German carmaker Audi, ad agency M&C Saatchi apologise for copyright infringement in video campaign with Hong Kong's Andy Lau & More News Here

Luxury carmaker Audi and London-based promoting agency M&C Saatchi on Sunday apologised for working a video campaign that includes Hong Kong famous person Andy Lau Tak-wah, following accusations of plagiarism that triggered an internet backlash towards the German agency in Chinese social media.

A subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, Audi stated it has eliminated the video ad from all on-line channels and apologised for the “copywriting [copyright] infringement”, which it blamed on a “lack of supervision and lax review” of the M&C Saatchi-led campaign, based on an announcement posted by the carmaker on its official account on Chinese microblogging service Weibo.

The ad confirmed Lau delivering a monologue about Xiaoman – the second photo voltaic time period of summer time, based on the Chinese lunar calendar – on the again seat of an Audi automobile. That monologue’s content material and the ad’s idea, nevertheless, had been each lifted from an authentic video printed a yr in the past on Douyin, the Chinese model of brief video platform TikTook, based on a vlogger who goes by the identify of “Beida Mange”.

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The on-line influencer, who has about 4 million followers and claims to be a Peking University graduate, on Saturday accused the Audi ad of plagiarism in a seven-minute video he posted on Douyin. It offered an in depth comparability between the Audi ad and his authentic 2021 publish, in which he defined the that means of Xiaoman and recited poetry that he claimed was his personal.

A Douyin influencer who calls himself “Beida Mange” accuses carmaker Audi’s newest video ad campaign of plagiarism. Photo: Handout alt=A Douyin influencer who calls himself “Beida Mange” accuses carmaker Audi’s newest video ad campaign of plagiarism. Photo: Handout>

“I’ve been plagiarised many times before,” the vlogger stated in his publish on Douyin. “But I’ve never seen this kind [of video campaign] … in which ads are embedded from beginning to end … and copied [my] content word for word.”

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He indicated that use of his authentic creation as a moneymaking instrument by others makes him marvel “what the world is encouraging”.

The accusation shortly triggered an internet backlash towards Audi. On Sunday, “Audi, Andy Lau” turned one of many hottest subjects to development on Weibo, the place it generated almost 100 million views by noontime.

Audi didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Sunday.

In its apology posted on WeChat on Sunday, M&C Saatchi blamed the controversy on “weak copyright awareness” by the corporate’s Audi service workforce.

“We directly used the content of Douyin vlogger Beida Mange’s video about ‘Xiaoman’ without communicating with the copyright owner,” the M&C Saatchi publish stated. “We apologise for bringing inconvenience and distress to Mr Andy Lau, Beida Mange and Audi, and promise to do our best to make up for the loss to the original author.”

This controversy marks the most recent public advertising and marketing misstep by a serious overseas model in mainland China.

Last November, French luxurious vogue home Christian Dior and photographer Chen Man apologised for an ad campaign that was criticised for “smearing Asian women”, based on state media.

In 2018, German carmaker Mercedes-Benz Group apologised to Chinese shoppers for an Instagram publish with a quote from exiled Tibetan religious chief Dalai Lama, whom Beijing considers as a harmful separatist.

Popular actor and singer Lau, 60, on Sunday additionally apologised to vlogger Beida Mange via his fan membership app. “I have 100-per cent respect for original work,” Lau stated.

Despite Audi’s apology and the blame being put squarely on the ad agency, the carmaker can’t evade its duty for the infringement as a result of the ad campaign was about its model, based on Wei Shilin, deputy director of the Competition Law Committee of the Beijing Intellectual Property Law Society.

“Audi, M&C Saatchi and Andy Lau could all be considered as infringers,” Wei stated. “Audi and Andy Lau could also be portrayed as victims because they were not initially aware of the plagiarism.” If the case was taken to courtroom, Wei stated “the compensation fee could be quite high because it is a commercial advertisement with millions of views or clicks”.

Chinese social media customers, in the meantime, expressed their discontent over the apologies made. A Weibo consumer stated Audi “should really communicate and apologise to the original author”. Another Weibo consumer described Lau because the “most embarrassed” get together in this matter.

This article initially appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), essentially the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for greater than a century. For extra SCMP tales, please discover the SCMP app or go to the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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