The peace organization’s advertising video is suspected of plagiarizing Terveystalo’s advertisement

Finland the film directors’ union (Selo ry) suspects that Terveystalo’s Christmas-themed advertising video has been the target of plagiarism.

The association published on the subject Facebook update December 27th.

The suspicion of plagiarism that came to the attention of the association concerns a promotional video published by the Finnish peace organization CMI at the beginning of December Help Us Keep the Night Silentwhich, according to Selo, has noticeable similarities to Terveystalo, published in 2024 Santa Claus– to the commercial video.

Selo states in the update that plagiarism is not acceptable under any circumstances.

Chairman of Selo Saara Saarela commented on the matter to Helsingin Sanomat.

“Last week, around Christmas, the matter came to the union’s attention through our membership. We haven’t had time to do anything other than look through these two ads, and we found it appropriate to remind you of the similarities between the videos.”

in a Facebook update similarities are defined as almost identical images, angles, shooting locations and props, as well as atmosphere and rhythm.

“There are also similarities in the scripts and the building of the stories and the tension, except for the final solution,” says Saarela.

In Selo’s Facebook update, it is stated that “the value of the director’s work is precisely in the visual vision and the realization of the cinematic dimensions of the story”.

“Selo is not an expert in the advertising industry, which means we do not take a position on, for example, legal matters related to the subject,” Saarela elaborates.

Last year’s The film director who directed the advertising video for Terveystalo Pete Risk says that there has been a lively discussion about Santa Claus videos in the advertising industry. It reached his ears before he had seen this year’s CMI video.

“I also managed to exchange a few words with the director of another video.”

According to Riski, the ideas of the advertising videos are completely different. Instead, he was confused by the fact that “in almost the same location and with the same props, angles and fictitious character” another advertising video is being shot.

“I myself would have tried to avoid similarities under these circumstances.”

CMI’s video was directed by Jan Sederlöf. HS did not reach him to comment on the case.

According to the risk, it is not necessary to blame anyone, but it is more important to consider what kind of similarities fall too close to each other.

“Copyrights and working according to good manners are important topics of discussion.”

Riski reminds us that making a commercial video is not about the views of a single director. The customer of the advertising video contacts the advertising agency, where a script is made for the video. After this, a production company comes in, and the production of the video starts. At this stage, the director is already involved.

“It’s sad if an organization like CMI gets negative publicity when you know the value of their work,” says Riski.

Terveystalo brand and marketing director Karla Martínez Majander comment on the subject only by e-mail. He writes in his message that Terveystalo is aware of CMI’s advertisement and its similarities with Terveystalo’s advertisement.

“Santa Claus is a strong and common figure in Finnish culture, and of course nobody owns Santa Claus, but we have had a discussion with CMI about the similarities between the films,” writes Martínez Majander.

Martínez Majander writes that Terveystalo has designed and produced its advertisement in cooperation with advertising agency TBWA and production company DG.

“The similarities between the films are unfortunate in terms of creative work, but CMI does important work in peace mediation, and we hope their films support this work internationally,” he states in his email.

CMI:n director of communications Kaisa Raitio also only comment on the topic by email. He tells Help Us Keep the Night Silent -video started when the creative agency N2 approached CMI and offered the Christmas campaign as pro bono work, i.e. without compensation.

“We did not participate in the creative planning or scriptwriting of the film. We were not aware of Terveystalo’s previous campaign, and we were surprised to learn about the similarities between the films. We have asked N2 to clarify the situation, and we have also had discussions with Terveystalo about it,” Raitio writes.

According to Raiti, CMI received information about the similarity of the films on December 5, two days after the launch of the Christmas campaign.

“CMI considers respect for creative work and careful and responsible methods of operation to be a central part of communication and marketing,” he writes.