Noted design, animation and mixed media collective Psyop, with operations in New York and Venice, Calif., has joined bicoastal/international production house Smuggler for worldwide representation and production.
The move brings together two high profile entities. Psyop’s body of work includes campaigns for such clients as adidas, Coca-Cola (including the lauded “Happiness Factory” directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick for Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam), Fanta, Guinness, Orangina and Renault. Along the way the Psyop coterie of talent has earned Silver Cannes Lions, multiple AICP Show honors, a Gold Clio and a Silver Art Directors Club Award.
Meanwhile Smuggler’s trophy case includes the Cannes Lions Grand Prix and the Palme d’Or, and a directorial roster featuring the likes of Jaron Albertin, Steve Ayson, Brian Beletic, Adam Berg, Jun Diaz, Filip Engstrom, David Frankham, Nacho Gayan, The Guard Brothers, Neil Harris, Randy Krallman, Renny Maslow, Bennett Miller, Henry Alex-Rubin, Guy Shelmerdine, Chris Smith, Stylewar, Jon Watts and Ivan Zacharias.
“I think that together both companies will be stronger and have the experience and ambition to take on different challenges,” said Patrick Milling Smith, Smuggler’s executive producer.
Justin Booth-Clibborn, Psyop’s managing partner, concurred, “Both companies have built strong brands by focusing on producing great creative work, so it’s obviously a good fit at a time when the industry is producing tremendous new opportunities and challenges both creatively and in terms of production.”
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More