Cannes Lions withdraws two Lions from Brazil – scam Kia pedophile ads lead to one year ban
Following discussions between the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and Moma Propaganda São Paulo, Brazil, the organisers of the Festival are withdrawing both the Silver Lion won in the Press category and the Bronze Lion won in Outdoor awarded for the Kia Motors air conditioning dual zone campaign ‘Teacher’ and ‘Princess’.
Commenting on the withdrawal, Philip Thomas, Festival CEO said, “The Cannes Lions rules state clearly that if requested, proof must be provided that campaigns ran and were legitimately created for a fee-paying client. Despite many conversations, Moma Propaganda have not provided the proof we require and therefore the Lions have been withdrawn.”
“In addition, as stated in our terms and conditions, we reserve the right to take further action against individuals listed on the credits who cannot prove the veracity of the entries to our satisfaction. On this occasion, a decision has been made to ban any work created by those credited on the entry for one year. Therefore entries will not be accepted from these individuals for the 2012 Cannes Lions Festival,” added Philip Thomas.
Over the past few days a controversy has brewed following Kia’s denial that it has anything to do with a pedophilia-themed campaign.
43 Comments
How about a comment from the leading Australian CD who was on the Press Jury that awarded this silver or the ex-CD who is currently pursuing other creative opportunities who was on the Outdoor jury that awarded this bronze? Maybe a tip or two on how we can get our own bottom drawer ideas that never ran and have no client past the judges and the supposedly cast-iron entry requirements at Cannes.
The agency / creatives should be banned for life
With the amount entries actually cost, surely every finalist should be requested to provide proof?
How did this get awarded in the first place. As if KIA would’ve approved these ads. Come on, wake up judges!
Fucking embarrassing for the scammers, but even more embarrassing for the judges.
Seriously, any judge who thinks that pedo work is actually worth awarding has his head jammed squarely up his own arse.
It’s appalling, and surely wouldn’t make anyone but the biggest sleaze feel anything less than revolted.
And trust me, I’m far from a prude. But a teacher, having sexual fantasies about fucking what looks like a 7 year old kid? To sell a Kia? That’s just fucked, and shouldn’t have made it through Round 1.
And this is a surprise to anyone? Look at the rest of the press lions. 99% of them were created solely to win a lion with a nod and a wink from the client if the agency paid for them.
Press is and always will be the easy wicket to win a lion for creatives who can’t do TV or integrated. As a CD beautifully crafted press ads are a nice to have but the last thing I look at in a book.
Appalling on every level – just sums it up really.
Damn, there goes my necrophilia concept.
It’s not a harsh enough penalty. One year is a slap with a piece of wet lettuce. 5 years minimum.
The individuals are banned, the unnamed agency wasn’t? Oh yeah, that might cut down on entries and income next year.
Seriously, the only surprise here is someone getting caught. The entire award industry is no longer about encouraging excellence, if it ever was. It is about building the profile of whatever creatives can work the system best, at whatever cost.
Now ECD and hence jury positions are filled with second-generation scammers, the whole process is turning into self-parody.
The third ad in the series is about a nice man offering to drive a young girl home from school.
All this scam stuff is like writing a scathing comment as Anonymous
Doesn’t the chairman-Tony Granger have anything to say?
Those two Lions were seen withdrawing by Lynchie on his recent return to South Africa.
It is inconceivable that anyone could have genuinely believed that this work is legit.
The content of this work I would argue is illegal, in any market. What does it say about the moral compass of the jury. I mean it got a bloody gold.
A Cannes Lion doesn’t make you the master of the universe. Who cares, it’s only advertising.
My, aren’t we all adopting a high moral tone today!
I’ve long been a high profile opponent of scam ads, and the foolishness of the industry’s obsession with awards, BUT these are fantastic ads if you purely judge them as an execution of the product feature/benefit.
God knows the overwhelming number of real ads fail miserably to bring any benefit to life in an innovative way. Most of the Australian industry’s ads are dire. So my friends, why not channel that righteous indignation into doing real ads for real clients with the same level of skill demonstrated in these scams?
And stop pretending to be so righteous It’s advertising, after all.
Pretend you know nothing about the industry then read the headline of this story.
1:45 pm
So true. It’s only ‘Advertising’
Careful Old CD Guy, or people just might start calling you Creepy Old CD Guy.
That teacher execution in particular is just way wrong. Sure the base idea’s good, nicely executed, very different to most car ads, all that stuff.
But trading off pedophilia, shit. That’s just wrong.
(I get that everyone has their own moral compass, and what offends me won’t necessarily offend you. But I strongly suspect that if you and 999 randoms were asked how they felt about that ad, you’d probably be an outlier)
And fuck knows how the agency didn’t get banned. THEY entered it, THEY paid for it, THEY knew about it. THEY probably already added the lions to their tally for the Gunn Report. But it’s pretty convenient to blame it on a single creative team, isn’t it.
