Murder on the ad agency floor

Previously we've seen how the 3 local telcos were tearing each other's hair out over data prices. SO mind-others'-business me decided to scour my favourite ad site for interesting ads to talk about. And my intuition was on-spot. :)

This ad was done for FIAT by Leo Burnett San Paulo to promote the FIAT Linea' reverse parking sensors. It came out on 2 January 2009, playing on palindromes to emphasize the "going backward or forward, it's all the same" message. Smart, I'd say.

Then...

Wait. Before we're all up in arms and crying foul, let's look at Mercedes Benz' ad; the ad agency Jung von Matt/Limmat (a Swiss company) had, similarly, played on palindromes and, similarly, to promote reverse parking technology. The message, "Backwards as well as forwards", bodes similarity to that of Fiat's. And it came out in the same month as Fiat's, except later. Now, what is creativity? Am I going to drag Adorno and Horkheimer out of their graves and get them to write lengthy theses about this practice? Or were they really right? Is the creative world shrinking alongside the cliched globalisation theory?

Okay I need to stop doing homework during the holidays.

All images courtesy of joelapompe.