Media Lion Win Sparks Cannes Controversy

Ah yes, there's at least one every year. A situation in which one agency wins an award for work that was, allegedly, done first by another. It can be labeled sour grapes or a valiant effort to give credit where credit is due. This year's story involves Volvo's Driving Game created by Nitro and Mindshare and MSNBC.com's Newsbreaker Live created by SS+K. A tipster claims the Nitro/Mindshare version is a knock off of the SS+K version with these arguments:

• In Nitro/Mindshare's Cannes entry under "target audience," they allege "This first ever cinema game..." SS+K's was first (launched 5 months earlier in May 2007)
• One of the images they used to represent the engagement of their audience was actually from SS+K's footage of NewsBreaker Live.
• They also plagiarized the "Human Joysticks" text that SS+K had coined for its presentation materials and videos (YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6izXII54Qc)
• Their entry includes a screen shot of people in a theater playing the game, but it's a screen shot of people playing SS+K's NewsBreaker Live game in LA (the Volvo game was in the U.K.)
• Mindshare used the same technology partner that SS+K used for NewsBreaker Live: Brand Experience Lab
• Dominick Proctor was the president of the Media Lions Jury and won for the Volvo project with his company Mindshare (conflict of interest?).

Additionally, our source ponders, "Not sure what to make of all this, but it seems a bit shady: Mindshare wins a lion from a jury headed by its CEO, although the entry included a screenshot of people at SS+K's event nearly half a year before Volvo launched."

Comments? Insight? Additional dirt?