Motilal Oswal ads spark debate on who rightfully owns the idea — agency or client?

MullenLowe Lintas Group COO Amer Jaleel's LinkedIn post on ethics in advertising has sparked an important debate in the Indian ad space. Jaleel shared two ads by Motilal Oswal, one which was created in 2017 and the other in 2022.

The 2017 ad was conceptualised by MullenLowe Lintas, featuring everyday people like barbers, construction workers, cooks, bartenders, etc. performing skill-based tasks with robotic precision.

In October 2022, the company brought out another ad in the same vein with the same background score but with a different set of visuals. This time, it was produced by Motilal Oswal's in-house team.

Jaleel whose team worked on the initial concept of the ad was miffed by the "blatant and brazen" copy of "creative mehnat." He wrote a post on LinkedIn, asking the industry to "introspect" about how agencies are not protected under intellectual property rights (IPR). Here is the post:



Jaleel's point of view had many takers like FCB's Aditi Patwardhan and Maverick&Monk Communications' Bhavesh Doshi. Other prominent names from the industry argued that the IPR ultimately belongs to the client since they pay the agency to create work for them.

Nikhil Narayan, Head of Creative at TCS, wrote: "When a client pays an agency to create work for them, doesn't the IPR belong to the client? Aren't they free to do what they choose with that idea later on as it belongs to them?"

Narayan also noted that the Flipkart kid idea has been used by every agency that handled the e-comm company's account.

Communications strategy consultant Karthik Srinivasan agreed: "If agencies want to own their ideas, they need to do something about it that can hold legally. If they have not done anything to stake a legal claim to their ideas, then the paying client owns the ideas and can do what pleases them."

Devansh B Thakker, Brand Director at L&K Saatchi & Saatchi also chimed in, saying that the idea became the client's property in 2017 when it was sold to them.

Ex CMO of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ramnik Chhabra commented that the company made it clear to the agency that some projects will be executed by the in-house and more than eight such campaigns have been done. He wrote: "Didn’t realise this would create an issue. Acknowledge that while the original idea has come from the agency; it has been built by us together. Also assumed that since we have compensated the agency for the idea over previous campaigns; it is the clients (sic) property and can be used for a campaign created in-house."

Others wrote that the fault lies within the working systems of the Indian adworld. Kawal Shoor, Planner and Founding Partner at the Womb wrote: "I’m surprised people are surprised here:-). Galti hamaari hai…hum dar ke kaam karte hain. Closet sufferers kyun bane rahen? (It's our fault because we do the client's bidding out of fear. Why be closet sufferers?)"