Did Cox Boston Think No One Would Notice?
The only people happier than the New England Patriots Sunday night, were the folks working at Fox affiliates. In Boston, it was a big opportunity for Cox' WFXT, to recruit more eyeballs, especially given they've decided to drop the Fox branding and just go with 25 News (we're shaking our heads, too).
Derrick Santos at New England One, noticed something really odd when watching WFXT's promo; like he'd seen it before.
Low and behold, the station's promo looks and sounds exactly like the promotion campaign for 7 News in Australia, done 3 years ago; right down to the exact same song.
Now, in fairness, stations copy promos all the time. Especially stations using consultants that homogenize everything. But this goes quite a bit further. There wasn't much effort to change a whole lot.
So when does flattery and plagiarism, collide? Someone get Fareed Zakaria for a second opinion.