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Old 27th March 2013, 15:24   #31
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re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employees

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Four days after a series of posters for Ford Figo caused international outrage, heads have rolled at its ad agency. Bobby Pawar, JWT India's chief creative officer & managing partner, as well as Vijay SimhaVellanki, creative director at Blue Hive, a WPP unit dedicated to managing the Ford business, have been asked to resign....
This is turning out to be as bad as the Denmark cartoonist who got death threats.

I am not suprised by Ford's stance. As long as there is a third-party involved, you can conveniently 'outsource' the blame as well.

I am really surprised by JWT's stance. They should have taken a stance on freedom of expression and creative freedom.

Whatever happened to free-speech and plain old sense of humor!

Last edited by SDP : 27th March 2013 at 15:26.
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Old 27th March 2013, 16:46   #32
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re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employees

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Originally Posted by SDP View Post
This is turning out to be as bad as the Denmark cartoonist who got death threats.

I am not suprised by Ford's stance. As long as there is a third-party involved, you can conveniently 'outsource' the blame as well.

I am really surprised by JWT's stance. They should have taken a stance on freedom of expression and creative freedom.

Whatever happened to free-speech and plain old sense of humor!
Maybe Ford indicated that they would cancel their business with JWT if they had not fired the people responsible for the ads.

Edit: Especially considering Ford is JWT's biggest client as indicated in the article

Last edited by arvind71181 : 27th March 2013 at 16:47.
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Old 28th March 2013, 10:46   #33
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Heads roll over JWT's Ford Figo bound and gagged ads

Link to main news item.

Ad agency JWT has moved swiftly to contain the fallout of its controversial ads that embarrassed client Ford globally. The agency has sent home two senior figures in the company - Bobby Pawar (chief creative officer) and Vikram Simha Vellanki (creative head for Blue Hive, a unit catering to Ford within JWT). Ford is hugely important to JWT as the automaker is its largest client with an ad budget globally of USD 2 billion.

Responding to the Economic Times, Pawar said, "What happened is unfortunate. But no matter what the circumstances, it did happen on my watch." A statement from JWT India said, "After an internal review, we have taken appropriate disciplinary action with those involved, which included the exit of employees at JWT."

While initially the ads were claimed to not have official sanction, this was disproved when evidence was found that the ads had been reviewed and entered by JWT for the annual Ad Club awards. The negative publicity as a result of the offensive ads resulted in both JWT and Ford India having to tender public apologies.

Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employees-ford_jpg_1405219f.jpg

Last edited by GTO : 28th March 2013 at 11:28.
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Old 28th March 2013, 22:16   #34
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

I think everybody is being unnecessarily judgemental about Italians. Who is to say "all" of them are not having fun in this picture?
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Old 28th March 2013, 23:13   #35
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

In other news, the Kardashian sisters intend to file a suit against Ford for their depiction. Just not what Ford needed at this time when they are close to launching a product that they have set their bets very high on in India. I wonder who will ultimately take the fall for all this - JWT or Ford?
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Old 29th March 2013, 12:29   #36
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

I have NOT read entirely thru this thread, but have read about these online and am terribly upset; NOT with Ford, but at the outcry. In between, I came across this article written by "Anant Rangaswami" titled "Ford Mess: Ford, JWT and WPP have overreacted" and found it to be really well written and aligned to my thoughts about the incident. Please read thru.

Quote:
A quick wrap. JWT India creates a campaign for Ford, which is found to be offensive. The campaign is found to be ‘contrary to the standards of professionalism and decency’. Two JWT executives resign.

There are some questions that need to be answered:

1. What was the campaign about?
2. Is the reaction by Ford, JWT and WPP warranted?
3. Should Bobby Pawar have been asked to go? What was Ford’s role in this incident?
Details: http://www.firstpost.com/business/fo...ed-677371.html

Last edited by swiftnfurious : 29th March 2013 at 12:43.
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Old 29th March 2013, 14:18   #37
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

Meanwhile the grapevine says that the creative side people in JWT are up in arms against the management for firing the juniors (as well as the seniors) when none of the business side people are affected.

While the firing seems to be an over reaction, very likely in a tough financial year something like this firing would have happened in any business.
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Old 29th March 2013, 14:29   #38
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

Berlusconi, Italian mariners, Chopper deal scam, omni present bofors scam. So much Italy all at once is working against the creative guys at JWT.

But I do wonder if Ford has lost it's face at all....

