By Robert Goldrich
NEW YORK --Daniel Cox–who created and directed the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership’s “Embrace Life” PSA which won a Bronze Lion at the recently concluded Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival–has joined Hungry Man for representation as a director worldwide except for Canada where he continues to be handled by Spy Films.
“Embrace Life” shows a father sitting in his living room, playing and laughing with his family as he pretends to drive a vehicle. He exchanges loving glances with his nearby wife and daughter. Suddenly his facial expression changes as he braces for an impending accident. Immediately his family comes to the rescue. The girl embraces him around the waist, serving as a seatbelt. His wife embraces him diagonally across the chest, serving as a shoulder belt harness. The impact rocks them but all are secure and safe, the human safety belt saving his life.
Cox spearheaded the PSA from start to finish. It sprang from his learning that the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership was looking to produce a positive public service message. He came up with the idea and assembled a team under the Alexander Commercials banner in the U.K. to bring the project to fruition. Cox wrote, directed and edited “Embrace Life,” with Sarah Alexander producing the job. Alexander Commercials was hybrid ad agency/production house on “Embrace Life” but his prime spotmaking and branded content roost from now on is Hungry Man.
The PSA, which debuted in the local Sussex area back in January, has since gone onto attain more than 10 million views online, the Cannes Film Lion honor in the Public Health & Safety category, as well as Gold at the New York International Advertising Awards in Shanghai.
Hungry Man got wind of Cox upon catching him being interviewed about the PSA on CNN. The production house then sought him out, ultimately resulting in his coming aboard its directorial roster.
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