Back in November DDB Canada approached Nick Capra, co-owner of Running Free, a Markham, Ont. athletic apparel store, with an offer to do a pro bono ad campaign - meaning they figured that they had an awesome idea they really wanted to do. The idea was to show what happens when us girls don't have a decent running bra, portraits of women with black eyes and broken noses and the line “Support bras, now available.”
Nick Capra didn't like the ads, but sought the opinions of his co-workers anyway:
“I do things by consensus, so I showed them to everybody at the shop and they all had the same reaction, which was quite negative...They looked like a domestic violence campaign.”
Capra then told DDB he didn't want to use them, and that was that, right?
Wrong.
However, according to Andrew Simon, senior vice-president and creative director at DDB’s Toronto office, Capra gave the agency the go-ahead in writing to produce the ads, though Simon declined to show Marketing a copy of Capra’s approval.
But the ads were sent to adblogs and have thus cause quite a stir on the net, so finally Capra has posted a statement on Running Free’s website calling the ads a “hoax,” “tasteless and offensive” and saying he never authorized the use of the company logo. DDB now wants to apologise and are asking all adbloggers to take the ads down.
Wow, that is a shit idea. And doing it anyway without the clients approval is even worse.
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PermalinkYou know, sometimes I despair. I mean, how much money is Andrew Simon getting – and yet he can't say to his creatives "yes guys, it's quite funny, but it's one for the studio wall only. Now go and do something a bit more mature." Did no-one think: 'that looks like violence'? Did no-one consider it might be a tad sexist, if not misogynist? Are creative departments still full of sniggering schoolboys? Let's not answer that. Sack the CD, or at least make him reimburse the agency for any costs incurred. Rant over*
*I'm not having a great day
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PermalinkAs a sports bra wearer, I just think it's a stupid idea. Not shocking, just bad. Shocking to others perhaps, but they are not the target market and I am.
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PermalinkChildish rubbish. Running Free should sue.
Important Announcement Regarding Hoax "Running Free Bra Ads"
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PermalinkWell the hoax ads are still out there. Advertolog has them, adsoftheworld has them, coloribus has them (wait that looks exactly like advertolog doesn't it? What's going on there?).. anyway, on neither one of these sites are the ads listed as Spec or non commisioned work, so it's no wonder people thought they were real.
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PermalinkDumb.
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PermalinkHow true. Since I have been running adofdamonth, every now and then I get requests from creatives or their agencies to take down their ads as the clients haven't seen them or have a problem with the ads. Why take such a big risk.
Dalbir
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PermalinkWe get those same requests, which is why we wait before posting things (from new contacts) now. I don't like removing posts. We'll happily mark spec work spec though.
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PermalinkThose ads are idiotic, twice. As an idea selling sports bras they're just insulting, not funny. Running it when the client has said no is something that a fresh out of portfolio school kid would do and not a worldwide ad agency. Sad.
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PermalinkThere are always two sides to every story, especially in this case. Running Free was saying this campaign was a hoax, but what they didn’t admit was it was approved by the store’s owner and then displayed in his store. It wasn’t until he received some negative feedback that he changed his tune. The campaign was supposed to be impactful and make light of the need for a support bra. It was not intended to upset anyone, I’m sure the young women who developed the ads and posted it to the ad blogs didn’t anticipate they would upset anyone. There’s no way DDB Canada would ever intentionally make fun of a serious social issue or intentionally do something to harm a client’s reputation. Chalk it up to a bad judgment call made by two junior creatives. From what I’ve read, DDB Canada has already made a public apology to everyone they might have offended with these ads and have also come to an agreement with Running Free to rectify the situation. Why can’t people just own up and admit to their mistakes? Every business makes mistakes in judgment, but not everyone is brave enough to own up to them.
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PermalinkThe two sides are presented in my post - see the second block-quote where Andrew Simon tells Marketing in Canada that they have the go-ahead from Capra in writing - but declines to show it to Jeromy Lloyd who wrote the article at Marketing. Showing that contract to a journalist would have cleared the whole mess up at once, don't you think?
At Feministing the post with the ad images gathered many many comments and at the way bottom (where the link will take you) you'll see that Nick Capra, someone named Frank Capra at DDB Canada and a creative team by the names of Alexandra and Courtney throw in their two contradicting cents each.
Are Frank and Nick related by the way?
Trendhunter have similar comments under their post and another appearance of Alexandra and Courtney.
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PermalinkThis is very much a he said she said thing isn't it? Can someone produce a photo of the ads appearing in-store?
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PermalinkI don't think Frank from DDB Canada's last name is Capra. I believe its Palmer. No relation to Nick Capra.
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PermalinkThanks, yeah I thought that was a bit weird and seemed to be a posting mistake from the person who relayed that comment.
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PermalinkThese ads are bad.
But you'd think DDB would have learned its lesson from this fiasco:
http://www.adblogarabia.com/the-cup-nose-you-need-plastic-surgery/
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PermalinkAre you saying that those nose-cups were fake? Or simply failed?
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PermalinkFinancialpost
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