We open on a fast food restaurant where a teenage girl goes up the counter to order. Waiting on her is a young clean-cut lad who is anything but customer friendly. When the girl hesitates as she thinks about what she wants to order, the teen boy hassles her. “Can’t make a decision?” he asks in a derisive manner.
He then gives her the once over, looking up and down her body, observing, “The last thing you need is a burger.”
The girl isn’t sure how to react, glancing back at another kid.
“Hey, did I say you can look at him?” asserts the fast food worker.
She understandably walks over to the next cash register station to place an order with another employee.
“Don’t you walk away from me!” screams the original counter boy.
A message then appears on screen in two parts: “It’s not okay here” followed by, “And it’s not okay from a boyfriend.”
As we hear the girl order a double cheeseburger at the other counter station, an end tag carries the Web site address equalityrules.ca, accompanied by a disclosure of the spot’s sponsor, the Government of Ontario, Canada (on behalf of the Ontario Women’s Directorate).
“Burger” was directed by Aleysa Young of Untitled, Toronto, for agency Bensimon Byrne, Toronto. (Young was one of the up-and-coming helmers singled out in SHOOT‘s Fall Directors Issue.)
The creative team at Bensimon Byrne consisted of senior VP/creative director David Rosenberg, senior copywriter Jen Wilson, Senior art director Rosalinda Graziano and producer Christine Pacheco.
James Davis executive produced for Untitled, with Rosalynn Hegan serving as producer. The DP was Jonathon Cliff. Editor was Tanis Darling of Relish, Toronto.
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More