Advertising authority to take firm stand on ethics

Dubai: Lance de Masi, president of the International Advertising Association, says he is saddened when he sees people from advertising agencies acting unethically, especially since they are already not likely to make anyone's list of most-admired professionals.

But de Masi, who managed such an agency before taking on his current position as president of the American University in Dubai, had a front-row seat at an ethics debacle at the Dubai Lynx 2009, a regional advertising awards festival.

Fortune Promoseven, a Doha-based advertising agency, won a number of awards for work presented at Lynx but, after further scrutiny, the agency was forced to return its awards due to a number of issues including unauthorised and copycat work. The company has also been banned from submitting any work this year to the Cannes Lion advertising awards.

At issue were a number of submissions, although perhaps most notorious was an image of Jesus taking pictures of nuns as an advertisement for Samsung.

This caused some regional outrage because of the image itself, but it also caused an outcry from Samsung, which had not commissioned the work but which found itself at the centre of the controversy anyway.

While Fortune Promoseven was the main agency involved, de Masi said there was also the impression in the industry that unethical behaviour at Lynx was widespread. de Masi may say this makes him sad, but his mood seems to suggest frustration and even a little anger.

"No one's happy about what kind of statement this makes on the industry," he said.

According to de Masi, the industry realises there were transgressions to rules this year and that those transgressions and violations need to be eliminated.

In order to address the problem, de Masi says his organisation - in consultation with about a dozen regional agencies - is tightening its rules to eliminate loopholes, and will require greater specificity and greater documentation.

The head of the juries judging submissions will also be empowered to pass judgment on any evidence that may suggest copycat work.

When asked if he was surprised by the unethical nature of the submissions to Lynx, de Masi said that there is now increased sensitisation to the consequences.

He said it is "inconceivable" to him that advertising agencies won't respond appropriately to the changes Lynx has implemented. He added that there is only so much that can be done by Lynx.

"At the end of the day, what will really take us down this journey to enhance integrity with regards to the awards is the self-regulation that the industry engages in. You can only legislate ethics to a certain degree," he said.

However, despite this year's controversy, de Masi stands behind the Lynx awards. He said the industry very much believes the awards have served as an incentive and they are a celebration for creativity in the region, which is their main objective.

"The importance of Lynx getting beyond this pebble in the road can't be underestimated, because for the industry to implicitly make the statement that an awards competition of this stature... somehow is at odds with the objectives or the region or the capabilities of the region, I can't think of anything more serious."