Kevin Butler commercial cloned in New Zealand
Whether you call it an homage or a rip-off, an ad produced by New Zealand's TV3 bears a striking similarity to one of Sony's US PlayStation 3 ads starring faux executive Kevin Butler. As noted by Buttonmasher, the two commercials include nearly the same dialogue, setting, reaction shots and ... well, everything except the same actors.
When ad agency Deutsch won the $150 million Sony account back in 2007, it had an uphill battle to change Sony's image following its, err, avant-garde advertisements under TBWA. The new agency succeeded with Butler, who has gone on to become a sensation -- and that's where this copy gets unique.
"It's rare to see a carbon copy of a U.S. commercial or campaign created by smaller players overseas," explains Tim Nudd, editor of AdFreak.com. "I think there's a healthy fear of getting caught and sued by the big guys. More common is the reverse -- a big U.S. marketer/agency ripping off unknown work from smaller players."
Potential examples of the reverse situation include companies like Apple, 3M and, funny enough, Sony itself with its Japanese "Gameface" ad. See for yourself how similar the two ads are, right after the break.