WHO WERE THOSE JUDGES 1:24??
3:39PM: Judges
http://www.canneslions.com/enter/juries.cfm?juryid=2
I don’t see pedophilia in the ads.
I see one side being a kid’s perspective.
The other side being a grown ups view.
If you guys are taking pedophilia out of the ads maybe you’re the dodgy ones.
Whether they won or lost a lion is irrelevant.
IT’S ONLY ADVERTISING DUDES.
How to lose an argument…finish with the word “DUDES”.
Poor taste at best.
Disappointing this was judged worthy of a Lion by two separate juries.
I heard mention of two scam Aussie entries on here – anyone got the details?
@1.45PM
IF YOU WIN A CANNES LION YOU ARE THE KING OF THE WORLD.
IT MEANS MORE MONEY, POWER AND RESPECT. IT’S EVERYTHING.
Paedo! Paedo! Paedo! …
That agency should be sent to jail…
Needs more PedoBear.
hey 4.16 – are you available for babysitting?
@3:13.
Back in the dim, dark days when I was a member of the Campaign Palace creative department of the 1980s (yes, back when it was really good), the intent was nearly always to generate controversy by doing ads that shocked and confronted. We really didn’t care who we offended. Frankly, the more, the better.
The resulting outrage and ensuing public discussion elevated an ad from merely being 30 seconds on TV- or a page in a newspaper – to something much, much greater – it went into the mainstream of public discourse. That increased the impact of the work far beyond its media spend. Which made it very cost-effective.
Remember, it’s only advertising. Nobody is waiting to see your ad. Most ads don’t even get noticed. You HAVE to be interesting. Who cares if a few fogies get their knickers in a knot? We didn’t.
The issue here is the scam. Well, the offenders been caught and punished. The lynch mob should now cool off, go home and have a nice, cold lemonade. The work is a very good and well-crafted expression of the proposition. So what if it’s not in good taste like everything else we see day in and day out?
Try to incorporate that sort of shock-value in your own work and you might even get noticed. You might even get people talking about your ad! And that just might result in a huge increase in sales for your client.
selling ‘dual climate control’ with this idea is pretty average.. even as a first idea.
@ 2:30. It’s only advertising and the images depicted are only children.
4.16.
The problem is with the way the ad is crafted. On the left we see a little girl and a teacher – and on the right we see a teacher flirting with a sexually mature young woman. My first assumption when this ad started doing the rounds was that the geeky teacher on the left was projecting the stuff on the right, seeing himself as suave and the little girl as as flirty and coquettish – when in reality she is just an innocent little girl Which is where the whole pedo thing comes about. Having the majority of the girl’s words on the “innocent” side and the majority of the man’s words on the pervy left, simply reinforces this.
Are the Lions going the way of the Clios? Is the festival now, as bnet says, difficult to take seriously? My vote is yes. And not just because of this campaign being awarded.
Whats the aussie juror’s take on it Lynchie??
I remember once looking through an old photography book and coming across an image of a drought-afflicted young ethiopian boy with his head deep in a wizened old cow’s arse. The accompanying text explained that, by blowing on the cow’s vagina, he was attempting to stimulate it to urinate, urine he could then drink to quench his impossible thirst. It was a shocking and haunting image. But would you use it for a beer brand?
Australia also had some questionable radio lions won…. Scammers are cheaters
Wonder how well MOMA’s awesome “Once seen, never forgotten” Kia Sportage ad that the client actually approved and paid for, would have faired with the judges at Cannes? http://www.momapropaganda.com.br/content/cases/kia_motors/sportage/1.jpg
“Australia also had some questionable radio lions won…. ”
I’m both intrigued and lazy, can somebody tell me the details so I don’t have to look it up?
Thank
How on earth did this make outdoor category? Brazilian agency are always churning out scam ads as a nation they dont respect the law and rules so will keep doing it.
You’ve seen city of god right?
Kia a family brand would never run this, it reeks of scam so why was it not thrown out earlier?
The biggest crime of Cannes though was NAB winning a lion WTF that break up campaign was a shocker!
I love scam ads, they offer me so many ideas to tweak. If scam ads weren’t around work would be limited to the average stuff chosen by corporate clients, with the bounday pushing stuff stuck in drawers and the back of cigarette packets.
I want them to bring out the Scam annual showing the worlds best scam ads.
“Australia also had some questionable radio lions won…. ”
drunk astronauts in a beer ad? …. Of course it’s a legit campaign
http://www.canneslions.com/work/radio/entry.cfm?entryid=4393&award=3
Thanks scam alert.
That’s one wrong step for Cannes; one giant leap for scam-kind.