By Robert Goldrich
MINNEAPOLIS --Vic Palumbo has been named an executive producer at Fallon, Minneapolis. He comes over from Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore., where he most recently served as the senior producer on the Nike account.
Palumbo explained that he made the decision to join Fallon “because I was looking for greater personal creative challenges. I have always admired and very much look forward to contributing to Fallon’s creative branded content for its existing clients, as well as opportunities in the fiture.”
While at W+K, Palumbo produced an Emmy-winning and three Emmy-nominated Nike commercials, as well as Nike Golf fare that garnered a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. The primetime Emmy Award winner was Nike’s “Move” directed by Jake Scott of bicoastal RSA USA.
At his new roost, Palumbo will report to Brian DiLorenzo, director of broadcast production for Fallon, North America. Prior to W+K, Palumbo produced TV spots for Top-Flite Golf and Budget Rent A Car, among others, at Hill Holliday, Boston, as well as the noted stop-motion animated Lipton Brisk “Rocky” commercial out of J. Walter Thompson, New York.
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 โ 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