Director Barton Landsman, formerly of @radical.media, has joined the roster of Third Street Mining Company, the Los Angeles-based shop launched earlier this year by executive producer John LaChapelle and director Neil Tardio Jr. (SHOOTonline, 3/5).
Landsman is a versatile talent who is perhaps best known for his work in comedy. Among his most recent credits are spots for Time Warner Cable and For Eyes Optical. His notable credits over the years span such clients as ESPN, FedEx, AT&T, Monster.com, NFL on FOX, Purina, Sony, the viral hit “Drunken Monkey” PSA (for the U.K.), and Telstra (for Australia).
On the awards front, his “Zoo” spot for Nestle Barrettes out of Paris agency Lowe Alice scored a Cannes Gold Lion.
Landsman made his first major industry mark on the agency side of the business. He worked as a copywriter and creative director at shops that included BBDO New York and Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners (now Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners), N.Y., before transitioning to the director’s chair. Landsman’s first directing job was for FOX Sports.
Third Street Mining is handled by indie reps Ann McKallagatt on the East Coast, Nikki Weiss & Company in the Midwest, Connie Mellors & Company and Lisa G Reps (Lisa Gimenez Toliver) out West, and The Gossip Company (Jessica Berry) and Alyson Griffith in Texas.
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