This tongue-in-cheek ad, part of a broader based campaign, features famous–or is that infamous?–infomercial pitch man Billy Mays, spokesman for such “as seen on TV” products as Mighty Putty, OxiClean and the Awesome Auger.
In this series of spots directed by Ryan Ebner of bicoastal/international HSI Productions for Arnold, Boston, Mays extols the virtues of ESPN360.com’s live sports website. In “Office,” he in infomercial style boasts of what the live sports feed can do for the workplace. As we see live sports on a computer monitor at an office employee’s desk, Mays notes that the live feed can be seen anywhere as a super informs us, “Even in cubicles.”
Mays awkwardly crawls under a cubicle workstation to explain how live sports magically “travel” through an ethernet cable right into the back of a worker’s computer.
Cheesy testimonials follow, including one from a female office employee who notes that since she’s started watching the ESPN360.com website at work, her job has become “less soul crushing.”
This self-deprecating pitch from Mays, poking fun at himself and the infomercial genre, came from an Arnold team that included chief creative officer Pete Favat, executive creative director Roger Baldacci, creative director Mark St. Amant, art director Allison Hayes, copywriter Justin Galvin and producer Billy Near.
Michael McQuhae produced for HSI. The DP was Stoeps Langensteiner.
Editor was Lawrence Young of bicoastal Cosmo Street.
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