When Zig/Toronto was shooting its Canadian TV campaign for Lavalife, which focused on the different kinds of men who are available on the dating network, one of the actors, a native Spanish speaker, couldn’t pronounce the word ‘orgasm.’ “He couldn’t say the word and we have 25 seconds of him trying to say it, so we used it as a viral video on YouTube,” said Martin Beauvais, Zig’s creative director.
“Funny Lavalife Outakes,” the piece that resulted from the shoot, is one of two videos playing online for the campaign. The other is “Guys in Groups,” a short :15 piece, which is much more conventional. The YouTube video features close-ups of the actor trying to pronounce the word, with hand motions from the director, trying to urge him to say it correctly.
“It was a normal TV shoot and we got so much material that we can put some of it online and some of it on TV and do different versions,” Beauvais said. “It’s tailor made for the mediums, so we can make sure we get the message across.”
The actor is one from a mix of men who promote the idea that there are three types of men available at Lavalife for relationships, casual dating and intimate encounters. While the TV ads offer group shots of the guys who represent each group, the viral video focuses on one of the actors, with a pronunciation problem.
“Virally, you have to corrupt a little and not tell a straight story,” said Brian Lee Hughes, the OPC/Toronto director. “The Latin lover hadn’t gotten all of his English together, so it was a behind-the-scenes outtake that made for a great viral video.”
Hughes shot the piece on film with a 16mm camera in a Toronto hotel.
The experience was a high point in commercial filmmaking for Hughes. “You shoot and that’s why you shoot. You get those nuggets of something unplanned and it can turn people on,” he said.
Lavalife’s new Canadian campaign includes TV, print and out of home transit ads. This is the first time the campaign has had an online component, Beauvais said. The campaign runs nationally in Canada through December, with media bought by Mindshare.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More