Anonymous Content has signed award-winning comedy director Brian Billow for commercial representation as well as film and TV management. Billow’s body of work is versatile across the comedy genre, spanning performance, dialogue and visually driven storytelling. Honored this year with a One Show Silver Pencil for Walmart’s “Baby Comedian” (The Martin Agency) and a Bronze Lion for GameStop’s “Yay” (The Richards Group), Billow has an industry pedigree that also includes honored work as a creative director at DDB Chicago and McCann Erickson NY for brands such as MasterCard, Budweiser and Wrigley’s.
Billow’s directorial credits include spots for Paddy Power (Crispin Porter + Bogusky), Miracle Whip (mcgarrybowen, Chicago) and White Pages (Clemenger BBDO). He has also directed notable spots for Nike, Chicago White Sox, Honda, Keystone Beer, McDonald’s, M&Ms and IKEA.
He formerly was at Hungry Man which signed him back in 2008, just prior to his gaining inclusion into that year’s SHOOT New Directors Showcase at the DGA Theatre in New York.
Eric Stern, sr. executive producer at Anonymous Content, said that Billow offers “a unique, understated and subtle comedic style” which is “a great complement to our roster that tends to get a lot of attention for big visual storytelling. He’s someone I have had my eye on since he was a creative director.”
Billow is managed for film and TV by Anonymous Content’s Bard Dorros and Luke Rivett.
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