This is the most blatant ripoff that I have seen so far!
Note that even the lines are more or less directly translated, as in " It's an american car.." vs "It smells Swedish..".

The good guys auto ads was in the 1995 Communication Arts Annual, and I'm sure they won a nice bunch of addy, andy, beffie bessie, clio and other assorted awards.

Good guys Auto cred;
Agency: Earle Palmer Brown (Richmond VA)
AD: Rohatish Rao CW: Eric Silver

The preem gas station ads showed up on Swedish television summer/fall of 96, I hope it doesn't win any awards... (I stand corrected, as according to this article in Resume, it did!)

Please guys..If you are going to rip someone off, at least do it well..-
With Preems crappy tag line the whole idea has lost its *kapow* punch and falls kinda flat.
Haven't ya'll understood that a tag line is not only a translation of the proposition, but also the vehicle that can carry an entire campaign? It's not something you just slap on at the end as an afterthought. (And the way this one sounds, it seems to be a translation of the strategy-line, really).

Look at the good guys auto example, they say what they do, but it also serves as a punchline in the joke!*kapow* punch!

Preem cred;
Agency: Brunkell & Strömberg Stockholm.
Team : actually I never managed to find out who did this ad and would love to know

Interesting to note: In an Interview in Resume (Swedish ad news) Crister Brunkell from Brunkell & Strömberg says in response to this : " If someone made a test-film in the States is not interesting." and he lets it slip that apparently PREEM have seen both films and "wondered" about it.

Test film???

Preem as a client should probably stop 'wondering' and go somewhere else where they pay for original ideas rather than getting someone elses recycled old ideas for the same expensive price, after all "Imitation is commercial suicide", remember.. ;-)

+------------------------ transcript Good guys------------------+
Researcher pours Oil into glass Mechanic picks up glass and sniffs its contents.

Mechanic:Its an American car..... a Cadillac.

Mechanic: Power windows..Power steering..(Tastes the Oil)..and the airconditioner is on the fritz!
Super: Good guys Auto.We know cars so well.....its kinda creepy

translation of the Preem commercial (on the right)

+----------------------- transcript Preem------------------------+

Researcher says: are you ready?, subject replies Yepp.

Subject is handed an oilstick and sniffs it.
Subject: It smells swedish...20-22 thousand miles..- ..with a drilled oilpump, and dirt in the gastank!

Tag: Preem, a meetingplace for car enthusiasts wipes the oil off on his tie.

+---------------- left: good guys -- right: preem --------------+

Though Preem and Brunkell&Strömberg probably had a rocky relationship, Preem stays with this copy-cat agency, seemingly fully aware of their plagerising tendacies.

But heck, say what you think too. Is this one a coincidence?

Just hit that comment button baybeh!