【08.7.14 华尔街日报】Amnesty Spot Creates Olympic Headache for Ad Shop
[size=3]Amnesty Spot Creates[/size][size=3]Olympic Headache for Ad Shop[/size][font=Times New Roman,Times,Serif][size=16px][b][size=3]TBWA Disavows
Pitch as Bloggers
Call for a Boycott[/size][/b][/size][/font]
[font=times new roman,times,serif][size=12px][b][size=3][font=times new roman,times,serif][size=12px][b]By [b]GEOFFREY A. FOWLER[/b] in Beijing, [b]SUZANNE VRANICA[/b] in New York, and [b]JULIET YE[/b] in Hong Kong
July 14, 2008; Page A7[/b][/size][/font]
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[size=3]Weeks before the Olympics put Beijing and the Games'corporate backers on the world stage, an advertising heavy weight has stumbled over the divide between how some view China and how the nationviews itself.
[/size][size=3]In recent weeks, [url=http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=omc]Omnicom Group[/url] Inc.'s TBWA Worldwide has been working on both sides of China's global image. On behalf of sportswear maker [url=http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=ADS.XE]Adidas[/url] AG, TBWA's Beijing office has been running a campaign focused on Chinese pride, showing Chinese athletes supported by throngs of fans.
[/size][size=3]At the same time, the agency's Paris office was working on another ad campaign on behalf of Amnesty International that showed Chinese athletes being tortured by Chinese authorities. In one of the print ads, a person has been attached to a target normally used in the shooting competition at the Games. At the bottom, it says,"After the Olympic Games, the fight for human rights must go on."[/size]
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Word of the human-rights campaign is now spreading through China, and TBWA and Amnesty International are disavowing the ads.[/size][size=3]
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[size=3]The stir comes at a delicate time for TBWA, which could face a backlash in China and was already competing for renewed business from Visa Inc., a major sponsor of the Games. It also makes TBWA the latest international marketer to run a foul of China's complex political and social landscape.[/size]
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[size=3]Chinese bloggers, spurred by a report in state-run media of the Amnesty campaign last week, are now calling for a boycottof all TBWA ads, among other measures.[/size]
[table=250][tr][td][size=3][img=250,173]http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-AR336_ADVERT_20080713220147.jpg[/img][/size][/td][/tr][tr][td][size=3]Amnesty International / Adidas[/size][/td][/tr][tr][td][size=3]TBWA's ad campaign for Amnesty International, left, and Adidas focused on two sides of China's global image.[/size][/td][/tr][/table][size=3]"I suggest that all Chinese employees in TBWA resign from this company," wrote one blogger on Netease.com.
[/size][size=3]Amnesty's London headquarters decided weeks ago to spike the ads from its Olympics campaign, which is focusing more on positive change that might come from the Games. "The result was not suitable for the messages we are trying to convey with our Olympics campaign," said Amnesty spokeswoman Josefina Salomon.[/size]
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But Amnesty still allowed TBWA to run the ads once so they could be entered into the Cannes competition. It won a bronze award.[/size]
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TBWA's headquarters in New York said it wasn't aware of the campaign. "Had TBWA management known about this ad, not only would the ad not have been entered into an award show, but it would not have been produced," said Tom Carroll, chief executive of TBWAWorldwide. "This is the action of one individual at our agency workingon a pro bono account." He said the agency is investigating the matter and will take appropriate action to "ensure this never happens again."[/size]
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The agency declined to provide home or cellphonenumbers for executives in its Paris office. The Paris executives didn't respond via email. TBWA has 258 offices in 75 countries world-wide. In a statement, Adidas also said it was unaware of the Amnesty campaign.It said the campaign it put together with TBWA "reflects our support of the Olympic Games." It said the dispute "has got nothing to do with us." It added: "We believe Chinese consumers recognize this."[/size]
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Consumers in China have shown a willingness to boycott brands that they felt offended patriotic sentiment. After protesters besieged the Olympic torch in Paris in April, Chinese consumers launched a boycott of France's Carrefour SA, one of China's biggest foreign supermarket chains. Fearing the same treatment, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA's Christian Dior dropped actress Sharon Stonefrom its Chinese marketing campaign after she suggested China's massive May earthquake might have been "karma" for the government's treatmentof its Tibetan population.
