Inspiration… or Plagiarism??

| June 9, 2009 | 18 Comments

plag-2We live in a world of laws, boundaries and moral values and our hand is guided by them our actions dictated by them but what happens when something falls into the cracks where this system we have built around us fails.
I am of course talking about Inspiration how do we define it and what are the limits what are the boundaries what is that thin line that when crossed leads us from inspiration into plagiarism.

My answer is I don’t know! I mean how can one judge if he is improving on something in the world of advertising how can one acknowledge inspiration be it from a previous ad campaign or just some guy walking across the street. While doing our research thesis we were made aware that any and every material that we have collected and has gone into our research should be properly documented and the author of said material should be acknowledged for his or her work in our overall paper.

We have copyrights and patents etc. to protect inventions but what about creative ideas. I recently saw this beautiful ad that Olpers made (mere aangan mae sow khusiyan rehte hain) it showed how Olpers was helping women across Sindh by collecting milk from cattle at their convenient collection points and how they were improving life for the entire village. It has a catchy theme a memorable jingle beautiful visuals and I could identify how Olpers was promoting a theme of patriotism and love for ones country at a time when we needed it.

It seemed like the perfect ad campaign but alas today I received a link to a video showing an almost similar ad campaign done by Amul Milk in India and it just hit me; just where do I stand?
I loved the Olpers ad and really identified with it but was it plagiarized or was it inspiration that led to the making of such a visually stunning and identifiable ad. We sometimes tend to forget the things that make us even in terms of life we are forged and made by experiences; from that first crush to that first bully each experience moulds us and we never acknowledge that it becomes a part of us and shaped our overall personality.

There needs to be a moral code or a code of ethics in advertising we need to understand that we our brothers in a cause, we create happiness, joy, sadness we create so many emotions that speak to our customers it’s a very a sacred bond believe me when your ideas become something material seen by millions across a nation you understand that feeling and I hope to experience it myself one day.

In conclusion this is in no way an opinion of what I feel. It is up to my readers how can we judge what is inspiration and what is plagiarism. Can we really just improve on an idea and not acknowledge the person who helped us create that vision or do we need to acknowledge it in some way just to show that the world isn’t all that bad and people really do help one another directly and indirectly.

Below is the video made by CBM students a brilliant job in which they seem to claim that Olpers has actually stolen the campaign of Amul Milk and after seeing the ad I am leaning towards their argument but as always it is up to you my readers to form your opinions and your ideas I just hope my article helped you in our journey to a better understanding…….. Thank You.!!

Olpers Ad Copy

Tags: acknowledgement, Advertising, Amul milk, author, CBM, copyrights, India, inspiration, Media, Olpers, Online, pakistan, patents, plagiarism, Sindh, students

Category: Brands, Other Stuff

About the Author (Author Profile)

Moazzam Kamran. Currently Assistant Manager Marketing Research at Dawlance Pakistan
I am also a teacher at SZABIST Karachi. All my life I have had the vision of empowering our youth instead of spoon feeding them facts we need to build up their concepts and nurture their Creativity.
We need to create thinkers, leaders and visionaries because that is the only way Pakistan can florish.
Finally to all my readers I hope I can make your experience at Pakmediablog as intersting and as fun as possible.

Thank You

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    It is exactly what I said in my post a few weeks ago…foolish copy pasting.

  • Tyrone Tellis

    Hi,

    The Olpers ad seems very similar to the Amul ad, however the basic concept was done by Nestle 3-4 years back. I know because I work for the agency that does Milkpak. It was called Hum Khud campaign.

    The Olpers ad copies the music and shots of the Amul ad almost frame wise! So its not inspiration but plagiarism.

    The Omore ad is similar to the Coke one but only in concept execution music especially is different. So this was inspiration not plagiarism.

    The pool of knowledge is so small and the desire to break through so hard that one can excuse agencies for taking ideas etc from elsewhere, however they should own up to the fact.

    Its hard to truly be novel these days and pressures are almost unbearable on ad agency teams to make the nest best thing.

    Tyrone

  • moazzam

    hi

    Zaira I hope I didnt copy paste nything from your previous post if so im sorry :D but this just hit me after seeing the Amul ad
    Tyrone thankyou for your opinion i hope you found my post interesting you are correct my man there need to be checks and balances and the only system i see in place is when people like us comment on things like this I wrote an article when i saw the ad because i clearly saw people taking credit for something copied frame by frame…. nyways the debate is still open …… but we need to be united we need to be a voice to the people for the people…….

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    No Moazzam that was not what I meant :) In fact I am glad you found some other stuff that again proves how things are going here. Good info.

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    Thanks for the Nestle info Tyrone. I agree that there is too much copy pasting and cut through original ideas are hard to find. Even if there are, the clients don’t approve them and are happy with the copy pasted ones. That is why even the creative agencies have got in a habit of showing the client what they want to see, since the problem in Pakistan is that, the client interferes a lot with the agencies and wants to get done what they want. Too much interferences really spoil everything and we end up getting copies that we witness everyday.

  • moazzam

    ok now that everyone knows that this is a problem how do we fix it I think there should be a plagiarism corner on pakmediablog calld the copy cat corner that exposes this rubbish to people…… how about it !! nyone up for it ??

