VS:
Checkers – Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket commercial
We know there’s a TV commercial out there as well, but we haven’t been able to get hold of it.
We’ve been given a heads up by Mike Stopforth about another local rip-off advertisement. The new Checkers campaign uses the tagline: “Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket.” We feel this is actually a pretty good tagline, with one small problem… It’s not an original idea. A UK retail chain called Aldi used this exact same tagline in a campaign last year. The agency responsible for the Checkers campaign is Ninety9Cents.
It seems to be a growing concern when local agencies take existing concepts and import them to a South African market. The other most recent one we can think of was Ooba, a rebranding of Mortgage SA with nearly everything an exact copy of the British brand. We’re not going to discuss the originality or origin or whatever of the ooba or Checkers campaign, what I want to know is, in a hyper connected world, where unoriginal ideas are quickly exposed and the source is quickly traced, why would an agency still decide to go through with the campaign? Never mind pitch it!
While I think these campaigns don’t really have an impact on the brand (consumers won’t really care if it’s original or not), it does show a certain lack of originality on the part of the agency and the industry is certain to pick that up. The question to ask, I suppose is, does this impact the agency in any way? Would you, as a brand, use an agency that you know has copied previous campaigns?
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Comments ( 7 )
Lettie Casaleggio added these pithy words on Apr 28 09 at 9:48 amI saw the same thing last week; a South African company’s logo, which is almost an exact copy of a overseas company’s logo. (The logo was featured in the LogoLounge 2 book, so it’s fairly well know – at least among designers. It is a shame that agencies and studios do this!
MyBrandedLifeTM added these pithy words on Apr 28 09 at 10:15 amI doubt the agency did it on purpose – anyone who’s worked in advertising knows that this sort of thing happens all the time. You just hope that if the work you’ve come up with has happened before, someone in your company in strat, creative or client service will pick it up before it goes into production.
It’s pretty naive to accuse agencies of ‘copying’ campaigns – no agency aspires to copy any work outright. It’s just unfortunate, really – but it’s a fact, this kind of thing does happen. Flip through any older archive annual and you will find loads of campaign doppelgangers. Having the internet around just makes it easier than ever to spot them.
unodewaal added these pithy words on Apr 28 09 at 10:24 amMyBrandedLife – I agree 100% with you that there are no new ideas that exist in isolation. All work is inspired by others. However, in a case like this, one needs to ask how much of it was inspired and how much of it was an out-right copy.
That being said, sometimes campaigns are imported for the reason that they WORK. There is no doubt in my mind that consumers will not notice this (that the campaign is a copy), and sometimes it might even be a great idea to use a campaign that has already proven itself in another market.
If that is the case, then it’s a brilliant campaign!
Deems added these pithy words on Apr 28 09 at 10:45 amIt’s true that there are very few original ideas around, yet people still keep coming up with new and inventive things.
I’d hasten to say that most patrons of Checkers won’t pick up on the fact that their supermarket brand has re-used an international concept. However, I would think twice about using an agency that doesn’t do their research properly (if we give them the benefit of the doubt that that they did not copy Aldi tagline on purpose) especially considering the amount of money required these days by agencies.
Spaceghost added these pithy words on Apr 29 09 at 1:22 pmGood “artists” copy, great “artists” steal…
It takes people to spot it otherwise it is heralded as a success.
Just look at thoose new nando posters which are blatant Obey rip offs…Easy to site “innocent mistake” Not so easy to say, we cant think of anything so we ripped off an idea which is well known else where in the world.
Just a thought.
AmandaSevasti added these pithy words on Apr 29 09 at 5:14 pmThis happens all the time in advertising. No-one intentionally copies work (and if they do, they can’t call themselves an ad agency). Cultural / current events, styles, trends, etc. all influence thinking, and often creatives come up with similar ideas at the same time – even at opposite ends of the world.
unodewaal added these pithy words on Apr 29 09 at 5:43 pmHey Amanda, thanks for your comment. As mentioned before by some of the other commentators, no ideas happen in isolation and it’s very often that new ideas are re-hashed old ones. In this case I just find it incredibly close to the original campaign, and I’m almost sure a quick Google would have found the Aldi ad.
