KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Local advertising agency Dentsu Utama announced today that it has quit industry body Malaysia 4As after two of its works were disqualified from the Kancil Awards for plagiarism.
Dentsu Utama was adamant that it is not guilty of plagiarism, and contended that it was not given the opportunity to defend itself before its previously award-winning works were disqualified.
“Dentsu Utama and its representatives will resign from the 4As with immediate effect,” it said in a statement today, carried by advertisement industry portal Campaign Brief.
“Dentsu Utama will continue its dialogue with the individual artists on this issue and continue to support its opinion that the allegations are unfounded.”
The agency said it has started internal investigation into the plagiarism claims, supported by independent legal advice, and found that the accusations were unfounded.
One of the works disqualified was “Professional Man”, its campaign for Internet privacy awareness firm Web Privacy Watch, which Malaysia 4As found contained “almost identical images” to an optical illusion piece titled “The Architect” by Swedish artist Erik Johansson.
The other was “Cross River Gorilla”, an anti-poaching campaign for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia, which the advertising industry association said was similar to the work of a UK-based design student whose complaint was publicised on the Reddit link-sharing site.
“Cross River Gorilla” won 26 bronze awards and three silvers at 2015’s Kancils last month, while “Professional Man” won six bronzes, resulting in Dentsu Utama winning the agency of the year award.
Tan Kien Eng, Kancil’s jury chairman and chief executive of advertising agency Leo Burnett Malaysia, told another industry portal Mumbrella Asia that both original artists have shown that their work was published prior to the two submissions by Dentsu Utama.
Last month, 21-year-old Tom Anders Watkins alleged that Dentsu Utama had copied his artwork for the then award-winning WWF campaign.
In response, Dentsu Utama told Malay Mail Online that it took Watkins’ claim seriously and was trying to contact him on the matter.
However, earlier this month, Watkins tweeted that Dentsu Utama had rejected his allegation of intellectual property infringement because its works has “added crosshairs”, compared to his artwork.