[/size][size=3]The brouhaha comes as TBWA is pitching to retain adduties for Visa. Several weeks ago, the credit-card company began aglobal ad review. TBWA currently has the lion's share of the ad business. Through a statement from a Visa spokesman, the credit-cardcompany said it had been unaware TBWA was involved in an AmnestyInternational campaign. Visa declined to comment further.
[/size][size=3]As the ad industry has consolidated, global agencynetworks increasingly take on work for competing accounts. In Europe,WPP Group PLC's Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide agency works onantismoking campaigns for the Cancer Research UK charity and doesmarketing for [url=http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=bti]British American Tobacco[/url] PLC, one of the world's largest cigarette companies. It also creates ads for energy giant [url=http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=bp]BP[/url] PLC and environmental group WWF, which wants to cut oil use.[/size]
[size=3]"It is an unavoidable consequence of being a globalnetwork with lots and lots of clients," said an Ogilvy spokesman, KevinWhitlock. "These kind of tensions happen in any large company."[/size]
[size=3]In some cases, conflicts blow up. Earlier this year,Mark Penn, CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a public-relations and lobbyingfirm owned by WPP Group, had to step down as chief strategist for Sen.Hillary Clinton's campaign for the presidential nomination for herparty after it came out that he and his firm were working with Colombiato help win congressional approval of a trade pact she opposed.[/size]
[size=3]Some agencies have tried to set up ground rules toavoid controversy. TBWA has a policy in the U.S. that bars it fromdoing political ads. Still, other regions tend to operate moreautonomously.[/size]
[size=3]And while the relationship with Amnesty has beenfruitful for the agency in terms of publicity and honors, thatrelationship is "now under discussion," according to a person familiarwith the agency.[/size]
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[size=3]--Aaron Patrick in London contributed to this article.[/size]
[size=3][url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121598805607649301.html?mod=dist_smartbrief]【链接】[/url][/size]
[size=3][url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121598805607649301.html?mod=dist_smartbrief]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121598805607649301.html?mod=dist_smartbrief[/url]
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华尔街日报——人权机构害广告商自打嘴巴？
