This offbeat spot employs comedy to tackle a serious subject while giving us a taste of genres ranging from man-in-the-street interview to infomercial-style pitch to slice-of-life fare.
At first we’re subjected to a guerrilla hand-held camera feel as an interviewer, with microphone in hand, comes up to an unsuspecting jogger, asking her, “What’s the first thing you notice about a man?”
Her immediate response: “I notice his eyes.”
Next an older couple is seen, with the man recollecting to the interviewer, “I fell in love with her eyes.”
Lastly the microphone is thrust in front of two women, one of whom says, “Definitely his eyes.”
These testimonials for the captivating prowess of eyes then segues into a hard pitch as we’re taken inside a medical lab where a female ad spokesperson affirms, “Forget about those abs and glutes. It’s your eyes.” Towards that end, she relates, “You need the iGym, the revolutionary device that keeps America looking good.”
A product shot appears of a bizarre looking contraption with electrodes that are placed around the eyes and a propeller-like crest that rests atop the user’s head. The comical “some assembly required” proviso appears below a shot of a complex array of tinkertoy-like components.
The spokeswoman continues her pitch, urging us to wear the iGym on the go (as we see a woman on her cell phone), during cardio (with another female on a gym exercise cycle) or just relaxing (as we see a man on the couch, digging into a takeout box of Chinese food). In each scenario, electrical pulses zap the iGym wearer who quickly and happily recovers from the jolting buzz.
Next we’re treated to a side-by-side comparison with photos of a woman before and after using the iGym. The before pic highlights the bags and dark circles under her eyes while the after snapshot has her looking young, refreshed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. “Take your face to a whole new place,” says an assuring female voiceover.
At this point, the tongue-in-cheek spot takes a serious turn, still juxtaposed for the most part with inane images of people subjecting themselves to the iGym. A male voiceover relates, “Taking care of your eyes is no joke. In fact, one in three Americans over 40 has a vision problem and they might not even know it.
“An eye exam can spot the early stages of vision-threatening conditions like glaucoma and can reveal other serious problems like diabetes and high blood pressure. Do not fool with your eyes.”
We then see a man undergoing an eye exam. “If you’re over 40,” continues the male voiceover, remember an eye doctor can see things you can’t. ” An end tag informs us that this public service message is being brought to us by The Vision Council of America and the AARP (American Association of Retired People).
Titled “Eye Gym,” this PSA was directed by Matthew Pittroff of Workingstiff, Baltimore, for agency August, Lang & Husak, Bethesda, Maryland.
Pittroff also executive produced the job via Workingstiff, with Kurt Uebersax serving as producer. The DP was Andy Lilien.
Chuck Husak of August, Lang & Husak was creative director/copywriter. Pittroff noted that his relationship with Husak is “very collaborative,” which explains why “like many of the boards I get from August, Lang and Husak, this was a work in progress. We are often trying to fit a big spot into a tight budget. It started off as a more Tony Robbins in-your-face approach but we wanted to try to do a ‘mock-u-mercial’ that hadn’t been done so we pushed for a slicker Euro approach….The physical comedy was a blast to hone in on. I think ultimately this very broad comedic concept took itself pretty seriously. It was a pleasure to work on.”
Steve Bell of bicoastal Cosmo Street edited the PSA. Baltimore-based storyboard artist Jim Neally helped with the design of the iGym product and Brooklyn Modelworks brought it to life.
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