In the past month, a handful of popular industry blogs (particularly agencyspy.com) have made a habit of identifying advertising agencies (particularly TBWA/Chiat/Day) it believes “ripped off” various movies, music videos or ads. There’s even an entire website called Copy©unts dedicated to exposing so-called rip-offs. While no work produced by HIGH WIDE & HANDSOME has come into question, I find the remarks so misguided and unfair that I’m compelled to offer a counter argument.

Advertising is not, as some would contend, an originality contest. There should be no debate about whether advertising is art or commerce: it is, without question, art in the interest of commerce. We are not filmmakers. We are not painters. We are not poets. We are relationship builders who are paid to connect brands and consumers—not to fulfill our individual creative ambitions.

Originality can, and often does, elicit a positive response from consumers. But just as a comedian doing an impersonation or a coworker reciting a line from a movie can be endearing, so, too, can repurposing popular culture as part of a marketing campaign. Isn’t the reinterpretation of familiar content the foundation of Internet memes?

Furthermore, the “rip-off” accusation negligently overlooks the talent required to recognize something in a movie or music video that has a marketing application—not to mention the ability to execute the reinterpretation successfully. (Just look at how many movie remakes have failed at the box office.) If an ad is well executed, well received and accomplishes a business objective, lambasting it for being derivative is nothing short of ignorant (and typically a sign of jealousy). I don’t care if the idea was taken from a music video; the fact that this Pedigree commercial has garnered several million views on YouTube in just a few weeks qualifies it as beyond reproach.







And while this famous “Cog” spot for Honda is clearly a “rip-off” of the artist Rube Goldberg, it is undeniably successful at telling a brand story in a way that can’t be ignored.







Hip-hop is perhaps the best example of the talent necessary to successfully repurpose existing creative elements. If sampling an old song were an easy way to make a hit record, there would be a new platinum album every hour. But only a handful of producers have the skills needed to identify a sample-worthy classic and turn it into a modern-day chart-topper.

Over the years, countless forlorn creative teams have come to me to explain that they had discovered a campaign—produced in a small foreign country several years earlier—bearing a resemblance to work we were preparing to show a client. In each case, my response was the same: it doesn’t matter. Yes, it’s a blow to your ego; yes, it could be a blow to your portfolio; but it doesn’t change whether or not the work will be effective. (Unless, of course, the target audience includes heavy readers of international advertising award show programs.)

So, please, bloggers, stop throwing around naïve accusations of plagiarism and focus your critiques on whether or not the work is effective­. In the end, that’s the only thing that matters. And I’m pretty sure I stole that philosophy from a lot of creative directors who came before me.