Chopin crosses the fine line between flattery and imitation
Swedish distiller The Absolut Co., whose Absolut vodka ads are world famous, is up in arms over a creative campaign with an uncanny resemblance to its own launched by distiller Polmos Siedlce.
"We are looking at the legal aspects," said Janusz Grabowski, The Absolut Co.'s area director for Europe and Africa.
The Polmos Siedlce campaign for Chopin vodka, done by ad agency Velvet Art, shows the Chopin bottle or its silhouette in various forms and against various backgrounds. Both the concept and the execution are very similar to that of the Absolut Classic and Absolut Art ad campaigns.
The Chopin images began appearing in local press at the start of the year as ostensible advertisements for the Millennium 2000 exhibit held at the Chopin Art Gallery in Warsaw's Bristol Hotel, where 12 collected images are being shown.
In addition to using the Chopin bottle in ways familiar from the Absolut campaign, Chopin layouts feature the same combination of vodka name and reference to the artwork or artist involved in producing the overall image. Examples include Chopin-Eiffel, Chopin-Warhol, and Chopin-Ampere. The latter's Chopin bottle in a computer circuit board unmistakably echoes a 1994 Absolute Intelligence ad.
Ad agency TBWA has been doing creative work for Absolut vodka since the early 1980s, starting with the Absolut Perfection campaign showing a bottle of vodka topped by a halo. In later years, artists such as Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf and Stephen Sprouse contributed their designs to the Absolut campaign.
The Absolut Company and TBWA were not the only ones expressing displeasure at the Chopin ads. Although he has not seen the it, Eugene Radevich, creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, was critical. "If people have to borrow or steal from what is one of the greatest ad campaigns in the world I certainly would not want to be part of the creative team that did that," Radevich said.
"Not only does it sound illegal, it sounds like bad advertising," said Stephen Girdlestone, creative director with ad agency J. Walter Thompson - Parintex.
Advertising all alcohol products other than non-alcoholic beer is illegal in Poland. Distillers have tried to circumvent that law by advertising in roundabout ways. One vodka company's outdoor advertisements warn against counterfeit products by showing a close-up of their bottle and its characteristic marks. Another brand's ads promote a comic book series available on newsstands, which bears the same name as the vodka not being advertised.
"It is not an advertising campaign," said Witold Minkowski, creative director of Velvet Art. Minkowski said the campaign was an invitation to look at the images as well as sample Polmos' new vodka.
Andrzej Sawczuk, head of the trade department for Polmos Siedlce, also said the Chopin display is artistic. "There is no encouragement to drink this alcohol," he said. "This is done on the basis of art."
The Chopin campaign is not entirely negative from TBWA's point of view, however. "We feel flattered that our competitors are copying us," said Maud Muller, account executive for Central and Eastern Europe at TBWA's main offices in Paris.
Two fiercely competitive Polish digital platforms, Cyfra+ and Wizja TV, have once again been trying to outdistance each other with new offers. Last week, Cyfra+ signed an agreement with Discovery Networks Europe to include the Discovery Channel and Discovery Civilisation on the platform's programming. The Discovery Channel will be available on Cyfra+ from July 1, and Discovery Civilisation has been available since May 23.
Tomasz Kazmierowski, deputy director general of Canal+ Polska, said every fourth platform subscriber wanted Discovery to be included in the station's offer.
Until now, Wizja TV has had exclusive rights to broadcast the Discovery Channel from its platform. "But we (Wizja TV and Discovery Networks) both agreed when renewing the contract that the condition of exclusivity should be abolished," said Dorota Zawadzka, head of PR at Wizja TV's owner, UPC Polska. In the meantime, Wizja TV has been trying to extend its reach through a new promotion.
Lew Rywin, president of Canal+ Polska, said Discovery Channel's presence on Cyfra+ is not a response to Wizja TV's new promotion, "as we have been preparing that agreement for a long time." He added that "we don't want to comment on Wizja TV's strategy but how can a company, which has just announced losses (UPC reported losses of o57.4 million in its May 15 financial report) give everything away for free?"
On May 8, Wizja TV started its three-week promotional campaign, offering free activation and a decoder without the usual zl. 149 deposit. The first 10,000 subscribers will also get Philips headphones and free Wizja Sport and HBO in the first month.
"We are not giving anything for free, what we are doing is leasing the equipment," Zawadzka said. "Subscribers have to sign a declaration that they will return the decoder once they decide not to renew the subscription contract." Zawadzka said the promotion is a carefully prepared marketing strategy. "It's not cheap but there is nothing one can do for free on the market."
Chris Rivituso contributed
to this article
