When my colleague James posted on Spinning Around about dothetest.co.uk, the fantastic moonwalking bear ad for Transport for London (TfL) I thought it was amazing. A very clever piece of work, executed incredibly well and with a fantastic message which was bound to be distributed virally...
So I was so disappointed to do a bit of googling (to actually find and credit the agency) and find yesterday's Brand Republic article claiming that WCRS had "borrowed" the idea from a US academic, Daniel J Simons.
Once again it highlights the essential "new transparency" that comes with producing strong creative work these days. If there's a source, then cite it (see my post previously about Sony/Kozyndan). Otherwise it will be found out.
Fair play to TfL - they clearly refer to the academic work which went into the concept behind the creative. But I wonder if WCRS gave appropriate credit to Mr Simons?
You can make up your own minds after watching both - the Simons 1999 version above, and the WCRS 2008 below...
According to today's Brand Republic, a WCRS spokesman is quoted as saying, "We have been assured that this execution does not infringe copyright. We feel it is a powerful message and is one that will have an impact on this very serious issue".
Either way - it's a great piece of communications. Just a shame that the story behind the story is now the story. Not the story itself.
