Superprime–the company recently launched by managing director/EP Rebecca Skinner, managing director/sales Michelle Ross and managing director John Lesher, an Oscar-winning producer for Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)–has signed director Laurence Dunmore whose credits include spots for BMW, Amex, AT&T, adidas, AXE, adidas, Armani. Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Tullamore Dew, and Liberty Mutual (lauded work in the “Responsibility” campaign for Hill Holliday, Boston).
The Axe work combined humor and a fluid visual style, resulting in several awards, including Dunmore’s first Cannes Gold Lion. Adidas, a blend of offbeat comedy, surreal staging and sports celebs, also gained recognition at Cannes as well as a D&AD Silver Pencil. BMW earned an AICP Show honor.
Dunmore’s recent credits include Chobani’s “Love This Life” campaign, a film for Tullamore Dew (which picked up a Silver Lion) and a spot for Bacardi’s Bombay Sapphire which celebrated the botanicals used to create the drink by taking viewers everywhere from Morocco to Java to West Africa to find “the sublime.”
Having worked as a commercial director since 1997, Dunmore made his feature film debut with a 2004 release, the British production of The Libertine, which collected eight British Independent Film Award nominations, including Best Director.
Prior to joining Superprime, Dunmore was at RSA.
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