Today Campaign reports that U.K. agency 18 Feet & Rising took the bold step of officially accusing a client of stealing its work.
Nationwide Building Society, or “the largest building society in the world,” retained 18 Feet as its AOR from 2011 to 2015 before awarding its account to VCCP…but the dispute concerns this recently launched ad:
The spot, which aired last month, was credited to Nationwide’s in-house team–but 18 Feet begs to disagree, and the agency filed a claim last week arguing that the client had taken credit for its work.
From CEO Jonathan Trimble:
“I can’t comment on the details of this case. But it’s important to uphold the highest standards of our industry. The statement of particulars will speak for itself and should produce an interesting debate.”
We’re also a little surprised that Ogilvy hasn’t filed a similar complaint over that tagline.