Would it be fun to have a beer with Genghis Khan? You can do it at Herestobeer.com, the Here’s To Beer, Inc. site, sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, that offers videos of five historical figures quaffing beers as they pontificate about ribald issues, in Genghis Khan’s case having to cook your own food at Mongolian restaurants. “I’m a marauder, a pillager, not a chef,” he exclaims.
Sloane Schroeder, a producer at DDB/Chicago, which created the spot that was produced by Brand New School/Santa Monica, said the humorous historical webisodes were part of the redesign of the site in March to make it “more of a social gathering.” Tom Shipley, senior director of global industry development for Anheuser-Busch, said the historical webisodes were based on TV ads from last year when celebrities identified who they’d like to have a beer with (Spike Lee picked Jackie Robinson) and a contest was held at the site that asked consumers who they’d like to have a beer with. “We had a lot of good entries and it got us to thinking,” Shipley said.
Genghis Khan is one of the historical characters whose webisodes are on the site. They are all played by the same actor, Brendan Hunt, who was chosen from a group of comedic actors. “He had the best handle on making it not overly dramatic, with a wink in his eye and versatile in his accents,” said Jens Gehlhaar, the Brand New School director.
The Genghis Khan video features Hunt in full form, sitting behind a table ranting about Mongolian restaurants, throwing food and a knife at a couple of observers. “It was shot on green screen with the backdrop done in After Effects,” Gehlhaar said. “There was hardly anything moving in the scene, we were just focusing on what he was saying.”
The actor appears behind a large table in the middle of a dark antiquated room. “The color and lighting were inspired by paintings from the period,” Gehlhaar said. “We did a lot of research for the period settings.”
The humorous video “elevates the image of beer and hooks them in with entertainment,” Shipley 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