The 4:58-second-long advertisement centres on a young boy named Ah Hock who learns tough lessons about sacrifice and family values after lashing out at his rubber tapper mother over their poor lifestyle. — YouTube screencap

KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — A local screenwriters’ guild wants Cannes Lions to examine claims here that a Malaysian entry for this year’s international creativity festival in France was the product of plagiarised work by advertising giant Leo Burnett Malaysia.

The entry in question is Rubber Boy, a heartwarming TV commercial the firm had created for Petronas’s Chinese New Year festive communications campaign this year.

The 4:58-second-long advertisement centres on a young boy named Ah Hock who learns tough lessons about sacrifice and family values after lashing out at his rubber tapper mother over their poor lifestyle.

According to the Screenwriters’ Association of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor (Penulis), Leo Burnett had submitted Rubber Boy for this year’s Cannes Lions festival under the Craft Section for Best Script.

But, referring to complaints on Facebook by Malaysian filmmaker Tan Chui Mui, Penulis noted that the idea for Rubber Boy may have been stolen from Tan and scriptwriter John Cho We Jun.

“Both Tan Chui Mui and John Cho We Jun were uncredited, and their idea plagiarised and manipulated by Leo Burnett Arc Malaysia without their consent and knowledge.

“Such blatant plagiarism by an internationally-recognised advertising agency such as Leo Burnett is a breach of any writer’s rights and should not be allowed to persist,” Penulis chairman Alfie Palermo wrote in a posting on his Facebook page yesterday.

“We would like to stage our official protest towards this act and implore the officials of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to investigate this matter immediately,” he added.

In a series of postings on the social networking site since Friday, Tan alleged that Rubber Boy originated from a pitch she had made to Leo Burnett in December 2014 for Petronas’ CNY campaign last year.

She claimed that Rubber Boy was inspired by a friend’s childhood tale that she had related on a Facebook chat group with Leo Burnett’s team.

According to the filmmaker, after conducting research for casting and site location, she and her teammates, including Cho and producer Bea Meow, submitted a presentation deck to Leo Burnett on December 26 that year.

But the idea did not get selected for the 2015 ad campaign, she explained, although Petronas “liked our script very much”.

“And we were fine with that. And we just pat each other's back and say, good job anyway. Let's work together again! Anyway, there was no Petronas CNY Ad in 2015.

“In January 2016, we were quite shocked to see Rubber Boy,” Tan wrote.

She also posted several slides from her team’s presentation on Facebook, and in another post, a screen capture of the “Petronas CNY” chat group conversation where the idea was discussed.

“For many months I was just keeping quiet. As I do not like to waste time complaining.

“But I can't believe how an Ad Agency like Leo Burnett can just use the story I had pitched to them without asking my permission. And when my team Bea Meow and We Jun met them, their lawyer told them that Malaysian law does not protect idea. And the creative writer said they had only used two of the major scenes, not the whole story,” Tan wrote in another post.

“For an ad agency which makes money from giving idea, that is really shocking. What had happened to our creative industry?” she asked.

Tan’s complaints have since sparked a firestorm of protests on Facebook, with users reposting and sharing her comments using the hashtag #leoburnettplagiarism.

A search on the social networking site late last night said the hashtag was being discussed by over a thousand users.

Leo Burnett chief executive Tan Kien Eng has since asked to meet with Chui Mui over the allegations in order to obtain more information

“I do not support plagiarism. I contacted my team after being informed of the post here and the Leo Burnett writer has explained his side,” he wrote on Facebook.

“I would like to meet both parties to fully understand the situation before taking any action.”

A similar controversy occurred in January, when advertising firm Dentsu Utama was disqualified from the Kancil awards here over two submissions that were plagiarised from the work of a Swedish artist.

Coincidentally, Leo Burnett chief Kien Eng was the chairman of the Kancil awards jury that disqualified Dentsu.