The Mill has hired Pete King as exec producer for its automotive clients and brands. He will be based out of The Mill’s Los Angeles studio and work alongside Alistair Thompson, exec VP, international, and a team of artists, technicians and producers creating content.
King joins The Mill from Big Block where he was an executive producer and responsible for leading the production team that launched the Big Block Design Group (BBDG), and prior to that was at A52 where he worked as a sr. VFX producer. He has extensive experience in producing complex and innovative car commercials, collaborating on high-profile auto brands with Team One, Mullen, David&Goliath, Digitas, Team Detroit, Doner and Innocean Worldwide.
He has produced the BMW M5 TV and viral sensation Bullet, a series of digital campaigns with Digitas Boston for GMC, the Emmy-nominated opening title sequence for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and the rebrands for ESPN for the NFL franchise shows packages.
Thompson said of King, “His understanding and experience bolster our automotive team as we push new boundaries at The Mill to evolve our creative and technical solutions and continue to craft exceptional and photo-real CG cars.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More