi, said the jury had doubts about one campaign it deemed worthy of a Gold and asked the agency to supply a tearsheet proving the work had run. Instead, the agency scrambled to produce a letter saying the campaign had been approved by the client. "But the ad won't run until next year because of financial problems," Mr. Isherwood recounted. "We withdrew the Gold, withdrew it from the shortlist and withdrew it from exhibition." Bob Isherwood, jury president: 'Clear violation.' In another case, the jury also "felt uncomfortable" and called the client, he said. The client explained that some young people from the agency visited and asked the client's permission to enter an ad that they had created for the festival for the client's product. "[The client] said, 'We're really pleased we're going to get an award," Mr. Isherwood said. "They're not going to get an award. It's a clear violation of the rules. They're both gone." Speaking at a press conference today to announce the winners, Mr. Isherwood praised Ad Age's June 10 cover story on scam ads for raising the issue. He noted that fake ads can take many forms. Ads that have never run, for instance, violate the entry rules. And other ads "have been designed for the sole purpose of winning with a Cannes jury or any jury, not winning with the consumer," he said. In the effort to stamp out fake ads this year, he said that jury members have "paid a personal price, for their agency or country." Related Story: THE GHOST ADS OF CANNES Scam Entries Haunt Festival, Threaten Credibility Romain Hatchuel, the festival's CEO, outlined pre-festival efforts to screen out fake ads. Each entry is supposed to carry the signature of a senior executive at the agency, and festival staff try to watch for dubious ads as they are submitted, he said. For the first time this year, judges were sent a list in advance of all their country's entries to review and either report back to the festival or contact agencies directly about suspicious entries. The festival has considered -- and rejected -- creating a separate category for fake ads, as Chile did when a category called "Free Expression" was added to that country's national awards show last year. "We've discussed it and we just think it doesn't make sense," said Mr. Hatchuel. "A scam ad category is not a category." "My thinking on that is you might get quite a lot of entries and you could flow [suspicious] entries from other categories, but what value would it have?" Mr. Isherwood said. "It might be fun for a year." As the TV jury begins its deliberations, the scam ad controversy is unlikely to die. Judges are already saying privately that they're viewing a lot of suspicious-looking commercials. Laurel Wentz is the international editor of Advertising Age. © 2001, Crain Communications Inc. Editor@AdAge.com ..