Audi’s advertising is once again accused of plagiarizing BMW

Audi advertising was once again accused of plagiarizing BMW

Audi advertising was once again accused of plagiarizing BMW. On May 21, the new advertising film "Life is Full", a collaboration between Audi and Andy Lau, was released. It subsequently attracted widespread attention across the Internet. On the night of its release, the commercial was caught in a plagiarism scandal. Audi's advertising was once again accused of plagiarizing BMW. Audi advertising was once again accused of plagiarizing BMW 1

After the Audi car advertising short film "Today is full, life is full" was caught in the copywriting "plagiarism scandal", another netizen discovered that the film's director Peng Yangjun shot Another BMW commercial was highly similar in composition and storyboard to a music MV shot by a foreign artist, and was accused of plagiarism.

Currently, this video cannot be opened on iQiyi, Youku and other platforms.

On the evening of the 22nd, a BMW China customer service staff told reporters that the situation would be fed back to the relevant departments for follow-up. As of press time, reporters have contacted Peng Yangjun several times but were unable to contact him, and he has not responded to this issue on a public platform.

On May 21st, which is the "Xiaoman" solar term, FAW Audi launched the brand promotional video "Today is Xiaoman, life is as good as Xiaoman" starring Andy Lau. In the film, Andy Lau narrates the story of solar terms in a straightforward tone, and elevates it to his attitude towards life. Once it was released, it won praise from all over the Internet and received over 100 million views.

At about 13:00 on the 21st, Peng Yangjun, the director of the commercial, forwarded Audi’s official Weibo on Weibo and wrote, “Andy Lau A relaxing and enjoyable time, Brother Hua is as calm and professional as ever, thank you to all my friends, and thank you to the customer for your review."

On the evening of the 21st, it had more than 3.7 million fans. Douyin blogger "Beida Mange" posted a video saying that an advertisement released by Audi that day involved plagiarism from the copy of a video he made on May 21, 2021. "Beida Mange" also released a comparison video, showing the same parts of the two videos in a split screen.

On May 22, Peng Yangjun deleted the aforementioned Weibo but did not make any response. The reporter noticed that Peng Yangjun introduced himself on the new media film and television content production and distribution platform "New Studio" as a senior domestic photographer, director and founder of Liangcang.

He once served as the creative director of Italy's "COLORS" magazine, the creative director of "New Vision" magazine, and the chief photographer of "VISION Youth Vision" magazine. Its homepage on the website shows that Peng Yangjun and Liangcang Culture, the founder of which he is the founder, have shot commercials for Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, etc. It can also be seen on Liangcang Culture’s Weibo that they have cooperated with many car brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW to shoot creative advertising short films.

Tianyancha shows that Peng Yangjun currently has three companies under his name, namely Beijing Liangcang Culture Communication Co., Ltd., Shanghai Yixia Culture Communication Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Beijing Shangzhen Culture Communication Co., Ltd. company. He himself is the legal representative of Yixia Culture and Shangzhen Culture, and his wife Chen Jiaojiao, the former editor-in-chief of "New Vision", is the legal representative of Liangcang Culture.

As of press time, the reporter called the above three companies many times, but no one answered.

After "Life is Full" was accused of copywriting plagiarism and the video was removed from the shelves, some netizens pointed out that another BMW commercial shot by Peng Yangjun was similar to a short film shot by a foreign artist, and was accused of being accused of plagiarism. Plagiarism.

"Liangcang x New BMW 8 Series" was previously released on major video websites

The commercial film shot by Peng Yangjun is titled "Liangcang x The new BMW 8 Series" will be released in August 2021. The alleged plagiarism involved a song from the album "Rennen" released by singer SOHN on January 13, 2017, called "Hard Liquor", which lasted 4 minutes and 4 seconds. The shooting director is Jovan Todorovi.

The reporter compared and found that the two short films are both black and white in color and high contrast. They are very similar in terms of shooting techniques, composition, storyboards, and some key elements that appear in the pictures.

Hard Liquor MV screen

The reporter noticed that on January 6, 2017, an exclusive interview published by Promonews introduced that "Hard Liquor" The song is a work about the "circle of life" created by Jovan for SOHN. Jovan also said that the work was shot at his home in Serbia. "To me, this video is very meaningful on a personal level, but I tried to portray it in such a way that everyone could potentially reflect on themselves."

