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Ad agency Dentsu tapped Mark Zibert and Gary Thomas to create this spot for Sapporo. The video travels through Japanese history, legend and art in a fanciful view of how Sapporo beer is brewed. The spot was a winner in the Video category of the PDN Photo Annual.
Dominique Palombo’s video for designer Rachel Roy is a winner in the PDN Photo Annual, in the Video category introduced this year. Palombo, a photographer and director, worked with dancers, choreographed by Jermaine Browne, to create the five-minute video. The idea, she says, was to use different styles of movement to showcase the designer’s Spring 2011 line.
The mother of a six-year-old New Jersey girl whose image appeared in controversial anti-abortion ads has sued the advertisers in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan for unauthorized commercial use of the girl’s likeness. The lawsuit calls the ads “offensive, defamatory, and racist.”
Tricia Fraser is suing an anti-abortion group based in Texas called Life Always and its ad agency, Heroic Media, on behalf of her daughter, Anissa Fraser. The claim is over the use of stock photos of Anissa–shot when she was four–that appeared on billboards near the entrance of the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan, and in Jacksonville, Florida. The billboards included text that said, “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.” The billboards are intended to drive traffic to the defendants’ web sites, which solicit donations for their cause.
“While Life Always and Heroic Media certainly have the right to engage in such offensive speech, they do not have the right to exploit the likeness of an innocent child to do so,” Tricia Fraser says in her claim. She asserts that the campaign is “designed to shame African-American women from exercising their constitutional rights to reproductive freedom.”
Fraser and her daughter are African-American. The billboards in question provoked an angry reaction from some people, and drew widespread media coverage before they were finally taken down.
Fraser permitted her daughter to pose for stock photographs in 2009, and admits to signing a “take-it-or-leave-it” model release during the shoot. But Life Always and Heroic Media used her daughter’s likeness illegally, she maintains, because the model release she signed expressly excluded “defamatory use of any photos taken on the shoot.”
“Ms. Fraser was led to believe that the photo would be used by the photographer to publicize his own work. At no point was she told they might be used to illustrate a controversial message or as political propaganda,” the lawsuit says.
Life Always did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The images were allegedly distributed by Getty subsidiary Image Source, and were shot by a photographer identified in the lawsuit as C. Camarena. Neither the agencies nor the photographer are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
According to Fraser’s claim, Getty informs its licensees in writing that they may not use licensed images “in connection with a subject that would be unflattering or unduly controversial to a reasonable person” and that the agency’s license agreement “strictly prohibits” defamatory or otherwise unlawful uses.”
Fraser is seeking an injunction to stop the defendants from using the image in question, and unspecified monetary damages.
Photographer Jim Krantz spent four days in the Colorado mountains working with an extensive crew, a RED Camera, and the Canon EOS 5D on a job which also resulted in a piece for himself called “The Way of The West,” consisting of a mini booklet and accompanying DVD. “I was the project’s live-action director and still photographer,” Krantz says. “That process allowed me to shoot photos, capture live-action footage and later, pull stills from the RED camera motion footage.” To read more about what Krantz terms his “transmedia” promo, check out Right Stuff in PDN’s May print issue.
Fashion retailers are embracing video, with varying degrees of creativity and inspiration. A recent stand-out is Tatiana Arocha’s flip book-style video for Anthropologie. It’s short, sweet, and entertaining, with clever style and design.
Here is a trailer for the promotional video produced by Magnum Photos to promote Bob Dylan’s 2009 record, “Together Through Life.” When Dylan’s management contacted Magnum Photos about licensing an image from Bruce Davidson’s iconic “Brooklyn Gang” series for the cover of the CD, Magnum’s director of publishing, broadcast and film, Michael Shulman, pitched Dylan and his record label, Columbia Records, on the idea of producing a multimedia piece to promote the album. Producer Adrian Kelterborn, a member of Magnum’s in-house multimedia production team, Magnum In Motion, worked with Shulman and the label on the piece. It was shown on Amazon.com to draw attention to the album release.
This and other image licensing projects were featured in “(Re)Sales Opportunities,” in the January 2011 Money Issue of PDN. Subscribers can log in to PDNonline to read the story here.
Still life photographer Dwight Eschliman produced two Lego stop-motion animations for WIRED Magazine’s iPad launch issue. Eschliman says Wired ended up using the first one, Lego iPad, and the Lego Lamborghini piece became a fun outtake. Eschliman says he used two cameras tethered to two capture machines overhead two side-by-side Lego sets (he used the Hasselblad H2 w/ PhaseOne P65+). He started with all of the pieces on one side and simply assembled the Lego Car one piece at a time. “Take picture on right, move piece to left, take picture on left. Repeat 801 times.”
Looking to add video production to his business offering, Toronto-based advertising photographer George Simhoni set out to create a narrative video that might also do some good. He teamed up with a friend, creative director Peter Holmes at Reason Partners, who came up with a concept of a tongue-in-cheek, stay-in-school PSA.
George Simhoni – Manimbaphone from Westside Studio on Vimeo.
If you have a video you would like us to consider for PDN’s Video Picks, just send a link to editor@pdnonline.com.
According to a report released last month by The Nielsen Company, which owns PDN, global ad spending in the first half of 2010 was up over the same period in 2009. The report did not factor in internet spending.
“The U.S. market, which faced six straight quarters of declines in ad spending, has seen a turnaround in 2010,” the report said.
After a dismal 2009, the automotive sector showed a 27% increase in spending in 2010, and auto insurance companies spent 23% more on advertising. Those gains helped increase total ad spend in the U.S. more than 3% since last year.
Print media spending was up in several categories. Local newspapers were up slightly, but national newspapers showed a nearly 11% increase. National Sunday supplements climbed 22%, and national magazines gained more than 2%.
Outdoor advertising grew 1.5%, the report said.
©Chris Floyd-Three unidentified men, Altar, Mexico, 2006
British photographer Chris Floyd reports that two Republican candidates for US Senate have used one of his images (right) in their political ads without permission, and branded the subjects of the image–three Mexicans photographed in Mexico–as illegal immigrants.
“The image was taken and used entirely out of context,” he says. “As well as the copyright issue there is the moral issue of distorting the facts behind the image.”
Sharron Angle and David Vitter, who are running for Senate in Nevada and Louisiana, respectively, used Floyd’s 2006 image in anti-immigration TV ads as part of their campaigns. Angle’s ad states outright that the men are “illegal aliens,” while Vitter’s ad implies that, Floyd says.
He photographed the men in Altar, Mexico while shooting a story about the Minutemen for British GQ. (The Minutemen are a US-based citizens’ volunteer group that patrols the Mexican border in an effort to stop illegal immigration.) Altar, Mexico is a border town where many would-be immigrants stock up on supplies before attempting to enter the US illegally. The subjects of Floyd’s photo were farmers from southern Mexico.
Floyd says it is unclear how Angle and Vitter acquired his image. It is available for editorial use only through his licensing agency, Getty Images, he says. Under pressure from Getty on the issue of copyright infringement, Angle’s ad has been removed from YouTube.
But Floyd says he is pushing for an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and an apology from the two campaigns. “It’s a principled stand, rather than an issue of cash,” he says. Floyd has posted more detailed information on his blog.
