This is nuts. From Brand Republic:
Roger Makak (pictured), the creative ranked number one in Campaign Brief Asia’s recently released rankings, has been exposed as a work of fiction created by Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore.
Speaking to Media, Campaign Brief Asia publisher Kim Shaw said: “From our point of view we’re disappointed that this agency chose to use a false name for work done by someone else.”
According to Shaw, Makak is actually a nom de plume for the agency’s regional creative director Andy Greenaway, who said: “He does exist, but not in the form you might think. He goes bananas sometimes.” Greenaway added that more would be revealed in one week.
“I think they were trying to dupe the whole industry and then come out with some fantastic award concept at the end that would appeal to other ECDs,” said Shaw. “But, of course, because he ended up winning our rankings it’s come out very quickly that this guy doesn’t exist.”
Not sure who the guy pictured is, but wow. I wonder how many headhunters and award show-obsessed CD’s saw this dude’s name and said, “I’ve got to call this guy. With all those awards, he must be the next edgy rock star.”
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I don’t really get what’s going on here. Why is a fake creative persona a benefit to Saatchi? Does he have fake work to go with him?
sounds like something madison avenue would do to boost its diversity hiring figures. or maybe greenaway was seeking to gain credibility in the asian market by positioning himself as asian (assuming he’s not).
David – they’ll find a good answer in a week after thinking about it for a while. I think they just got caught with their pants down.
This really highlights the sad state of our ‘award’ shows. I used to love looking through the annuals and seeing amazing ad work and wondering how it got sold. And it was usually real work. That was over 10 years ago.
Now, it seems to have become a joke. Sure you have the great agencies still winning for real ads – but there’s so much scam in there that it’s just disheartening, especially for the younger creatives who feel like they need to cheat to compete.
I suppose when you have some of the biggest scammers chairing the shows though, all hope of a fair playing field is lost.
doug,
maybe they should hire fake judges.
This is so embarrassing for Saatchi Singapore. I can’t believe what they did!
I don’t see what’s the big deal? So they put a fake name along with some real names. Not sure what thier point is, but why is everyone so upset about it? Relax everybody it’s just advertising.
Hope wankers should stop saying “it’s just advertising.”
Will the people behind the Concerned Supporters of Saatchi Singapore step forward, please?
Press articles suggesting: “Andy Greenaway does scam ads” are the journalistic equivalent of “Bears discovered defecating in the woods”.
http://commercial-archive.com/node/276
I wonder how many award-winning ads done during his time at Saatchi will turn out to be like “What’s on your mind?”; freebies for corner shops that happen to stock well-known brands, rather than real work for the brands themselves?