German carmaker Audi, ad agency M&C Saatchi apologise for copyright infringement in video campaign with Hong Kong’s Andy Lau
- Audi blamed the infringement on a ‘lack of supervision and lax review’ of the M&C Saatchi-led campaign
- M&C Saatchi said ‘weak copyright awareness’ by the company’s Audi service team led to the controversy
The online influencer, who has about 4 million followers and claims to be a Peking University graduate, on Saturday accused the Audi ad of plagiarism in a seven-minute video he posted on Douyin. It provided a detailed comparison between the Audi ad and his original 2021 post, in which he explained the meaning of Xiaoman and recited poetry that he claimed was his own.
“I’ve been plagiarised many times before,” the vlogger said in his post on Douyin. “But I’ve never seen this kind [of video campaign] … in which ads are embedded from beginning to end … and copied [my] content word for word.”
He indicated that use of his original creation as a moneymaking tool by others makes him wonder “what the world is encouraging”.
The accusation quickly triggered an online backlash against Audi. On Sunday, “Audi, Andy Lau” became one of the hottest topics to trend on Weibo, where it generated nearly 100 million views by noontime.
People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, also commented on the incident on Weibo, calling it a “car accident” and urging relevant parties to take responsibility. “Plagiarism is a scandal in the industry, and it might have broken the law. This must not be tolerated,” the newspaper wrote in a post.
Audi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Dior pulls photo Chinese state media slammed for ‘smearing Asian women’
“We directly used the content of Douyin vlogger Beida Mange’s video about ‘Xiaoman’ without communicating with the copyright owner,” the M&C Saatchi post said. “We apologise for bringing inconvenience and distress to Mr Andy Lau, Beida Mange and Audi, and promise to do our best to make up for the loss to the original author.”
This controversy marks the latest public marketing misstep by a major foreign brand in mainland China.
Mercedes-Benz deletes Dalai Lama quote, says sorry to China
Popular actor and singer Lau, 60, on Sunday also apologised to vlogger Beida Mange through his fan club app. “I have 100-per cent respect for original work,” Lau said.
Despite Audi’s apology and the blame being put squarely on the ad agency, the carmaker cannot evade its responsibility for the infringement because the ad campaign was about its brand, according to Wei Shilin, deputy director of the Competition Law Committee of the Beijing Intellectual Property Law Society.
“Audi, M&C Saatchi and Andy Lau could all be considered as infringers,” Wei said. “Audi and Andy Lau could also be portrayed as victims because they were not initially aware of the plagiarism.” If the case was taken to court, Wei said “the compensation fee could be quite high because it is a commercial advertisement with millions of views or clicks”.
Chinese social media users, meanwhile, expressed their discontent over the apologies made. A Weibo user said Audi “should really communicate and apologise to the original author”. Another Weibo user described Lau as the “most embarrassed” party in this matter.