The perils of secondhand smoke even in the great outdoors come to roost in this PSA directed by Scott McCullough for Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing, Austin, Texas.
The :30 features a large tanker truck driving through Austin, emblazoned with the sign “Cigarette Smoke.” A worker in a haz-mat suit wields a hose from the truck and sprays residents with thick, billowy clouds of noxious fumes.
People at an outdoor restaurant, kids playing in a park and pedestrians strolling along a path react in horror and disgust as they are enveloped by the sooty smoke. The voiceover notes that secondhand cigarette smoke contains 7,000 chemicals, many harmful to humans, and directs consumers to the Live Tobacco-Free Austin website for more information.
Sherry Matthews executive creative director Charles Webre said that the dangers of secondhand smoke in outdoor environments has never before been the target of a public service campaign. “We’re covering new ground,” he said. “People are aware that secondhand smoke is dangerous, but they often don’t think of it as a problem outside the context of an enclosed, indoor environment.”
The tanker truck drew a lot of attention when it was driven through Austin for the production of the new PSA, noted Sherry Matthews creative director Wally Williams. “It’s the biggest prop we’ve ever worked with,” he said.
McCullough, an indie director who’s seeking a permanent affiliation with a commercial production company, shot the spot at locations around Austin while working around potential thunderstorms and a half-marathon race held in the city on the same day. Despite the challenge of shooting a large truck on public streets and the need to shoot every scene twice, for the English and Spanish versions, McCullough wrapped the project in a little more than one day.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More