Simon Cowell and Sony Electronics teamed with Foundation Content, through agency/partner Omelet to conceive and produce a unique, cross-platform advertising campaign designed to introduce Sony’s new “X Brand” Headphones. Foundation Content directors James Levon and the Focus Creeps shot the spots over four days on various locations across Los Angeles and San Diego, with second unit photography also shot in NYC.
The new campaign is running on in-store video monitors at Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Sony stores, and on the Jumbotron screen in New York City’s Times Square. The Foundation Content-produced spots are entitled “Soul and Science” and “Lifestyle.”
In director Levon’s fast-paced spot “Soul and Science,” we see a cross-section of young people, from a car to a nightclub, from the sidewalk to a dance studio, and from a record store to the beach, describe what music means to them. A personal interview with Simon Cowell is included, in which he says, “I love music so much, I wanted to be in a position where I could make it. There is a different between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening’–I needed a serious tool to do my job. Sony and I both wanted to make the best headphones in the world, so we went to work. They just sound better.” Sony engineers then describe the features of the new headphones, after which noted music artists espouse the new product as well. The tag reads, “X: We Live Music. Sony.”
In “Lifestyle,” directed by the Focus Creeps (Ben Chappell and Aaron Brown who as a duo gained inclusion into SHOOT‘s 2010 New Directors Showcase), we see a music video-style montage of young people moving, dancing, and listening to their favorite tunes while wearing the Sony X headphones. The action packed video, set entirely to music, continually reinforces the theme “We Live Music.” The spot’s attractive young people remain on the “go” through a seamless blend of nightclubs, outdoor fun spots, and recording studios, along with a variety of other urban and suburban settings.
Foundation Content’s Anna Patel edited “Lifestyle.” Director Levon cut “Soul and Science.”
Founded in 2004 by Samantha Hart, Foundation Content maintains offices in Culver City and Chicago.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More