While it’s part of a campaign that debuted and continues to run during games in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s “March Madness” basketball tournament, the TV spot “Ambidextrous” out of Young & Rubicam, San Francisco, for client the NCAA offers a genuine method and rationale to its storyline madness.
We open on a young athletic woman dribbling a basketball, first with two hands, then with one as the other hand starts writing out mathematical formulas on a chalkboard.
This high-level dual tasking then extends to a male gymnast who’s tautly suspended in mid-air with one hand clenched to a metal ring, the other pouring chemicals into a beaker in a science laboratory.
Next, a young woman tennis player balances a ball on her racket while her other hand is mapping out computer-aided design diagrams and structures.
Finally we have a male soccer player who’s balancing the ball all over his body while he delivers a virtuoso performance on a violin.
All the while a voiceover relates, “There are over 400,000 NCAA student athletes and just about all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.”
Directed by Grady Hall of Venice, Calif.-based Motion Theory, “Ambidextrous” is a perfect balance of athletics and academics as well as live action (shot by DP Jeff Cronenweth) and visual effects (from the team at Motion Theory).
The Y&R San Francisco team included executive creative directors Scott Larson and Brad Berg, associate creative director/art director Hilary Wolfe, copywriter Brandon Reif and exec producer Debra Trotz.
Motion Theory art director Rob Resella and VFX supervisor Bryan Godwin led the design and visual effects efforts, while 1.1 VFX’s Danny Yoon supervised the compositing.
Editor was Colin Woods of String in Los Angeles.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More