FAKE ADS: they’re are an even greater threat to the world at large than fake news.
There are obviously completely fake ads and then there are debatable entries like the recent David Miami print campaign for Burger King, which was not awards bait scam since the client’s PR told us today that it really did run … somewhere in Argentina.
Copywriter Eoghan O’Driscoll of VICE Madrid and lead creative Sandy McIntosh of Dubai’s insydo do not really have a solution to this problem.
They did, however, create a website to poke fun at the practice. The Cannes-O-Matic calls itself “The World’s First Ever Scam-Ad Idea Generator,” but it’s more a URL that will amuse you for a minute or two by randomly producing such case study-worthy ideas as this one:
And this one:
And this one:
Here’s their explanation of the project:
“As advertising creatives it’s pretty frustrating to see ideas made just for festivals win year after year, when some don’t run or don’t even work. It looks bad on the industry.
We created Cannes-O-Matic to shed light on this problem in a light-hearted way. After hours and hours of trawling through awards archives we created a generator that, at the click of a button will generate an idea that seems like all the others made for festivals.
This is our quirky way of showing how ridiculous it is to make ideas just to win awards, ideas with no real value. It’s a kick in the balls to all creatives when we see an undeserving winner walk away with a lion—or any other award.”
It’s almost as distracting as the Endless Hall of Gyllenhall.
If we might make a bold guess, though, there will still be plenty of scam entries at this year’s Cannes Festival.