A man walks down a store aisle and fixates on the display of Manix condoms, looking at them longingly as if imagining what life would be like if he bought a pack. Indeed he lets his imagination run wild as we see a succession of scantily clad women in bed, and then one couple after another making out–some in the privacy of bedrooms, others in very public places.
All the action unfolds to the beat of the famed French can-can song. However there’s a price to pay for so much pleasure as we see directly related news coverage develop in various countries. One newspaper headline (translated into English) reads, “Manix condoms are being snatched up by the entire world.” We later see clips from TV newcasts throughout the world, with anchors reporting that no one is having sex without Manix condoms, another that the birth rate is taking a nosedive, followed by the report that there hasn’t been a single birth since the beginning of the year and that humanity is “headed for disaster.”
A bound bundle of foreign newspapers dropped off on the street for a newstand reveals a story headline about the fact that the 10 last remaining schools are about to close. Indeed scientists have deemed the situation hopeless as we then see more people humping seemingly everywhere. The climax: We see an aerial view of the world as it explodes into pieces.
Then we’re taken back to where we started–to the store with the guy checking out the Manix display. A parting message appears on screen: “Manix. More pleasure. More problems.”
Titled “Trop de Plaisir” (“Too Much Pleasure”), the spot was directed by Wilfrid Brimo via Paris-based Wanda Productions for CLM BBDO, Paris. (Brimo is repped in the U.S. by bicoastal Crossroads Films.)
The agency team consisted of creative directors Gilles Fichteberg and Jean-Francois Sacco, copywriter Alexis Benoit, art director Aurelie Marcellak and producer Valentine Bounaud.
Claude Fayolle and Jean Luc Bergeron produced for Wanda. The DP was Yves Kohen. Editor was Linda Attab of Wanda.
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