Seventeen hours before his execution, serial killer Ted Bundy was interviewed. Excerpts from that filmed conversation are unsettling, but in a way serve as testament to the axiom that some good can come out of bad.
The spot, entitled "Listen," opens on Bundy but doesn’t identify him. "I’m not a social scientist," he says. "I haven’t done a survey. But I’ve been in prison for a long time."
A super then tells us that the man is Bundy and that he’s talking less than a day prior to his death.
"I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence just like me," Bundy continues. "And without exception, everyone of them was deeply involved in pornography—without question, without exception, they were deeply influenced and consumed by an addiction to pornography."
A supered message then appears on screen: "The addiction starts small. Warn your kids about pornography."
"Listen" is one of three TV :30s in a campaign initiated by Citizens for Community Values (CCV) of Memphis, a 3,000-member nonprofit organization seeking to enforce existing anti-pornography laws more strictly. The other two ads mix graphics and live action to warn parents about porn on the Internet and the detrimental effects it can have on youngsters. Memphis ad agency Thompson & Company developed and produced the spots on a pro bono basis.
George Kuykendall, executive director of the Memphis CCV, said his group decided to pay for airtime in the Memphis market to ensure that the message would be seen by as many people as possible, particularly parents and teenagers. The three spots are being shown a total of 178 times on five Memphis TV stations during the month of October. Kuykendall believes that CCV chapters in other cities might begin using the campaign in the months ahead.
Permission to use the Bundy footage was granted by Focus on the Family of Colorado Springs, Colo. Thompson & Company’s contingent on the overall campaign consisted of creative director Trace Hallowell, art directors Kenny Patrick and Sloan Cooper, and copywriter Amy Lawrence. Hallowell produced "Listen," while Iddo Patt served as agency producer on the other two ads,"Eleven" and "70 Percent."
Hallowell did a rought cut of the Bundy footage at the agency and then turned to director/ designer/editor Jonathan Shepherd of No Fat Edit/Design, Memphis, for design work and the final edit, including audio mixing. (Shepherd is credited as director/designer/editor on all three commercials.) Also involved in the final audio mix was engineer Posey Hedges of Memphis Soundworks in Memphis.
"Pornography is an issue most Memphians would prefer to ignore," Hallowell said. "But the truth is it is all around us, and it poses a genuine threat to children. With these ads, we’re encouraging parents to protect their children from pornography’s growing presence, particularly on the Web."
The CCV was founded in Memphis in ’92 and has focused most of its attention on rescuing young women from the sex industry and on encouraging the placing of filters on Internet terminals in public libraries.
