Jean Batthany has joined DDB Chicago as sr. VP/group creative director where she will lead all creative endeavors for Safeway. Batthany was most recently creative group head at Merkley + Partners where she managed Arby's, AXA Equitable, Dave & Busters and several projects for the Ad Council. Prior to Merkley + Partners, Jean worked at BBDO New York and Saatchi NY. She's also done award-winning work for Pepsi and British Airways….Creative director/art director/writer Todd Grant has joined Wexley School For Girls. During his career Grant has worked on such brands as Budweiser, Adidas, Porsche, Nike, GotMilk, Burger King, Microsoft and HP. While at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Grant co-created the iconic Budweiser Lizards, and launched the “invent” tagline for HP. At Wexley he will work with clients Wilson, Taco del Mar, Nike, Microsoft, Seattle Sounders and Seahawks, Ford Motors and the University of Washington, among others…..Following a year-long sabbatical, B-Reel creative director/partner Oscar Tillman is rejoining the digital production company's NY office. Furthermore, Patrick Ehrlund has been promoted from art director to creative director at B-Reel New York, where he's been for the past year after relocating from the Stockholm office. And Stockholm-based Petter Westlund, a founding partner at B-Reel, is now chief creative officer, a new title reflecting his ongoing creative and technical contributions to the company….Producer Lauren Shawe has joined the staff of design-focused production studio Leviathan. Most recently she was sr. VFX producer for Smoke & Mirrors, New York. Prior to her three-and-a-half years there, she spent four years as a freelance producer working with such shops as Final Cut NY, Cut+Run, Lost Planet and Transistor Studios. Among her credits over the years are the American Express commercials directed by Wes Anderson and M. Night Shyamalan, Amnesty International's “You Are Powerful” spotfrom Mother London, the 2010 iPad launch spot for Verizon out of mcgarrybowen, and last year's black-and-white Delta commercials from Wieden+Kennedy….Director Andreas Roth (a.k.a. Andy Red) of Recommended Media has been honored with a 2011 “Best in Show” Mobius Award in New Media for Dirt Devil's “The Exorcist,” a :90 student film project which has earned assorted accolades, including helping him gain inclusion into last year's Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase. The mock ad has generated nearly 30 million online hits….
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