The New England Aquarium: Biting Ideas from the Web

The New England Aquarium got a nice boost from the Boston Globe today. The paper wrote a short article touting the fish house's new ad campaign, which adds shark-y elements to some of Boston's landmarks, like sharp teeth to the Hatch Shell. Other elements include fake youtube videos of a shark chasing a duck boat.



Clever, right? Not so much.



The teeth ad here:

Is a total rip-off of omnomnomnom.com, a Web site devoted to putting teeth into regular photos, like this:

I realize ad agencies will routinely steal ideas and gags from people all the time. But I think it's a shame the Globe would highlight this campaign as being especially creative without mentioning where the Aquarium got the idea. To be generous, the ad agency have come up with this on their own. But the similarities are striking.



And also, what's up, Globe? Have you really been reduced to writing briefs about ad campaigns? Were you really that swayed by the press release? What's next, a ribbon-cutting at a new Arby's?