Idea theft case shadow over Jindal Steel ad’s wins at Cannes Lions 2024

India’s metals tally at Cannes Lions 2024 rose to 9 on Day 2 of the advertising festival. So far, India has secured 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 6 Bronze Lions.

Two of the Lions awards have gone to the Jindal Steel campaign – ‘The Steel of India’. Earlyman Film has secured a Silver Lion and a Bronze Lion for this campaign – both in the Film Craft category. Kondurkar Studios has been attributed the creative ideation for ‘The Steel of India’ campaign.

It needs to be mentioned here that the original ideation for ‘The Steel of India’ campaign was done by Weiden + Kennedy India. The agency had moved the Delhi High Court after Jindal Steel released the campaign in March 2024, alleging copyright infringement and dishonouring the service agreement. Weiden + Kennedy India claimed that it developed the ad film, titled ‘Steel of India’, including the script, elements, narrative flow in the form of a montage video which consisted of original works including script, screenplay, novel elements, unique expressions, musical themes.

On April 24, 2024, the Delhi High Court ruled that Jindal Steel’s ‘The Steel of India’ campaign is prima facie an act of stealing the idea presented by its creative agency, Wieden + Kennedy. The Court stated, “The launch by respondent (Jindal Steel) of new campaign prima facie seemed to be substantially based on a similar theme, expressed through montage of sequential images and videos stitched together by a soundscape of steel.”

This verdict made the client do an out of court settlement with Wieden + Kennedy India.

Despite knowing the situation, Earlyman Films and Kondurkar Studios, who claimed to be the ideator of the campaign, went ahead and entered this campaign last month in the decade-old Kyoorius 2024. However, after going through the case, the Kyoorius committee, industry juries with a legal team decided to disqualify all their entries across categories.

Despite the paperwork not being in order and litigation around the original idea, Earlyman Films went ahead and entered the work in Cannes Lions 2024 Film Craft awards, whereas Kondurkar Studio did not enter.

Now, ‘The Steel of India’ campaign has won without giving due credit to Wieden + Kennedy India, who on paper is the creator of the campaign by law (Delhi High Court) and also by client’s mutual agreement/ out of court settlement.

A close look of the campaign shows that the visual treatment, cropping imagery, and execution are very similar to what Wieden + Kennedy India had presented to client.

Reacting to the developments, Wieden + Keneddy India in an official statement issued, said, “It is an established industry practice that copyright gets transferred to the client once the fees are being paid. But the agency continues to be the creator of the idea. When the court and client have decided on something, a production house cannot decide whose idea it is.”