The Chaos in the Marketing Industry from the Plagiarism of Audi's Commercial Advertisement

On May 21, 2022, Audi released a commercial advertisement, which was widely praised by industry insiders for its excellent and careful production, and aroused emotional resonance across the entire network. From a marketing perspective, it can be said to be an absolutely superior work, which enhances the brand image in a spiritual resonance way, and not only gains traffic but also retains the brand's sense of luxury. However, things did not end like a fairy tale.

The evening the story was circulated online, a reversal occurred. The copywriter was accused of plagiarism. The Douyin account "北大满哥" released a comparison video, showing evidence that Audi had plagiarized word for word, and the beginning was: "Dear Mr. Andy Lau and a famous car brand..."

To be honest, after reading the first sentence, I knew what was coming next and didn’t want to read any further. What does this have to do with Andy Lau? We all know that such commercials use the celebrity's popularity to boost the brand. The celebrity says whatever the brand asks you to say. With such an opening, the criticism directed at Andy Lau is nothing more than an attempt to gain attention and sympathy. Of course, they did have the original idea first, so there is nothing wrong with that. But the excitement is far from over.

Audi was accused of infringement, which caused a lot of uproar. The public relations team had to step up to deal with this matter. So on the morning of May 22, Audi's apology letter arrived. The original text was as follows:

They were very quick in admitting their mistakes and at the same time singled out the advertising company as one of the main responsible parties. Finally, they expressed their emphasis on intellectual property protection, their respect for the efforts behind the advertising creativity, their sense of responsibility, and their ability to "divert" the audience's attention. As a brand owner, they intentionally or unintentionally revealed their "innocence" in this incident, and their public relations skills were superb.

This incident caused a stir in my circle of friends, and PR professionals said: "It is sad that PR has been turned into marketing."

As a veteran in the marketing industry who has been working there for more than a decade, I would say that marketing is not to blame.

Marketing is not a business of sensationalism, hard-selling and the purpose of earning traffic. Marketing returns to its original purpose and focuses on enabling companies and brands to grow in a healthy, sustainable and high-quality manner.

This incident reflects the various chaos in the marketing industry today and can be said to be a mirror that exposes the truth. It should also be the responsibility of marketing KOLs to get to the bottom of the matter.

01 Event marketing that attracts attention and creates hits will only be short-lived

In the metaverse, viral marketing and various new marketing terms are emerging one after another. Faced with various chaos in the marketing industry, Audi was able to come up with such a "fresh and unconventional" commercial advertisement, which could be regarded as a breath of fresh air in the chaos. However, it led to a plagiarism incident. There are also various so-called "marketing personnel" who stand up and say that they can take this opportunity to hype up the brand again. There will be no losers among Man Ge, the brand, and Andy Lau. It is really sad.

Any means to attract attention, create a hit, or make short-term profits cannot be called "marketing."

Recently, a business trainer named Zhang Qi became famous overnight. She said: I have been working in consulting business for 17 years. Today I just took advantage of the short video bonus, so I became famous. "That's a very good point. She worked hard to create the content, and she has her reasons for being so popular.

02 When intellectual property rights are not protected, the public should pay attention and the law should regulate them

I insist on originality, but in fact my articles have been plagiarized many times by various websites without authorization. This phenomenon is very serious. I believe that fellow authors in the industry have also encountered many such situations. When basic rights and intellectual property rights are not protected, this can only dampen the enthusiasm of original authors. Moreover, these original contents have no channels for monetization and cannot demonstrate commercial value. In that case, who would be willing to create original works? This is harmful to innovative vitality. The motivation for creation can only come from "my own passion and willingness."

Therefore, the protection of original intellectual property rights must be taken seriously at the legal level, and the public should also form an alliance to provide the greatest protection and sense of security to authors who are truly willing to create original content. They are one of the important promoters of the progress of human civilization.

03 Marketing is not about sensationalism. Marketing is about applying digital technology, building brands down to earth, and honestly delivering value to consumers.

In my opinion, in this plagiarism incident, everyone is a loser in the long run.

Advertising companies that rely on creativity as their main core competitiveness and fail to create original works but instead use plagiarism to complete their tasks are undoubtedly the biggest losers. I used to work for a 4A advertising company, but it is sad to see that the status of advertising companies is not as good as before. After such an incident, we should reflect on ourselves. Where has the so-called creativity gone?

It is difficult to come up with good ideas, but they are the basis for making a living. You can also "borrow" from others, but this is fundamentally different from copying them word for word.

As a brand, it is to blame for its poor supervision. In an era when short videos are emerging in an endless stream, it may be difficult to supervise, but the good qualities of reviewing and modifying the copy are completely absent in this incident, otherwise this incident would not have been exposed.

And although it seems clever that the apology letter cleverly puts the blame on the "advertising company", it is not a brilliant crisis public relations move in my opinion. This can be commented on by public relations experts.

For Andy Lau, an artist's job is to use his fame to exchange interests with brands. He was indeed innocent in this incident. His sincere face in the advertisement was "exposed" after the plagiarism incident was exposed, and this not-so-sincere personality was "exposed."

The vested interest of this incident is probably Peking University Man Ge, who gained a lot of attention through this wave of events, and by the end of the video he established himself as a person who selflessly contributes to society, and his net worth skyrocketed.

On the first day, the whole society praised a successful commercial advertisement, and on the second day, apologies were all over the hot search list. What a magical era.

Finally, let me say one more thing. Marketing is about building a brand in a down-to-earth manner. You need to study the latest digital technology and consider how to apply the latest digital technology to brand marketing in order to promote the sustainable long-term growth of the brand. Marketing is not a matter of one or two days or one or two events. It is a discipline and one of the application areas of management in the business world.