The lines between inspiration, coincidence and plagiarism are often fine ones, and can cause much heartache and controversy. The case is the same with advertising, and it’s not uncommon to see charges of plagiarism raising their heads, especially during ad fests.

In August, McDonald’s pulled down a Twitter ad campaign after a freelance writer and a photographer alleged that it had copied the idea from their photo series. The series, featured on BuzzFeed, had captured the man’s ‘engagement’ with a burrito and was intended to be a spoof on the romantic photos that flood social media everyday. McDonald’s decided to use the idea for its double cheeseburger (right) meal.

Maya Hayuk, a Brooklyn-based muralist, has filed a $750,000 lawsuit against Starbucks for using her art in posters, advertisements and cups (in picture, cup at extreme right) despite her turning down a proposal from the coffee chain.

As for campaigns that copy other campaigns, there are several examples, right from India itself. In 2013, several awards were withdrawn from GoaFest’s Creative Abbys on plagiarism charges. Leo Burnett India withdrew its three-award-winning Tata Salt Lite radio campaign after its client stated that the work did not meet the guidelines for entry. DHL’s print campaign, executed by BBDO India, was found to be too similar to O&M Hong Kong’s campaign for movers Allied Pickfords, and the agency was stripped of three awards. Even the Make in India symbol with the lion composed of industrial wheels faced allegations of having been copied from a campaign for Zurcherkantonalbank, but was refuted by Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Wieden + Kennedy, the ad agency that designed the logo.

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