Friedman 360 Produces Anti-Gay Language PSA
McCannulls former head of production teams with the Ad Council, Arnold and the NBA on a PSA designed to make teens aware of how anti-gay slurs can hurt.
NBA's Hill and Dudley Team Up to Promote LGBT Tolerance in New PSA
TV spot created by Arnold and produced by Friedman 360 for the
Ad Council will run during league championship broadcasts.
By Pamela Maythenyi
The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the Ad Council have joined with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to debut a series of PSAs featuring Phoenix Suns stars Grant Hill and Jared Dudley designed to address the use of anti-gay language among teens. The TV spot, titled "Wordplay," will air during the NBA Conference Finals on ABC, TNT and ESPN.
Created pro bono by ad agency Arnold Worldwide, New York, and produced by Friedman 360, the production and content company founded by former McCann/New York Head of Production Peter Friedman, the new PSAs communicate that using words such as "gay" in a negative way has serious consequences.
In the TV spot, shot in New York City and Phoenix, a teen says "gay" casually on the basketball court. Hill and Dudley call out that using "gay" when you mean something is "dumb or stupid" is not acceptable, and that the teens are "better than that." The new PSAs direct audiences to visit ThinkB4YouSpeak.com to learn how to get involved and take a pledge against using anti-LGBT language.
It's especially timely in light of Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant's $100,000 fine last month for calling a referee a gay slur after that referee gave Bryant a technical foul during a basketball game. And this week, Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, while sitting on the bench, engaged in a shouting match using a gay slur with a Miami Heat fan. The camera clearly caught Noah referring to the fan with the identical "f-word" gay slur Bryant had used a month earlier. The NBA fined Noah $50,000. In its report on the incident, The New York Times noted the irony of that fact that it took place on a night when the NBA broadcast the PSA during its coverage of that very game.
The spot was directed by Evan Bernard for Friedman 360. Says Friedman, "Brian Schierman, Arnold's producer on the project, approached us knowing that we produce a lot of content in for the sports world. We teamed Evan up with the great creative team at Arnold, and the results were fantastic."
Friedman's company has produced content for The Golf Channel, ESPN, Adidas and Interscope Records. Friedman's background includes serving as the global head of broadcast production for Nike and as executive producer for the PGA. Prior to his stint as head of production at McCann, Friedman held senior production roles at a number of production companies and agencies, including Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO, ILM and others.
Additional creative credits on the spot include John Staffen, Chief Creative Officer; Thom Baginski and Gary Rozanski, Group Creative Directors; Archie Bell, Associate Creative Director; and Mike Santoro, Jr., Copywriter. The spot was cut by Editor Merritt Duff from Cutting Room. The track is “"Make Some Noise," by The Beastie Boys.
Published 23 May, 2011
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