Mr. Farley's plight highlights the minefield marketers face when
their ad agencies put their zeal for creative awards ahead of the
brand's best interests and indulge in "scam ads" that don't go
through the normal approval process. "Clients don't know that this
is happening," said Nancy Hill, president-CEO of the American
Association of Advertising Agencies. "Creatives have done this for
so many years on their own but with it getting out in public, this
has got to be a wake-up call. Creative directors have to take the
responsibility … and ask 'WWCT: What would the client
think?'"
Scam ads also raise disturbing questions about whether pressure
from the top ranks leads creatives to push limits to win awards
that will propel their employers into agency-, network- and
holding-company-of-the-year status at prestigious award shows. The
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, for instance,
has become a creative arms race between JWT parent WPP and Omnicom
Group since introducing a holding-company-of-the-year award several
years ago.
How fake were those three Figo poster ads? Award shows like
Goafest require at least a token media placement and both agency
and client execs to sign off on entries, but the approval letters
can be vague. Shashi Sinha, who oversees Goafest and is also CEO of
IPG Mediabrands in India, said it was "a gray area" as to whether
the Ford client was fully aware of the ads' content, because the
client-approval letters for the Ford Figo ads didn't include
descriptions of the work.
Powder keg
JWT India last week fired Mr. Pawar, along with Vijay Simha, the
senior creative director on WPP's Ford account who worked out of
Blue Hive, which opened last year as a collaboration between four
WPP agencies. TheBlueHive.com describes its team as "focused on
making our main client, Ford, not just known to all the world, but
loved by all the world." Blue Hive declined to comment.
By Thursday, Ford India had also fired a senior executive whom
it wouldn't name.
Mr. Pawar said it was impossible as a chief creative officer to
see every one of the hundreds of ads created by JWT India, but that
the release of the Ford Figo posters happened on his watch and so
was ultimately his responsibility.
Speaking from the Himalaya mountains on Friday while on a
long-planned vacation, Mr. Pawar said it's a myth that scam ads are
purely a creatives' disease. "Every agency head says, 'We want you
to win awards'," he said. "What do you think is going to happen?
It's the bean-counterization. You have to get so many points at
Cannes. That's a matchbox and a powder keg, and you shouldn't be
surprised if it explodes."
Such explosions happen regularly but rarely change anything. In
the last big fakery scandal, a DDB Brazil scam ad in
2009 for the World Wildlife Fund depicted planes flying at the
World Trade Center with the message that the tsunami in Asia had
claimed more victims than 9/11. Americans were outraged when it
went viral. The Cannes Lions organizers were also embarrassed
several years ago when the top winners at their Lynx awards for the
Middle East had to return their trophies after they turned out to
be scam ads.
This time may be a little different. The firing of a senior
client executive is rare and could help lead to better policing by
marketers at the local level if they fear being held accountable
when a scam ad for one of their brands goes viral.
No ghosts
Another WPP auto client has already told his agency, Garage Team
Mazda, to make sure a Figo-like fiasco never happens. Russell
Wager, VP-marketing for Mazda North American operations, has
instructed his agency to ensure Mazda sees everything his agency
produces. "Any work created that has a Mazda logo or badge on it is
seen by us before it goes out," he said.
Kate Hartman, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola, said the
company is proud of the work its agencies do and happy to see it
celebrated by awards shows. Protocol, she added, requires all
entries be reviewed before they are officially submitted. "Our
brands and our trademarks are our most valuable intellectual
property, and we do not sanction any unauthorized use of them," Ms.
Hartman said. "In the situation of scam/ghost ads, we evaluate
everything on a case-by-case basis."
Likewise, Paulo Ziliotto, senior network marketing manager for
Adidas International, said the brand must approve any work
submitted for awards. "There are no cases of ghost ads from our
official agencies."
Marketers, at least at company headquarters, often only find out
about a scam ad after it's posted on a site like Ads of the World
and then pops up as a news story.
Oreo outcry
Kraft Foods faced a
PR issue last year when Cheil Worldwide made
an unabashedly fake Oreo ad in South Korea. A breastfeeding baby
held a cookie next to the tagline "Milk's favorite cookie."
The image went viral, forcing Kraft to play defense. "Our
understanding is that they created it for use at an isolated
advertising-awards forum in Korea," a Kraft official told ABC News
at the time. "It was never intended for consumer advertising or
public distribution."
Although creatives may think scam ads are harmless fun at worst,
marketers dealing with attacks from enraged consumers aren't
amused. Especially when media outlets and bloggers blame the
unwitting marketer rather than make clear an ad is a fake.
Social media is even worse. One commenter posted on Ford's
Facebook page: "Ford has lost my business for sure and we are in
the market for a new car. It WON'T be a Ford product … now
that I have seen the Figo ad!""I can't think of a punishment too
severe for agencies who promote scam ads and pollute shows with
them," said John Boiler, president of 72andSunny. "It's the
most disgusting manifestation of ego in our industry. ... Shows
need to strictly enforce a zero-tolerance policy. I think they
should permanently ban any agency responsible for one bona fide and
provable offense."
For Mr. Pawar, the worst part wasn't being fired, he said. "It
was that India was getting labeled as a country of rapists and
women abusers." Acknowledging the outpouring of positive comments
on his Facebook page, he said, "I'm very thankful for support from
peers, and people online I don't even know." With contributions
from bureau reports
Just What Is a Ford Figo?
The small car that sparked big headlines is an obscure player on
the world automotive stage.
Ford Motor Co. launched the Figo, a subcompact, into the Indian
auto market in March 2010. Based off an old European version of the
Ford Fiesta, the hatchback made an initial splash, earning "Car of
the Year" honors in 2011. Ford India rolled out a redesigned Figo,
with some funky new colors and smart features, in late 2012.
On its website Ford says Figo's "kinetic design, intelligent
features like Bluetooth and best-in-class ride and handling make it
a smart choice for your daily tussle with the road." It also notes
that Figo is "bold, enigmatic and a head-turner."
After last week, that almost seems like an understatement.
-- Michael McCarthy
