Daniel Cox–who created and directed the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership’s “Embrace Life” PSA which won a Bronze Lion at the recently concluded Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival–has joined Hungry Man for representation as a director worldwide except for Canada where he continues to be handled by Spy Films.
“Embrace Life” shows a father sitting in his living room, playing and laughing with his family as he pretends to drive a vehicle. He exchanges loving glances with his nearby wife and daughter. Suddenly his facial expression changes as he braces for an impending accident. Immediately his family comes to the rescue. The girl embraces him around the waist, serving as a seatbelt. His wife embraces him diagonally across the chest, serving as a shoulder belt harness. The impact rocks them but all are secure and safe, the human safety belt saving his life.
Cox spearheaded the PSA from start to finish. It sprang from his learning that the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership was looking to produce a positive public service message. He came up with the idea and assembled a team under the Alexander Commercials banner in the U.K. to bring the project to fruition. Cox wrote, directed and edited “Embrace Life,” with Sarah Alexander producing the job. Alexander Commercials was hybrid ad agency/production house on “Embrace Life” but his prime spotmaking and branded content roost from now on is Hungry Man.
The PSA, which debuted in the local Sussex area back in January, has since gone onto attain more than 10 million views online, the Cannes Film Lion honor in the Public Health & Safety category, as well as Gold at the New York International Advertising Awards in Shanghai.
Hungry Man got wind of Cox upon catching him being interviewed about the PSA on CNN. The production house then sought him out, ultimately resulting in his coming aboard its directorial roster.
TikTok’s Fate Arrives At Supreme Court; Arguments Center On Free Speech and National Security
In one of the most important cases of the social media age, free speech and national security collide at the Supreme Court on Friday in arguments over the fate of TikTok, a wildly popular digital platform that roughly half the people in the United States use for entertainment and information.
TikTok says it plans to shut down the social media site in the U.S. by Jan. 19 unless the Supreme Court strikes down or otherwise delays the effective date of a law aimed at forcing TikTok's sale by its Chinese parent company.
Working on a tight deadline, the justices also have before them a plea from President-elect Donald Trump, who has dropped his earlier support for a ban, to give him and his new administration time to reach a "political resolution" and avoid deciding the case. It's unclear if the court will take the Republican president-elect's views — a highly unusual attempt to influence a case — into account.
TikTok and China-based ByteDance, as well as content creators and users, argue the law is a dramatic violation of the Constitution's free speech guarantee.
"Rarely if ever has the court confronted a free-speech case that matters to so many people," lawyers for the users and content creators wrote. Content creators are anxiously awaiting a decision that could upend their livelihoods and are eyeing other platforms.
The case represents another example of the court being asked to rule about a medium with which the justices have acknowledged they have little familiarity or expertise, though they often weigh in on meaty issues involving restrictions on speech.
The Biden administration, defending the law that President Joe Biden signed in April after it was approved by wide bipartisan majorities in Congress, contends that... Read More