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Brazilians took the flagpole from Singaporeans about 2005 to be the king of scams… the reasons why they get some smack talk is a majority of any Brazilian’s portfolio is fake work… and they come in and magically are now ECD at Mother etc. A lot of Brazilians don’t try to learn the local culture or build brands — instead they are all in on doing fringe scam work for winning awards. Yes this is generalizing but in a large part Brazilians signify both the best and worst parts of our industry.
No.. just that the US was not the responsible (alone) for the win like you think. USSR had much more to it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_a_Flag_over_the_Reichstag
Brazilian creatives have a wonderful reputation for their creativity and craft.
They (along with the region as a whole) also have a reputation for bloc voting - which is cheating - and seriously pushing the boundaries on fakery - which is also cheating.
If you’re Brazilian, the people who you should be pissed off with are fellow Brazilians who engage in ridiculously overt cheating, tarnishing all of you.
You guys are good enough to not need to cross the line like this.
CD2 We watch a lot of subtitled movies in Brazil. And the subtitles were yellow, unlike the CC used in the US. If it helped Brazilians to identify their work, I can see that, but that's not why it was done that way; it was simply what we were used to.
Rising Star
"You know who can't really surf? BRAZILIANS." I hear this every day, so tired
Every time Brazilians get the spotlight for excelling in something, the same type of criticism follows this pattern: pick one or two bad examples, exaggerate them, and generalize the hell out of it.
Surfing and advertising — two areas I’m personally connected to — get hit with very similar toxic comments.
With surfing, it’s the tired line: “Brazilian surfers don’t go well on real waves.” That conveniently ignores everything from Gabriel Medina’s career to Carlos Burle and Maya Gabeira dropping into waves of actual consequence. Just because one or two might not shine on XXL conditions, suddenly we’re all dismissed — never mind that we’ve brought a whole new level of creativity and energy to mid-size waves.
Same goes for advertising. After DDB Brazil got called out for fake work at Cannes, suddenly the entire country’s creative community is under scrutiny. Comments like “Brazilians don’t do well with real work” start popping up. As if the whole industry here can be summed up by one agency's submission. As if fake work hasn’t been coming from all corners of the world for years.
What this really smells like is xenophobia and colonialism. It's not just critique — it's an attempt to keep us out of their game. The globalized world doesn't like when we play by our own rules and still win.
It’s a way to protect dominant narratives — to say, “This is ours, not yours,” no matter how good you actually are.
Yeah, I’m a copywriter and English is my second language. Also had to get a visa to get to the US when I first moved here. Stop with the victimism, please. You started this conversation because of a specific case that happened at Cannes where they caught a Brazilian agency using AI to fake the repercusion of an idea. The CCO of that agency has been a CCO in many American agencies by the way. More and more cases are being questioned now. What does that have to do with xenophobia? I love your country. I’ve worked with amazing Brazilian creatives. I’m sure you’re not one of them because they would have never made such a stupid comment and generalization.
All you need to do is to get Anselmo to stop his posts. Simple as that.
All I’ve been hearing for the past 15 year is that Brazilian have a great eye for design.
I’m from a country that has a terrible creative reputation.
I would have loved for my country of origin to have such a positive bias. I really struggled at the beginning.
I don’t see Brazil’ reputation swinging all the way to being perceived as bad. That might just be a few headlines/a phase. Feel like higher ups Brazilians are currently killing it enough to fight those allegations with good work themselves. 🤷🏻♀️
PS: having a boss telling me “I hired you to make award work”. I’d be stoked. Instead of fighting my way through banking banner ads to get a chance to even be briefed on good brands one day.
Our Brazilian creatives with no awards are very much still employed. I gave you empathy but you wanted a pity party. Sorry bud.
I’m not xenophobic, but when it comes to scammyNEVERMIND I’m not touching this with a ten foot pole
I’ve observed that there’s biases at every group when it comes to advertising.
“Brazilians, Asians aren’t good, they copy and counterfeit.”
“These young interns can’t produce any ideas and don’t work over the weekend.”
“Not a lot of good Black creatives.”
“West coast people don’t work as hard as Midwesterners.”
“Old people are too set in their ways and don’t get social.”
Usually people who cut through all that are the people who work well with others and put in the time.
Pro
DM9 behaved dishonestly with their Cannes case studies. But putting the blame on Brazilian people and culture is dumb and dismissive.
Brazil has an awesome creative culture. I have worked with so many brilliant Brazilian creatives, designers and strategists, both in São Paulo, NY and the west coast. Brazil is a one of the rare places where the creative industry is still valued.
There is a side of the American advertising industry that loves to hate outsiders. Black creatives dismissed as DEI hires, British strategists dismissed as fancy accents, Brazilian creatives dismissed as awards chasing mercenaries.
So punish the Cannes fraud. But don't descend into collective punishment and national bigotry.
A lot of the comments here are proving your point. A lot of xenophobia.
I work with many Brazilians, and they’re great creatives. And above all, they’re great people, kind and friendly. Whomever says that this is a reflection on every Brazilian is a xenophobe. But the scam ad thing shouldn’t be ignored.
Shouldn't be ignored... However, I can pick some entries that are not from Brazil that are as real as a three-dollar bill.
Last year I was asked by my American boss and an American team to do design direction for a campaign that never really ran, that was a copy of a (Brazilian, btw) campaign that actually ran. When I pointed out that the campaign was too similar, they said: We know. The Jury doesn't care.
A few years prior, an American ECD team did a workshop on how to win awards. The first slide was "look at the awards from 5 years ago. Nobody remembers"
I don't go out saying that Americans are thieves, even though I'd seen happening A LOT. And even if I did pointed out, nobody would care. Because americans can do whatever they want with the world, or so they think.
So I'll die on this hill. Scam work is obviously not great. However, people will often point out Brazilian practices instead of examining their own.
Additionally, the primary factor preventing Americans from engaging in scams like Brazilians is the country's legal system. They are more worried about getting sued than brazilians are.