By Robert Goldrich
A girl builds a sandcastle at the beach. She looks curiously at something out of our sight–but not for long. We see a small crab walk by–a label with a number is on its shell. He is then joined by other crabs, each with a number.
Next there’s a pelican wearing a number, followed by a starfish and other marine life, including a seal.
A voiceover relates, “If they could, they would. Run the Carpe Diem Santa Monica Classic. A 10K-5K run. All proceeds benefit Heal the Bay.” A parting shot shows a numbered dolphin jumping about in the water.
Heal The Bay is a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to making Santa Monica Bay and Southern California coastal waters safe and healthy for people and marine life. Heal The Bay issues a weekly beach report card that rates water quality at beaches throughout the state. Under the group’s supervision, a Coastal Cleanup Day event attracted more than 10,000 volunteers to the beaches in Los Angeles County.
Marcus McCollum of Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago, directed this PSA for agency Secret Weapon Marketing, Santa Monica.
The Secret Weapon team consisted of creative director Dick Sittig, art director Cameron Webb, copywriter Leah Dieterich and producer Kait Gaskey.
Crossroads principals are Camille Taylor and Dan Lindau, with Peter Abraham serving as executive producer and John Nelson as line producer. The DP was Doug Hostetter.
Editor was Jay Nelson of Cut + Run, Santa Monica. Christie Cash was exec producer. Effects supervisor/online editor was Cut + Run’s Mitch Gardiner. Audio post mixer was Matt Temple of Church Audio Post, Culver City, Calif. Marty Church produced for the audio post house. Colorist was Chico Dowden of Rushes, Los Angeles. Principal actress was Chamberlain Curto.
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