2 Ads, 2 Shops, Same Headline

A new ad from Keiler & Co. for the financial planning magazine Bloomberg Personal bears a striking resemblance to a 10-year-old ad for Barron’s, created by Angotti, Thomas, Hedge.
The headlines of both ads (shown here) read, “Lowest cost per millionaire,” a play on the media buying term, cost per thousand.
The Keiler folks in Farmington, Conn., swear the duplication is coincidental. Both Mel Maffei, Keiler’s vice president of creative services and creative director on the ad, and Lynn Taylor, director of account services at Keiler, referenced the famous marketing credo, “There’s no such thing as an original idea.”
Tony Angotti, principal of the New York shop which still handles Barron’s, referred to the industry’s other well-known motto: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”