[size=4]【转载翻译】[url=http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20080714/ffe184348.asp?source=whatnews3]http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20080714/ffe184348.asp?source=whatnews3[/url]
华尔街日报中文网
2008年07月14日18:30
现在距离北京奥运会开幕仅剩几周时间了，北京乃至奥运赞助商成为全球关注的焦点，然而此时一家广告业巨头的日子却不太好过，夹在对中国的两种截然不同看法──有些人眼中的中国以及中国眼中的自己──之间左右为难。
过去几周，宏盟集团(Omnicom Group Inc.)旗下的TBWA Worldwide一直在从两个对立的角度塑造着中国的国际形像。一方面，TBWA驻北京办事处代表运动服装巨头阿迪达斯(Adidas AG)，以中国人的民族自豪感为题掀起了一场声势浩大的宣传攻势，展示出中国的运动员在支持者簇拥下奋力拼搏的情景。
与此同时，TBWA驻巴黎办事处却代表大赦国际(Amnesty International)大唱反调，其宣传活动试图告诉世人中国运动员遭到了政府虐待。其中一张平面广告图片是一个人被绑在奥运射击标靶之上，图片下面写道：奥运之后，人权之战仍须继续。
有关争取人权的言论在中国现在已是沸沸扬扬，而与此同时TBWA和大赦国际都表示拒绝对上述广告负责。
对于[color=Red][b]目前正努力争取从奥运赞助大户Visa Inc.手中获得后续广告业务[/b][/color]的TBWA公司来说，上述事件的发生时机显得颇为微妙。它不仅有可能面临来自中国方面的反击，还使自己成为了又一家卷入中国政治社会漩涡的国际公司。
上周中国国有媒体对大赦国际的广告进行了报导，受此推动，中国的博主纷纷呼吁抵制TBWA的所有广告，并采取其他行动。
网易(Netease.com)的一位博主写道，我建议TBWA的所有中国员工都从公司辞职。
数周前，大赦国际驻伦敦总部决定终止这组与奥运相关的宣传广告，现在该组织的奥运宣传活动将重点放到了奥运会可能带来的正面影响上。大赦国际发言人乔瑟芬妮•萨罗蒙(Josefina Salomon)表示，这组广告并不适于表达我们想要传递出来的意思。
但是大赦国际仍然允许TBWA推出过上述广告，因此公司得以参加戛纳广告大赛，并获得了铜奖。
TBWA 驻纽约总部表示公司并不清楚此事。TBWA首席执行长汤姆•卡罗尔(TomCarroll)表示，假如公司管理层知道这组广告，它们不仅不会在戛纳参赛，而且根本就不会被制作出来。他指出，该广告是公司员工的个人行为，并未收取任何报酬。卡罗尔称公司正在调查此事，并将采取适当措施“确保以后决不再有类似事件发生。”
TBWA 拒绝提供巴黎办事处负责人的手机或宅电。后者也未回复记者的电邮。TBWA在全球75个国家开设了258家办事处。阿迪达斯在一份声明中也表示对大赦国际的广告宣传活动并不知情。阿迪达斯称，TBWA为其代理的广告反映出了公司对奥运会的支持，围绕着大赦国际广告的争议与公司毫无关系，并表示相信中国消费者能认清这一点。
对于那些伤害了他们民族感情的公司，中国消费者愿意进行抵制。今年4月北京奥运圣火在巴黎传递时受到了抗议人士的阻挠，中国消费者因而对国内大型外资连锁超市家乐福(Carrefour SA)发起了抵制活动。此外，由于担心面临同样的命运，LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA旗下的迪奥(Christian Dior)从中国市场撤下了美国女演员莎朗•斯通(Sharon Stone)的形像广告，因为她此前曾有言论，称造成大量人员伤亡的四川大地震是对中国政府西藏政策的报应。
此番喧嚷[color=Red][b]正值TBWA努力续签与Visa的广告合约之际。[/b][/color]几周前，这家信用卡公司开始在全球范围遴选广告服务商。TBWA目前已握有Visa公司最大一块广告合约。Visa的发言人在一份声明中称，公司此前并不知道TBWA参与了大赦国际的宣传计划。Visa拒绝进一步发表评论。
随着广告行业的整合，全球广告代理网络为互唱对台戏的雇主做广告的现象也越来越常见。在欧洲，WPP Group PLC旗下的奥美公司(Ogilvy& Mather)一方面为Cancer ResearchUK制作禁烟广告，另一方面又帮助全球最大烟草企业之一的英美烟草(British American TobaccoPLC)开展市场营销。此外，该公司还同时服务于英国石油公司(BP PLC)和呼吁削减石油消费的世界自然基金会(WWF)。
奥美公司发言人凯文•维特洛克(Kevin Whitlock)谈到，作为一家拥有众多客户的国际广告公司，这种情况无从避免；任何一家大公司都会遇到这种麻烦。
在某些情况下，冲突会随之而来。今年早些时候，WPPGroup麾下的博雅公共关系公司(Burson-Marsteller)首席执行长马克•潘恩(MarkPenn)被迫辞去希拉里•克林顿(HillaryClinton)竞选团队的首席策略师一职，原因是他及他的公司正在和哥伦比亚方面合作，以期与美国达成自由贸易协定；而该协定正是希拉里所坚决反对的。
为避免争端，部分广告代理机构正设法制定一些基本准则。TBWA在美国有一条规定就是不做与政治相关的广告，但该公司的其他地区性机构在这方面就比较宽松了。
据知情者透露，虽然TBWA与大赦国际的合作为它带来了知名度和荣誉，但公司目前正在对双方的关系进行论证。
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Suzanne Vranica / Juliet Ye[/size]
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