Breakout "Fly Me Away" Ad For Amazon Kindle Establishes Team's Commercial Reel
The directing duo Angela+Ithyle–Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths-has joined the roster of Workhorse Media, a Santa Monica-based shop headed by executive producer Pola Brown.
Putting Angela+Ithyle on the directorial map was the Amazon Kindle spot “Fly Me Away” which they conceived while traveling on a multi-national commercial photography campaign for Microsoft. The commercial photographers created the stop motion animation spot as an entry in an online user-generated contest, which they wound up winning. Amazon went on to air the spot on TV and then approached the directorial team to create an entire campaign.
Workhorse becomes the first production house to represent Angela+Ithyle. Exec producer Brown said “Fly Me Away” was an instant favorite of hers. She described the pair as having “style and energy in their work that is very contemporary and I wanted to bring their progressive style to our roster.”
Since then, Angela+Ithyle have released a second spot, “Stole Your Heart.” A third Kindle commercial will be out just in time for Mother’s Day.
Kohler studied photography at Brigham Young University before launching her commercial photography career in New York working for such clients as Old Navy, Lexus and Scion. Her fashionable, lifestyle photography is feminine and whimsical while also engaging the audience’s sense of fun and adventure.
Griffiths is a self-taught photographer as well as an artist and musician, working for such clients as David & Goliath, Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi. Griffiths’ camera is a fly on the wall, very much in the moment capturing the triumphs of children and the parallels of adulthood.
Together, Angela+Ithyle see signing with Workhorse Media as a way to connect with new audiences. “We want to show viewers something that makes them think, that makes them remember the most enchanting parts of their lives,” said Kohler. Griffiths added, “We want to make work that taps into a sense of play.”
Workhorse Media is represented by Char & Associates on the West Coast, Patti Renick on the East Coast, and Doug Stephen in the Midwest.
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