A couple argues violently at home, with physical contact seemingly on the verge of escalating into someone getting seriously hurt.
The camera then reveals their two children on the couch–an older brother wearing headphones to drown out the sounds of verbal and possible physical abuse. He in turn has his hands cupped around his younger sister’s head to protect her from hearing any more than she already has to endure.
A voiceover relates, “For children in crisis, this isn’t a commercial. It’s their lives. that’s why we’re here–Gateway.
An end tag carries Gateway’s web address, gway.org.
Gateway is the oldest social service agency in Birmingham, Alabama, established as the Mercy Home in 1891 by a dozen women who recognized that there were people in their community that needed help–and that no one else was providing it. Fast forward to today and Gateway recognizes that people still need help and provides counseling, intervention, education, prevention, and foster care, all to meet its mission, which is to preserve, strengthen and enrich family life.
Laura Belsey of Shadow Pictures directed “Headphones” and two other PSAs in the campaign for agency O2 Ideas, Birmingham.
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