A boy drags his oversized wagon through town, collecting empty Coke bottles, seemingly for the recycling deposit. He finds bottles in an alley, along the town’s back roads, another in a junk yard where he barely eludes a fast charging guard dog. Subtly the wind whips up at different times.
Finally the lad gets to enjoy a full bottle of Coke as he arrives with his wagon at a patch of desolate beach. He drinks up and has yet another empty for his collection. He buries the bottle halfway into the sand, joining all the other bottles he’s collected. Suddenly the wind is heard from again, caressing some hanging chimes.
The wind then treats us to a symphony created when it whips over the open mouths of the many Coke bottles the youngster has planted in the sand. The boy stands up and revels in the music and nature as he lets the wind flow over him, his arms extended.
The spinning Coke bottle logo then appears in an end tag, carrying the slogan “Open happiness.”
This spec spot was directed, shot and conceived by Ken Arlidge, who’s on the directorial roster of Santa Monica-based Aero Film.
Skip Short exec produced for Aero Film. Production designer was Tre Benson.
Editor was Barnett Kiel of Aero Post.
Visual effects house was Below The Radar, Santa Monica, with music from Nylon Studios, Australia and stateside.
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