The sham(e) in scam ads

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: It was waiting to happen. The McCann Hanes ads have raised two issues. One of course is, how far can you take hateful stereotypes (anyone reminded of the recent Indian cricket trip to Oz?) And of course, it has finally brought to the forefront what has been often talked about and discussed topic in agency circles, well, to its culmination. The issue of scam ads, what they do for the industry and what is kosher, and what is umm jhatka, has been going on for over a decade, but this one is frankly the most reprehensible incident.

For the uninitiated, who are wondering what I am talking about, allow me to recap. Sometime in the last week of December, smaller newspapers and cheaper television channels are deluged with ads from mainstream and not so mainstream brands. These brands don’t advertise in these newspapers for the rest of the year. The best news? The clients that own these brands don’t pay a dime for these releases. The money for this is funded by the advertising agencies.

The Hanes ads were a typical example of this. In the case of Hanes, the client wasn’t even aware that the ad had been created and released by the ad agency. And its not the only client for whom had been created and released without the client’s knowledge.

A few aspects need to be examined in this race towards unbridled creativity.

Why do agencies create these ads that an average person, who watches five to six hours of television time, and reads four newspapers and perhaps half a dozen magazines, never gets to see?

Simple. It’s the race for getting the maximum awards in various ad club contests in India and abroad. Simply put, the client, on his daily interaction with his agency will debate and insist on introducing elements of information that might take away from the simplicity of communication or its idea.

At the same time the ad agency that performs well at award ceremony gets noticed and more clients call on them to handle their business. Not to speak of the more “awarded” creatives who get to climb the ladder to chief creative officer faster. Plus the pressure on the existing chief creative officer to hold on to his job longer.

What are, in industry speak, “scam ads”? There are different points of view on this. A few agency heads and their creative heads believe that anything that is not created in the normal interactions on the brand is taboo, and is a scam ad. Others are of the opinion that it perfectly fine to create ads especially for awards.

Their point of view being this: experimentation with bold ideas and raw techniques is often how any industry discovers new frontiers so it is perfectly fine for them to experiment and show the rest of their community the levels of creativity they can achieve. The ads then, when approved by equally award hungry clients, get legitimacy.

The problem is where is the money to create and release these ads? Well, given the benefits of fame, more businesses and promotions, these agencies, and clients set aside budgets for productionising and releasing the ads. Smaller and inexpensive newspapers for the last fortnight in December are happy to carry the ads for a pittance. That’s the final seal of authenticity as the ad has been released and is client approved.

There are enough examples of ad agencies creating ads for clients that are not theirs. Luxor is a case in point. It was amusing to read the clients reaction when told about their award win. The poor lad didn’t know whether to feel happy that Luxor had indeed won the award, or to hide her bewilderment at the fact that the agency who released the ad on the company’s behalf, wasn’t in fact their agency. It’s a well-known fact that agencies have two sets of people who work in creative departments. Those who create work for awards, and those who work on brands! Huh? And you thought clients paid to cover costs for actual people who worked on their brands.

And then, the worst kept secret is agencies that do three-day or week-long workshops with their best creative people to create work especially for awards.

What’s the right thing then? Here is my vote for whatever it is worth.

Surely, ad agencies and marketers believe that the reason for advertising is the need to sell the brand. If that in its simple form is correct, then anything that is a pretender, and is released without the purity of thought towards that simple objective is frankly wrong. You are cheating. Yourself. And the brand.

The fact also is that the agencies are not going to do a great job of self regulation. They haven’t done it on critical things like minimum fees, or percentage commissions, or poaching of people. Stopping creating scam ads is part of the game as they see it. Here is a possible solution to the problem. Let all ad club award ceremonies open a new category of scam ads. Create a legitimate forum for frustrated creative people to break away from the client norms and demonstrate their talent.