Young people are seen and their voices are heard as they discuss their methamphetamine addiction. We see the havoc the drug has wreaked on their lives. Yet we hear in vague terms what has happened.
One says, “I don’t know how it started.”
Another answers, “Slowly, I think.”
“I think,” relates yet another.
“But now it’s gotten bad.”
“Really bad.”
Each voice adds to the description of the plight of addicts.
“I didn’t know it could do this,” says one guy.
“Now I know,” relates a woman.
A quick cut visual collage of self-destructive behavior unfolds on screen tagged by the word Zerometh and accompanied by the website address Zerometh.com, and an ADAA (Alabama District Attorneys Association) logo.
Logging onto the site, we find that the Zerometh initiative was created to fight the meth epidemic in Alabama.
“Effect” is one of three spots in the Zerometh campaign directed by Brian Weber of production house A Common Thread, Los Angeles, for agency D Groupe in Tuscaloosa.
Weber’s support team at A Common Thread included executive producers J.P. McMahon, Tristan Drew and Michael Appel, with Chris Powers serving as producer. The DP was Joshua Reis.
The agency ensemble consisted of D Groupe president/creative director/writer Gregory Davis, art director Randy Reed and producer Troy Courtney.
Doobie White of Therapy, Santa Monica, was editor and sound designer.
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