Panasonic Australia has found itself involved in a controversy over an award winning print advertisement that the Company has confirmed was never booked to appear in any publication by the Japanese company.
The advertisement for the Companies Nanoe Air Conditioning won
a Cannes Lion, the advertisement that is now being labelled “A scam” was
submitted by Saatchi & Saatchi.
According to the rules the advertisement that is remarkable
similar to a Volkswagen advertisement is supposed to have been published in
Australia prior to being submitted for an award.
Richard Tassone the Director, Consumer Electronics Group at Panasonic
Australia told ChannelNews that Panasonic Australia “did
not publish this advertisement in Australia” he added “We have put no TV
commercials to air this year nor have we booked this campaign”.
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| The Original Volkswagen advertisment |
Panasonic’s media company also said they had not booked space
for the advertisement.
Visitors to mUmBRELLA and media industry web site were up in
arms over the award One Agency said “They rip off an idea and then
bullshit about it? And they don’t think that’s going to reflect badly on them
and the client?”
Another visitor said”
Whenever the scam ad topic comes up I always find myself bemused that an
ad considered good enough to win/enter an award isn’t considered good enough
for the public to actually see.”
They Added “So what’s wrong in the process from brief
to strategy to execution that means we end up with scam ads? And really, who is
scamming who here?”
Mat Baxter, CEO of UM Australia, after being approached by MUmBRELLA
said that his agency had not booked advertising for the commercial.
 Click to enlarge |
| The Panasonic add that has been labelled “a scam”. |
MUmBRELLA said that a constant issue in international awards
are “scam” ads, created in order to win advertising awards rather than to solve
a business problem. Scam ads either do not run in media at all or are placed
cheaply in a minor publication to reach minimum entry requirements.
When approached by MUmBRELLA Baxter said: “We have reviewed
the winning Cannes print work for Panasonic and can confirm that UM did not
book any Australian media activity featuring the creative material in question.
It is important to note that Panasonic or Saatchi &
Saatchi themselves may have booked media space without our knowledge and we
would encourage you to reach out directly to both of them for ultimate
confirmation.”
Saatchi & Saatchi has so far declined to disclose where,
or if, the three ads – Blissful Dog, Confused Dog and Windblown Dog ran.
