Richard Sears of Synthetic directed this two-spot campaign for Women’s Fund of Mississippi and The Ramey Agency designed to drive teens to a site which dispels myths about sex, including such matters as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and birth control.
In the “Pregnancy” PSA, we see the places where high schoolers go to avoid adult supervision–first a now empty hotel room as a supered graphic reads, “You can’t get pregnant your first time,” followed by a resounding “False.” Then there’s a backyard swimming pool where the misnomer that chlorine prevents STDs is dispelled. The camera next takes us to a bonfire in the woods accompanied by the inaccuracy that birth control pills stop STDs. Then we see a parked car with the sound of a couple laughing inside. “I can pull out in time,” reads a super, followed by the myth buster “False.”
An end tag and voiceover urge viewers to separate fact from fiction and to log onto FactNotFiction.com.
No people are seen in the spot–just the locations where private couplings can happen. The character-rich locations allow for a raw and gritty look reminiscent of Mississippi’s iconic photographer William Eggleston.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that Mississippi’s teen birth rate (55 per 1,000 teens) is nearly double the national average (34.3 per 1,000 teens). In spite of school-based education programs, the Centers for Disease Control reports 58% of all Mississippi high schoolers (9th-12th grade) are sexually active and 35% did not use a condom when they last had sex. It’s statistics such as these that motivated director Sears to be a part of the FactNotFiction.com PSA campaign.
“The law of the land in Mississippi allows for contraception education, and the goal of these PSAs is to equip parents and students to ensure a complete school health program is available,” said Sears. The campaign is airing with some resistance, however, in a conservative southern state where women’s health issues and sex education are the center of controversial debates. Carol Penick, executive director of the Women’s Fund of Mississippi said, “We are in no way encouraging the teens in our state to have sex. However, if a teen does choose to have sex, we simply want them to be able to make an educated decision–and to fully understand the risks involved.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More