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    Let’s Not :)

    Highlighting the issues this way is not demeaning to anyone as questions and concerns are being raised I suppose, but creating a special corner might be considered insulting by many.

  • http://www.imageconcept.co.uk Sami Uddin

    Guys I like your spirit for pointing out copy cats in Pakistan. Plagiarism was the first thing I was taught when I strated my Degree. But what would you say about Hollywood directors. Chaps if you do a bit research you will find that “Star Wars” the famouse film was a copy of “The Hidden Fortress” the Japanies film released in 1958.

    however, I am not in support of Olper Ad copy at all because I am also up coming creative director.

    There is one music video by Ali Khan (Sathiya), directed by Jalal (so called “one of the top music vdo director”) I would like to share in copy cat corner.

    original:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3lPj1en3kA

    copy:

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    I heard this on some radio station that this song Saathiya is also a copy of some english song and the RJ played the songs back to back :P

    But good you shared these links of the song as well to show that it wasn’t just the music but the overall video as well…it shows how seriously inspired we are that we kind of forget to innovate much ourselves.

  • http://www.imageconcept.co.uk sami uddin

    You will be surprised to hear that “Sathiya” was nominated for the best break through video 2008. If some one found guilty in university on Plagiarism then he gets terminated from the Institute. But I can’t figure out why the jury didnt disqualify the Plagiarised video before the nomination.

    nomination ceremony:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k_NK0MUMjk&feature=related

    I believe most of you would agree with me!

  • Tyrone Tellis

    Most Indian movies are copies of Hollywood flicks with aweful plot changes! Of course Hollywood also takes from around the world- The Ring was a copy of a Japanese movie.

    AR Rehman has been inspired by countless tunes and the famous Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaye has the exact same tune as a very famous English song of that era.

    Indians even copied Paul Anka’s Diana in one Shammi Kapoor movie!

    So where does plagiarism stop and inspiration begin?

    At this rate we’ll all be in the dock for lack of having a truly original idea.

    I guess if you admit that your idea is inspired that should suffice?

    Tyrone

  • http://www.imageconcept.co.uk sami uddin

    I guess if you reference the source it should be fine and would be considered inspiration but when some one claims to have an original idea which is not in reality then it would considered plagiarism. However, we can’t reference the 100% and say it is an inspiration. One bollywood movie comes to my head which is a 98% copy of hollywood movie. Jism (bollywood movie) is a complete copy of Body Heat, directed and written by Lawrence Kasdan in 1981. Infact John Abraham’s body language was also inspired by the hero of Body Heat.

    the link below may give you some idea and if some one want to watch full movie I can also provide link of full movie.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLAbh_LceNw

    check out the film I made.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBK6CBbLhVA

    Sami Uddin
    imgeconcept.co.uk
    0044 7809433644

  • Tyrone Tellis

    Hi,

    Its extremely hard to really make a truly innovative and never been done anything these days. Most people realise that why reinvent the wheel when you can make modifications to it?

    Interestingly man in his ingenuity has copied nature, BMW made a drill that works like the proboscis of a mosquito. For many years scientists tried to discover the makeup of the daimond atom. When they finally did they found out that the shape was one present in real life- a soccer ball shape!

    You never knew!

    Tyrone

  • moazzamkamran

    sorry i havnt been able to keep in touch and upto date with my articles im on my way to the UK today for vacations……….
    to everyone here thank you for your comments thay are much appreciated it gives me satisfaction to see that this really is an issue people relate to. We all have ideas some brilliant some umm not so much :) but when someone steals your ideas and shows it off as an original thought that is the worst……… to my understanding even inspiration should be acknowledged because it gives credibility to your overall presentation……..
    Thank you once again for all your feedback and hope you can all play a part in promoting the free flow of and the protection of creativity !!

  • http://www.missionrescuepakistan.com Ramlah

    Creativity is dead in our part of the world. I agree with Sarosh, clients do interfere alot but then we can’t like have this as an excuse..I mean when I was interning in this ad agency so they actually showed us an ad and asked us to make a low budget ad for a particular brand based on that particular theme…when we came with our own idea it was rejected…but this Olpers ad is like a blunder, I mean engro foods is a big name and you can’t really excpet them to make these kinda blunders..ripping off amul for olpers milk and coke for omore…they should know how strong the online media is today.

  • moazzam

    hi Ramlah

    We seem to lose hope these days so quickly. I agree nothing is working for us but we need to understand creativity is not dead voice your creativity shout it out someday someone will take notice never lose out on your dreams keep fighting……… we are a strong people with great values and great ideas we just need to voice them…….
    Sarosh had a brilliant and creative idea to create Pakmediablog were voicing our opinions join in and support your ideas :)
    Cheers

  • Ramlah

    It was an inspiration according to the Brand Manager, and he was so chill about it that I was shocked :P but yeah I can’t think of anything that I could do to tell them the difference between ripping off and being inspired ;)

  • moazzam

    you can do a lot write an article on ur experience and bring the issue to light get people to listen to you make them listen really rub it in so that guy realises that yes he is wrong !!
    if it still dosnt work well at least u tried :P

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