We open on a desolate field with the sound of a shovel digging in the background. The camera reveals a man in a business suit shoveling dirt.
A voiceover intervenes: “Last year tobacco executives spent almost $200 million on advertising–just in Minnesota. What did we pay in return?”
The camera pulls back to reveal the man has dug hundreds of graves for about as far as the eye can see.
A message is supered on screen with the answer to the narrator’s question: “Over 5,000 people in Minnesota died last year because of tobacco.”
The spot concludes by directing viewers to a website, weallpaytheprice.com.
Minneapolis agency Clarity Coverdale Fury created the PSA and the site for Clearway Minnesota, an independent, nonprofit organization that improves the health of all Minnesotans by reducing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke through research, action and collaboration
The PSA was directed by Stephanie Green of Little Minx.
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