The One Club's Wrath

So, DDB, Brazil produced an ad for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) a little while ago, but WWF rejected it. They saw the ad below as being insensitive, and didn't want to be a part of it. DDB, Brazil apparently still entered this ad into the One Show competition and they were later called out on it.


(copy: The Tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11.)

The funny thing is that this probably isn't the first occasion where a fake ad has been entered into award shows. There are so many creatives who are award hungry and would do anything they can to win them. Awards are important in prolonging your career, but you have to have some dignity and integrity about it.

Because I'm a member of the One Club, I received an email today about their new "crack-down" award policy. Here's a piece of it (read the whole thing here):

By now you have likely heard of the controversy surrounding DDB Brazil’s “Tsunami Ad.” At this point DDB Brazil has withdrawn the ad and it has been stripped of its merit award. As more facts come to light in regards to the legitimacy of this ad the One Club has decided to implement what we believe to be the most stringent and thorough “fake ads” policy in our industry. 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. For 2010 and onwards, the One Show will be adopting the following new rules and penalties.

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 5 years.

2. The entire team credited on the “fake” entry will be banned from entering the One Show for 5 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 3 years.