Jason McCann has been named creative director in AKQA‘s New York office, where he will report to chief creative officer Rei Inamoto. McCann joins AKQA from TAXI Toronto where he served as VP, co-executive creative director, working with brands such as TELUS, MINI Canada and the Toronto International Film Festival.
McCann brings 15 years experience to his new roost. Since starting at TAXI in 2003, McCann helped build the agency’s interactive reputation with global award-winning campaigns for MINI Canada that earned multiple Cannes Cyber Lions. During his tenure at TAXI, Jason served as ECD, Digital for all six North American offices and spent two years in its New York office working on clients such as New York Life and Blue Shield of California.
McCann joins an office that has grown significantly in 2011, broadening and attracting a diverse array of clients and services across consumer goods, financial services, retail and more. In the past quarter, AKQA in New York has broadened relationships with a number of clients such as Kraft.
As the business has grown, AKQA has filled the ranks with complementary creative leads who come from strong backgrounds in storytelling, product innovation, design and advertising. McCann is the third creative director to join AKQA’s team in New York this year, following Jim Wood and Lynn Teo, who also serves as head of user experience.
TikTok’s Fate Arrives At Supreme Court; Arguments Center On Free Speech and National Security
In one of the most important cases of the social media age, free speech and national security collide at the Supreme Court on Friday in arguments over the fate of TikTok, a wildly popular digital platform that roughly half the people in the United States use for entertainment and information.
TikTok says it plans to shut down the social media site in the U.S. by Jan. 19 unless the Supreme Court strikes down or otherwise delays the effective date of a law aimed at forcing TikTok's sale by its Chinese parent company.
Working on a tight deadline, the justices also have before them a plea from President-elect Donald Trump, who has dropped his earlier support for a ban, to give him and his new administration time to reach a "political resolution" and avoid deciding the case. It's unclear if the court will take the Republican president-elect's views — a highly unusual attempt to influence a case — into account.
TikTok and China-based ByteDance, as well as content creators and users, argue the law is a dramatic violation of the Constitution's free speech guarantee.
"Rarely if ever has the court confronted a free-speech case that matters to so many people," lawyers for the users and content creators wrote. Content creators are anxiously awaiting a decision that could upend their livelihoods and are eyeing other platforms.
The case represents another example of the court being asked to rule about a medium with which the justices have acknowledged they have little familiarity or expertise, though they often weigh in on meaty issues involving restrictions on speech.
The Biden administration, defending the law that President Joe Biden signed in April after it was approved by wide bipartisan majorities in Congress, contends that... Read More