Goa adfest plagued with plagiarism charges
12 Apr 2013
'Just what you unexpected', says the tagline for GoaFest 2013, the annual event for India's advertising industry. The unexpected has happened, but perhaps not in the way the organisers envisaged it.
On Thursday, the Awards Governing Council stripped BBDO Proximity of two gold medals and one silver awarded for its work on realtor DHL's campaign ads on grounds of plagiarism.
BBDO had won a gold in the print category, and a gold and a silver in outdoor. It has now officially withdrawn those entries.
The council found that the work was similar to that produced by Ogilvy's Hong Kong office.
And, even as the governing body was trying to get to the bottom of the DHL case, another allegation of plagiarism was levelled, this time against a DDB Mudra's campaign for Electrolux, which bagged a total of two silvers - in print and in Outdoor - at the Creative Abbys.
The similarities between the two campaigns were brought to the governing council's notice on Thursday, when it asked the print and outdoor juries to vote on the course of action.
The juries voted to withdraw the metals from BBDO. They have yet to decide on Mudra's Electrolux campaign.
"We are disheartened with what is happening, but this is good for GoaFest Creative Abbys in the long run. It will clean up the process," The Economic Times quoted governing council chairman Shashi Sinha as saying.
BBDO chairman Josy Paul said: "We find the decision of the AGC ridiculous. Take a look at our track record - the only agency in Asia to win a creative-effectiveness Lion at Cannes. The 'O' in BBDO is 'Originality''.
