Awards for gorilla ad revoked after plagiarism claim went viral

Dentsu Utama may have rejected Tom Ander Watkins' claim that the advertising agency plagiarised his work but this has not spared the contentious piece from being disqualified by the country's most prestigious advertising award – Kancils.

Watkins had yesterday taken to Twitter to complain that the corporation had "won" after Dentsu insisted it did not plagiarise his work because of additions it made.

"So it turns out Dentsu Utama reject my allegation of intellectual property infringement because 'we added crosshairs'," he said.

However, hours later, it was reported by media and marketing portal Mumbrella Asia that the award for the disputed work had been revoked by Malaysia 4As, the organiser of the Kancil Awards.

"An investigation was initiated by the 4As following various complaints of the obvious similarities to the original creations.

“This action is being taken to remedy a contentious situation while upholding the principles of eligibility for the Kancil Awards,” Kancils jury chair Tan Kien Eng was quoted as saying.

Dentsu Utama's "Cross River Gorilla" artwork was designed for the World Wildlife Fund advertising campaign and had bagged three silver and 26 bronze prizes at the Kancil Awards 2015.

However, after Tom complained that the winning entry was a plagiarism of his work, it quickly went viral on social media.

This prompted netizens to also highlight other works by Dentsu Utama, which bore similarities to previous creative works.

One such work was titled the 'Professional Man', which similarly saw its six bronze awards revoked by Malaysia 4As.

Mumbrella reported that the advertisement done by Dentsu Utama for Web Privacy Watch "contained almost identical images" to the work of Swedish artist Erik Johanssor's "Architect".

"We take serious view of work that is deemed sufficiently close to works created originally elsewhere.

"We must maintain a high level of integrity and credibility as the decision to disqualify the awards for both creative works was not taken lightly as we had explored all possible scenarios.

"In the end, the facts were overwhelmingly in favour of the original creators," Tan was quoted as saying.

Another of the company's design for Uyee Chinese Medical Company, which won 20 awards, was also said to be similar to a Chinese skateboard design firm Challenge Skateboard.

However, Malaysia 4As ruled that they were not sufficiently similar.

The slew of awards helped Dentsu Utama to clench the "agency of the year" title at the Kancil Awards 2015, reported Mumbrella. -Mkini