McDonalds Swedish tv advert
August 18th, 2008 by cyriak
A few years ago I made a simple animation of Charles Darwin emerging from his own beard, you can view the original version on my site here:
http://www.cyriak.co.uk/gifs039.html
I included it in a compilation of my animations, which got quite a lot of views on youtube. You can see it here (animation in question is at 1.38):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JCESdFNyw
Then a couple of months ago I was alerted to a recent Swedish tv commercial for McDonlads coffee in which a bearded man emerges from his own beard. Here it is on youtube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Itl08AFJOZI
In an ad campaign where the brief was obviously to come up with some random weirdness, it seems incredible that they would not only pick an identical idea, but use an identical style to portray it, and animate it in exactly the same way… but the true miracle of this “coincidence” appears when both versions are viewed side by side – see for yourself:
http://www.cyriak.co.uk/beard-comparison.html
Not only do the keyframes within the loop match perfectly, but the animation loop itself is exactly the same length of time in both versions, to the frame – I have not altered the speed of either of them.
That really is so unlikely to be chance that to claim otherwise would be laughable, and yet that is what the company behind the commercial, DDB, said when I approached them about this. They claimed to never have seen the original (despite its 2 million youtube hits), its all a complete coincidence, and I even received a rather rude email reply from one of the creative team behind it, voicing how “absurd” it was to claim they had copied it.
I’m still considering my legal options, but I’d be interested to hear any other opinions on it.
(66 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5)
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geez, that’s about as blatant as it comes…
hammer the scum.
agency will always be a tosser about things like this. instead go direct to the client that commissioned the work. when you bring this to their attention, they will be pissed – 1. that they paid good $$ to DDB for originality and creativity (which they didn’t get) 2. that they are potentially being presented to the public as rip off merchants.
remember; the general public (2 mill of whom have seen the YouTube version / who eat in McD’s) will have never heard nor care about “DDB”.
tell mcD you’re going to the press / sueing McD for ripping you off. they will immediately put in a call to the agency who will say ‘we are innocent / it is absurd / he is a nutter ignore him”, but the client will still be left thinking they have been ripped by the agency and will try to resolve the matter with you directly.
good luck
take it direct to the client.
Wow Rob, that’s some really good advice you’ve got there.
Yeah I second/third with Rob and Barry, go directly to the client, talk to someone in their marketing or PR division (and maybe even show them that it made it’s way to this site). The last thing they want is negative public opinion. Ad agencies won’t give a toss, your cries will fall on deaf voicemail boxes.
Quite a ripoff.
Same thing as others have recommended. Go straight to the client.
I’d be one pissed off exec if I were a big advertiser and the agency I’m paying to produce creative work fails to do so. Especially if the original has over 2,000,000 views on YouTube.
Christ…
seems very likely that you have been bitten. looks like you’ve already gotten some good advice too.
I greatly admire your work Cyriak!
You have an indefensible case of plagiarism. Like many have suggested, a whisper in McD’s clown-painted ear should fast-track some sort of resolution. The agency would just deny and ignore your complaints until the stars fall.
What is McDonald’s ad supposed to be? Galileo emerging from his own beard?
Eeh…kind of bitter to have a site about people copying you! haha…it´by far the most bitter thing I´ve ever seen. GET A LIFE. PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DOING WEIRD PEOPLE COMING OUT OF BEARDS FOREVERANDEVER. ANd the websites you claimed copied your style? Hahaha…get a grip. Boooring.
Another thing, it seems the campaign might not have been a zillion trillion dollar campaign. But hey, sue away. Good luck since Sweden obey only Swedish laws, wich is why pirate bay and so on can still exist here. Not even Tom Hanks can get to Sweden. And hey, I think your aninmation looks “a bit” like Terry Gilliams among others. hated the mc-donalds campaign though.
Peter….your an idiot. The posts are different people. You seem angry…….and stupid.:)
I agree.. peter… you’re a bellend.
Quietly add it to your resume as some work you did for McDonalds through DDB. Only sue them if they notice and try to deny it.
Where’s Joel Veitch when you need him? He knows what to do!
“go straight to the client” is exactly right. Make sure they understand that word’s gotten around and that there’s a groundswell of online support. That’s not something the PR people in big corporations like to hear. I’d make sure they understood how many people saw your video, how many people read the newsletter, etc. They’re really not going to like that.
Good luck. We all know it’s your work and you deserve to benefit from its use.
Exactly what Rob said, thieving kuntz
DDB are “looking for new talent” haha, i bet they are.
Peter works for DDB.
Rob’s right do it, otherwise companies will keep doing it.
Or
Attack them with an axe and turn their kneecaps into ashtrays!
Looks like we’ve got another joel vs coke on our hands.
now if only nike would steal my idea about enslaving kids and forcing them to work silly hours for silly amounts of money.
Bill them.
