Ad agency launches probe after awards scandal

Advertising agency Fortune Promoseven is conducting an internal investigation after the organisers of the Dubai Lynx Advertising Awards withdrew the Agency of the Year award from FP7 Doha, the firm's Qatari unit.

"We are continuing our internal investigations and we are taking strong punitive action against anyone who was in contempt of our reputation and our standards," the company said in a statement on Thursday.
"We are also definitely sure that this issue was personally motivated and was outside the frame work of our internal rules, fundamental principles, and agency beliefs."

Investigations after this year's awards show by its organisers revealed numerous examples of work from FP7 Doha did not meet competition criteria.

As a result, 18 submissions and the associated seven awards have been withdrawn including one Gold Print campaign, one Gold TV/Cinema campaign, three Silver Print campaigns, one Silver Outdoor campaign and one Bronze TV/Cinema campaign.

The company said it supported the decision to withdraw the award.

"We are in support of the spirit in which this announcement from Lynx was made. This is a message to every agency, every creative in the region that there are rules to be obeyed, standards to be followed, and that there are no short cuts to stardom in our industry," it said.

At the award ceremony, FP7 picked up two golds and a silver for its Samsung work, as well as winning the Agency of the Year title.

One of the ads in question, depicting Jesus taking a photograph of a group of nuns with a Samsung SL310W camera, caused outrage in Lebanon and forced FP7 Doha to apologise.

Samsung claimed it had not commissioned FP7 to create any ad campaigns, and argued that the agency had only created the spot in order to pick up some honours at the awards.

"At this time, we should not forget that as an agency brand we have had a large number of world class entries from across our regional footprint that were recognized and awarded by an international jury at Lynx," the company said.

"Looking at the results overall, our organisation is by far still the most awarded and recognized agency at Lynx and we are quite proud of that. One cannot take away the credit from that tremendous achievement."

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