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Fauxlympics Usain Bolt Durex poster spoof fools Adweek

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

August 7, 2012 | 2 min read

Like Usain Bolt's sensational sprint, The Drum's Fauxlympics contest has certainly got the world talking.

Our competition inviting agencies to create spoof Olympics ads has been covered by French newspaper Lesoir and Scottish broadsheet The Herald among others. And now one cheeky entry has caught the eye of US trade title Adweek.

But so high is the standard of work in the Fauxlympics, our friends at Adweek didn't realise that DMS's brilliant Durex parody poster (pictured) was in fact a spoof and not a real ad.

The advertising magazine has since updated its story - Durex Salutes Every Man Who Isn't as Fast as Usain Bolt (Cheeky billboard from the official condom of the Olympics) - to clarify that it isn't real.

But don’t worry Adweek, you weren’t the only ones to be taken in by the Durex spoof – much to its bemusement, the condom brand has been inundated with congratulations on Twitter from people who love the ad and believe it is real.

Lawyers at Durex's parent company Reckitt Benckiser have been in touch, but even they've seen the funny side. Instead of asking us to take the ad down, they simply requested that we vouch for them if they receive an unwanted phone call from the London 2012 brand police.

So good was the idea, one can only assume Durex's marketing team wishes they had thought of it themselves.

The Drum's Fauxlympics contest closes this week. Vote now for your favourite (fake) ad.

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