Metro trains has licensed its Dumb Ways characters to Canadian insurance firm Empire Life Insurance. And adland isn't all that happy about it.
The deal has elicited some scathing comments with US site AdWeek calling it “lazy and greedy” and “bastardising” the original creative.
A year ago, Dumb Ways and McCann Melbourne were the talk of the global ad industry, smashing at Cannes and winning awards left, right and centre.
Exactly a year on, and it's a different story. What do you think? Is simply buying someone else's creative idea and repurposing it a clever form of flattery or a lazy rip off?
McCann Melbourne declined to comment.
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