F for Fake

One of the great things about the internet is it gives you the opportunity to see lots of ads from other countries.

YouTube is filled with TV spots. And there are literally dozens of sites to see great print and poster work.

Sadly this proliferation of ad-sites has also lead to a rise in the number of scam ads.

The major advertising award shows have done their best to weed out scams, but there seems to be no qualification process for the posting of work on ad-sites.

As such many highly finished folio pieces are posted to these sites. And guess what - They look just like real ads.

Earlier this year we saw a controversial campaign out of Saatchi in China turn out to be a scam. Suffice to say the creatives involved all lost their jobs.

More recently we've had the furore other Saatchi's London and their work for Doc Martens, which was posted to several ad-sites without any involvement from the client.

As my Mum used to say to me and my sister many years ago, sooner or later someone's going to get hurt.

Creative people losing their jobs is one thing, but imagine if the client involved decided to sue.

If a story like that made the trade press, how soon before the agency loses a client?

Of course I could be completely over reacting.

It's just that I'm sick and tired of seeing ads that are so obviously scams being passed off as real ads on ad-sites.

Like the one above for the Beetle Convertible.

Sure it's a clever idea, but visually it says VW Convertible, not Beetle Convertible. And that’s why I don't believe it's a real ad.

Then again, I could be completely wrong….