Mother London, an advertising agency across the pond that I never heard of although some of their past reels look familiar, was recognized earlier this month as the advertising agency of the decade, according to Campaign, a communications industry publication.
The company wanted to celebrate the last year of the decade with a BANG! and launched an email campaign, in which several hundred people were asked to share their name and bank details to win $10,000. One person dared to enter his personal information at givingisglorious.com — falling for the scam.
But it wasn’t a scam, as this subsequent video illustrates:
The video made the day of Dirk Singer, who shared it on his blog yesterday — with a link to background on the creative campaign at Creative Review. Browsing through the comments there, some people think the campaign was creative but others say it was irresponsible and risky if innocent video watchers fall victim to such email scams in the future.
What do you think? Was this a clever holiday video, like Maritz Canada’s featured in my corporate video expose and something you wish you had thought of first, or do you agree with those who say this is irresponsible to show?
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Terribly irresponsible. While their stunt has provided the 15 minutes of fame they wished for, it also adds legitimacy to scams that arrive every day. I doubt Mother London wishes to take responsibility for the individuals who read the story about how a seemingly fraudulent email led to riches and therefore choose to participate in the next scam that crosses their desktop.
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Let’s wait and see what happens, if any backlash heads their way.
Fred, I agree as well. this was very irresponsible and you would think people would have better things to do with their time..such as maybe helping other people during the holidays.
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Thats unbelievable. Thanks for sharing!
That’s quite a bold stunt and obviously it got them some attention but perhaps not all positive. 285,000 views on Youtube and other press is a good result but goes against all the message to keep personal details safe and people may not give them away in hope it could be real.