Cole & Weber United has brought John Maxham on board as executive creative director. He will report directly to Mike Doherty, president of the Seattle-based agency that is part of WPP‘s United Network.
Most recently, Maxham was at DDB as senior VP/group creative director, where he was responsible for the seamless integration of creative in two separate offices (Chicago and St. Louis). While there, he oversaw 30 creatives comprising a general, digital and DM group.
Prior to DDB, Maxham was chief creative officer of Maiden Lane Advertising in San Francisco (formerly Gardner Geary Coll). Earlier he spent three years at Team One in El Segundo, Calif., as creative director where he led 10 creatives, co-founded a new business group and oversaw the advertising launch of Boost Mobile in the U.S.
Maxham started his career at Lowe Worldwide in New York as associate creative director. During his five years there, Maxham did brand work for UPS and Heineken.
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