Cummins & Partners apologises to AFL for plagiarising Multicultural Round campaign
Cummins & Partners has apologised to the AFL after the sporting code had to concede that its new multicultural round campaign was too similar to the work of an Adelaide-based designer Tyson Beck.
Cummins & Partner’s design for the AFL Multicultural Round
LeBron James – Face of Cleveland – Artwork by Tyson Beck
Chris Jeffares, Cummins & Partners CEO, told Mumbrella the agency is “working very closely” with the AFL after the Herald Sun revealed the multicultural round campaign bore a striking similarity to a design of NBA star LeBron James created by Beck.
“As soon as we found out what happened we contacted the artist and apologised. He’s been very complimentary about the process and we’re compensating him,” Jeffares said.
from this day forward they’ll be know as Cut & Paste not Cummins & Partners.
I think LeBron James would be quite surprised that Mumbrella thinks he’s an NBL star as it’s a big step down from the NBA.
Who cares. A montage of crappy shots is not an idea. It’s a contraption invented for indecisive clients and lazy agencies
No self respecting agency or creative would recognize their work is a direct copy of someone else’s and then proceed with it… Terrible form.
As a designer I find this disgusting that agencies like Cummins can take fees from clients and think they can get away with blatant plagiarism. Aren’t they meant to be a creative agency??
“bore a striking similarity to a design of NBL star LeBron James created by Beck.”
should say ***NBA
It’s odd that a graphic designer can claim copyright over copyrighted photographs? Just because they’ve been arranged into a montage does not mean IP no longer exists. Just sayin’…
Hi Brett and Erica,
Whoops – mea culpa! That’s been fixed now.
Thanks for the comments,
Miranda – Mumbrella
Rip off of a rip off of a rip off….that’s advertising.
I guess no1 has realized that he ripped off Blaine Fridrick
https://www.behance.net/gallery/8333449/Misc-Cavs-Creative-13-14
Not by a long shot the first time this has happened in ad land. Im pretty sure the creative (team?) was shown the door, from those comments. Rightly so. Creatives are trusted. You can’t check everything or know every ‘style’ that’s in vogue. bad judgement, caught out.
As a friend recently pointed out both parties might want to send a note of apology to Christiana Couceiro from Lisbon who created this Hitchcock piece over two years ago.
http://hueandsaturation.tumblr.....-genius-of
The telephone game of “inspiration”. It happens. Demonstrates to me why studios and agencies should invest in and retain strong account mgmt. Ones with opinions and empathy but have utmost respect for their creative teams. All it takes is one internal review to say “Hey friend, isn’t this a bit too close in concept and execution to that picture on your mood/territory board?”
In most cases the creatives shoot you a condescending glance, then get upset with your inability to “understand the process” then want to debate why their design is “nothing like this one” before dramatically walking away to hide in the corner behind their giant Mac screen and $400 headphones. But a new day comes, you all meet again and by almost magic the concept in question is gone and all the beautiful, original and strategic work they created (but were feeling too self-conscious to present for evaluation the day before) finally sees the light of day. And it’s amazing. You say, great job. They say thanks.
I think you’re forgetting people the agency admitted to plagiarising the work by Tyson and the AFL said it was uncalled for as stated in other articles. So all parties agree the work was plagiarised, obviously in history of time people have created things similar but there’s a difference. The agency simply hoped that Tyson would not see it. Pretty stupid as he’s probably the most recognized sports in Australia.
“Process oversight”? It was completely plagiarised. Zero ceativity, Tyson should be paid the agencies fees charged to the AFL. They really thought they’d get away with this.
Whilst I don’t condone plagiarism, after seeing in this thread not ONE but TWO recent examples of almost identical work preceding Tyson Beck, I can’t help but feel he’s building the lily by crying foul.
My two cents is we’ll see more of this type of thing thanks to the productivity squeeze on agency staff and the ease with which the internet makes it possible to copy and paste.
^ Huge difference between work of the same style and plagiarising work “samdaman” – obviously designers can use the face collage look but this is plagirised work, theyve taken Tyson’s work completely and offered no creative change or aspect to it that is different. Ridiculous to think otherwise
^^ did you even click on the link to Blaine Fridricks work??… Tyson, apparently “Australia’s most respected sports designer” has exactly copied Fridricks face montage, even within the same sport, down to the same colour square over the eye! haha…what a fuss!
The Agency and the AFL said the work was plagiarised and was unacceptable. Always got to have haters, people knocking Tyson, probably because of the work his done.