Posted on June 26, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
MTN and Jupiter Drawing Room miss the mark
I don’t think there is a person I don’t know who doesn’t like the new MTN advertising campaign. Based largely on User Generated Content (UGC) they depict the social and viral aspects of our times and they’re very entertaining.
The major problem is most of their adverts are simply copied or pulled directly from YouTube which pisses me off.
Does Jupiter Drawing Room not have anything more creative in them than stealing concepts from the directors at YouTube? What, oh what, does MTN pay them millions of Rands for?
Here’s an example:
OK Go – Here It Goes Again – Views: 18,903,842
Look familiar? Well that’s not the only one. I know I’ve seen the “Hadaway – What is love” video on YouTube which has the two black guys miming the song in their flat and I also know that the SMS video clip where a guy writes an SMS on a piece of paper and it travels across the city to his friend was also a ripoff from YouTube.
I would have found these two clips but unfortunately I don’t get paid to search the web for concepts to steal.
I’m perplexed and in my honest opinion MTN and Jupiter Drawing Room have simply missed the mark. I love the notion that they decided to incorporate UGC into their campaign but clearly they didn’t realise that they should now go out and create their own UGC.
I knew I should have been an Ad-exec…
UPDATE: Further to this initial gripe I have read on various websites that in fact none of the MTN ads are original. It appears, if you believe the other sources from Bizcommunity, that ever single piece of content was created by someone else and Jupiter have pulled this from various sources to use as there own. Maybe I’m missing the mark here but I would love to hear some feedback from Jupiter on this issue.
I am the MD and co-founder of 
Visit My Website
June 27, 2007
Permalink
Too true Justin – were they hoping no one would notice or was it a deliberate ploy to show how “hip” and “creative” they think they are? They probably even charged MTN a production fee!
either way it shows an example of the sad state of advertising in this country!
Oh and good luck getting a response from the agency – they probably don’t even know what a blog is(go on prove me wrong)
Visit My Website
June 27, 2007
Permalink
I’m with you on this one totally J – it would have been way better (and less infringing) to get creative African’s to creat UGC for the campaign, or at least submit previous creations.
Visit My Website
June 27, 2007
Permalink
Dear Justin
Glad to see you’ve been following the discussions on Bizcommunity
Press office article: Wicked Pixels and MetropolitanRepublic/TJDR go all out for MTN – http://www.bizcommunity.com/Comments/196/17/33078.html
Forum: MTN: Go Get Original – http://www.bizcommunity.com/Forum/196/12/8558.html
Simone
Bizcommunity.com: Senior Sub-editor
Visit My Website
June 27, 2007
Permalink
Too true Justin – were they hoping no one would notice or was it a deliberate ploy to show how “hip” and “creative” they think they are? They probably even charged MTN a production fee!
either way it shows an example of the sad state of advertising in this country!
Oh and good luck getting a response from the agency – they probably don't even know what a blog is(go on prove me wrong)
Visit My Website
June 27, 2007
Permalink
I'm with you on this one totally J – it would have been way better (and less infringing) to get creative African's to creat UGC for the campaign, or at least submit previous creations.
Visit My Website
June 27, 2007
Permalink
Dear Justin
Glad to see you've been following the discussions on Bizcommunity
Press office article: Wicked Pixels and MetropolitanRepublic/TJDR go all out for MTN – http://www.bizcommunity.com/Comments/196/17/33078.html
Forum: MTN: Go Get Original – http://www.bizcommunity.com/Forum/196/12/8558.html
Simone
Bizcommunity.com: Senior Sub-editor
Visit My Website
June 29, 2007
Permalink
[...] are you all squealing about? What is so terrible about MTN and Jupiter drawing from public domain [...]
Visit My Website
July 5, 2007
Permalink
@Mike: As could be expected no response yet from JDR. I didn’t really believe I’d get one however it is worth asking the questions at least.
@Dave: With you too mate. There is this assumption that African’s can’t or aren’t able to produce such quality but this is just rubbish. We need to encourage creativity on all levels and this campaign hinders it IMHO.
@Simone: Thanks for pointing this out to me. I now stand corrected to what I read originally in that there was some involvement in the creation of at least two of their adverts.
Visit My Website
July 5, 2007
Permalink
@Mike: As could be expected no response yet from JDR. I didn't really believe I'd get one however it is worth asking the questions at least.
@Dave: With you too mate. There is this assumption that African's can't or aren't able to produce such quality but this is just rubbish. We need to encourage creativity on all levels and this campaign hinders it IMHO.
@Simone: Thanks for pointing this out to me. I now stand corrected to what I read originally in that there was some involvement in the creation of at least two of their adverts.
Visit My Website
June 10, 2008
Permalink
I realy respect the JDR very much,and i’m so suprissed and sad to hear all dis ripoff you cube thing.the thing is i’m a brand communications student at the Immagination lab,and i’m wondering,why dont JDR come to us at the labs if they dont have any new ideas left,i know we would be very happy to offer our new creative ideas,actually me,personally i would be very happy to get a chance to do something that i love.
Visit My Website
June 10, 2008
Permalink
I realy respect the JDR very much,and i'm so suprissed and sad to hear all dis ripoff you cube thing.the thing is i'm a brand communications student at the Immagination lab,and i'm wondering,why dont JDR come to us at the labs if they dont have any new ideas left,i know we would be very happy to offer our new creative ideas,actually me,personally i would be very happy to get a chance to do something that i love.