We open on a pickup game of basketball, in which inner city youths are going at it. However, the outdoor playground competition comes to an abrupt halt when another kid–an African American dressed in Hassidic garb–interrupts the flow to ask into the game.
“Oy,” says the newcomer, who then goes from Yiddish to English, requesting that the others “pass the ball” to him.
The players seem stunned and are unresponsive, causing the “Jewish” African-American lad to speculate, “What, I’m not good enough for you?” He sounds like an elderly Jewish man, relating that he schlepped all the way over to the court, and that he’s svitzing on a hot day–he didn’t go through all this trouble to be denied access to the game. “My bunions are killing me,” he continues.
Finally, one of the players throws him the ball, which he treats like a foreign object. Some Jewish folk music then intervenes, followed by a super which reads, “Discover your inner Jew. Toronto Jewish Film Festival, May 6-14. Everyone welcome.”
“B-Ball” is one of three spots in a campaign directed by Trevor Cornish of Spy Films, Toronto, for Dentsu Canada, Toronto. (Cornish’s home for spots in the U.S. is Santa Monica-based TWC.)
The agency ensemble consisted of creative director/copywriter Glen Hunt, art director Deborah Prenger and producer Amanda Loughran.
Luc Frappier exec produced for Spy, with Peter Oad serving as line producer. The DP was Dylan Macleod.
Editor was Griff Henderson of School Editing, Toronto. Chuck Nosworthy of Notch, Toronto was the colorist. Audio post house was Grayson Matthews, Toronto.
