AUTO AD INFRINGEMENT

Two car advertisements by Audi (Faw-volkswagen) and Honda were indicted for copyright infringement one after another in May after they were lauded by viewers for being “creative.”

On May 21, Audi posted a video endorsed by Hong Kong actor Andy Lau on the theme of China’s Xiaoman (小满, “Grain Buds”) calendar term, which gained over 100,000 views on Wechat in less than 24 hours. However, Douyin user “Beida Mange” said the ad plagiarized a video he made two years earlier. The following day, writer Ning Yuan also accused a Honda video ad from April of copyright infringement.

Audi and the company behind its video, M&C Saatchi, have apologized to the public and reached a settlement with Beida Mange. The China Advertising Association condemned the brands on Weibo for lacking creativity and violating intellectual property rights, calling for all industries to learn the lesson. At press time, Ning Yuan still hasn’t received an apology from Honda.