DDB and two former creatives have struck a deal over the disputed $10,000 cash prize from the recent Newspaper Ad of the Year Awards. Neither party will confirm (or deny) the settlement, which of course amounts to a virtual confirmation.
A likely outcome would be a 50/50 split, with Kevin Bachtiar & Sasha Arandelovic picking up $2500 each, and the agency retaining the $5000 for purposes unknown (although DDB ceo Justin Mowday earlier said – several times – that the DDB business “will not profit from this award”.
Bachtiar & Arandelovic, who created the winning VW ad when they were at DDB, had left to join Special Group before they picked up the win at the Newspaper awards at the beginning of this month.
Subsequently, after receiving information that DDB was holding out on the cash, we spoke several times to Bachtiar who was angrily claiming the prize. The creative pair held the moral high ground but little else – while the agency’s action was correct by the rules, it ran against the longstanding convention that prizes are paid to the winners.
After the initial fireworks, communications to M+AD from both parties ceased. We emailed them on Monday asking them to confirm a settlement.
Five days later there’s been no response from either.
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