J.C. Penney decries Lion-winning Saatchi ad

Come on, Saatchi knew about it. How could they not?

Warning to Saatchi: you've been officially outed and your (fake) days are numbered.

Whoa. JC Penney, I think the only thing you should be pissed about is that your logo was attached to something this self-indulgent, that over-produced, that cliched. The implied teen sex is the least of your worries. Really? _This_ gets into Cannes? _This_ makes the news? Dinosaurs.

Entries aren't vetted. The guidelines are written so that if someone notices a "ghost spot" after it wins an award, the award can be withdrawn, but someone must point it out to the governing body. This is not the first spot of its kind to slip through the stringent guidelines of the award show circuit. The governing body is not in the habit of giving back any of the money they collect, they'll watch anything you put in front of them as long as you pay them to do so. Now for the good part - what's the proper punishment for Epoch & Mike Long? Are they not allowed to enter awards shows for a full year or two? Perhaps they get to enter as much work as they can afford to next year, but it's never shown to the judges, much like this spot was never shown to JC Penney or the viewing audience?

Somebody was asleep at the wheel to let this one in. "lions" like other awards, are from and for agencies egos. In this case an international slap on the back for a ghost. Reality.......Retailer J. C. Penney Co. Inc. on Thursday reported a steeper drop in May sales than a year ago and said it expects continued declines in June.

Truth is that this is great work.

If brands did work like this they would be better off.
It's interesting, bold, makes you think.
But most brands would rather do uninteresting, all-the-same stuff that's safe, uninspiring and unrememberable.
And that's what 99.9% of them do - especially in the USA.

JCP should embrace this rouge creativity.
It's better than anything they have ever done.
You could argue it's off strategy...but that's only because on strategy work means boring, cookie cutter work.

This ad connects. It's born of real teenage insight - they don't want to get caught making out. It's got a good feel and it's simple.

The best single execution that JC has ever done IMO.

Interestingly, it's the bold idea that everyone wants on brief-day.

It's too bad that in today's hyper safe world of marketing, a bold, cut-through, makes-you-think idea is the surest thing to die and aweful death.

Thank you JCP for reminding us all what BS this industry can be.

This ad is awesome...beautifully done, creative, and thought-provoking. The creators of this ad should be commended and JC Penney should thank them for the "free" publicity they received. Hey, maybe that was the idea, enter a fake ghost spot, create a controversy, and get the publicity. Brilliant!!!

Wait - this is the ad? You're kidding. It won a Lion? I'm scratching my head and re-reading the article and the rah rah comment. Where did you say the genius was?

I think everyone appreciates great work, but we all know how much harder it is to play by the rules and present, sell and produce for a paying client. Now that's an achievement. When these spec spots roll out along with real work, it completely fucks the bell curve... not to mention hogs a lion.

So will the bronze award go to the runner up? Like the Miss USA pageant if the winner is disqualified? Come on Cannes... do something good for a change.

By the way, the idea is fine. I wouldn't say it should've been a bronze, but it's a nice idea. Probably more suitable for Abercrombie, but definitely not JCPenny. Come on, have you shopped there????? They're about as a sexy as grandma in the kitchen baking wearing a g-string.

Like everyone doesn't now this has been and will keep happening.
Many careers are made on just this kind of loophole and agencies
are completely aware of and secretly support it, until it bites them.
Dont make Mike Long the scapegoat, it's just as ridiculous as
pretending you're surprised.

maybe both parties planned the whole thing? It's been done before. or are we to assume people at J.C. and Saatchi just aren't that savvy? christ, we may never know.

I know the fake work sometimes beats out the real work. But my sympathy runs in both directions. Not too long ago, an exec. producer told me that a director--a really good one--wouldn't shoot in the states anymore because the clients run all the advertising. Maybe it's that way everywhere. I dunno. But it seems to me the clients do run the advertising. Fear and prudishness outweighs trust and a desire to experiment. Immensely. And no amount of passion and persuasion seems to move them anymore. At best they find it quaint. I can't completely defend Saatchi. But i'd wager the team behind the spot suffered from the simple desire to produce something interesting. And provocative. And cool. It's hard to fault that. At least it is for me.

THIS IS A BAD AD. It does not work with the sign-off. It seems to be creative for the sake of being creative for award submission. Saatchi should know that Crispin does such viral ads for real and which is paid for by the client

And an ad should do more than just attract people to see it and leave it as that.

After all, when you ask them to see it, the next question is what do you want me to do after seeing it?

Poorly thought out. Draggy storyline. Such badly thoughout scam work should not be encouraged.

And blaming the production company? BS!

No production company would have submitted it without checking with the ad agency, unless the production company no longer wants to work with Saatchi.

Truth is Saatchi approved this ad for submission.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... If you do steroids you can't play ball or get in the French Open... what should be done is just ban people who do that from festivals... it's simple really, advertising is the only thing in which fake or bogus stuff gets recognized and nothing happens... what bothers me is the insult on the 99% of all people who work their ass off to produce good work, and DO manage to win awards and influence the market, having our line of work tarnished over award hunger frenzy of agency networks, such as Saatchi, BBDO, etc...

Getting accounts such as these is such tough work... months of proposals, planning, late hours, I feel so bad for the agency team, who are the guys and gals who put in the long hours and deal with everyday stuff, who unfairly get their name tarnished by some hot shot CD who just hops from award show to award show, doing crap like this in their own little word of fake geniuses and peer pressure to get the gold.

Or in this case, bronze... cheers!