Leo Burnett Vs. The Simpsons

We got a link this morning from a tipster over at Leo Burnett who directed us to an NPR piece focusing on how the agency was the originator of the Kwik-E-Mart movie campaign that everyone is so stoked about. A creative team was asked to sit down with 20th Century Fox and Matt Groening to pitch some ideas about how to promote the upcoming film about a year ago. Reed Collins, the agency’s creative director on the project, says that they pitched a concept called, “World Gone Springfield,” which would bring products and ideas from the cartoon into real world environments. The team met with the studio about four times, but nothing was ever put in ink. Collins says Burnett received no credit or cash for their work despite the Kwik-E-Mart campaign becoming the big marketing hit of the summer. In an email, a rep from Fox said, “Leo Burnett’s claim is riduclous. The idea was already in the works and we told them so.”

This is great actually. Agencies have gotten all out of sorts these days and are fighting back. Just look at Reebok and Modernista.