Last edited by bblost : 29th March 2013 at 14:52. Reason: Please no politics on the forum.
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Old 29th March 2013, 15:00   #39
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

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Originally Posted by Ford5 View Post
But I do wonder if Ford has lost it's face at all....
No, Ford hasn't and they've done their bit to protect their turf.
It was a big mistake from agency's part to take a chance with one of their biggest client.
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Old 29th March 2013, 18:43   #40
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

What do i think of the ads?
They aren't ones I'd approve for the Indian market, but i don't see anything so objectionable about them. In fact i think the concept has potential.
Lets contextualize it:
  • First: Lose the bikinis and hookers.
  • Second: Lets get some familiar faces. Imagine this, a smiling Ram & Sita driving their Figo with Ravan tied up at the back, (he could even be on fire)... and i don't think any Indians would object.

PS - If most Indians were familiar with how irritating the Kardashian's TV show was, they'd probably have liked the ads more.


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Originally Posted by phamilyman View Post
Here is another case of another someone who took a joke too seriously, and ended up ruining their career and hers: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/21/a-d...ut-of-control/
Man, that is such a sad story - and over something so stupid as well.

I can understand if it was 6th grade and someone complained to the teacher, but the extent to which it went in this situation was just plain stupid.

(Gotta say that the reply on repo forking was a nice little googly in there).

I think this link of yours ties in with the current Ford saga even better now that heads have rolled.

In both cases it seems that companies have bowed to public pressures and overall requests of the hivemind, without taking a moment to think about what they think is the correct resolution to the situation.

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Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil View Post
In other news, the Kardashian sisters intend to file a suit against Ford for their depiction.
Joke of the day!

It's nothing more than them jumping on the bandwagon for some free publicity.

The same way some of the media has tied it in with the recent buzzwords of "rape" and "ill-treatment of women" just to make the story more sensational.

cya
R

Last edited by Rehaan : 30th March 2013 at 00:44.
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Old 30th March 2013, 17:34   #41
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

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Originally Posted by SDP View Post
I am not suprised by Ford's stance. As long as there is a third-party involved, you can conveniently 'outsource' the blame as well.

I am really surprised by JWT's stance. They should have taken a stance on freedom of expression and creative freedom.

Whatever happened to free-speech and plain old sense of humor!
Well, those are all old school now. In the times we live in, everyone gets offended by everything and everyone has an opinion abt everything.

There's a very thin red line and I feel JWT/Ford might have overstepped it, in the case of the Kardashian sisters. As for Berlo, any publicity is good publicity
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Old 1st April 2013, 11:57   #42
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

Sorry but have to disagree here , freedom of speech is fine and i strongly believe in this as well , but this was not about individuals creating something , at the end of the day this was a business relationship wherin people employed under that ( i.e JWT) went ahead and did something , unapproved possibly , for a client - this does not come under freedom of speech - at the end of the day these guys were working for FORD and were thus under the preview of terms and conditions which the business relationship dictated including for example elements such as confidentiality etc.

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Originally Posted by Anghammarad View Post
It might not be in good taste, but what about freedom of expression? I don't see the point in any form of censorship. People need to lighten up and stop taking themselves so damn seriously.
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Old 2nd April 2013, 08:40   #43
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

In one another forum I asked "People who have seen those ads, can anyone please articulate what exactly was offensive in those ads?"

Got dead silence in response and then a link to a WSJ article that reported the controversy, but again no specifics on what exactly was offensive.

Here's what I replied:
Thanks for the link. I am aware of the ads and the controversy. My question was: what's offensive about those ads? They are funny with a toungue-in-cheek kind of humour. Have we become so 'intolerant' that we can not even take a joke? Or is it that when the administration (and the people who elect them) can not do anything significant about the core issues of women safety, we choose the completely irrelavent BUT easy targets like JWT and Ford?
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Old 3rd April 2013, 10:06   #44
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

Socio-Political reasons aside, anyone in the Ad industry knows that Mr Pawar is extremely senior (Like, really really senior. I cannot emphasize this enough). Not someone JWT can afford to lose just like that.

His sacking is probably to cover up the PR nightmare that JWT and Ford will / would have had to deal with. His sacking also probably saved a dozen or so other jobs that might have been lost to appease the bloodthirsty media.

I'm pretty sure he's already back, under the radar, If he even left in the first place.

As far as these ads getting out, there's no way that the client in India didn't know. I'm sure it was one of those things that they said would only be kept under wraps for the awards or something like that. In either case, they HAD to distance themselves from all this to protect themselves from a whole barrage of legal nonsense.

Personally, I feel they could be potentially in bad taste, but this was blown WAY out of proportion since the media had nothing better to do.

In either case JWT & Ford have had a LOT of free Press. And as they say, any press is good press.

I bet Figo sales go up this month!
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Old 9th April 2013, 08:59   #45
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Re: Ford's new Ad sparks International Controversy! UPDATE: JWT fires 2 Senior employ

Slightly OT:

A post from our own jokes thread:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...ml#post3088881

Let's protest against that RajuDas and against OLX.in for hosting the offensive ad.
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