the kiss of death

TBWA Paris is behind a controversial campaign called, Amnesty Swimming.

The campaign, originally thought to be done for adidas, is now being questioned by several sources who believe it is an ad aiming to connect China's human rights issues with the Olympics.

This is pretty much the kiss of death for an ad agency. Not only has Amnesty International released a statement saying they are not behind the campaign - but I'm sure glad I'm not TBWA's corporate PR person, who is no doubt, in overdrive right now...

Beyond this, the images of the campaign simply look extremely grim. If this is indeed an adidas campaign, I hope they didn't pay for this already. I normally think adidas are extremely creative and positive marketers, and this just doesn't have their look and feel to it.

I think the Virtual China blog hits it on the head when they say it looks like the athletes are competing in hell. Yikes.

So much for capturing the Olympic spirit.