Ads that look like other ads: WATConsult v/s BlueBot

Presenting another curious case of 'creativity'

Ads that look like other ads: WATConsult v/s BlueBot On a brooding Thursday morning suffused with deadline pressures and the silent celebration of new ideas being born, Brand Equity received a phone call from a senior marketing representative at Practo.

The call drew our attention to the striking similarities between the digital campaign launched by Bajaj Allianz titled #HealthKaNotification digital campaign and an ongoing campaign being run by Practo on its Facebook page.

"When I stumbled upon the life insurance campaign, I instantly felt like I'd seen it before. The similarities are too obvious for this to simply be a coincidence. It's not in the right spirit since creative ideas are hard to come by, so it is always sad when something like this happens", said the representative.

The representative then connected us to BlueBot, the digital agency that conceptualised and executed Practo's campaign.

The creative director at, Bluebot Digital, whose brainchild this idea was, took us through the genesis of the campaign: though it debuted on the 6th of December, the inception of the idea had taken place around mid-August. The spokesperson shared screenshots of email conversations that highlight discussions over the script of the video as early as 22nd August. "The campaigns are ridiculously identical and this isn't fair."

In a later email, BlueBot elaborated, "The #HealthKaNotification campaign broke on the 9th of December, a good 3 days after Practo's 'Organ-nization' video was published." It was also pointed out that the similarities between the two campaigns underscored the very concept being replicated, that being, the personification of organs.

According to BlueBot, the execution, the core creative, right down to certain specific names have been lifted. She went on to clarify that Practo's video was part of an on-going campaign, and that despite the seeming speed bump, the agency is planning on launching many more such videos.

Brand Equity reached out to WATConsult, the digital agency that conceptualised and executed the campaign for Bajaj Allianz to get its side of the story.

Rajiv Dingra founder and CEO, WATConsult, seemed baffled by the idea of plagiarism being at play. Oblivious to Practo's campaign, Dingra shared a mail trail privately with Brand Equity explaining how his agency came up with the idea independently sometime in September.

Agreeing that the campaigns are indeed eerily similar, Dingra mentioned, his team has been working on it over the last few months, and stated that, they "missed seeing" Practo’s campaign which was released four days ago.

“We wouldn’t have gone ahead to talk about our campaign out in the media if we would have noticed a similar campaign in the public domain. What surprises me is the timeline of the events,” added Dingra.

We also heard various strange theories from a close source, on how the unfortunate events could have come to pass; suggesting that perhaps the idea could've been exchanged between members of the two agencies over a drink or that 'bedroom talk' between staffers could've been the reason behind the leak.

Could these be the real reasons this time around?

Well, this is just the most recent example of an issue that crops up often in the marketing communications space, both in India and abroad.

Digital companies who essentially make their livelihood producing content in the public domain are particularly vulnerable. So, is it natural for blurred lines to appear with regards to coinciding ideas? How can transgressors be pinpointed?

Ideas are amorphous and it is entirely plausible that both the agencies came up with a similar concept independently, in an overlapping timeline and released their campaigns just hours from each other. However, brands and agencies, both, need to do their homework before putting any gears into motion to ensure that they aren't swimming in inky waters. Something that becomes increasingly complicated in a world where so much of content is being churned out every minute.

And yet it could be time well spent, since in the final reckoning, it doesn't pay to insult the intelligence of viewers and plagiarize content. Especially online, where novelty has a huge role to play and going forth with an obvious knock-off is the surest way of losing audience interest.

Watch the #HealthKaNotification campaign below and Practo's Organ-ization campaign here

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