From the perspective of peering through a car’s windshield, we see a young man driving along the road. He looks down to change the radio station or perhaps the CD selection on his player, causing him to take his eyes off of what’s in front of him momentarily, at which point, the car hits a bump on the road.
He looks into his rearview mirror and hits the brakes, running back to the site of the impact where he sees a seemingly lifeless porcupine-like creature lying in the middle of the roadway. Upset over the sight of this creature, the driver inexplicably takes off his New Balance Shoes, and rubs the soles together, placing them on the animal. An energy pulsates from the shoes as if they were electro-shock jump starters for the heart, reviving the porcupine, who then bursts into song, crooning the lyrics. “And the world is made of energy and there’s a lot inside of you and there’s a lot inside of me.”
The porcupine then continues his trek across the street as animation transforms the scene to one of idyllic splendor, replete with blooming flora and a rainbow.
A product end shot of the New Balance Zip shoes appears, accompanied by the slogan, “Energy In. Energy Out.”
Russ Lamoureux of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, directed the live action, with animation from New York studio Shilo. The spot was conceived by a creative team at Boston-based agency Almighty consisting of creative directors Chris Smith and Joe Polevy, associate creative director/art director Chad Portas, copywriter Andrew Jasperson, exec producer Matthew Charde and producer Liz Shook.
Live-action DP was Joost Van Starrenburg. For Shilo, creative directors were Andre Stringer and Jose Gomez.
Editor was Matt Rogers of Engine Room, Boston.
TikTok Goes Dark In The U.S.
TikTok's app was removed from prominent app stores on Saturday just before a federal law that would have banned the popular social media platform was scheduled to go into effect.
By 10:50pm Eastern Standard Time, the app was not found on Apple and Google's app stores, which are prohibited from offering the platform under a law that required TikTok's China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a U.S. ban.
When users opened the TikTok app on Saturday evening, they encountered a pop-up message from the company that prevented them from scrolling on videos.
"A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.," the message said. "Unfortunately that means you can't use TikTok for now."
"We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office," the message said. "Please stay tuned!"
Before that announcement went out, the company had said in another message to users that its service would be "temporarily unavailable" and told them its working to restore its U.S. service "as soon as possible."
The federal law, that was signed by President Joe Biden last year, required ByteDance to divest its stake in the TikTok's U.S. platform or face a ban. ByteDance had nine months to sell the U.S. operation to an approved buyer. The company, and TikTok, chose to take legal action against the law and ultimately lost their fight at the Supreme Court on Friday.
Under the statute, mobile app stores are barred from offering TikTok and internet hosting services are prohibited from delivering the service to American users.
Both White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco had said that the Biden... Read More