Tears in Heaven

For some reason when I read on the Daily Swarm that Saatchi & Saatchi had been fired by the creators of Dr. Martens, Airwair for controversial ads – my brain immediately triggered off memory impulses of the time when its China agency got in trouble with Lego, but it turns out the two incidents couldn’t be more different from one another.

The Lego controversy, if you guys can remember, had two Saatchi creatives create and post fake ads for NON-client Lego, referencing of all things, the World Trade Centre and the devastation of the Boxing Day Tsunami. The two offenders subsequently got the sack for “illegally using the agency’s name as well as its senior director’s name behind the ads without consent” BUT the intense blogospheric and online pressure for heads to roll must have had a say in the decision as well. Anyways, hopefully they have moved on, everyone makes mistakes – if anyone knows what happened to them, do let us know and post a comment.

So back to the Dr. Martens controversy – if you hadn’t already heard by now, Saatchi & Saatchi London produced ads showing deceased rocker icons such as Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer, in heaven wearing Dr. Martens footwear. Apparently the ads were approved to run as a one-off in a selected publication but an individual who Saatchi says they are “considering the ongoing employment” off, went on to post the ads on a US advertising website.

Yes they guy was wrong for doing that but I am going to let go with an opinion and say that I liked the ads and prior to this controversy, I had heard of at least one of the rockers did in fact like to wear Dr. Martens.

So what now?



Dr. Martens fired Saatchi & Saatchi and has since released a statement claiming they had not approved the ads etc, so I guess some more head will roll which is further proof (as if we needed any) that the online community or the community using digital means of communication, can and will be heard…

Scared?