4As 50th anniversary print ad


Thanks Marc for contributing this topic. 4As has been accused of plagiarism and looks like there are quite a bit of talkabouts. It has been critized that its 50th anniversary print ad is an imitation of the works, Hope and Fear, by Philip Toledano, an UK photographer. So is it plagiarism or not ? Well, I still believe creativity is about re-composing what already exist. Pure originality is very rare. After all how many Warhol, Da Vinci, Monet, etc are there on earth ? There is no denying that this 50th anniversary campaign was "inspired" by the works of Toledano. But it is only the basic visual idea that has been "borrowed". The message of the campaign is "helping brands to 省靚招牌 for 50 years" and we see the ad executives wearing brushes, sponges and stuffs, working hard to 省靚招牌. Like the idea or not but this is actually the creative representation of the message, as we see in the TVC. Visually they are pretty the same but the message and the central creative idea are different. Plagiarism or not, guess it's still up to different interpretations.

Finally I have to acknowledge that I have borrowed the visuals and links from this blog : 香港好相似設計 This blogger has been collecting many "idea twins" in Hong Kong. Do check it out.

Comments

Anonymous said…
If 4As borrow Warhol's idea, like Marilyn Monroe, probably nobody criticize plagiarism.

That's weird!
10:01 am
葛佬 said…
No matter what ideas the campaign wants to bring about,visually 4As copies the Toledano's with no sense.
1:10 am
Louis Lau said…
Yes you are right. It's up to different interpretations, including yours. Check out my new post.
1:22 am
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