The latest spot for the all-electric Nissan LEAF automobile is quite a departure from the anthem “Polar Bear” commercial yet cut from the same pro-ecological cloth. This time, we’re asked to imagine a world where everything is gasoline powered.
We open on a man waking up to his gas-powered alarm clock from which spews exhaust. Getting ready for work takes us to the kitchen where a gent jump starts the toaster while his wife gases up the microwave oven. In the bathroom, exhaust belches out from a woman’s hair dryer.
Out on the street, we see a female jogger with a gas-powered pedometer; she scampers past a man who’s talking on his petrol-powered cellphone.
Next we’re at the workplace where a man turns the key and puts his foot on the gas pedal to boot up his personal desktop computer. A repair man reads the oil dipstick on the copier machine. Fueling up the office machinery is as simple as going to the proverbial water cooler–but instead of H20, the cooler with a pump is filled with gasoline as workers stop buy to fill up.
We’re even taken to a dentist’s waiting room where we hear a drill being revved up like a sports car engine. Inside, a patient says “ahh” as the dentist pulls the cord on his power drill akin to how a gardener would be pulling the cord to start his gasoline-driven lawn mower.
The spot then takes us to a gas station where a hybrid car, GM’s Volt, is getting a fill-up.
A voiceover asks, “What if everything ran on gas?”
He continues, “Then again, what if everything didn’t?”
The spot concludes with an eyeful of Nissan’s 100 percent electric LEAF.
Dante Ariola of MJZ directed “Gas Powered Everything” for TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles, with visual effects from The Mill LA.
Matthew Libatique, ASC, was the DP. Editor was Gavin Cutler of Mackenzie Cutler. Colorist was Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3. Ren Klyce of Mit Out Sound was the sound designer. Music house was Black Iris Music.
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