!VAR HAGENDOORN

This is NOT a Puma Ad

When in 2003 this spoof Puma ad appeared on the internet, Puma responded with cease and desist letters to some of the sites that hosted it. But in this day and age it will keep popping up everywhere, as it does now on my site.

Summer 2006 Dolce and Gabbana ran an official ad based on the same idea.

What I find interesting about the Puma ad that isn't an ad, is that nobody would be surprised if it was an ad or some viral campaign which includes denials by the company that it isn't responsible for the campaign.

In 99 francs by Frederic Beigbeder the protagonists win an award for an x-rated version of an ad campaign that was only shown once on television, without the client's knowledge let alone approval, so as to qualify for the contest. It's a novel, of course, but Frederic Beigbeder himself used to work in advertising, and somehow I wonder whether the Puma ad that isn't an ad may have been made by some creative as well.