They have taken and used your material without first securing a licence agreement from you. Which, in the UK and Berne Convention Signatories, is automatically your intellectual property. It is your intellectual property and you have a right to benefit from its exploitation.
If you inform and bill the client who commissioned and approved the work that the agency undertook, then you are only doing what is your right.
You should charge for each broadcast use separately. Choose whatever number you want – they have already used the material without negotiating a price so they obviously wished to use it. Due dilligence would have been to ensure that the copyrights were secured for the use the material was to be put to.
If Macdonalds have a problem with you billing them, then they should rebill the Agency. Realistically the agency might well have told the client that rights were secured. Unless the Agency wish to dispute your rights on behalf of the client – which would be ultimately more embarassing for the client – then the person who pays for the material should be billed.
cyriak, your work is excellent and no one could come up with such a way out idea, produce it in such a fashion, and it be a coincidence. they have ripped off your work and you really should pursue it. it not even a case of “inspired by”,they have just copied the entire concept and production. try and get in t ouch with joel veitch( rathergood.com )- coca cola did the same with his original work and he followed it to its rightfull conclusion.
good luck !
[...] http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=1224 [...]
Get in touch with Dennis Publishing, as close to Felix Dennis as you can get (he’s the top bod, but he’s also a nut). Viz had a run-in with McDonalds a few years back when their “Top Tips” were ripped off and used in ads. They lost, but I’m sure they’d love to hear from someone else who’s been freshly fucked over.
Ask McDonalds why they are rip off merchants on:
http://www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk/?xtor=SEC-54-GOO
“Another thing, it seems the campaign might not have been a zillion trillion dollar campaign. But hey, sue away. Good luck since Sweden obey only Swedish laws, wich is why pirate bay and so on can still exist here. Not even Tom Hanks can get to Sweden. And hey, I think your aninmation looks “a bit” like Terry Gilliams among others. hated the mc-donalds campaign though.”
Why didn’t you like working on the McDonalds campaign ‘Peter’?
Has copying another persons work and all the negative attention it has creating been causing trouble for you at DDB?
Following Peter’s comments, and suggestions that he might work for DDB, I did a quick google search and found this:
http://www.adrants.com/2008/05/sweden-unleashes-even-more-weird.php
reading the comments from another “Peter” rabidly defending the advert, makes me suspect it is the same person – but also, the language he uses has striking similarities to the aggressive email I received from a certain DDB employee…
Hmm. Peter Frame you have been Framed …. :s
Go to the client.
I sent my links about the SMH/ Olivier Laric rip off and they pulled it from tv.
No client wants to be related to any thing like this.
You should send a cease and desist demand to the McDonald’s headquarters here in the U.S. and request that they stop airing the content, which is clearly an illegal derivative work. Give me a call if you’d like to discuss further.
It’s obvious “Peter” is trying to squirm his way out of this in a truly turdlike style like only the kind reprobates who advertise for foul corps like McDunny’s can. However we’re all human and make deliberate efforts to benefit ourselves at the cost of others if we think we can get away with it from time to time.
As so I feel for the dirtbag as I do you. Maybe the perpatrator (I’m sure your reading!) could come clean on a private level and offer you some form of compensation, maybe 75-90% of the earnings recieved (keeping an agency fee as it were) or provide you with as much legitimate and if possible ethical work, to endow you with equivalent earnings of your own.
As an experienced sinner, I’ve learnt to take advantage of such oppurtunities to render my soul free, allowing me restfull nights and continuing contracts with dispicable companies.
If you should be approached with such overtures that are pleasing to you, maybe take them up on them.
Otherwise….take em to the cleaners mate!!
Those are my thoughts.
Gonna go look at your animations now!
In my experience they’ll just pull the ad if you make a fuss, they’ve got 5 others, which isn’t what you want really. What you want is some money. I would go to the agency first with a realistic amount. I reckon they’ll pay a few grand to keep their client happy and out of court.
Hey Cyriak,
I am the Dave that ‘Pete’ accused of being you in the link you posted, LOL.
I thought the guy was pretty nasty, his language says it all, who the hell would employ someone with language like that? His attitude made me post up this story more because I thought he deserved to be made an example of after those comments!
I think you should post the contents of the email you received so we can all see what an idiot this guy is (if it is the same guy). I am pretty convinced ‘Peter’ does work at DDB, especially as he went silent after I had a guess at his real name
I hope he has lost his job, if he hasn’t it does not look good for the agency does it?
Good luck with whatever happens, you have lots of fans behind you on this, the youtube comments cracked me up.
[...] alas, my ol’ mucker Gerry McCusker points me to an advertising agency that somehow managed to have exactly the same brainstorm idea as a chap called Cyriak. From Simon Bronson and ‘You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice’ site, it’s bad PR [...]
super, ya tozhe tak hoshu
It sounds like this is a pretty common thing, ad guys stealing other people concepts and creative work. Here’s a link about my own experience getting ripped off by Comcast: http://img.420chan.org/b/res/436008.html