Channel Seven have gone and embarrassed themselves all over. I don’t know if you’ve seen these ads, but they’ve begun running a series of little promo’s for the TiVo service they’re unveiling later on in the year. The sad thing is - the ad is disturbingly similar to a little something else. See if you can guess?







That’s right, an almost carbon copy of Logan’s wonderful spot, commissioned by TBWA on behalf of Apple. The skyline and the suction shot (so to speak) look virtually identical, which is incredibly disappointing. The strangest thing is that the TiVo logo looks completely out of place stylistically with the rest of the piece - all heavy 3D effects, round corners, soft bendy body mass and bouncy wobbly movement (while the rest of it is as angular, precise and modernist as could be humanly managed).

Apparently it was a seven in-house job, so I can only think that some intern editor was given 4 hours to make a promo and, lacking inspiration, just copypasta’d his way to the finish. When questioned, their excuse was that there was no copyright on ideas - cop-out much?

The differences of the ad are also really interesting. Rather than didacting the audience in an oh-so-old-fashion TV ad kind of way, the Apple ad has no purpose beyond “yeah, I’m really fucking cool - deal with it bro”. Seven on the other hand didn’t bother plagiarising Rinocerose’s Cubicle as well, and let the ad fall flat on it’s face with chit-chat. Dull!

Either way, a really disappointing effort Seven. Does this mean the AU TiVo is going to be an equally sub-par offering?

PS Check out Logan’s other work. He/She/They’ve done most of Apple’s stuff, as well as some fantastic work for a bunch of other people. They really and truly are brilliant at what they do!


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