Copy Paste: How Advertising Recycles Ideas

Taking a second look at advertising campaigns: revealing reproductions, trumpeting creativity, and inspiring all to look just a little closer. Books about advertising are supposed to be a source of inspiration, yet here is one that takes the opposite tack. Not that the dozens of adverts compiled here are bad―au contraire. They have been presented at major industry conferences and some have even won awards―but because many of them are, knowingly or not, reproductions. Whether that is the result of deliberate plagiarism or unlucky coincidence remains an open question. You are free to judge for yourself.

For nearly 20 years, JOE LA POMPE has pursued a passion for uncovering identical adverts. Working undercover, today he is the world’s best known "copycat hunter". The French blogger is followed by advertisers from around the world, who love his revelations. Until he catches them, that is. Copy Paste, his third book, campaigns for more creativity. You will have to read it at least twice.