Leo Burnett hits back at Kam Fan copycat claims

The campaign scooped the Grand Prix at the 25th Hong Kong Kam Fan on 6 November. The agency also grabbed the Print Kam Fan award with the same campaign.

However, since the awards ceremony there has been talk within Hong Kong's creative industry that the campaign bears a striking resemblance to a series of images produced by UK photographer John Ross for the Manic Street Preachers' Lifeblood album in 2004. The images were a collaboration with art director and designer Mark Farrow.

Connie Lo, ECD at Leo Burnett Hong Kong, acknowledged the speculation but commented. "In contrast to traditional yoga ads that mostly feature girls in typical post, we highlighted in our ads the health benefit of hot yoga - to sweat. Our idea and the line 'Sweat off your flab' was born from the inspiration of 'sweat' and 'beautiful bodies'. I know there's been some discussion going on in the industry about this. In fact some of the creative directors in town have already commented that that the ideas are completely different, and that John's work is just a photography piece, not an idea about sweating off your flab.”

She added that the HK4As, which organises the Kam Fan Awards, and the panel of judges had confirmed the eligibility of Leo Burnett's campaign.

But according to one of the Kam Fan judges, the jury was unaware of the 2004 photos. "We did not know about John Ross's work, even the two London judges did not raise any similarities. In fact they loved it," said the judge. "It was brought to our attention the day before the Kam Fan. By then it was too late for any further deliberation as all the judges had gone back to their respective countries. Only three out of the nine judges responded to the issue."

"It just reflects the state of the Hong Kong ad industry,” said a Hong Kong-based film director. “It is sad that we need to resort to such tactics to do any good work. There must be something wrong with the way we are training people in advertising, or the system itself, especially the pressure that agency creatives are faced with in terms of the need to win awards."        

Opinion on the apparent similarity between the two works appears to be mixed. One senior agency executive described it as a "blatant rip-off", while others pointed out that as the original work was not an ad, it was not a copycat case.

"What is not right is when an ad, in any format, is directly copying another ad from somewhere else, which we have seen in the past  from time to time. That's clearly not the case here," said Chris Kyme, creative partner of Eight Partnership. "The only circumstances in which the Leo Burnett campaign might have a problem are if it created (or recreated) the images without seeking permission from the original photographer. In which case, he would probably have an issue with it."    

That view was supported by Steve Back, ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi Australia. "Should it win awards? If the creative idea has been inspired by an artist, who has given permission to use their artwork, plus it's a great piece of fresh thinking, then yes. I suppose the question is did they approach John Ross to use his artwork or even to shoot the campaign?”

Lo said the agency had emailed Ross at the time of the campaign. 

Leo Burnett's 'Sweat' campaign:


John Ross' Blood:


The Grand Kam Fan this year was selected by a panel of International judges, who gathered in Hong Kong to decide the winner.

Royce Yuen, chairman, Ogilvy Hong Kong and HK4As said: "The HK4As, as the award organiser, respects and fully supports the judges’ decision."