April 17, 2009
Darren Spiller, who made a major creative splash Down Under, is slated to become chief creative officer of Fallon Minneapolis in late spring. He comes to Fallon Minneapolis by way of Publicis Mojo in Melbourne, Australia, where he most recently served as regional executive creative director and a member of the Publicis Global Creative Board…. Euro RSCG Chicago has extended its interactive reach, bringing aboard Alexis Chiagouris and Rina Mallick as digital strategist and digital creative director, respectively. These appointments—which are both new positions at Euro RSCG Chicago—come on the heels of Sprint awarding digital marketing business to the agency. Chiagouris will provide digital strategy and analytics expertise for the Sprint account, while Mallick will manage the account’s interactive creative direction…. Director Marc R. Wilkins has joined Caviar, a production house which maintains operations in Venice, Calif., Brussels and Amsterdam. He comes to Caviar from Paranoid US. Wilkins’ spot credits span such clients as Sprint, BMW, T-Mobile, Mercedes-Benz and Coca-Cola….
April 16, 2004
Noted feature composer Philip Glass (The Truman Show, The Hours, Secret Window) has made his spotmaking debut, wrapping music for two Altoids ads out of Leo Burnett USA, Chicago. Glass took on the commercials via Groove Addicts, the music/sound design house headed by creative director Dain Blair. Glass becomes the latest feature composer to come aboard Groove Addicts for select spot assignments. That roster includes Stewart Copeland (Wall Street, On the Line, Rumble Fish), Danny Elfman (Spider-Man, Batman, Good Will Hunting), Elmer Bernstein (Sweet Smell of Success, Magnificent Seven, To Kill A Mockingbird) and Jerry Goldsmith (L.A. Confidential, Alien, Chinatown)….Director Michael Patterson, formerly of Visitor, has joined Green Dot Films. Patterson, who had been at Visitor for about a year, is best known for his long tenure at Rhythm & Hues….Richard Cormier has been named senior VP at Nice Shoes, NY, which also serves as the umbrella for NY-based VFX company Guava and design unit Freestyle Collective. Most recently, Cormier served as sr. VP of commercial digital services at Ascent Media Group, following four years as managing director of Ascent company R!OT, Santa Monica. During that time, he oversaw the merger of POP, POP Animation, Digital Magic, 525 Studios, Hollywood Digital West and the original Riot into what is today R!OT….
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