Just Do It. (Even though someone else already did it better.)

You know what bugs me? When creative directors – the same people who tell you they’re looking for fresh, new ideas and outlooks on products – steal someone else’s big, gigantic, Gold Lion-winning idea for their own client. For the same product/industry. Mmmhmmm. Yeah, that bugs me. The lovely and talented copywriting genius of Concha blogged about Alex and his buds at Crispin recently. Today, I take issue with Arnold. Not AH-nold. Arnold.

Today as I tried to burn my thighs off on some stationary bike at my gym, I thumbed through Lucky Magazine and saw something that I’d forgotten to blog about ‘til right now. VW’s Force of Good. This delightful little illustrated ad features some long copy and a bunch of tiny stickers featuring photos of icky situations that you can place on the next page where there’s a picture of a VW bug vs. (insert icky photo sticker here).

What a cool idea! I’m so warm and happy! A car company that promotes happy feelings! I love the last line of copy which reads “Who will step into the ring and become a Force of Good?”. Who?? WHO??? Are you even KIDDING ME with this? I’ll tell you who – HONDAAAAAAAA, that’s who! Wieden London did it first and they did it better, at least in my humble, unemployed copywriter opinion.

What ginormous balls. It would probably still irk me if someone had stolen this for a breakfast cereal, a hair product, a beer, whatever. But a car. For fuck’s sake, people. Have some pride.

I’m sure someone, somewhere sat in their office and justified it by saying “Our illustrations won’t be quite as psychedelic. Not as over the top. Theirs is about positive hate. Ours is more good vs. evil. And we’ll use tons of copy because the Brits hate copy. And stickers! We’ll use stickers! See? It’s different!”

What’s even more annoying is that as I sniffed around Google today to get some more info on this, all the comments I found were along the lines of “They SO want to be like Crispin.” Well, kids, I hate to break it to you but THIS ISN’T CRISPIN. (sorry, I feel all caps are warranted here). It makes me mad that Crispin even gets the glory for the copy-cat ads.

Honestly, if I had the money and was in the market for a car today and I could only choose between a boring, generic Honda and a funky little VW bug, I’d have to choose the boring generic Honda. It annoys me that much. GRRRRRRRRRR, you thieving bitches!

I’m sure I’m 3 months late on bitching about this, but I had to get it out.

Oh, and speaking of lack of originality, I saw a preview this week for a movie called “Annapolis”. Has anyone seen it? Isn’t this just a nice freshened-up version of “An Officer and a Gentleman” with a twist of “Top Gun? Tyrese Gibson instead of Lou Gossett Jr.? James Franco instead of Richard Gere/Tom Cruise? Jordana Brewster instead of Kelly McGillis? Minus the “Way to go, Paula…way to go” carrying-out-of-the-factory fanfare?

Alright, I’m done bitching. For now. To end on a nice, positive Honda-like note, can anyone recommend an original and non-AMC 1000 movie for the weekend? Something that’s not "Chicken Little"? And a new book? I just finished “Magical Thinking” by Augusten Burroughs…I highly recommend it. I loves me some Augusten. (Metrodad, are you cringing? I think I’m misusing quotes for movies and books.)