In Brazil, as we know, they take creative awards pretty seriously – to the extent it’s said that you can’t get any other work done in December as everyone is frantically completing their entries.
So far this year following Cannes we’ve seen Omnicom’s DM9 admitting to “errors in the production and submission” of its Grand Prix-winning campaign for Whirlpool’s Consul brand involving manipulated footage, including a segment from CNN Brasil. The agency’s co-president and CCO Icaro Doria, who’s also done stints as a Cannes juror, stepped down.
Omnicom’s Africa Creative (also in Brazil) faced criticism over its Grand Prix-winning Budweiser campaign which promoted cost savings from avoiding music licensing fees. AB InBev has apologised.
Now Publicis’ LePub Sao Paulo has been accused by journalist Demétrio Vecchioli of misleading and unverifiable key performance data and endorsements in its bronze lion-winning award entry for New Balance and Sao Paulo FC.
‘Followers Store’ (above) featured a geo-targeted push notification system that allegedly allowed fans near the team bus en route to a match to preorder an exclusive Sao Paulo FC jersey. The case video claims the limited drop sold 45,000 shirts in a single day, citing massive fan engagement and widespread media coverage.
New Balance told told Vecchioli that “all materials related to the submission were made by LePub, the agency responsible for the action, without the knowledge or approval of the brand.”
Faking it for Cannes is a pretty old practice but it’s arguably become more pervasive with the seeming requirement to submit lengthy case histories, which many judges are surely unqualified to judge without the assistance of a fact checker. The other new kid on the block is AI, notably ChatGPT which seems to have been enlisted in some of these examples.
There’s one easy solution of course. Go back to creative awards with back-up information restricted to the proverbial one sheet of A4.
Events giant Informa bought Cannes Lions owner Ascential for $1.6bn last year – so that, alas, doesn’t look very likely.
