RRJ #3

Reference:

Parekh, R. & Zmuda, N. (2010, Feb 11). Does Coke's Super Bowl ad look a lot like old Israeli dairy spot? Advertising Age. Retrieved Feb 17, 2010, from http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=142075

Summary:

It is wondered if the Coke's Super Bowl ad is a rip-off of the an Israeli commercial. Coca-Cola aired a new commercial during the Super Bowl, and the ad terribly looked like the eight-year old Israeli commercial by Yotvata Dairy: markets of milk, yogurts and flavored-milk drinks. The Coke's ad called “Sleepwalker” is like a story; a young man sleepwalks a long distance through the African savanna and he escapes various accidents while he is sleepwalking; finally, he quenches his thirst with a cold Coke in a tribal village. The storyline is the almost the same as that of the Israeli commercial; also, both commercials used the same music: Ravel's “Bolero.” The similarities of the two commercials spread rapidly through many people in Israel and the U.S. on YouTube, Twitter and e-mail. Coca-Cola has firmly denied the doubt and maintained the similarities are quite coincidence; whereas, Young & Rubicam: an agency of Yotvata Dairy that created the Israeli commercial didn't respond to request to comment. It required between $2.5 million and $3 million to buy the media time for a Super Bowl ad this year, yet Ad Age’s Bob Garfield says “Sleepwalker” is like a warmed-over Pepsi spot from the ‘80’s.” However, the commercial carried well in the public because it ranked No.5 out of 63 commercials on the USA Today Ad meter.

Reaction:

I think it is not impossible that there are two or three similar advertisements in the world. because uncounted advertisements air every year, every day around the world, and there is no way that all these are quite not similar to the others. In addition, it is natural an idea comes from other ads or art works among designers; in fact, there are some ads that deliberately look like other ads. Designers always struggle to make fresh and revolutionary advertisements; therefore, they see many works to get a new idea and pick good ideas from them. I think picking a good idea is not wrong for designers, because it is an easy way to make good work and they learn many things from picking such as sense of observation, arrangement, or estimate. However, it certainly doesn’t allow them to make and air a rip-off. It just leads them to get new idea, and they have to create a fresh one including the idea and “their own idea.” It is a tacit rule of creating advertisements, and all designers fully understand it. Both commercials are too similar, and we can’t believe it is purely a coincidence. The most surprising thing for me is that the beverage giant Coca-Cola got the commotion, because Coca-Cola uses a lot of many for advertising every year and their work always wins some awards at advertisement competitions around the world. Of course, they might know the dangers of rip-offs, and they ought to search if there is a similar one to the commercial in the world, and then they would be able to find the Israeli commercial even if it is a real coincidence. The problem is a serious one for Coca-Cola, because the top advertising company aired a rip-off ad during the Super Bowl: the show is watched huge by numbers of people.