On Campus

The great advertising heist

York accuses the Globe of stealing their ad strategy

York University’s marketing department has had just about enough of the Globe and Mail stealing their signature advertising concept, according to the Financial Post. The Post reports that the two parties are negotiating over what York is arguing is the theft of their advertising strategy.

The ads in dispute are from the recently launched Globe campaign that shows a graphic (a chicken, gun, and so on) with three text bubbles describing different ways sections in the newspaper would approach the topic.

York is arguing that the ads too closely resemble their longtime ad strategy. York’s ads have a similar graphic with three lines describing how different academic departments would study the topic. (They even have a chicken.)

Academica Group — that, among other things, works with universities on recruitment and marketing initiatives — put together a nice photo montage of the ads. And since the Globe allegedly stole the idea from York, and Academica borrowed the images from both, we reasoned that it was only fair for us to filch Academica’s version. Here it is:

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