Thursday, December 11, 2008

Riverbed Ad Eerily Similar to AT&T's Seamless World

Yesterday, I got an email from Riverbed Technologly that boasted its WAN (Wide Area Network) Optimization. Riverbed claimed it can:

• Make file transfers up to 100x faster
• Accelerate seamless data transfer
• Increase productivity between remote offices and mobile workers

Do you remember those AT&T "Your seamless World" commercials? Wes Anderson directed swift the  ads that featured frequent background transitions as customers explained their need to reach family and friends in various destinations One ad featured a guy from Philadelphia, who was a college student in Delaware, with friends in Chicago, a brother in Prague. He said,

"I need a network that works where I live. A place called Phila-ware-prague-icago."

Here's the real kicker, AT&T's site allowed visitors to create a unique name's for the states and cities within their network. AT&T's own press release read:

Visitors can then purchase their own personalized "Your Seamless World" merchandise, such as T-shirts and bumper stickers. For example, New York, San Francisco and South Dakota may become "New Sanfrakota."
 

UPDATE:This could be a chicken or the egg debate. Patrick Godfrey,claims his agency ,Godfrey Q & Partners, created Riverbed's campaign in late 2006/early 2007 and launched it on behalf of Riverbed in April of '07.

The AT&T campaign first appeared in June of 2007 and according to the New York Times-Roy Elvovea spokesman for BBDO New York,The AT&T campaign, was first presented to the client in early April. ATT's first outdoor ads appeared on June 1, Elvovea added, which meant production had to begin well in advance of that date “and therefore in advance of the April 29 launch date for the Riverbed campaign.”

Until I see more specifics, neither side has sufficient evidence to claim that they conceptualized the city mashing campaign.

By Matt O'Hern at 03:50 PM | Comments (3)

(3) Thoughts on Riverbed Ad Eerily Similar to AT&T's Seamless World

If I understand your reasoning. You think that AT&T may have been first because thier campaign was presented before the Riverbed one appeared in print. But wouldn't that mean that the Riverbed would have been presented even earlier? Given the time needed for approvals, production, etc. It seems impossible for Riverbed to have copied AT&T. I'm not implying that AT&T copied Riverbed. Sometimes more than one person has a similar idea. Ideas are triggered by a number of things. Maybe both creative directors saw the same old TV show or something.

Comments by James Rose : Friday, December 12, 2008 at 11:09 PM

James is right Matt, your reasoning is completely backwards. It seems that you obviously are biased towards BBDO because the title of your article, and the subsequent "reasoning" implies that Godfrey Q and Partners ripped off BBDO. Whereas, according to your own timeline, you either are too stupid to see the obvious flaw in your own logic or you understood the logic, but just felt like purposely misleading the readers. That's just some real strong journalism champ.

Comments by frank : Sunday, February 08, 2009 at 04:48 AM

I understand the timeline-but it's only a claim-I haven't seen hard proof to verify intellectual property right. If I based my conclusions on claims -Al Gore would be the creator of the Internet. I have no bias toward AT&T.

Comments by Matt O'Hern : Sunday, February 08, 2009 at 10:31 AM

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