Oops! Just one problem with 'Rihanna sexiest ad' report . . . it doesn't exist
Just one problem with the ad-world poll said to have crowned Rihanna's campaign for Armani the sexiest ad of 2011 . .. the poll itself is nowhere to be found!
Problem with the sexiest ad poll
Numerous reports (including the Drum) credited US magazine Ad Age with running the poll.
This morning Ad Age reported that they had "gotten shout-outs" from The Daily Mail, The Huffington Post, PopCrush, the Hindustan Times, the International Business Times, Wetpaint, StyleBistro, Fashion Etc., the Drum and others.
"Rihanna herself even picked it up on Twitter, adding the hashtag #G4L -- Gangster for Life."
But none of those reports linked back to the original Ad Age report and the reason for that, said the mag, was: the report doesn't exist.
"After seeing the attention the sexiest-ad survey got, we kind of wish we'd done one. We heard about it first from the Daily Mail," said Ad Age
Rihanna "has captured the hearts of the ad world, who voted her sizzling adverts for Armani Underwear the sexiest of 2011," the Daily Mail said, citing "a poll of advertising industry chiefs carried out by U.S. magazine Advertising Age."
"We got our info for the post you are referring to from Huffington Post, who got their story from the Daily Mail (who all credited you)," GlobalGrind's celebrity editor explained
The Daily Mail said its source was a press release from an outfit called TNI Press Ltd.
"The 23-year-old singer's daring display was hailed the best of the year in a poll of advertising industry chiefs carried out by U.S. magazine Advertising Age," TNI's release said.
The Ad Age sleuths reported that a former employee of TNI Press, "which appears to lack any web presence at all", describes the firm in his LinkedIn resume as "a small albeit highly renowned press company which writes copy for national tabloid newspapers, a number of magazines and international newspapers," including the Daily Mail, the Daily Star, The Sun, The Mirror, Zoo and Nuts.
Last word from AdAge: "We called and wrote TNI but haven't heard back. If some other magazine did the sexiest-ad poll we're being credited with, we haven't had any luck finding that either."