SELECTED SHORTS FROM JOHN ST.Toronto ad agency john st has wrapped a three-spot campaign for Stanfield’s underwear, including “Meat Locker,” featuring a tour of a meat plant in which our guide directs us to an industrial deep freezer that bottoms out at minus 55 degrees. That temperature, says the guide, is enough to freeze a person’s skin in a matter of just a few minutes so no one wants to be stuck in there. He slides open the freezer’s heavy metal door and–to the guide and his guests’ surprise–revealed is a guy talking on a cell phone, seemingly cool (but not frozen) and comfortable. A bit peeved that his phone conversation has been interrupted, the gent closes the door on his uninvited company and keeps on chatting. An end tag carries the slogan, “You don’t have to see them to know who’s wearing them,” a reference to Stanfield’s “Polar-therm” line of underwear. The other two TV spots showcase the manhood of those who wear Stanfield’s regular underwear. In “Guy’s Night Out,” for example, a guy is asked by his office cohorts to join them for a beer after work. At first gung-ho in accepting the invitation, he then backs off, explaining that he has to take his wife to a book club meeting that night. Clearly this man’s masculinity comes up short as evidenced by the shorts he’s wearing that are clearly not Stanfield’s. The TV campaign was directed by Michael Downing of OPC, Toronto (he’s repped stateside by harvest, Santa Monica). The john st creative team included creative directors Stephen Jurisic and Angus Tucker, copywriter Chris Hirsch, art director Nellie Kim and producer Michelle Orlando. The DP was Tico Poulakakis. Editor was Brian Wells of School Editing, Toronto….
TAKING HD BY STORMGlobal ImageWorks (GIW), Haworth, N.J., has exclusive HD footage of Hurricane Dean’s fury and aftermath from Kingston as the category 4 storm battered the southern coast of Jamaica. Also in the HD disasters’ realm, GIW has video of the fire that gutted the 300 room Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, which is where Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was found dead back in March….
PEOPLE IN THE NEWSChristopher “Pink” Bonnstetter has joined Riot/New York as CG supervisor where he will be responsible for expanding the shop’s CG/visual effects operation. He assumes the staff position after having built a successful “permalance” career that included stints at such studios as Asylum, Believe, Hydraulx and Money Shots. His most recent credits include contributing to effects for such features as Alien vs. Predator 2, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Invasion. Pink began working on commercials and music videos at Asylum as well. Among his ad credits are spots for Ford, Nintendo, Boeing, Chevy and Coke. He has worked on music videos for such artists as Outkast, Metallica, The Offspring and Dave Matthews Band…Elizabeth Lascoutx, formerly director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, has joined New York media/entertainment law firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz as counsel. The hire is in response to increased regulatory concerns about marketing directed at children….
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More