In an effort to market its new Ford Edge to ethnic groups, Ford created separate webisodes for the Hispanic, African American and Asian-American markets featuring music celebrities whose songs were remixed for the campaign.
To reach Asian-Americans, Ford created a commercial starring Ahn Jae Wook, a Korean singer whose hit song, Forever, was remixed for a TV spot. To extend the campaign further, Ford ran the spot at www.Fordvehicles.com/asia, with an additional webisode, Episode 1 ‘The Making of the Re-Mix’, that shows the singer in his Korean studio recording the song and discussing it with the production crew.
The crew included Sara Park, the executive producer from Dancing Toe, a Los Angeles production agency, who worked with Enturn Entertainment, a Korean production company, to shoot the spot. “We shot it with two HD cameras and remixed the music,” she said. The remix was a major endeavor, since additional rock and dance versions of the songs were recorded in four different languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Vietnamese. Visitors to the website can select the versions and languages they want to hear. The website is the only place where the different versions are available.
The video, which runs about two minutes, features close-ups and mid-range shots of Ahn performing and interacting with the production crew, who give him tips, including, “You’ve got to be more natural,” before concluding with, “You did a very good job.”
The webisode enabled viewers to “get a feel for his personality and what’s he like,” according to Courtney Walker, account director at Pancom, Ford’s Asian-American advertising agency, which oversaw the campaign. “He’s a celebrity who’s popular among all Asians, so he was ideal for the campaign,” she said.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More