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    SPECIAL REPORT: TOP REGIONAL AGENCIES_ Smokin’ Creative: A Mississippi ad shop raises the bar for anti-tobacco work.

    By SHOOT StaffUpdated:No Comments1433 Views

    By BILL DUNLAP

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    Geography doesn’t matter any more. That could be the corporate motto of Maris, West & Baker (MW&B), Jackson, Miss. The agency has drawn considerable attention in the last couple of years with its TV campaigns for A Partnership For a Healthy Mississippi, the state effort devoted to discouraging tobacco use.

    Through recent work, MW&B has shown that it has the kind of creative know-how it takes to satisfy and keep clients, attract top directors and win awards. All that, even though it’s based in Jackson, a place that doesn’t rank as a creative capital in the minds of most ad industry folk. Eric Hughes, VP/creative director, has seen people’s reactions more than a few times. "There are definitely times when production companies and vendors first see our work and say, ‘Now, where are you located?’ We say, ‘Jackson, Mississippi,’ and there will be this pausea’Really?’ They don’t expect it," he explains. "People don’t look for great work to come out of Jackson or most of the Deep South for that matter. But there are a lot of great agencies [here].

    "Do good work and let the work speak for itself," he continues. "If somebody’s going to get caught up in geography or stereotypes, then that’s their problem. All we know is that this is a great place to do the best work of your life."

    The agency boasts over 1,000 local ADDY awards, six national ADDYs, three Clios and other honors. One of the national ADDYs is for "Prisoner," an anti-tobacco spot directed by Ken Fox of bicoastal Villains for the Partnership For a Healthy Mississippi. Set in the Leavenworth pen in 2070, the spot shows a guard leading a lawyer through a high tech maze of security doors to see a prisoner whose crimes against humanity make him sound like Hannibal Lecter’s nastier brother. The lawyer asks how anyone could get away with such crimes for so long. The guard’s reply: "He ran a tobacco company." "Monkey," directed by Chris Milk of bicoastal/international @radical. media, and "Toy Soldiers," a clay-animated spot created by Tom Gasek of Suspended Animation, Lenox, Mass., are also part of the campaign that included "Prison." (Gasek is now with Out of Hand Animation, Lenox.)

    Category:News



    Steven Soderbergh Has A Multi-Faceted “Presence” In His Latest Film

    Wednesday, January 22, 2025

    Steven Soderbergh isn't just the director and cinematographer of his latest film. He's also, in a way, its central character.

    "Presence" is filmed entirely from the POV of a ghost inside a home a family has just moved into. Soderbergh, who serves as his own cinematographer under the pseudonym Peter Andrews (his father's name), essentially performs as the presence, a floating point-of-view that watches as the violence that killed the mysterious ghost threatens to be repeated.

    For even the prolific Soderbergh, the film, which opens Friday in theaters, was a unique challenge. He shot "Presence" with a small digital camera while wearing slippers to soften his steps.

    The 62-year-old filmmaker recently met a reporter in a midtown Manhattan hotel in between finishing post-production on his other upcoming movie ("Black Bag," a thriller Focus Features will release March 14) and beginning production in a few weeks on his next project, a romantic comedy that he says "feels like a George Cukor movie."

    Soderbergh, whose films include "Out of Sight," the "Ocean's 11" movies, "Magic Mike" and "Erin Brockovich," tends to do a lot in small windows of time. "Presence" took 11 days to film.

    That dexterous proficiency has made the ever-experimenting Soderbergh one of Hollywood's most widely respected evaluators of the movie business. In a wide-ranging conversation, he discussed why he thinks streaming is the most destructive force the movies have ever faced and why he's "the cockroach of this industry."

    Q: You use pseudonyms for yourself as a cinematographer and editor. Were you tempted to credit yourself as an actor for "Presence"?

    SODERBERGH: No, but what I did is subtle. For the first and... Read More

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