more "Faces in Places":
commercial: American Express: Don't Take Chances. Take Charge.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
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The concept for this ad was stolen from Francois and Jean Robert. They have published (and therefore copyrighted) many of the faces used in the Amex commercial. Ovilvy and Mather, the agency that "created" this commercial should be sued. For more examples of ORIGINAL thought look for the books "Faces", "Face to Face", and "Find a Face" by Francois and Jean Robert, copyrighted as early as 1996.
Isn't it possible that the advertising agency licensed these images for the ad? I wouldn't assume they're stolen.
Francois is a dear friend of mine. He didn't license the photos, though legally there's not much he can do. Unfortunately it's a moral issue, and when it comes to money, morals and ethics take a back seat to savings. The commercial photography community is very small when you get to that level of client and production-value. Francois has worked for Ogilvy in the past, so in my opinion someone- maybe the client, maybe a seasoned CD or even a first year AD- but someone, saw Francois' book around the agency and took the concept. They probably justified it, knowing that a concept is very, very hard to copyright. There are a couple photos in the commercial that are dead rip-offs, right out of his books, but investing huge sums for an individual photographer to fight AmEx and Ogilvy is unfortunately prohibitive.
This opinion is mine only. Though being a photographer I have some knowledge of copyright, I am by no means an expert. So take my words for what they are; my simple opinion.