The latest survey for the second quarter of 2003 shows "cog", which lost out on the film Grand Prix at Cannes instead picking up a Gold Lion, to be the single most newsworthy ad between April and June 2003.
The profile of "cog" was boosted after two Swiss artists said that the ad, created by Ben Walker and Matt Gooden and directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet at Partizan, bore similarities to a 1987 short film they had made.
W&K's creative director Tony Davidson admitted it referenced the short film 'Der Lauf Der Dinge', but said it was only one of the inspirations behind "cog" and added: "Advertising references culture and always has done."
Despite the hint of controversy, the ad attracted praise from around the world and was tipped to win the top prize at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, but in the end it was beaten to the film Grand Prix by a spot for Ikea created by Miami agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky. In all, the widespread praise for the ad garnered it 13 headline editorial mentions in the national press.
The Ads That Make News survey, conducted by Propeller Communications using data supplied by Durrants Media Monitoring and run in association with Brand Republic, measures the volume of coverage given to individual ads and ad campaigns in the national newspaper titles on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
"Cog" was followed by love-him-or-hate-him film director Michael Winner's deliberately bad ads for motor insurance brand Esure. The ads -- featuring the line "calm down dear, it's a commercial" -- attracted editorial in several tabloids and provoked favourable comment.
The ads have gone down less well in adland and led to Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners resigning Esure's £9m account after a clash with Winner, who not only starred in the ads, but wrote and directed them as well.
According to Winner: "You could see from the minute he entered my private cinema that Greg Delaney was against me. He thought it impertinent that anybody else should write commercials. He was more than defensive. He was abusive. When he eventually saw that we were actually doing the commercial, he resigned the account. What an idiot."
The ads have seen an unknown Esure carve a space for itself in the overcrowed insurance market, giving it a position that is the envy of some competitors.
In joint third place came the government's new "Talk to Frank" anti-drugs campaign created by Mother, which opted for off-the-wall knockabout slapstick humour, which according to the TBWA\ chairman Trevor Beattie is enough to ensure "you'll laugh. You'll chuckle. You'll immediately stop freebasing crack".
The COI campaign was followed by EasyJet's unlicensed use of an image of David Beckham in a print ad promoting cheap flights.
Next was Carphone Warehouse's cheeky use of Maureen Lipman, who as "Beattie" was the long-time former face of rival BT. The new Lipman ads were created by Will Pond Jones Collective.
The classic PG Tips chimps came in joint sixth after an ICM poll revealed that the chimps were the most popular advertising characters ever, despite now being replaced by animated characters developed by Aardman Animations in ads by BMP DDB.
Also joint sixth was the misleading Sainsbury's "Scan and Pack" ads featuring Jamie Oliver. Apparently, packing a supermarket carrier bag is not as straightforward as it looks.
Joint eighth place was shared by three ads: the banned "Roger More" posters for Durex created by McCann-Erickson Manchester; the "Hard Nosed Businessman" campaign for Orange by Mother, which became the subject of a headline-grabbing invective by former Orange chief executive Hans Snook; and another EasyJet print treatment, "Weapons of Mass Distraction", which featured cleavage belonging to model Vanessa Upton.
Overall, advertising for EasyJet was the most written about. The brand's various campaigns, including Beckham, "Weapons of Mass Distraction", a print campaign featuring claims that its flights were available for £1, and a treatment featuring the word "Bullocks", all attracting coverage.
Martin Loat, managing director of Propeller Communications, said: "After a string of ads relying on celebrity, controversy or sex to top our Ads That Make News surveys, it is pleasing to see an ad make headlines simply for being a brilliant ad. It is true that stories about plagiarism helped 'cog' top the chart, but the data from Durrants shows it was already creating a stir based on the execution alone."
He added: "Unlike 'cog', the Michael Winner ads for Esure may not win a Cannes award, but they seem to have captured the public imagination and garnered a huge amount of awareness-building publicity for the brand."
The results of the survey were as follows:
Ad No of articles
1 "cog", Honda Accord 13
2 Michael Winner, esure 9
3= Beckham, EasyJet 8
3= Carphone Warehouse 8
3= Talk to Frank 8
6= Chimps, PG Tips 7
6= "Scan and Pack", Sainsbury's 7
8= "Roger More", Durex 5
8= "Hard Nosed Businessman", Orange 5
8= "WMD" EasyJet 5
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