GLOBAL – UNITED STATES, APRIL 5, 2013 – Organizers of the New York Festivals are rebuking the Cannes Lions advertising awards for copying its four-year-old judging system, where a large jury selects the shortlist and then a jury of 30 senior judges selects the trophy winners using a new scoring system.
According to CEO Jim Smyth, the organization has filed a patent on the New York Festival’s scoring system to protect its intellectual property from being copied by others. “It’s unfortunate an organization as large and successful as the Cannes Lions cannot improve their judging system without copying our innovations and risking another scandal and lawsuit. "
Smyth added: "Years ago IAG designed a bulletproof system to prevent cheating because jury members are locked-out from scoring work from their own agency and or network. This preventive measure clearly demonstrates to the international advertising community, that we are the global leaders when it comes to organizing and running clean and successful award competitions, one they can truly trust.”
This is not the first dispute between IAG and Cannes Lions. Smyth said that IAG has been engaged in an on-going dispute in Asia with Haymarket and Cannes Lions related to claims of trademark infringement regarding IAG’s AME Awards, for Advertising & Marketing Effectiveness competition, which was launched throughout the world in 1994. Haymarket now joined by Cannes, claim their Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, also known as AME Awards in Asia, was launched in a few Asian countries around 2002 and they have been trying to bar IAG’s use of the acronym AME in Asia. However, Haymarket and Cannes have since changed the name of their competition to Festival of Asian Marketing Effectiveness and are no longer using the acronym AME.
Cannes Lions has denied the allegations.
