One Club promises to get tough after DDB’s “Tsunami”

Unless you’ve been living under a particularly heavy rock last week, you’ve heard about the PR debacle that was the DDB Brazil WWF ‘Tsunami’campaign. The print and TV spot, which ran once before being submitted to the award show gods, depicted a phalanx of jumbo jets, all heading into Manhattan à la 9/11

Were they scam ads? Who authorized them? Did the WWF give the okay? Do the ads make any sense? Was DDB blaming their junior creatives? Are Americans too sensitive? All of these questions and more have been asked. Personally I wanna know why this is all coming up now if the ads were on the award show circuit months ago, but that’s just me.

In the aftermath of this clusterfuck that got worldwide mainstream attention (DDB Brazil even made Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person in the World list) The One Club has issued a strongly worded statement, promising to clamp down on questionable award show submissions, starting with the 2010 One Show.

In the light of the recent events surrounding the “Tsunami Ad” created by DDB Brazil for WWF, the One Club announces today that we will implement what we believe to be the most stringent and thorough “fake ads” policy in our industry.

The One Club defines “fake ads” as: ads created for nonexistent clients or made and run without a client’s approval, or ads created expressly for award shows that are run once to meet the requirements of a tear sheet. 

For 2010 and onwards, the One Show will be adopting the following new rules and penalties. 

1. An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad made for nonexistent clients, or made and run without a client’s approval, will be banned from entering the One Show for 5 years.

2. The entire team credited on the “fake” entries will be banned from entering the One Show for 5 years.

3. An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad that has run once, on late night TV, or has only run because the agency produced a single ad and paid to run it themselves*, will be banned from entering The One Show for 3 years. 

* The One Club reserves the right to review ‘late-night, ran-once’ and launch versions, at The One Club’s discretion. If it is determined that the ad was created expressly for award show entry, the penalty will hold. 

The One Club exists to champion excellence in advertising and design in all its forms. We will stringently enforce these rules and penalties to ensure that The One Show remains the pinnacle of advertising and design created for marketers and brands. 

The One Show encourages other international award shows to follow suit with similar policies. In addition, we are in the process of developing an initiative in the agency, client, and creative communities, in which individuals and agencies will be called upon to monitor and eliminate “fake” ads at their source. A detailed guidelines will appear in the 2010 One Show Call for Entry.”

Kevin Swanepoel
President
The One Club

What do you all think, ihaveanidea-ers? Are these rules strong enough? If award shows no longer turn a blind eye to such submissions, are they risking fewer submissions and therefore less cash from submission fees? Will other award shows follow suit? Will submissions include client contact info? One thing is for sure: next year’s award show entries will be watched more than ever.