Towngas TVC recut after being criticised for imitating viral concept

Industry players and consumers on Wordpress, YouTube and Sina Weibo took issue with the creative concept in the 30-second Towngas TVC launched last month as it was, to some, a repurposed imitation of a well-known viral video series (below) featuring world traveller Matt Harding dancing in front of various landmarks and sightseeing spots around the globe.

The 'Where The Hell is Matt' series inspired BBDO to involve the protagonist Matt himself in Visa's 2008 advertising campaign (below), reproducing the same 'travel happy' dance that made him an internet celebrity.

The commonality in the videos is that Harding always dances in the middle of the shots, which are then cut to different tourism-related scenes all framed similarly. In August last year, the treatment for three videos commissioned by STA Travel Australia for its 'Move, Learn and Eat' campaign were also said to be derived from Harding's viral series.

The original Towngas TVC (below) similarly shows a Towngas technician in the middle of the frame traversing decades throughout Hong Kong's history to modernity. This has sparked a discussion about originality in advertising.

"While there’s nothing strictly criminal in its rendering, creatively, most would agree you’re on very shaky ground on a slippery slope on a tectonic plate when you lift something wholesale in that manner," Richard Tunbridge, managing partner of creative & content at M&C Saatchi in Hong Kong pointed out in his blog on Campaign Asia-Pacific, referring specifically to the Towngas TVC. 

In response, DDB has recut the spot in question (below) to downplay the treatment of the talent in centre-frame.

Simone Tam, president and CEO of DDB Group Hong Kong explained, "We understand that there were market concerns that the editing style in the recent Towngas TVC is believed to be conceptually similar to a film posted on YouTube. To avoid any such impressions, we have taken steps to re-edit it."

In 2011, the visual effects created by a Spanish company partnering Bates Hong Kong for 'The Foundation Of Progress' campaign for HSBC were identical twins to the transparent underground point-of-view in a 2008 TVC for Metro de Madrid.

In 2009, Leo Burnett Hong Kong also caused controversy with its 'Sweat' campaign for Life Yoga, which was found to bear a striking resemblance to images produced by UK photographer John Ross for Manic Street Preachers' Lifeblood album in 2004.