Former executive VP, group creative director at Deutsch LA
Jason Elm has been appointed chief creative officer of DDB California. In this role, Elm will lead the California creative department and will be responsible for all its output. He reports to Mike Harris, CEO of DDB California.
Elm fills the CCO role previously held by Lisa Bennett who became executive VP, creative at DDB North American in January.
Prior to joining DDB, Elm served as executive VP, group creative director at Deutsch LA, where he oversaw all Diamond Foods brands, such as Pop Secret, Emerald Nuts and Kettle Brand Chips. Most recently, he helmed the Sony PlayStation account for five years.
A Los Angeles native, Elm joined Deutsch in 1998 as a copywriter and was a key part of the agency’s culture and growth for 15 years, penning ads for clients including Expedia.com, Coors Light, DirecTV, California Milk Advisory Board and Mitsubishi. Elm began his career with stints at Southern California agencies including Bozell and Lois/Colby.
Elm is well known for having personally created the Twitter feed for PlayStation’s @TheKevinButler, which became the most-followed brand character on Twitter. His California Cheese “Happy Cows–Sprinkler” spot was voted “Best of SuperBowl XXXVIII” by CBS, and the PlayStation “To Michael” film was awarded in Cannes, The One Show, D&AD and Clios.
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