Honda's much-praised 'Cog' TV ad has been lauded for its creative skill in presenting its Accord in a warm and emotive way via an intricate linking of its parts. But two Swiss artists, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, claim Honda and its agency Wieden & Kennedy, copied their 1987 film called Der Lauf Der Dinge (The Way Things Go) which featured a similar chain reaction.
This is not the first time the art and advertising worlds have clashed. Al Young, executive creative director at St Luke's, says ads and art plunder each other all the time.
"Andy Warhol used the language of commercial graphics. It is OK to take inspiration from each other, providing you acknowledge whoever invented the idea," he says.
The legal situation is nebulous. Chris Hackford, legal manager at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, explains: "Copyright exists not in the idea, but in the visualisation of the idea."
In 1998, Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing launched legal action against Volkswagen. She felt that TV ads featuring people holding signs that revealed an emotion at odds with their appearance were a rip-off of her project 'Signs'. But Wearing gave up on the challenge.
One way to potentially avoid conflict is to involve the artists behind an ad's inspiration. BBH's 'Flat Eric' campaign for Levi's was inspired by a short film the agency had seen. Rather than just borrowing the idea, it got the artist to direct it.
But asking permission can cause complications. When Irish agency Arks asked film-maker Mehdi Norowzian if it could use the idea behind one of his films for a Guinness ad, he refused. The agency went ahead and made the ad anyway. It featured a man dancing while waiting for his pint of Guinness. Norowzian sued, but lost.
Hackford is doubtful Fischli and Weiss's threat of legal action will amount to more than that. "It will be difficult for the artists to plead their case, because a similarity in a work is not enough to lead to copyright infringement," he says.
Wieden & Kennedy's creative director, Tony Davidson, admits the film was one of the inspirations behind 'Cog'. "Advertising references culture and always has done. Part of our job is to be aware of what is going on in society. There is a difference between copying and being inspired by something," he says.
Young suggests that Fischli and Weiss might come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. "Perhaps they should sell their video on the Honda web site," he says.
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