As we approach the three-year anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, the grief, anger and fear linger. Also still remaining as an outgrowth of that cataclysmic event have been conscious and unconscious forms of bias against members of the Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities. To address that intolerance, agency Siddall, Richmond, Va., on behalf of client A More Perfect Union, has unveiled a campaign that brings prejudice front and center.
The lead spot in that effort, a :60 titled "Airplane," opens on a turban-wearing, Middle Eastern-looking man sitting in a plane and chatting with a female flight attendant. When she leaves, a fellow passenger comes into view. Clearly this American businessman is taken aback at the prospect of having a foreigner on board, much less being seated right next to him.
However, the businessman contains his feelings, offers a "Hi, how are you?" greeting and shakes hands with his seatmate. The man with the turban responds, "Fine, thank you." "Good," says the wary American.
Then the spot takes us into the businessman’s head, which is bursting with negative thoughts. "He’s bad," thinks the businessman of the alleged foreigner. "He’s going to hurt me." The man fantasizes about going up and down the aisle and warning other passengers. "He’s going to hurt you, and you, and you," he tells the other people on the plane, growing more and more agitated as the other passengers appear oblivious to his warnings.
We’re then thrust back to reality, with the businessman turning toward the turban-wearing man to ask, "Say, are you from Pakistan?"
"Actually, I’m from Pittsburgh," he responds.
This sets off another imaginary bout of the businessman running amok among the passengers. "Pittsburgh," he laughs. "Come on, look what he’s got on his head. … How many people from Pittsburgh look like that?" The other passengers continue to ignore the panicked guy.
The spot then returns to a twoshot of the businessman and his "enemy." The businessman asks, "So what do you do in Pittsburgh?"
He replies, "I’m an engineer."
This sets off the businessman even further. "Look at him," he rants. "He’s a sleeper! We’re all going to die!"
A voiceover then intervenes, pointing out, "This is the problem."
As the camera returns to the twoshot of the men seated next to each other, the voiceover observes, "Education is the answer. Rethink bias at moreperfectunion.info." An end tag contains the moreperfectunion logo and Web site address.
A More Perfect Union was formed by three groups: the University of Richmond Office of the Chaplaincy, the Council for America’s First Freedom and KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights. A More Perfect Union is funded by the September 11th Anti-Bias Project, which is a joint venture of the National Conference for Community and Justice and the Chevron Texaco Foundation. The Anti-Bias Project was designed to identify and support innovative and replicable approaches to address the bias, bigotry and racism being faced by those individuals and groups who have experienced heightened discrimination in the wake of 9/11.
Both spots in the campaign, "Airplane" and "Lonely," were directed by Whitey Bel-Air III of Venice, Calif.-based production house philsfilms. "Lonely" tells the story of an immigrant family’s dreams about coming to America and how those ideals conflict with some harsh, bias-filled realities.
The Siddall creative team consisted of creative director Shari Hindman, copywriter Joe Parrish, art director Matt Klug, producer Adam Cunningham and freelance producer Stephanie Murdoch.
James Kadonoff executive produced for philsfilms, with Ted Coyne serving as producer. The DP was Allen Daviau.
Richard Cooperman of Avenue Edit, Santa Monica, edited both spots. Bill Fortney executive produced for Avenue Edit. Online editor was Ernie Camacho, also of Avenue Edit. Colorist was Ken Van Deest of R!OT, Santa Monica. Audio post mixer was Michael Anastasi of stimmüng, Santa Monica. Stimmüng’s Reinhard Denke was sound designer on "Airplane." (A :30 version of "Airplane" was edited by Rich Rosenbaum of Convergence, New York. Rosenbaum also served as colorist and mixer/sound designer on the :30, while Bryce Leysath was the assistant editor and online editor.)
