As a super sets the stage, informing us that it is “November 1st, ” we see a man atop a ladder. He’s taking down Halloween decorations that are hanging off the roof of his house. He reaches to pluck one of the miniature skulls from a long row of such spooky decors, but in the process loses his footing and the ladder falls to the ground, leaving him hanging precariously. Luckily a young boy named Bobby witnesses the mishap.
The adult screams out for help. “Bobby, I’m a little stuck here buddy.”
As Bobby runs off, the man sounds relieved. “That’s it,” he says. “Go get your dad.”
But instead Bobby comes back with a large group of kids in the neighborhood who look up at the man, see his plight and do absolutely nothing.
“Bobby, where’s your dad?” asks the dangling man with trepidation in his voice.
The kids continue to stare at him.
“Won’t somebody help me?” yells the pleading, now panic-stricken guy.
A message then appears on screen which explains the kids’ inaction. It simply reads, “Next Halloween, give out the good stuff.”
It seems the trick-or-treating kids from the night before remember that the man whose fingernails are now embedded in his rooftop chose to hand out some pretty chintzy candy on Oct. 31. The spot ends with the appearance of a Snickers bar. If the man lives to learn his lesson, he will undoubtedly remember that he better be passing out Snickers treats next year.
This darkly comedic spec spot was directed by David Jellison of Santa Monica-based TWC. The ad was conceived by art director Dave Sakamoto and copywriter Heather Stiteler. The latter is a freelancer, while Sakamoto is at Merkley+Partners, New York. They did this spec piece independent of their day jobs, marking a reunion in that they were partnered as a creative team early in their careers at GSD+M, Austin, Texas.
“I started out as a director doing darker humor, dating back to when the dot-com ad business was booming in the late 1990s,” related Jellison, citing his commercials for fogdog.com, among others. “Back then, the Internet companies were simply interested in getting noticed and having their names remembered. They were aggressively funny, selling an idea and an attitude.”
But when the dot-com bubble burst, that brand of humor fell out of favor with Jellison garnering assignments calling for tamer, more traditional “straight-ahead” comedy. “Now, though,” said the director, “dark comedy has made a comeback and my new reel didn’t reflect what I had done years ago. So I decided to do some spec work so that I could return to my roots and show that I can handle darker humor.”
In that pursuit, he sought out Stiteler and Sakamoto, who came up with a dozen concepts. The day-after-Halloween, trick-or-treaters concept “jumped off the page at me,” said the director. “It made me remember Halloween when I was a kid. As trick or treaters you’d always hear about the house that was passing out the full-size candy bars. You made it a point to check out that house. On the flip side, the house that was giving out popcorn in a plastic bag wasn’t worth going to.”
Jellison noted that the Snickers spec piece also appealed to him because it is in line with the client’s real-world approach of doing aggressively fun advertising. “So many spec spots look like spec spots because they are totally different from what the advertiser has actually done,” observed Jellison. “They’re simply outside what has been the client’s campaign and strategy. That’s another reason I liked this work because it was true to the spirit of Snickers advertising.” In that regard, he hopes that the spec work might see the light of day on Snickers’ Web site as plans call for the spot to be pitched to the client.
John Mullins was line producer on “November 1st.” The spot was shot on location at a house in Los Angeles’ Adams District by DP Sean O’Dey.
Editor was Shira Ankori of Red Car, Santa Monica. Ankori also served as audio post mixer. Visual effects artisan on the job was Red Car’s Chris Homel.
Principal actor was Dan Warner.
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