I don't know how to feel...

So.
Ad school.
I'm just learning how to do this stuff, right? Well guess what... Thievery. From a student. For shame!

Look at these ads I did (with Megan Duffy, a very talented AD in her own right) back in March for Mr. Clean:


Not bad, right? We thought so. We were pretty proud of them in fact. We showed them at our end-of-trimester critique. They had some decent feedback. That's nice. We planned on expanding on the sketches and making them into real looking ads, especially now that the photoshop skills are sharpening.

Guess what? (Hint: see "Thievery" from earlier in the post)

Instead of a floor cleaner/polisher, an actual flooring maker (with an agency out of Atlanta GA, so the chances that they had access to these ads is pretty slim... but you never know) made an ad that is almost exactly like the last of the three ads with the exact same message. In fact, when we presented these ads at our critique, we got feedback that said we should use couches and chairs suspended by ropes. That was our plan. Then Scott sent me this:













I know, right? I guess this brings me back to the title. I truly don't know how to feel. I'm kinda angry that I can't finish this ad and put it in my book. But at the same time, I feel pretty good that the idea was good enough that someone else published it. That is kinda cool, I guess. If I can't get credit, at least I know I'm thinking ad worthy ideas. On a lesser note, Sean Jervey (an up and coming copy writer) and I were working on a VW campaign that used the victorian idea of a freak show as it's core theme, only to turn the TV on this week (two weeks after we completed the assignment) to see a car company, BMW I think, use a carnival theme (freak show angle included) in a commercial. Oh well. I'll always have Krispy Kreme.

(p.s... I don't truly believe the ad was stolen. This kind of stuff happens to me all the time. Ask me about the movie Waiting sometime... However, if I do find out that someone stole this from me, HEADS WILL ROLL!!!)