Chief
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A little humor sprinkled in a resume. Yay? Nay?
Why do CDs fall into complacency so easily?
Thoughts on GREY NY these days?
How I’m feeling today..
What agencies in Boston should I check out?
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Who cares? Dogs need to be adopted, it’s a good cause and idea that many should copy.
I feel like your definition of plagiarism may be a little broad here. Based on your description of the scenario, they didn’t steal a hashtag or take a campaign name. They put dog pictures on cans. Is there a right way for them to have gone about it in your view? Or is “shelter dogs on cans” off the table completely?
Is it a stolen idea or just more brands doing a good thing? Patagonia isn’t jumping down REI’s throat for releasing branded content about conservation. Or — for a closer parallel — missing kids on milk cartons in the 80s/90s. No milk companies that I recall were like, “NO WE DID IT FIRST, SO ONLY WE CAN DO IT EVER.”
Still interested in your answer to my actual question, btw, since I’m honestly curious about your take.
Chief
Do we know they didn’t reach out to Motorworks? And motorworks didn’t say “what yeah of course do it this is about puppies”?
Pro
OP you need a hobby.
Chief
😚
If Uncommon stole words or a big idea verbatim, then I’d be inclined to call it plagiarism.
A craft beer can that connects people with dogs? That’s just a good media idea.
We did some work with a local humane society years ago. None of the work felt truly original in that sector.
“Where’d you find your dog?” “A beer can.” Some ideas aren’t worth copying.
idk dude, that’s a pretty intriguing answer tbh.
better than “a breeder” ANYDAY.
Rising Star
Wait till they start putting missing dogs on milk cartons
A few friends of mine did a student campaign for one show that ended up winning. The brief was trying to tackle school shootings and enact change. It involved a yearbook with all the victims being sent to govt buildings to get officials to sign, or something along those lines.
Someone at an agency saw this, pitched the idea to their team, and the team made it happen for real. At first ppl were mad at the blatantly direct rip, the CD claiming it was his idea, and all the awards and recognition they received.
The two students just wanted to be credited or a shout out and thought that’d be nice. If not, they didn’t want it to turn into a legal issue because they wanted more people to have similar ideas and also start some positive changes.
Motorworks Brewing was probably cheesed off at first too, and possibly thought about calling out for plagiarism. But that just feels petty because it tarnishes something that did good, even if it wasn’t Uncommon’s idea. Instead, I bet Motorworks Brewing moved past that and said “let’s come up with another great idea that helps a cause, maybe someone else will steal it and also help the cause.”
Dang, I can’t recall the agency off the top of my head but I know they made a LinkedIn post announcing it in December of last year.
The students worked on it and submitted their project and entry 2 years ago (2018).
Nobody is upset, I should always consider your point and raise the same questions. So I shouldn’t say it was a rip, my bad. All a good cause at the end of the day. It’s all gravy.
I can’t find this anywhere. Must not be that great 🤷🏼♀️
Let me google that for you! Just featured on every inspiration site (like mental floss) and some smaller local American news outlets like CNN, Good Morning America, Fox, and ABC.
Cheers!
There is quite a thread of Uncommon being heavily inspired by ideas/art direction in the last year.
&Walsh called them out for the Chilly’s campaign and that later miraculously disappeared. Seems to have been settled.
Also their mental health work was heavily “inspired” by the work IRIS did for Sane (#LetMeTalk in 2018). The three little dots execution was a carbon copy.
Think their work is awesome and Nils seems to be a genuinely fun dude, but if this is how you become small agency of the year, we as an industry need to be a whole lot better.