Dan Douglass on direct

Dan Douglass

Interesting. In this week's Campaign, Simon Impney, Founder of Open Soho writes of 'an identical twin' appearing in 'The Work' on 14th November. I quote from Simon's letter 'The beautifully formed ad for World Vision features an identical idea to one which we delivered for a client nearly a year ago to the day. In our ad for Smartcells, we feature a baby in its mother's womb informing us there's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take stem cells from the cord that connects me to my mummy.

The World Vision film features a baby in its mother's womb questioning whether or not it will be born into a life of poverty. Ironically, both were born within The Unit production company.' I'm not sure whether my reply to Simon's letter will itself be published, but as the creator of the 'baby' DRTV ad for World Vision, now currently airing, here's my reply. 'Simon Impney (letter 28th November) is correct in pointing out the similarities between the Smartcells and World Vision work. Both feature babies in the womb who have a voice which denotes a certain prescience.

There the similarity ends. The technique is not new. It also featured in Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' in which the baby has a musical sensibility and mouths lyrics. What is different about the Word Vision work, inspired not by Smartcells, but by the moving womb shots of the developing fetus in Robert Winston's BBC series 'A Child Of Our Time' , is that it dramatises the fact that just because children are born into poverty doesn't mean they have to live their lives that way. And is based on the premise that the country of your birth doesn't have to determine the course of your life. Meteorite gestated the idea and gave birth to it. The Unit expertly rendered it.' Work that resembles others' work is the stock-in-trade of film-makers, from The Coen Brothers to Tarantino and there's no reason advertising creatives shouldn't draw inspiration from the cultural ether. All I'd add to Simon is that similarities do not an identical twin make. In the case of World Vision's 'Baby', conception occurred at a different time and between different parents.

Related to this very debate, this week's Campaign also features an excellent piece by Craig Walmsley on intellectual rights. To quote Walmsley (ironically) quoting Picasso "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal". And to quote Walmsley not quoting anyone else, but borrowing a theory instead as if to illustrate his theme (very post-modern), 'In truth, creative industries can thrive on the re-conceiving and re-purposing of previous work. There are just seven basic plots that any story can have - so you are only going to come up with a variation on a theme'. If Simon Impney wants a neatly articulated response to his letter, I'd direct him to Walmsley's (borrowed) words on page 10 of the same issue of Campaign. As a footnote, The World Vision baby ad also features in this week's 'Private View' in which both Brian Fraser, ECD of McCanns and Paul Hammersley of The Red Brick Road,' faintly praise the ad's 'well-intentioned' approach.

They will both be pleased to know that 'with the credit crunch and the recession at the front of everyone's mind' (to borrow from Fraser) the ad is indeed 'working even harder than before' and that 'that 'this stuff' (to borrow from Hammersley) is pulling better than 'good old-fashioned DRTV'. And, with a committed give of £18 a month over (on average)10 years, that's an even more difficult task than the already difficult one of 'getting people to put their hands in their pockets and give to charities' (to borrow from Fraser again). By the way, Brian and Paul, I'll be happy to share the results with you - one thing I can honestly say isn't borrowed.