This charming piece of animation takes us back in time, using unique illustrations to show us how the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 went down–with some artistic license of course. Part of the “Best Deals Ever Made” campaign for the Oregon Lottery, the spot shows a pint-sized Napoleon Bonaparte dismount his horse to offer Thomas Jefferson the opportunity to buy New Orleans for a mere $15 million.
Jefferson replies, “No Deal,” which gets Napoleon to raise the geographical ante–and himself up a ladder, so that he can show on a nearby wall map how much more land he’s willing to part with to make this a done deal.
As Napoleon stays at the $15 million asking price, he moves up the map to cover the State of Louisiana. He uses his mini-sword to strip away more territory from the map which then becomes part of the U.S.. Jefferson isn’t interested, again uttering “No Deal.” This process repeats itself yet again but the time after that proves to be the charm has Napoleon has cut away a huge swath extending from the Mississippi River to the Rockies. At that point, the shrewd Jefferson says, “Deal,” at the original price of $15 million.
A voiceover intervenes, “Some deals are worth making–like the “Deal or No Deal” scratch-off for the Oregon Lottery, as we see an animated rendition of that lotto game.
Agency Borders Perrin Norrander (BPN), Portland, Ore., recruited local area painter Evan B. Harris, an illustrator at Portland-based animation studio LAIKA/house, to create his illustrative interpretation for the two spots (the other featuring the U.S. purchase of Alaska) in the Oregon Lottery campaign. Both commercials were directed by LAIKA/house’s Aaron Sorenson.
All characters and backgrounds were hand drawn and painted by Harris, scanned into a digital format and then animated by LAIKA/house’s Wendy Fuller using Maya software. Figures from history such as Napoleon and Jefferson were charmingly detailed, adding to the tongue-in-cheek humor of the spots.
“Using animation helped us bring an interactive imagination to the process, unlike live action,” said BPN art director Jeremy Boland.
The spots are enhanced by fine comedic touches. For example, the stubby Napoleon loses his hat when his first offer is rejected by Jefferson. Even Napoleon’s heavily accented voice has a special LAIKA/house influence–it’s an impression by the studios CG manager Roland Gauthier who is fluent in French.
Boland was part of an agency creative ensemble that also included creative director Terry Schneider, copywriter Eric Terchila and producer Scott Fox.
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