Last year, Paramount+ ascended to the Super Bowl with a groundbreaking campaign featuring over 30 stars from film, TV, sports, and news series coming together to climb the fabled Mount Paramount.
And just this past weekend, Paramount+ returned to the mountain during the AFC Championship game with this “Bonfire” spot, a nod to the highly anticipated Halo series coming to Paramount+ later this year, with the creative having a little bit of fun with the Halo theme song. “Bonfire” stars iCarly’s Miranda Cosgrove, Halo’s Pablo Schreiber, The Good Fight’s Audra McDonald and Christine Baranski, Reno 911’s Thomas Lennon, South Park’s Cartman, Jackass’ Johnny Knoxville, NFL superstars Matt Judon and Jalen Hurts and more talent from across Paramount+ titles. The campaign is also voiced over by Grammy Award winner Tim McGraw.
Also returning to Mount Paramount to direct “Bonfire” was David Shane of production house O Positive.
Credits
Client ViacomCBS/Paramount+ Agency Droga5 NY Tim Gordon, Felix Richter, co-chief creative officer; Dan Kelly, group creative director; Sean Buckhorn, sr. copywriter; Gonzalo Navarro, sr. art director; Emilie Abel, copywriter; Sara Meinecke, art director; Jeremy Fox, executive producer, film; Forrest Holt, sr. producer, film; Adam Vevang, producer, film; Lauren Bautista, associate producer, film. Kathryn Ruocco, group communications strategy director; Emily Mulvey, brand strategy director; Soheyla Escher, sr. communications strategist. Production O Positive David Shane, director; Jeff Kim, DP; Ralph Laucella, Marc Grill, exec producer; Jason Reda, Devon Clark, producers; Maia Javan, production designer; Greg McCollum, first assistant director; Luke Fiegar, production supervisor. Editorial Arcade Dave Anderson, editor; Sam Barden, assistant editor; Sila Soyer, partner/exec producer; Ellen Lavery, producer. Postproduction/VFX The Mill Nathan Kane, executive creative director; TJ Sponzo, exec producer; Colin Blaney, Luis Martin, production supervisors; Joaquina Lopez, producer; Kshitij Khanna, VFX supervisor, 2D lead; Zach Stimell, associate producer; Tara Goodman, production coordinator; James Mulholland, Seon Crawford, CG leads; Oisin O’Driscoll, Joni Brandenburg, colorists; Brian O’Donnell, design; Tara Holland, Luke Midgley, Michael Almodovar, Noah Catan, Andrew Emmerson, Kevan Lee, Matt McDonald, Marxcelo Pasqualino, Tamir Sapir, Akhil A S, 2D team; Abhishek Jain, Bhushan Thakur, Bikash Kalita, Chatta Ravikumar, Chetan Shelar, Jijo Joseph, Jyoti Nikam, Nilesh Patil, Sachin Ranaware, Sagar Gawande, 2D paint; Amit Kumar Shukla, Amit Singh, Apurva Palkar, Ashish Bhange, Avinash Sapale, Deepak Kumar, Jaydeep Rajendra Jadhav, Karthik A, Ketan Prabhakar Gangadhare, Manu PS, Nilesh Kale, Nitin Yashwant Thorat, Rahul Jagtap, Ramchandran Kannappan, Shrikant Jadhav, Vignesh Rajendran, roto; Arsen Arzumanyan, CG previs; Matt Roach, CG FX; Aman Jain, Dinesh B, Dinesh Kanakaraj, Dongili Varaprassad, Kartik Arona, Neveen Srinivasan, Sandeep Kumar Yadav, Shravan Srikanth, Sivasubramanian, CG matte painting; Christian Peck, Michael Davin, CG animation; Arman Matin, Bingi Akhil, Krantikumar Rawat, Nishant Amin, Setty Ashok Chakravarthy, CG lighting; Sathyaraj A, Sriram Namana, Bhushan Ghurade, Santosh Ambre, Vivek Shedge, CG tracking. Music Human James Wells, exec producer; Morgan Visconti, creative lead; Matthew O’Malley, composer. Sound Heard City Stefano Campbello, Evan Mangiamele, Phil Loeb, sound designers/audio mixers; Chenoa Tarin, Ronnie Stapleton, Seth Brogdon, Virginia Wright, Zoltan Monori, assistant engineers; Gloria Pitagorsky, managing director/partner; Sasha Awn, Jackie James, exec producers; Liana Rosenberg, sr. producer; Nick DuVarney, producer; Dylan Stetson, assistant producer.
White Ribbon has launched its “My Friend, Max Hate” campaign in Canada featuring this public service film that follows the journey of a young, isolated boy who becomes influenced by a misogynistic online puppet, “Max Hate.” The PSA reveals how online figures in the manosphere--a network of online communities promoting hateful, misogynistic rhetoric which fuels attitudes among young men and boys that contribute to gender-based violence.
“It’s alarming to see the growing impact of the manosphere and how they are conditioning vulnerable populations such as teens, particularly young men,” said Humberto Carolo, White Ribbon CEO. “These misogynistic online groups have existed for years, but their influence has grown under controversial figures, driving an increase in gender-based violence. With the My Friend, Max Hate campaign, our goal is to expose the damaging influence of misogynistic figures and raise awareness, particularly among young men who are often drawn into these toxic online communities.”
Launching two weeks before Safer Internet Day (February 11), the campaign--from Toronto agency Bensimon Byrne--underscores the importance of online safety and protecting youth through clear content boundaries.
White Ribbon is creating an online resource hub that educates individuals on how to recognize harmful online groups and provides support for young men and boys seeking to escape. Additionally, the campaign will launch a TikTok account, @max_hate_, featuring the PSA ‘My Friend, Max Hate’ puppet to expose how these figures gain influence and spread hate in a space that reaches those most influenced, young men.
The PSA was directed by Angie Bird via Toronto-based Westside Studio.
