A man opens a huge crate in his kitchen. From it he pulls a huge dead fish, which he plops onto a nearby table. The whole fish looks like a fresh catch, but what in the world the guy will do with such a large entrée we’re not yet certain–perhaps it’s a trophy to be mounted on a wall. But if you put this up on a wall, you wouldn’t even be able to see the wall.
However, his intent becomes known when he reaches into the crate–which we assumed was empty–and pulls out something else, a live sushi chef. He hands the chef the knife that was used to pry open the crate. Indeed a month’s supply of sushi and sashimi is at hand–talk about an extravagant takeout order.
A simple two-word question is then supered on screen. It reads, “What if?” Next we see a Powerball ticket for the Oregon Lottery emerge from a machine into the scene.
“Sushi” is one of three spots in the Lotto campaign–the other two being “Keys” and “Museum.” In the former, a man drives a high-performance sports car through winding roads. But the vehicle runs out of gas. He gets out the car and then hops into another different colored high-performance automobile and resumes his exhilarating sojourn.
And in “Museum,” a woman pushes a shopping cart through an art gallery, taking the Mona Lisa off the wall and placing it in her cart.
The commercials were directed by Brian Lee Hughes of Reginald Pike, Toronto, for agency Borders Perrin Norrander, Portland, Ore.
James Davis and Josefina Nadurata executive produced for Reginald Pike, with Gwyn Fletcher serving as producer. The DP was Eric Edwards.
The agency team consisted of creative director Terry Schneider, copywriter John Heinsma, art director Kent Suter, and producer Scott Fox.
Editor was Chris Jones of DownStream, Portland. DownStream’s Jim Barrett was the colorist. Audio engineer/sound designer was Eric Stolberg of Digital One, Portland. Music composer was Charlie Campbell of Flooded Music, Portland.
Principal actors in “Sushi” were David Johnson and Mio Tadaka.
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