"Outsourcing" Our Ad Campaigns

It was noted in such periodicals as Advertising Age that Procter & Gamble was not above appropriating and adapting advertising campaigns from its foreign operations for the North American operation whenever it suited its purposes (who could remember the talking diaper in the Luvs commericals, whose origin was in Japan). But what surprised me was the revelation that P&G was having its ad agencies import commercials for its products from other countries. Case in point is this commerical for Herbal Essences, which actually originated from Australia:



Now take a look at this commercial for Gain detergent, which actually came out of Canada:



And for sheer fun, a second one, just in case.



And finally, take a look at this new commercial for Cheer detergent, which obviously has its roots in Great Britain:



When I think of all this covert kleptomania, I think of something a choreographer friend of mine told me nearly thrity years ago: Everybody steals from everyone, there's no such thing as creativity anymore."

I mean, stealing from your foreign operations to suit your purposes is one thing. But this smacks of a hideous form of outsourcing -- raiding your foreign operations' creative efforts because your home base could not come up with something better.

This brings to mind a lyrical couplet from a Tom Lehrer satirical song: Plagarize, Plagerize/Don't let his work invade your eyes." Now I've heard of companies outsourcing their customer service operations to India to save a few bucks, but this? Weird, isn't it?

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