Director Rich Newey, best known for his work in music videos, has joined bicoastal The Joneses for exclusive spot representation. His clip credits are for such artists as Christina Aguilera and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, but he has diversified into the ad arena with work for Midway Games, DeVry University, and a PSA for Kids Count.
Mel Gragido, executive producer of The Joneses, believes Newey’s music video experience will help him carve out a commercials niche catering to the youth market. A graduate of San Francisco’s Academy of Art, Newey got his start by writing video treatments for directors John Landis, Dave Meyers and Darren Grant, among others. Newey signed his first directing contract with now defunct Atlas Pictures; he was later repped by since closed Palomar Pictures and then Copper Media, where he first met Gragido.
Newey is no stranger to The Joneses. He helmed the earlier alluded to Aguilera video (from the Shark Tale soundtrack) featuring Missy Elliott through Karma, which is the music video division of The Joneses. Newey’s latest project was the video “What We Do” by the Kray Twins.
The Joneses’ directorial roster includes Newey, the Goetz Brothers, Derek Richards, Don Burgess, Hans Moland, Fred Durst, Zosimo Maximo, Glenn Ashley, Lara Shapiro and Gary Weis. Pam Rohs is the company’s exec producer in New York.
The sales force for The Joneses consists of independent reps Maggie Klein on the East Coast, Doug Stieber in the Midwest, except for Detroit which is handled by Dawn Ratcliffe, and Howell Associates which covers the West Coast.
New FDA Rules To Take Effect For TV Drug Commercials
Those ever-present TV drug ads showing patients hiking, biking or enjoying a day at the beach could soon have a different look: New rules require drugmakers to be clearer and more direct when explaining their medications' risks and side effects.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration spent more than 15 years crafting the guidelines, which are designed to do away with industry practices that downplay or distract viewers from risk information.
Many companies have already adopted the rules, which become binding Nov. 20. But while regulators were drafting them, a new trend emerged: thousands of pharma influencers pushing drugs online with little oversight. A new bill in Congress would compel the FDA to more aggressively police such promotions on social media platforms.
"Some people become very attached to social media influencers and ascribe to them credibility that, in some cases, they don't deserve," said Tony Cox, professor emeritus of marketing at Indiana University.
Still, TV remains the industry's primary advertising format, with over $4 billion spent in the past year, led by blockbuster drugs like weight-loss treatment Wegovy, according to ispot.tv, which tracks ads.
Simpler language and no distractions
The new rules, which cover both TV and radio, instruct drugmakers to use simple, consumer-friendly language when describing their drugs, without medical jargon, distracting visuals or audio effects. A 2007 law directed the FDA to ensure that drug risk information appears "in a clear, conspicuous and neutral manner."
FDA has always required that ads give a balanced picture of both benefits and risks, a requirement that gave rise to those long, rapid-fire lists of side effects parodied on shows like "... Read More