Dram Man

LG needing a new PR and Ad agencies?

LG is under fire for a few ads recent that people claim are copies of others. Lets start the rundown of the Korea Times article with what has to be the worst quote a PR guy can give in a situation like this in my opinion:

"The commercial was not a copy. So there is nothing more to talk about" a company spokesperson said on the phone.

Stonewalling like thiusuallyly only gets a company into more trouble since the reporters start to taste the blood in waterThankfullyly this is Korea so there few problems with this tactic, lets just hope this PR guy is not slated to be promoted to a position in the US anytime soon.

In case you are wondering, here is descriptionon a side-by-side picture of the ads:

The commercial, known as "Folder-era" shows a young couple hanging out in an empty school playground of a rural village. The woman, played by actress Kim Tae-hee, folds her body flat on a horizontal bar as her boyfriend watches. Then the image overlaps with LG's folder-type mobile phone, Cyon.

A number of Internet users say that the characters and the scenery in the commercial are too similar to those of a newspaper advertisement by Mitsubishi Motors. On Friday, LG said that it has stopped airing the commercial, though that does not mean the company admits it was planned plagiarism.

You see is its obvious its not a copy. The man is wearing DARK pants and there are NO Mitsubishi cars in the background of the Korean ad.

Meanwhile LG is under fire for anopiecepeice of "work":

Earlier this month, Internet users said LG plagiarized a music video clip of "Can't Stop" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a famous U.S. rock band, in another mobile phone commercial.

In the Music Phone commercial, a man looks into a big round-shaped duct tube in an empty room, just like the American singers did in their music video.

Now I have not seen the two works side-by-side, but based on the rather descriptioncription it would seem LG could have easily claimed an accident much like in the above case. Leave it up to the LG PR people to step in it:

LG reportedly said that it "borrowed" the image, and did not steal it.

Borrowed it? Borrowed? When did they plan to give it back? Its about akin to a five year-olds defense of stealing a friends toy.

Tell me again LG was it worth selling in-house LG Ad to WPP then screwing them over by taking all LG business to an new in-house team?

posted by Dram Man @ 12:08 PM