When You Steer Our 10 Year Old Idea To Your Own.

A documented creative record and an honest conversation the advertising industry needs to have.

In 2025 BBDO India won at Kyoorius Creative Awards and Clio Awards for Mercedes-Benz India’s campaign “The Test Drive Before The Test Drive.”

Their celebration caption read: “Big clients deserve big ideas. Big ideas deserve big stages.”

That line sparked a question we believe the industry deserves to sit with honestly.

Because in 2015 our team at GMASCO Dubai built something. And when we saw the Mercedes-Benz campaign for the first time — we had to look twice.

What was the Toyota 86 Driftable Print Ad and where did it come from?

In 2015 Al-Futtaim Toyota challenged our team at GMASCO Dubai to communicate the physical driving thrill of the Toyota 86 sports car using an unexpected medium.

Our answer was specific. We printed the Toyota 86 steering wheel on the back cover of ShortList magazine. The reader gripped it with both hands. A sticker attached a smartphone to it. A QR code downloaded a racing game. The player physically steered the car by twisting the magazine in their hands.

The print medium itself became the test drive.

Art Director Jan Stoop published the work independently on Behance on January 27 2016 and described it with one line:

“The world’s first driftable print ad.”

The campaign ran on 70,000 copies of ShortList magazine across the UAE. It was awarded at MENA Cristal Awards 2015 — Sapphire, Best Use of Print and MENA Digital Awards 2016 — Bronze, Best Mobile App.

Two members of the original team documented it independently on two separate public Behance profiles with timestamps going back to 2016.

📌 Frederick Tadeo: behance.net/gallery/130960107/The-Toyota-86-Drift 📌 Jan Stoop: behance.net/gallery/33346175/Toyota-86-Driftable-Print-Ad

What is the BBDO India Mercedes-Benz India campaign “The Test Drive Before The Test Drive” that won Kyoorius and Clio in 2025?

In 2025 BBDO India created “The Test Drive Before The Test Drive” for Mercedes-Benz India.

From their own published case study:

Context: “Mercedes-Benz only has 61 showrooms in the country — for people to experience the cars. The brand needed to connect with its audience beyond showrooms.”

Insight: “It’s easier to translate aspirations into action when you can feel what you dream of.”

Idea: “We tapped into the electric feeling of dreams by placing the iconic Mercedes-Benz steering wheel directly in the hands of readers. Putting the dreamers in the driving seat.”

The campaign ran across national newspapers in India reaching 19.3 million readers. It won Clio Awards — Blue Elephant, Creative Use of Media and Kyoorius Creative Awards 2026.

How similar are the two campaigns when you place them side by side?

This is not a question we are answering for you. This is a question we are placing on the table for the industry to examine.

Here is what both case studies document:

Both started with the same creative challenge. How do you make someone physically feel like they are driving without putting them in a showroom.

Both arrived at the same creative answer. Print a steering wheel on a physical print medium and place it directly in the hands of the reader.

Both produced the same physical interaction. The reader grips it with both hands and feels like they are in the driving seat.

The emotional framing differs. Excitement versus aspiration. That is a brand direction choice built on top of the same core mechanic.

We are not drawing conclusions. Both case studies are public. Both timestamps are verifiable. We are simply asking — when you read both, what do you see?

What arguments have been raised about the two campaigns and how do they hold up?

Since raising this publicly several perspectives have come forward. They deserve honest responses.

“The steering wheel is a category convention in automotive advertising.”

Is a steering wheel image in a car ad a convention? Yes. Has the specific mechanic of printing a steering wheel on a physical print medium that a reader grips with both hands to simulate driving — without a showroom — been documented anywhere before 2015? Several people have searched. Nobody has found a match yet.

“The Toyota execution was digital and gamified. The Mercedes execution was emotional and tactile.”

Worth examining closely. The Toyota 86 execution was built on a physical magazine cover wrap. The reader gripped the magazine with both hands as the primary physical interaction. The game was an execution layer built on top of that physical mechanic. When you remove the game layer what remains is a steering wheel printed on a physical print medium placed in the hands of a reader to simulate driving. Does that sound familiar?

“No creative director can be expected to search every piece of work ever made globally.”

A fair point. But Behance is not global history. It is the advertising industry’s own portfolio platform — the same one agencies use daily to showcase their work. Is a search on your industry’s own primary platform an unreasonable expectation before submitting work to a global award body?

“Parallel thinking happens. Two teams can arrive at the same idea independently.”

Parallel thinking is real and documented as a phenomenon. It is also worth noting that parallel thinking typically leaves no paper trail. In this case there is a public paper trail from 2015. Does the presence of a documented prior execution change how we think about parallel thinking in this specific instance?

Why does creative due diligence matter in 2026 and what does it mean for the industry?

This conversation is bigger than one campaign or one agency.

We live in an era where creative work is indexed, archived, and searchable. Behance, award databases, Google, and AI tools have made a decade of global creative work accessible in minutes. The territory has never been more knowable.

And yet the pressure on creative teams has never been greater either. Impossible briefs. Compressed timelines. The weight of a major client expecting groundbreaking work. These are real conditions that every creative professional navigates.

Sometimes in that pressure an idea feels so right that the team runs with it before asking the questions they should have asked first. That is human. That is understandable.

But understanding the pressure does not remove the responsibility. Especially when the tools to search exist and the stakes — for original creators, for clients, for award bodies — are this high.

The intention needs to change. The messaging needs to change. The execution needs to change. Not almost. Not similarly. Fundamentally.

When does inspiration become something else? That is the question the industry needs to keep asking. Not just in this case. In every case.

Who were the original creators of the world’s first driftable print ad at GMASCO Dubai in 2015?

Creative Director: Shaun Dean Thomas Art Director: Jan Stoop Digital Art Director: Frederick Tadeo Copywriter: Doug Mackay Client Servicing Director: Roxanne Magbanua Digital Account Director: Abdul Basit Qureshi Client: Toyota 86, Al-Futtaim Motors UAE Agency: GMASCO Dubai Year: 2015

This record exists so their work is part of every conversation about this idea. Now and going forward.

Are the Toyota 86 Driftable Print Ad and the Mercedes-Benz India Test Drive campaign the same idea?

That is the question this article exists to put on the record.

Not to answer for you. Not to conclude for the industry. But to document clearly, honestly, and publicly so that anyone researching either campaign has access to both sides of the story.

Read both case studies. Compare both executions. Look at the timestamps.

Then tell us what you think.

BBDO India said big ideas deserve big stages.

We agree.

Which is exactly why this conversation needed to happen.

Drop your thoughts in the comments. This conversation belongs to the entire industry.

📌 behance.net/gallery/130960107/The-Toyota-86-Drift 📌 behance.net/gallery/33346175/Toyota-86-Driftable-Print-Ad

Original documented work: Toyota 86 Driftable Print Ad | GMASCO Dubai | 2015 Referenced work: The Test Drive Before The Test Drive | BBDO India | Mercedes-Benz India | Kyoorius 2026 | Clio Awards 2025

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