This cinema PSA designed to illustrate the impact of smoking on health takes us to a parade. The focus is on six people on a parade float decorated with candy and fruit. The people are all adorned in hospital gowns as the float makes its way down the street, passing by spectators. It turns out these six people are in real life coping with tobacco-related disease–one for instance wears an oxygen mask, another has a hole in her throat.
They break out into song. The lyrics being crooned from the float go:
“Chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon.
Apple, honey and berry blend.
Strawberry, wildberry, tangerine.
Mango, raspberry, wintergreen.
That’s how you make cancer sweet.
Why do they make tobacco taste sweet?”
A message appears on screen which reads, “Tobacco companies’ products kill their customers. They can’t sell candy-flavored cigarettes anymore. But they still sell other tobacco products in over 45 candy flavors.”
We then her a parting chorus of, “Oh why do they make tobacco taste sweet?”
A child watches the parade in amazement.
An end tag asks us to meet the singers at thetruth.com.
Thomas Cook, 51, is one of the participants in the campaign. Cook previously appeared in the Emmy-nominated truth commercial, “Singing Cowboy,” in 2006. Images of Tom singing the words “you don’t always die from tobacco–” with an electronic voice box generated keen interest on YouTube and propelled the ad to iconic status. Cook started smoking at age 13 and was diagnosed at 38 with Stage IV larynx cancer.
Four of the featured participants can no longer work in their chosen fields or find full employment, due to physical disabilities. One gave up on his dreams of playing college baseball, after being diagnosed with cancer at age 17. Another cast member has severe physical limitations that impair his mobility and lifestyle.
This cinema :30 was directed by Baker Smith of Harvest for Arnold, Boston.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More