Upside of a downturn

In a tepid advertising market, some agency honchos are celebrating the fact that "scam advertising" - advertising created with the sole objective of winning metals at award shows, that runs once, in a cheap outlet, just before the submission deadline - is conspicuous by its near absence in 2014.

Such advertising had claimed a number of high-profile victims in 2013. Tata Chemicals had to withdraw its Abby-winning Tata Salt Lite radio spots when it discovered that the entries were not exactly above board. Just before that, a scam campaign for Ford Figo designed by JWT India led to the exit of senior professionals at both Ford India and JWT India after a social media maelstrom. At the year-end get-together in an agency recently, the creative boss wondered, "Has it (scam advertising) really stopped or have people stopped noticing? With clients cutting budgets, there are worse things to worry about."