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DDB Brazil Comes Clean; Commissioner Kelly Calls Ad "Disgrace"
By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 4, 2009
Modified Sep 4, 2009
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 4, 2009
Modified Sep 4, 2009
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Looks like everyone's coming clean. Yesterday the WWF admitted that the controversial 9/11-themed ad was probably cleared by someone at the organization, and now AdAge is reporting that "after initially lying about it, DDB Brasil now admits it created a video version of the Brazilian print ad 'Tsunami,' and entered both ads in the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June."
The admission comes after the company claimed to have only run the ad only once in Sao Paulo and somehow mistakenly entered it in the One Show (which it won a Merit Award at). The DDB website now contains the president's apology in full, where he says "no ad is truly just local." Especially when the ad is about the entire planet.
The One Club—who told us earlier this week that the ad didn't win an award, despite their website showing the ad and declaring it an award winner—has also made some new comments. President Kevin Swanepoel attempts to explain, saying, "This points to the fact that with an international jury, not everybody is as sensitive to this. They may have seen is as acceptable and given it a higher score."
Meanwhile, the WWF is attempting to find out the "circumstance surrounding the creation of the ad," as well as the video, which Police Commissioner Ray Kelly thinks are horrible and insensitive, telling MyFoxNY that it's a "disgrace that someone even dreamt it up."
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9/11
ad
award
brazil
ddb
DDB Brazil
One Show
Ray Kelly
tsunami
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World Wildlife Federation
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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