In a pretty classic move, Draft washes their hands off the lion ad that caused such a ruckus. Adfreak even says that "Draft calls Cannes ad 'a terrible mistake'. A leaked internal Draft email reads:
We Made a Mistake A DraftFCB ad that was intended to congratulate the winners at this year's Cannes Advertising Festival recently ran in a U.S. trade publication. Its target audience was fellow industry insiders, but the ad has now generated a good deal of criticism. In no way are we trying to defend this ad. It in no way reflects the culture and values of this agency. It was mistakenly submitted to the magazine without going through the proper approval process, and it should never have run. We are taking the necessary steps to make sure a mistake like this doesn't happen again. And we are very sorry for offending anyone. Please accept my heartfelt apologies. Howard
