We open on a desolate field with the sound of a shovel digging in the background. The camera reveals a man in a business suit shoveling dirt.
A voiceover intervenes: “Last year tobacco executives spent almost $200 million on advertising–just in Minnesota. What did we pay in return?”
The camera pulls back to reveal the man has dug hundreds of graves for about as far as the eye can see.
A message is supered on screen with the answer to the narrator’s question: “Over 5,000 people in Minnesota died last year because of tobacco.”
The spot concludes by directing viewers to a website, weallpaytheprice.com.
Minneapolis agency Clarity Coverdale Fury created the PSA and the site for Clearway Minnesota, an independent, nonprofit organization that improves the health of all Minnesotans by reducing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke through research, action and collaboration
The PSA was directed by Stephanie Green of Little Minx.
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