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1) Two major developments have occurred this year. First, our zip code has finally embraced the power of what we do. Previously, the SF computer engineering world has regarded the need for branding and advertising as a sign of a fault in their concept. But Jonathon Mendenhall is leading the pack with Airbnb (see Cannes and every other award show) in a pronounced and deliberate manner showing advertising can deepen the emotional tie people have with code in the modern media landscape (Just ask VRBO). When you live and work in the world epicenter of innovation, and they’re digging your chili, that’s everything.
The other major thing happening in the agency world is the sudden rise of women in leadership roles. Keep in mind, all white male agency teams makes zero sense when you consider women influence the purchase of 80% of everything bought. At any rate, if the glass ceiling can be shattered for women, more diverse ethnicity is bound to be next. Good times.
2) I got to direct Sean Penn for the Global Causes Day 2016 campaign we developed for Facebook. You’ll never see the film unless you work at Facebook, thanks to an MSA clause. While my writers went back and forth with his writer on the script, someone came up with the idea that he’d be extremely difficult to work with. He was the opposite. It was an important job designed to generate a genuine response and he took it very seriously.
Actually, he said he’d stay as long as it took to get it perfect. Which was one take. The film worked—Facebook employees responded and they arguably have the world’s most charitable workforce.
3) I know the backstory of how it really happened, but the revival on the Colonel for KFC and the subsequent meta-Colonel or “cameo Colonel” appearances demonstrated both mastery of icon-smithing as well as multi-media screen choreography, in my opinion. Fast food is tough to do well. Also, barrettSF produced an amazing “Rap Alphabet” film with Gentleman Scholar for BleacherReport.com which is a stunning thing to watch.
4) A tidal wave of VR work is about to wash through the industry; anyone can see that. And it’s going to be a lot of fun experimenting and learning to use the medium to its greatest effect. We’ve got one in the early stages of production and I have to say, it’s pretty stunning. We’re lucky to get to work now.
Plus CMOs are finally allowed to spend money on broadcast buys after many years of alternative, often-exotic media forays. Really well filmed ads are re-emerging as a first choice message channel and with this comes a whole new batch of amazing young talent to work with. Right on.
5) The way you “read” an article will change drastically in the coming months, as indicated by the VR work for The New York Times which was awarded the AICP Next Award. It will become very common to teleport yourself to distant places and experience a story, supported by printed word and voiceover.
6) We produce content with the highest engagement on all of Facebook, shot on iPhone 6 (See Carlo Rossi on Facebook). Beyond that, we leave video and film production to the experts at production companies, as God intended.
Global Witness Report: TikTok Let Through Disinformation In Political Ads Despite Its Own Ban
Just weeks before the U.S. presidential election, TikTok approved advertisements that contained election disinformation even though it has a ban on political ads, according to a report published Thursday by the nonprofit Global Witness.
The technology and environmental watchdog group submitted ads that it designed to test how well systems at social media companies work in detecting different types of election misinformation.
The group, which did a similar investigation two years ago, did find that the companies — especially Facebook — have improved their content-moderation systems since then.
But it called out TikTok for approving four of the eight ads submitted for review that contained falsehoods about the election. That's despite the platform's ban on all political ads in place since 2019.
The ads never appeared on TikTok because Global Witness pulled them before they went online.
"Four ads were incorrectly approved during the first stage of moderation, but did not run on our platform," TikTok spokesman Ben Rathe said. "We do not allow political advertising and will continue to enforce this policy on an ongoing basis."
Facebook, which is owned by Meta Platforms Inc., "did much better" and approved just one of the eight submitted ads, according to the report.
In a statement, Meta said while "this report is extremely limited in scope and as a result not reflective of how we enforce our policies at scale, we nonetheless are continually evaluating and improving our enforcement efforts."
Google's YouTube did the best, Global Witness said, approving four ads but not letting any publish. It asked for more identification from the Global Witness testers before it would publish them and "paused" their account... Read More