London-based Colonel Blimp has signed filmmaker Billy Lumby for commercials and music videos. His short film God View was an experimental drama shot entirely from above using a specially designed bodyrig. After a run of top festivals and awards (including Clermont-Ferrand, Seoul, Encounters, St. Petersburg), it was bought by Canal+ and broadcast on TV in France, Spain, Switzerland and across Africa. Lumby’s latest film SAMUEL-613 was commissioned by Dazed magazine and won this year’s Pears Short Film prize. Produced in association with UK Jewish Film, it explores London’s Hasidic community, gaining unprecedented access for a drama, including non-professional actors and Yiddish dialogue….
Anheuser-Busch InBev has entered into a strategic partnership with Wieden+Kennedy, which will take the creative lead on campaigns for the global brand Corona and for Bud Light. W+K New York will handle Bud Light, previously a BBDO account. W+K Amsterdam will lead global business for Corona….
Dawn Tenny has been promoted to president and CFO of Schneider Optics, and Stuart Singer to sr. VP and CTO of the company. Tenny is a veteran of 22 years at Schneider Optics and has been CFO for the past decade. In her new position as president and CFO, she will oversee all company operations in partnership with CEO Dwight Lindsey. Meanwhile in his new position, Singer, a 20=plus year veteran of the company, will manage Schneider’s team regarding technical developments and customer requirements, as well as all aspects of the Industrial Optics portion of the Schneider business in the United States. A renowned industrial optics expert, Singer holds numerous optical distinctions. Singer was an integral part of the development of Schneider’s industry-leading Motion Picture Filter products, and is a sr. member of the Society of Optics and Photonics Engineering worldwide (SPIE). He lectures around the country on advanced optics, robotic and machine vision, as well as authoring numerous esteemed technical papers….
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 โ 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