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Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment Launches Latest Campaign Against Digital Piracy, PSA Based on a Local High School Student's Concept
Samantha Oliveras, the winner of the Create the Next Spot contest, watches on set as
her idea is turned into a PSA. Photo courtesy of Fathom Communications.
March 19, 2012 - New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment (MOME) launched the next phase of its campaign against digital piracy, aimed to educate NYC youth on the harmful effects of illegal content theft. The campaign was inspired by Samantha Oliveras, a Herbert H. Lehman High School student who won the City’s Create the Next Spot contest last fall.
Samantha worked with MOME, Fathom Communications, Option Squared and other production partners to professionally produce the campaign, which includes a Public Service Announcement video and a print version. From conception to wardrobe, Samantha brought a fresh, teenage perspective to the set. She was also able to learn about the behind-the-scenes process first-hand during production.
“Samantha’s creative idea was chosen because she really captured the spirit of young New Yorkers and explained why this is a problem and what the concerns are for the future,” said Commissioner Katherine Oliver, Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment. “We thought speaking peer-to-peer would be a very effective approach and a new direction for the campaign to take.”
The latest campaign takes a humorous line to educate teens about the consequences of pirating media online. “The spot I’m working on with the City, we’ve actually changed it into a music video,” said Samantha. “It’s just basically two guys that have just been fired because of media piracy, and it kind of has a humorous, quirky feeling to it.”
The PSA video follows two creative industry workers as they pack up their workspaces after losing their jobs as a result of digital piracy. Their story is told through a rap song, and the two workers end up performing a dance number to make up for lost wages. A “pirate” then enters the scene, and the laid-off workers trap him, exacting their revenge.
“It’s an experience, and I think I’m going to remember it for a long time,” Samantha said.
The new PSA is the latest phase of a campaign first launched by the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment in 2007 to combat illegal sales and distributions of DVDs. With piracy now prevalent online, the multimedia campaign “Piracy Doesn’t Work in NYC” was launched Citywide in 2010, with the support of the creative industry and government partners, to raise awareness and educate New Yorkers about the threat of digital piracy to the jobs of nearly 700,000 New Yorkers who make their living working in or supporting the creative industries.
The campaign will be distributed on TV, online and in bus shelters around the City through April. Visit StopPiracyinNYC.com to view the new PSA.
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