Singapore Condo Complex Rips Off Nicole Kidman Chanel No.5 Ad

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Since Chanel No.5 didn't get much ROI off the $15 million they paid Nicole Kidman to appear in one of their ads, someone else might as well get some mileage out if it. Singapore luxury condominium developer CDL replicated the Nicole Kidman imagery right down to the backward necklace to promote its One Shenton condo project. What's that saying? Imitation is the purest form of flattery? More like "We're a sleazy developer who has mo problem freeloading." For comparision, here's the original Nicole ad.

Written by Steve Hall    Comments (4)     Jan-24-07  
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Comments

Chanel got no ROI on a $15million investment? Chanel, a privately owned company, is a BILLION dollar company. $15million seems like a small amount to pay for continued worldwide recognition of one of the most famous perfumes ever...

Posted by: duke on January 24, 2007 01:47 PM

Chanel got no ROI on a $15million investment? Chanel, a privately owned company, is a BILLION dollar company. $15million seems like a small amount to pay for continued worldwide recognition of one of the most famous perfumes ever...

Posted by: duke on January 24, 2007 01:47 PM

Are you sure you're pointing the finger at the right party? Much more likely than CDL asking for a "Nicole ad duplicate" their ad agency offered it up as a visual and it was accepted. The idea that a client would recognise it and say "that's the Chanel ad" makes the big assumption that the client is familiar with the original ad (I wasn't before I read this post). I'm not sure if world-view outside of Asia is still that Singapore is some hotbed of piracy but believe me it's certainly not. Piracy and copyright laws here are very VERY strictly enforced. CDL is an extremely large and reputable property developer (shopping centres, hotels, condominiums etc). I don't know anything about their management system and I've never personally worked with them, but I doubt that "sleazy property developer" is an appropriate tag. If you looked in to this story I'd suggest you'll probably find that the honest headline is "Ad agency rips off Chanel Ad and sells it to their client as original work".

Posted by: Marc Garnaut [TypeKey Profile Page] on January 24, 2007 09:32 PM

Are you sure you're pointing the finger at the right party? Much more likely than CDL asking for a "Nicole ad duplicate" their ad agency offered it up as a visual and it was accepted. The idea that a client would recognise it and say "that's the Chanel ad" makes the big assumption that the client is familiar with the original ad (I wasn't before I read this post). I'm not sure if world-view outside of Asia is still that Singapore is some hotbed of piracy but believe me it's certainly not. Piracy and copyright laws here are very VERY strictly enforced. CDL is an extremely large and reputable property developer (shopping centres, hotels, condominiums etc). I don't know anything about their management system and I've never personally worked with them, but I doubt that "sleazy property developer" is an appropriate tag. If you looked in to this story I'd suggest you'll probably find that the honest headline is "Ad agency rips off Chanel Ad and sells it to their client as original work".

Posted by: Marc Garnaut [TypeKey Profile Page] on January 24, 2007 09:33 PM

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