New York Festivals® International Advertising Awards will honor director Bob Giraldi of bicoastal Giraldi with one of the first ever NYF Living Legend Awards. The filmmaker, whose work spans commercials, music videos, shorts, and features, is scheduled to receive the honor on Thursday, May 5, at the 2011 International Advertising Awards “The New York Show.” Earlier that day he will present a keynote speech, “MY LIFE IN TWENTY–A Lifetime Making TV Commercials & Teaching Others How to Do it Better.”
The NYF Living Legend Award recognizes prominent industry luminaries whose personal excellence and extraordinary contributions have advanced the field of advertising, made a lasting impression on the creative community, and who continue to influence the profession in a significant way.
Giraldi made his first industry mark on the agency side of the business. One of the original Mad Men, he served as a creative director at Young & Rubicam, New York. During his tenure he won numerous awards, and in the middle of the early advertising creative revolution he earned the distinction of being named as one of “101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising.” He made a smooth transition to the director’s chair and has directed more than 4,000 commercials thus far in his career. Giraldi’s advertising campaigns include the Pepsi-Cola campaign with Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, as well as commercials for the Miller Brewing company featuring celebrities such as Dick Butkus, Bob Uecker, John Madden, and Rodney Dangerfield.
Giraldi’s unique visual and musical storytelling abilities set the tone in the early days of MTV music videos. His video for Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” won numerous awards including that year’s coveted American Music Award, the Billboard Music Award and the People’s Choice Award. Giraldi has worked with such music legends as Pat Benatar, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ricky Martin, Hall & Oates and Will Smith.
Giraldi’s feature film, Dinner Rush, with Danny Aiello, John Corbett and Sandra Bernhard, appeared on a number of 2001’s Top 10 lists such as Newsweek and was selected for the prestigious New Directors/New Films Series at MoMa. Among all the awards it was also listed by Roger Ebert as “One of the Best 100 Films in the Last 10 Years.” Giraldi also is the director of Jon Cryer’s Hiding Out.
On the short film front, Giraldi’s The Routine, premiered at Sundance and won Best Drama at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. His My Hometown is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s permanent collection, and two short films; Dream Begins, and A Peculiar City, both integral parts of New York’s national Olympic bid, are now in MoMA’s permanent collection. The director’s latest short, The Grey Coat, is a N.Y. story of a hardworking immigrant Korean family being extorted by two dirty cops and the emergence of an unlikely hero.
Of being selected to receive Living Legend Award, Giraldi related, “I’m humbled, I’m honored, and I’m happy to be recognized — It gets better all the time, just like a 1991 Brunello di Montalcino.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More