In this Charter Communications/Spectrum Cable spot from Brooklyn, NY-based agency Something Different, we’re presented with a slice of life featuring, paradoxically, various demons, monsters and villains (including the black-cloaked merchant of Death) who are fellow train commuters. They seem like regular Joes as they compare notes, discuss mundane aspects of life, and in the process bemoan the nasty practices of their telecommunications providers. In other words, Death is not a good guy–but even he’s shocked and dismayed by the kind of stuff that some satellite and phone companies pull on their customers.
“We all just laughed at the idea of these evil people thinking someone else was horrible” says Something Different chief creative Tommy Henvey, “and it gave us a way to make our point that felt a little more unusual.”
David Shane of O Positive directed “Train” as well as the three other spots in the campaign.
Credits
Client Charter Communications/Spectrum Agency Something Different, Brooklyn, NY Tommy Henvey, chief creative; Patti McConnell, managing partner/executive producer; Richard Ryan, group creative director; Garrett Crabb, sr. producer; Christine Dodd, marketing director; Jamie Eisman, production coordinator. Production O Positive David Shane, director; Ralph Laucella, Marc Grill, exec producers; Ken Licata, producer; Marc Laliberte-Else, DP; Dan Ouellete, production designer. Editorial Crew Cuts Jake Jacobsen, partner/editor; Jake Trill, assistant editor; Sara Arnold, producer; Stephanie Norris, post EFX producer. Music JSM Music Joel Simon, chief creative officer/composer; Seamus Kilmartin, composer; Jeff Fiorello, exec producer.
Continuing their partnership to combat the mental health crisis among America’s youth, the Ad Council and McCann New York have released the latest installment of the “Sound It Out” campaign which focuses on helping parents and caregivers have meaningful conversations with their kids about emotional wellbeing.
The new work, “Listening is a Form of Love,” focuses on the important role parents and caregivers play in supporting young people’s emotional wellbeing and is supported by new data from Surgo Health’s Youth Mental Health Tracker. The survey highlights that: 55% of youth (ages 10-24) report mental health struggles; and one in five youth report symptoms of depression, and one in four report symptoms of anxiety.
The film includes an interactive digital experience that invites parents to practice “holding space” by pressing the space bar to listen to kids sharing what they wish their parents could hear, in their own words. Along with this literal interpretation of the active listening the campaign encourages, the website also gives valuable tools to help parents and caregivers be better listeners, and in turn, better support their kids.
There is also this 60-second PSA--directed by Alex Fischman Cardenas via Greenpoint Pictures--which underscores the power and importance of listening to your loved ones.
