Communicate

Print

E-mail

RSS Feeds

Add Comment

The Jordan Advertising Awards, held on Aug. 24, saw Team Y&R and Publicis Graphics pick up 44 and 34 wins respectively. Naturally chuffed with its performance, Team decided to take out an ad publicizing its success.

The ad showed a hand with the index finger raised and asked “How does it feel to be next to number one?” The ad was interpreted by many to be a deliberate insult, implying that Team was effectively “giving Publicis the finger.”

Publicis responded the next day with its own ad implying that Team had arrogantly forgotten to thank its clients for the awards success. “We take this opportunity to congratulate the clients of the claimed #1 creative agency in Jordan,” the ad read, above a picture of a door knocker with the head of a lion (the Publicis symbol).

“Yesterday, your agency was so busy KNOCKING US,” it continued, capitalizing the pun, just in case, “that they forgot to congratulate you on your brands’ success. Yet more importantly, we thank ALL OUR clients (we consider them partners), and we congratulate them on their 34 wins…”

The ad finished, “P.S. – #1, can you feel it now!”

The public tiff has stirred up plenty of response on industry blogs. Opinion is fairly evenly divided as to which agency has come out on top. Many bloggers feel that Team failed to respect local cultural sensitivities and that Publicis’s response was a classy put down – “What about respect for tradition?” asks one poster on Adblogarabia.com. “Great creative works with cultural constraints as obstacles to deal with, it doesnt disrepect it.”

Others say they enjoy the attitude of the Team ad and feel that the Publicis reply is weak and unimaginative. “Your response to a great ad is very pedestrian Publicis,” one poster says on Adsoftheworld.com.

The comments have got increasingly personal and antagonistic, with – it seems – members of both agencies getting involved on the blogs.

Peter Sutherland, creative director at Team Y&R in Jordan, tells Communicate that those who feel the ad was insulting to Publicis have misinterpreted it.

“There’s only one way to take it. And if people bothered to read the headline and understand the concept, it’s really obvious,” he says. “The index finger is Y&R, because we’re number one. The idea is that the second-placed agency – in this case Publicis – feels like giving Y&R the finger. I don’t know why people would interpret it the other way, as if we’re giving Publicis the finger. We’re not at all.”

The negative response, he claims, is mainly due to his agency’s record of success. “A lot of people hate us,” Sutherland says. “Everyone hates number one. It’s a worldwide phenomenon. It’s tall poppy syndrome.”

Sutherland says that it’s the first time he’s encountered such inter-agency scrapping in his four years in Jordan. Not that he’s too perturbed by it. “It’s the most exciting thing that’s happened in Jordan advertising in years,” he says.

Print

E-mail

RSS Feeds

Add Comment