R/GA New York has brought industry veteran Steve Whittier on board as executive creative director. Whittier, who will work on the Nike account, has 20 years of experience in both traditional and nontraditional advertising. He has deep experience across a number of categories including action sports, outdoor, youth marketing, automotive, and entertainment. He will report to R/GA’s Nick Law, executive VP, chief creative officer, North America.
Whittier most recently acted as the integrated creative director on the Land Rover USA business at Young & Rubicam, where his work encompassed creative executions across multiple channels including traditional, digital, and direct-to-consumer. In this position, Whittier led a multi-agency collaborative effort to develop numerous campaigns for the brand, including work on several global Land Rover launches alongside Y&R London.
Before joining Y&R, Whittier worked at several other agencies including Factory Design Labs as VP/creative director where he helped grow the agency from a 13-person design shop to a 100-plus-person full-service agency with a national client roster that included Oakley, The North Face, Revo, Brine Lacrosse, and Audi. Prior to Factory Design Labs, he served as creative director at Leo Burnett Kiev for clients such as Fanta, P&G EU, and Coca-Cola.
Whittier has won several Cannes Lions for his work on Land Rover, GE, and Airwalk as well as recognition from The London International Awards, Communication Arts, The Webbys, D&AD and The One Show.
Additionally, Whittier is an advisory board member of Alexandra Cousteau’s Blue Legacy Foundation and a marketing board member of Healing Waters International, a nonprofit organization providing safe water solutions to impoverished communities around the world.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More