Jovan Todorovi

Public information shows that Jovan Todorovi was born in 1979. He is a Serbian artist and filmmaker born in the United States and currently lives in New York. He is engaged in film, photography and music work. He has done promotional activities for companies such as Adidas and Nike, and shot short films such as "Youre Dead America". He has also won multiple awards from the International Federation of Film Critics, Cannes Lions, CICLOPE Berlin International Advertising Festival and other related awards.

Up to now, the "Liangcang x New BMW 8 Series" commercial film shot by Peng Yangjun cannot be opened and watched on multiple platforms such as iQiyi and Youku. Audi advertisement was once again accused of plagiarizing BMW 2

"Xiao Man" caused great dissatisfaction

Andy Lau's endorsement of Audi's "Xiao Man" advertisement was questioned

Audi apologized: supervision was inadequate Creative agency for lax review: Will do its best to make amends

On May 22, a topic "Audi Xiaoman's advertisement was accused of plagiarism" pushed Audi to the forefront of public opinion.

Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that on May 21, the new commercial film "Life is Full", a collaboration between Audi and Andy Lau, was released, which subsequently attracted widespread attention across the Internet. According to incomplete statistics, the video has over 100,000 likes and reposts on the WeChat video account, over 4.55 million plays and over 10,000 likes on Audi’s official Weibo account, and over 5 million likes on Andy Lau’s Douyin. But on the night of its release, the commercial fell into plagiarism controversy.

In response to this incident, the People's Daily commented: The advertising copy was ridiculed as plagiarism like copying and pasting. Audi publicly apologized and admitted that "supervision was ineffective and review was lax." A "car accident" turns people upside down, and someone should take responsibility. Protecting originality means protecting innovation. Plagiarism is an industry scandal and is even suspected of being illegal, and must be tolerated without any tolerance.

Audi’s new advertisement was accused of copywriting plagiarism

Netizen: What kind of plagiarism is that? It’s just copy and paste

“What is the copywriting that has been plagiarized and has been played over 100 million times? Experience?” On the evening of May 21, Douyin blogger “Peking University Mange” with 3.6 million fans released a video claiming that Audi’s new commercial film “Life is Little Man” cooperating with Andy Lau involved plagiarism of his video copy. "Peking University Mange" stated in the video that his original poems and copywriting were released in the Mid-Autumn Festival of 2018, May 2020 and 2021 respectively, much earlier than the release time of Audi's new commercial, and posted a sentence-by-sentence comparison video .

Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that the Audi commercial and the video of "Beida Mange" do have a lot of overlapping copywriting, such as "When there is slight heat, there is great heat, when there is slight cold, there is great cold, but Xiaoman definitely does not "Big Man", "Xiao Man represents an attitude towards life" and so on.

"Brother Peking University Man" said in the video, "I believe that the highly respected Mr. Liu will definitely not come to my short video, pick out my copy word by word, and then post a commercial. So. It would be best for someone to pick it up and come out to explain it to me.

"It pointed the finger at the manufacturers and producers behind the commercial.

On May 22, the topic "Audi Xiaoman's advertisement was accused of plagiarism" was on the Weibo hot search list. Netizens commented: "What kind of plagiarism is that? It's just copy and paste, almost exactly the same. "The copying is too obvious." "The duplication check rate is 100." ”

Issue an urgent apology and remove the video

Audi: Instruct Shangsi Advertising to handle the infringement situation

22nd At 10 a.m., Audi issued an emergency statement on its official Weibo regarding the plagiarism of the new commercial. It said it noticed that a short video released on the 21st contained discussions about copywriting infringement, and that it had reviewed the incident due to poor supervision. We sincerely apologize for the trouble caused to Mr. Andy Lau, Peking University Mange and related parties.

Audi also mentioned that the video was reported by the creative agency M&C Saatchi. In line with the principle of not avoiding the issue, it has been instructed to deal with the infringement of the copywriting involved as soon as possible and give the public a satisfactory answer. At the same time, before the facts are officially clarified, Audi's official channels will completely remove the video.

