Thursday 28 April 2011

Did T-Mobile Steal The Royal Wedding Video Idea?

In my previous post, I shared a T-mobile viral advert and labelled it as 'genius'. But when you say something like that, you are implying the idea was genius. That some clever creative person at T-Mobile came up with a great idea. But my blogger friend Ophelia opened my eyes to something different.

Watch this.




Now watch the T-Mobile one again.



Sure, T-Mobile's is better; they've got Royal lookalikes, a better song, and a wave of hype. But Jill and Kevin got there first, in 2009. Maybe others did too, maybe there was someone who influenced them. I don't know. But I definitely know, it wasn't T-Mobile's idea.

I should have realised. T-Mobile are a fucking awful phone company. Everyone I know in the UK who has a brain is with o2, or Orange. Jill and Ken's wedding video has seventy million views. There's no way T-Mobile came up with their idea without being influenced by this. The camera is in the same place, some of the dances are the same.


My blog is mostly about independent film, about artists. I feel like an idiot. It was only a few hours ago that I labelled the work of the corporates 'genius'. T-Mobile won a lot of fans with that video. There are millions of people around the world who feel a little more taken now with the T-Mobile brand, they're a little cooler than they were. But that's corporations for you. It's about greed.


T-Mobile need to add something to the video saying 'inspired by' or 'written by' or 'influenced by'. Or something. But they won't, I'm sure. 



Additional Note: There's been research done on T-Mobile's Wedding Video. 21% of people think it is 'innovative'. 'A further one in five associate T-mobile and the Royal Wedding viral with “original” and “innovative”'. This is how the big brands score -- they make everyone like them, and want their products; and it all begins with an idea stolen from someone else.

Here are the credits for the Royal Wedding video:

"The Royal Wedding spot was developed at Saatchi & Saatchi London by creative director/copywriter Paul Silburn, art director Lovisa Almgren-Falken, and agency producer James Faupel.
Filming was shot by director Chris Palmer via Gorgeous, London, with producer Michaela Johnson.
Editor was Paul Watts at The Quarry, London. Post production was done at The Mill, London. Audio post production was done at Grand Central Studios."
No mention of the people they ripped off. What are your thoughts?

Care to share?

7 comments:

  1. I thought it was an homage to that video the first time I saw it. Since that original video was so widely-viewed, I didn't think of it as T-Mobile trying to pull the wool over our eyes at all. *shrug*

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  2. TB - I just added an 'additional note' - have a read of it.

    If it is a homage, it's a wonderfully profitable one for T-Mobile.

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  3. Yep, looks like T-Mobile's ad agency completely ripped off the idea. But I'm still feeling positive about this. Thanks to Ophelia you found out the truth. Then you posted it straightaway so your readers could know about the rip off. Plus this post shows the power of independent film makers to influence big companies and ad agencies. I think it would have been fine if the original video had been credited. There is a lot of good stuff to come out of your original post. I hope T-Mobile take note.

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  4. Yeah, I thought that video was widely known enough to be a reference. Mainstream media nicking viral ideas is nothing new, though. See also the haribo advert that ripped off Will Ferrell's FOD baby stuff or that oasis advert that nicks the OK Go treadmill videos.

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  5. You're right Unwashed Mass, it's nothing new, but it pisses me off! Just watched the T-Mobile one again. Their tagline at the end is "One's Life Is For Sharing' - I guess that's how they feel about creative ideas.

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  6. Well... I think T-Mobile are wankers but the love in the room of the actual wedding is incredible. I am inspired by such an example of friendship, family and support. Nearly brought tears to my eyes

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  7. Just because big corporations ripping off ideas isn't anything new, doesn't make it right. I know, that's kind of an obvious statement... But anyway, it's a shame that Jill and Kevin got ripped off like that. Their wedding video surely has some sort of intellectual property protection in form of some sort of copy right. These guys are actually using the popularity of their video to do some good. If you check out the link to their website below the video, you'll see that they have raised $30,000 or sth for a charity of their choice. T-Mobile are using that wonderful idea to pull the wool over the eyes of their (potential) customers, actually making them think T-Mobile is innovative and fun, all to increase nothing but their own profit! Makes me sad how corporations all the time turn brilliant ideas that aren't theirs into giant money making machines. Fuck them!

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