Chicago Ad Agency Rocked By Scandal, Creatives Behind Disputed Budweiser Ad REVEALED
Advertising agency DDB Chicago has issued the following statement, in response to inquiries made by the Bastion earlier today regarding allegations that they used content originally provided by NYC sketch group the Whitest Kids U'Know in a recent television ad aired during the Superbowl this past Sunday:
DDB conceived, wrote and produced the "Fist Bump" commercial for Bud Light based entirely on an internal creative process that did not rely on any outside source. In particular, the team members who created the ad did not base the "First Bump" commercial on any comedy routine or other comedic material performed by any third party. Rather, the concept was originally created by our team and stemmed from their simple idea of people taking the common practice of bumping fists as a congratulatory message to the next level.
When we were made aware that a certain comedy troupe had concerns about a possible similarity between our ad and its comedy routine, we reviewed a video clip of the comedy routine. While we acknowledge that both use the
well known comedic device of face slapping, we believe it is clear that the commercial and comedy routine are substantially different in every other meaningful way, from the overall concept down to the locations, characters
and actual dialogue.
It is not particularly surprising that two groups have independently use face slapping to create comedy. From the Three Stooges to Laurel and Hardy, face slapping has been at the cornerstone of comedic routines of decades. We believe that for a comedy troupe to now claim ownership of such a universal comedic device is comedy itself.
As reported yesterday, WKUK issued a statement regarding the uncanny similarities between a Budweiser television ad and a sketch WKUK inadvertently submitted to BudTV, the company's Web content program. Originally reported by one of the thread's commenters, BudTV is headed by creatives based in DDB's Chicago office, which is Anheuser-Busch's longtime ad agency. As stated in the WKUK statement: "Given that Budweiser representatives recently requested materials from the Whitest Kids for its Bud TV campaign, its members view this as more than a coincidence."
As obtained by SourceECreative, the credits for the ad spot are as follows: Director: Tom Routson, CD/Writer: Dan Fietsam, Chief Creative Officer: Paul Tilley, Exec Producer: Will St Clair, and Group CD/Art Director: Mark Gross.
Now that all parties (and the discerning public) have issued their statements on the matter, are there further thoughts about intellectual propriety? Better yet, what would Travis say?
