Is there a such thing as plagiarizing in advertising? I’ve seen so much work that’s a hair different than others, it makes me wonder.

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There’s plagiarizing in that people copy, but not in that you’ll really get in trouble unless it’s really obvious. Joelapompe.net is a fun blog that shames copycats.

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What a great article creative lead 1. Thank you.

I think it’s a bit of a stretch applying this to advertising but parallel thinking definitely happens.

I love this topic but I’ve always thought of it in musical terms.
We are creating work for specific brands based on similar research, strategy and trends.

In music you have 12 notes to work with. If you chose to play a style of music there are pretty strong and established fundamentals for every style. It is very difficult to compose a completely original blues song that hasn’t borrowed (or even copied) thousands of songs that have come before for example. Stray to far and it is no longer blues.

I think advertising categories and trends fall into this same type of challenge.

Some “ideas” are fresh but technology (like the electric guitar) has pushed many creatives to the same places. Some intentionally (or influenced) but as your article points out a lot of this is organic.

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It’s tough to truly plagiarize in advertising, because we’re (ideally) solving unique problems. Not quite like passing off Hemingway as “my work”. It is possible though, especially within categories. I’ve seen people fired at niche industry shops for recycling the same shit on different clients. Also, Suzanne Pope has a great PDF on writing headlines, where she shows how easy it is to arrive at similar solutions (dog bobblehead in a neck brace). Sometimes, you might do this unintentionally, too. One thing I have deliberately done is take lines and phrasings from other writers and then twist them, basically as an homage. There’s a brotherhood-type vibe among writers. Kinda like that country song “Let’s get together and steal each other’s songs”. So, some creative plucking is tolerated among us. And yea, just like in art and music, there’s really nothing new under the sun. Everyone is ripping each other off. But end of day, we prob oughta attempt to create new things for brands, because that’s what differentiates them.

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https://www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/0761169253/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_189ZVHXHP8TC0N11G67F

https://www.joelapompe.net/

What I see a lot of industry-wide are original concepts in directors’ treatments, presented as part of the triple-bidding process, making their way into the finished campaigns even when the director who came up with the twist didn’t get awarded to job. That seems both understandable (in terms of, I understand how it happens and seeps into the finished work) and deeply unfair to the unchosen director(s).

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I don't know for other markets but in France you are allowed to register a copyright for your unique ideas. We used to do it for pitches to avoid the winning agency running away with our concepts

Don’t you get to keep your laptops in France?

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