4As Malaysia withdraws Kancil Awards won by Dentsu Utama for WWF and Web Privacy Watch

Following a thorough investigation, the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) has unanimously decided to disqualify a number of Kancil Awards won by a member agency, Dentsu Utama, as their winning works were deemed sufficiently close to works created in the United Kingdom and Sweden.

The creative work submitted for “Cross River Gorilla”, an anti-poaching campaign for World Wildlife Fund in Indonesia, and “Professional Man”, an internet privacy awareness campaign for Web Privacy Watch, contained almost identical images to the foreign works. The foreign works were posted in public ahead of the date of publication, as notified in the entry submission by Dentsu Utama.

“An investigation was initiated by the 4As following various complaints of the obvious similarities to the original creations,” says Tan Kien Eng, Creative Council Chairman and CEO of Leo Burnett. “This action is being taken to remedy a contentious situation while upholding the principles of eligibility for the Kancil Awards.”

According to Tan, all awards won in relation to the aforementioned work will be disqualified given the sufficiently close similarities. The original creators have also shown proof that their works were posted much earlier.

“We take a serious view of work that are deemed sufficiently close to works created originally elsewhere,” Tan notes. “We must maintain a high level of integrity and credibility as the industry’s official body in Malaysia. The decision to disqualify the awards for both creative works was not taken lightly as we had explored all possible scenarios. In the end, the facts were overwhelmingly in favour of the  original creators.”

At December’s awards Dentsu Utama was crowned Agency of the Year, following a haul of awards that included 12 Silver and 64 Bronze awards, many of them for these two campaigns. It is as yet unclear if the agency will be stripped of the title, but if so it would go to either Y&R or Leo Burnett.

The controversy was covered in Malaysia at the end of December.