A man goes to a dealer to test drive a boat. However, his idea of a test run is hitching the boat to a truck and hauling it at breakneck speed down dirt roads before it careens into a car and then through the woods to finally settle in a lake.
All the while the boat salesman doesn’t bat an eye as if this is an experience to which he’s accustomed. As the boat floats gently on the water, the test driver says, “I’ll take it.” The boat dealer responds with a knowing “okay.”
A super appears on screen which simply reads, “Triumph. The World’s Toughest Boat.”
The spot was directed by Wayne Gibson of Mad Fish Films, Richmond, Va., for agency The Republik, Durham, N.C. Barry Landon executive produced for Mad Fish. The DP was Bunt Young.
The Republik creative team included creative director/copywriter David Smith, art director David Avis and producer Robert Shaw West.
Editor was Scott Witthaus of Greybox, Richmond.
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