Ad agency BEING, a unit of TBWA, has given voice to the up until now silent Mr. Peanut character, with help from director Ringan Ledwidge of Smuggler and stop motion animation out of LAIKA/house with Mark Gustafson serving as supervising animation director and Kirk Kelley as creative director/animation director.
The voice happens to be that of actor Robert Downey Jr, as we see Mr. Peanut hosting a holiday party replete with some characters just as, if not more, offbeat than a talking, monocled peanut, including a root beer drinking cricket a mouse-y waiter and a bird who’s trying to serve nuts to a taxidermied creature.
The BEING creative team included creative directors Kris Wixom and Alisa Sengel Wixom, copywriters Jonathan Marshall and Josh DiMarcantonio, and art director Eric Stevens. David Fisher was sr. producer for TBWA’s Media Arts.
SAG-AFTRA Calls For A Strike Against “League of Legends”
"League of Legends" is caught in the middle of a dispute between Hollywood's actors union and an audio company that provides voiceover services for the blockbuster online multiplayer game.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called a strike against "League of Legends" on Tuesday, arguing that Formosa Interactive attempted to get around the ongoing video game strike by hiring non-union actors to work on an unrelated title.
Formosa tried to "cancel" the unnamed video game, which was covered by the strike, shortly after the start of the work stoppage, SAG-AFTRA said. The union said when Formosa learned it could not cancel the game, the company "secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for 'non-union' talent only." In response, the union's interactive negotiating committee voted unanimously to file an unfair labor practice charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board and to call a strike against "League of Legends" as part of that charge.
"League of Legends" is one of Formosa's most well-known projects. The company provides voiceover services for the game, according to SAG-AFTRA.
SAG-AFTRA has accused Formosa of interfering with protections that allow performers to form or join a union and prevent those performers from being discriminated against — a move the union called "egregious violations of core tenets of labor law."
Formosa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "League of Legends" developer Riot Games said that the company "has nothing to do" with the union's complaint.
"We want to be clear: Since becoming a union project five years ago, 'League of Legends' has only asked Formosa to engage with union... Read More