Advertising breaks during the US annual Superbowl – American Football – continue to generate huge attention and publicity – often for the wrong reasons.

The wardrobe malfunction

Witness the infamous and shocking (was it really?) Janet Jackson exposed nipple incident at  Super Bowl XXXVIII with Justin Timberlake in 2004!

Accident or deliberate?

This year’s commercial break  has again got the ad. industry buzzing – LinkedIn was awash with comment almost immediately and Adage soon ran the story.
“Does Coke’s Super Bowl Ad Look a Lot Like Old Israeli Dairy Spot?“

To many Israelis this ad and the music look very similar to an ad run in Israel for Yotvata, a dairy in the Israeli desert.  And yes, it was for another cold,  refreshing drink.

Were Coke’s  agency of record – Wieden & Kennedy- just being ‘transcreative’ or have they moved into the murky world of plagiarism?

Coke’s take on it certainly gives pause for thought:

“When we created the Coca-Cola ‘Sleepwalker’ commercial, we and our agency were unaware of this other ad,” said Coke spokeswoman Susan Stribling. “Now that we’ve seen the ad, we think both commercials are equally entertaining. While the two share a few common elements, any similarities are coincidental and unintended.”

Ms. Stribling added that the use of the same song in the ad is an “interesting coincidence” but the selection of the tune for “Sleepwalker” is “consistent with how we’ve chosen music for ads we’ve aired during the Super Bowl for the past three years.”

The discussion thread on LinkedIn International Advertising Association took rather a harsher line and a stronger view than “interesting coincidence”.

Judge for your self:

If the flash does not load go to this YouTube link.

Agreed it is difficult to totally guard against incidents like this, but when it comes to copyright there could always be an aggressive, litigious media-owner’s lawyer who just happens across your ‘work’.

As part of our Conquest service one of the questions that we recommend asking is: ” Is this tag-line similar to anything you have seen before or is the phrase in common usage in your country?”. It just might ring a few alarm bells.

Can’t wait for next year!