Sony Bravia - Real OR Rip Off?
There is a lot of heated discussion around Sony's latest Bravia television advertisement - the one with the cute little colourful rabbits - let's call it Bunny Bravia.
I think the ad is great and I also loved the previous Sony Bravia ad with the vibrant and colourful balls bouncing down the street to the wonderful tune by Jose Gonsalez.
It turns out that we just might be adoring creative that is not rightfully Sony's own. It looks as though Fallon and Passion Pictures, the creative partners that Sony hired to come up with the concept and shoot the ad, completely ripped off the work of husband-and-wife team of artists, Kozue and Dan Kitchens (a.k.a Kozyndan). See image below:
The situation gets even more heated because apparently a few years back, Passion Pictures was in touch with Kozyndan to request that they send some samples of their work across. No follow up was ever conducted - that is until, walla, the Bunny Bravia ad appeared.
Sony has released a statement, which appeared in a recent Gizmodo post, to the affect that the television advertisement's concept, creative and animation is is not based on any pre-existing artwork such as that of Kozyndan. The rest of the statement is as follows:
"Sony Europe, its agency Fallon, production company Gorgeous, and animation company Passion Pictures, assert that the wave, whale and bunnies were arrived at without reference to these artists. In the original script, the rabbits were one of many creatures to cavort around a cityscape. In fact, the location was only finalised shortly before the shoot. The final creative, led by Juan Cabral at Fallon and director Frank Budgen at Gorgeous, was chosen to champion the brand and best reflect 'colour.like.no.other'. Sony enjoys working with experienced and talented creatives and all involvement in a campaign is always credited."
In response to to Sony's statement, Kozyndan published a post on its blog. Check it out here.
I urge you take a look at the Kozyndan artwork and then watch the Sony Bravia ad.
Do you think this is a creative coincidence or is it blatant plagiarism?