Yesterday at noon, Shangsi Advertising issued a statement saying that the company’s Audi service team is the Audi Xiaomanpian brand video development team. During the video content development process, due to the team’s weak copyright awareness, it failed to communicate with the copyright owner. In this case, I directly used the copywriting content in the video about "Xiao Man" by Douyin blogger Beida Mange, which has caused huge inconvenience and trouble to Mr. Andy Lau, Beida Mange, and the FAW Audi brand. We deeply apologize and sincerely Apologize to the original author. In the statement, Shangsi Advertising promised to do its best to make up for the loss to the original author.

Frequently "overturned" in advertising.

Audi's RS4 advertisement has been accused of containing "sexually suggestive" content

This is not the first time Audi has "turned over" in advertising. In August 2020, Audi posted on Twitter. Published an advertisement for Audi RS4 with the title "Make your heart beat faster, in every aspect". The picture of the advertisement is a little girl leaning in front of Audi RS4 and eating a banana.

The advertising image caused huge controversy, and was criticized by netizens for containing potential content such as "paedophilia" and "sexual innuendo". In this regard, Audi officially explained that the advertisement was to highlight the dangers of even the weakest traffic participants. You can relax and rely on RS technology, and at the same time expressed its sincere apology for this "insensitive" picture and promised not to use it in the future.

According to the reporter's inquiry, M&C Saatchi is a headquarters. A UK-based holding company founded by advertising legends the Saatchi brothers, the company provides advertising and marketing services and operates through divisions in about 20 countries and regions. According to Beijing Daily, Shangsi China has offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. , jointly operated by creatives and brand managers.

According to Jiemian News, in 2019, M&C Saatchi also suffered from personnel turmoil and financial fraud. Co-founder Maurice Saatchi resigned with three senior executives. , the company’s CEO, executive creative director and chief strategy officer were also “voluntarily dismissed” one after another. On the afternoon of the 22nd, the reporter noticed that the official website of M&C Saatchi China had shown that it was “upgrading” and was now inaccessible. Audi's advertisement was once again accused of plagiarizing BMW 3

May 21st is the solar term of the solar term. On this day, Audi released an advertisement in which the well-known artist Andy Lau talks about the philosophy of life. For a time, it was called "car advertisement" "The Ceiling" went viral and won a lot of praise.

However, after the advertisement quickly became popular, it fell into plagiarism controversy. On the night of May 21st, Peking University Mange, who has more than 3 million fans on Douyin, released a video titled "What is it like to have copywriting plagiarized with over 100 million views?". The video proved through word-for-word comparison that the Audi advertising copy was almost identical throughout. Copy the whole thing.

As soon as the clarification video came out, public opinion once again targeted Audi. Audi's "two-level reversal" within one day became a hot search headline on major media platforms on May 22.

In fact, not only Audi, but also Rolls-Royce, Infiniti, Changan Ford and other car companies have experienced marketing "rollover" incidents. Behind this incident, what should be more concerned about is that car brands need correct and reasonable marketing concepts. After all, "brand personality" is more important than traffic and hot spots.

Audi and the advertising company apologized for the "plagiarism" incident, and Andy Lau "deeply regrets it"

The reason why Audi's commercial film shot so quickly became popular is because of the "plagiarism" it created. A sense of high-end.” Unlike other companies that have been riding on the popularity of "520", this commercial contains cultural heritage and humanistic sentiments. Although it is an advertisement for a car company, it does not talk about cars. The entire article is about Andy Lau's life philosophy about "Xiao Man" .

There are not too many commercial elements in this commercial, and there is not even any specific brand placement. Andy Lau’s “advanced and restrained” life monologue is effectively integrated with Audi’s progressive and ready-to-go brand attitude. , which better reflects the brand's tone, and therefore has won numerous praises.

This was originally a successful marketing case, and could even be called a marketing model for car companies. However, due to plagiarism, it not only came to the forefront of public opinion, but may even bear legal liability. After the incident broke out, Audi officials quickly issued a statement and apologized on May 22.

After Audi apologized, at noon on May 22, the advertising company M&CSaatchi also issued a statement admitting plagiarism and apologizing, while promising to do its best to make up for the loss to the original author. .

At about 16:00 on May 22, Andy Lau posted on the official fan club APP Andy World: I have 100% respect for originality. This incident, for the advertising team that occurred during the creative process, I personally deeply regret the problem and the trouble it caused to Brother Man. Audi and the advertising company are now handling the matter seriously.

Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology and a business administration MBA tutor, told reporters: This Audi marketing overturn incident is basically a reflection of the car companies’ marketing costs and risks. caused by improper balance. There may be a project budget problem behind the Audi marketing incident. The expenses are mainly used to hire king-level spokespersons like Andy Lau, so there is not much budget for the creative part.

Another reason is that the project has time requirements, which leaves creative staff with less time to create original designs. Secondly, there is the problem of incomplete review processes by relevant leaders. "

As of press time, the incident has come to a temporary end with Andy Lau, Audi and their creative agency M&C Saatchi all issuing apology statements, but the subsequent impact of the incident is far from over.

Zhang Hong, Secretary-General of the New Energy Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said: "If this rollover incident is not handled properly, it will even affect Audi's subsequent marketing and the sales of related models in the future. ”

Car companies should pay attention to “brand personality” in their marketing

In fact, this is not the first time Audi has overturned in marketing promotions.

November 2019 On the 13th, Audi placed an advertisement for the Audi Q8 in WeChat Moments, but the video content was an Infiniti promotional video. Although this "own incident" did not cause much public controversy, it was ridiculed by netizens as "this." It’s the scene of a large rollover”;

In August 2020, Audi released an advertisement on social networks. In the advertisement, a little girl wearing a short skirt and sunglasses eating a banana leaned against the car. . The image immediately caused huge controversy after it was released, and was accused of containing "sexually suggestive" content. Under pressure from public opinion, Audi responded, apologized and said it would no longer use it in the future.

Reporter Statistics show that not only Audi, but also car companies’ marketing overturning incidents have become more common in recent years.

In September 2021, Rolls-Royce's official Weibo released a promotional video, inviting famous car reviewer Chen Zhen, as well as Internet celebrity "Wanwan" and his wife to test drive.

After the video was released, it quickly aroused heated discussion, with nearly 10,000 comments, but most of them were voices of doubt and criticism, directed at the Internet celebrity "Wanwan" couple and Lao Slys is out of tune. Rolls-Royce responded on October 14, saying that Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Greater China "takes this incident seriously, sincerely listens to everyone's feedback, and decided to take the video offline."

　2021 On May 18, 2018, Changan Ford released a video on its official Weibo with the text: "In Japanese anime, boys run at high speed and lift girls' skirts. Is it true? Today, the lady in the white skirt flutters to help, reappearing Japan A classic comic scene!” The copy also carries hashtags such as “a feast for your eyes”.

As soon as the Weibo post was posted, it became a hot search topic and caused controversy among netizens who believed that the content was too vulgar. At noon that day, Changan Ford's official WeChat account deleted the controversial content and apologized, saying, "We will never make an exception and strictly abide by the correct concept of online content. Thank you to all netizens for their supervision and correction!"

It is not difficult to find that, in addition to plagiarism, In addition, "rollover accidents" have become a common phenomenon due to novelty-seeking and hot-button marketing. Companies that want to rely on new media for promotion and marketing cannot turn a blind eye to public opinion risks. After each "rollover", the most common process is for brands and companies to issue an apology statement, remove promotional content, and finally express introspection. But what really needs attention is how to avoid such an incident from happening again.

Zhang Xiang said: “Due to repeated epidemics in recent years, car companies’ publicity has been restricted, and the development trend of car marketing has shifted from offline to online. And car companies’ marketing plans It can be outsourced to a marketing planning company, or it can be outsourced on a project-by-project basis. This is very common, but plagiarism in Internet content is common and can easily lead to infringement.

This also shows that car companies do not pay attention to originality in their marketing. Blindly looking for celebrities to bring goods, relying on Internet celebrities and celebrities to bring traffic, and there is no need to hold large-scale offline activities, resulting in insufficient project budgets, so there will be insufficient budgets for copywriting and creativity. This is a phenomenon that automobile companies will have in the future. Issues that need to be paid attention to and avoided in publicity and marketing. ”

As Zhang Xiang said, a marketing accident will not only damage the brand’s commercial image, but also bring legal risks such as the Audi incident. What an enterprise needs is timely, reasonable, and healthy marketing publicity, because building a sound “brand personality” has always been more important than marketing that only attracts attention for traffic and popularity.