Audi, Saatchi apologize for plagiarizing ad video

The automaker Audi and the advertising agency M&C Saatchi apologized Sunday after Audi's widely circulated advertisement video was accused of largely plagiarizing a video produced by a blogger last year on Douyin, a major short-video platform in China.

"We noticed the discussion about the infringement of our video. We sincerely apologized to Mr Andy Lau Tak-wah and blogger @Beidamange for our inadequate supervision and lax review," said Audi in a statement on Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

Audi uploaded the video on its official platforms on Saturday, one of China's traditional Twenty-Four Solar Terms Xiaoman, or Grain Buds. In the video, the well-known Hong Kong pop star Andy Lau is seen explaining the philosophical significance of Xiaoman in Chinese culture. The video went viral quickly, with its hashtag ranking on the real-time Sina Weibo Trending, attracting lots of interactions.

On Saturday night, a Douyin blogger named @Beidamange posted a 7-minute video accusing Audi of plagiarizing a video he created on last year's Xiaoman sentence by sentence, which indicated high similarity.

"I hope the person who copied my video transcript can stand up and give me an explanation," he said in the video, which received more than 370,000 thumb-ups within 14 hours.

Audi said in its apology statement that the advertisement video was "designed and produced" by advertising agency M&C Saatchi and it had asked the agency for a response. The video was also removed from all its platforms, said the automaker.

Around noon on Sunday, M&C Saatchi also issued a statement, claiming its team serving Audi "had a weak copyright awareness" and offered a "deep apology".

"We directly used the video transcript written by Douyin blogger @Beidamange without communicating with him, bringing huge trouble to Mr Andy Lau Tak-wah, @Beidamange, and Audi," said the agency, adding that it would try its best to compensate the blogger.

Plenty of netizens expressed their outrage toward the misconduct of intellectual property. A comment said "that's tantamount to a fraud. The one who is responsible should be blacklisted," attracting more than 4,000 thumb-ups.