Director Phil Brown has signed with Venice-based Backyard. He had most recently been with Tate USA, Santa Monica, and continues to be repped in Canada by Industry Films.
Brown’s ad industry experience spans the agency and production house sides of the fence. A U.K. native, Brown got his start as an art director at Aberdeen, Scotland-based agency Formula. He made his spot directing debut by way of a competition sponsored by Creative Review; Brown helmed an Absolut Vodka ad, “Absolut Intrigue,” which garnered attention. He then moved to Canada and took an art director position at BBDO Vancouver.
During his BBDO tenure, Brown took another stab at directing when a creative colleague, Bradley Wood, from Palmer Jarvis DDB, Vancouver, offered him an assignment for Fong’s fresh poultry, “Dead Chicken,” which was short listed at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in ’98. Brown and Wood teamed to create the darkly humored spot in which two elderly women are not allowed to board a city bus with a live chicken–so they strangle it.
Shortly after the Cannes recognition, Brown landed spot representation as a director via Radke Films, Toronto, and then in the U.S. at bicoastal The Artists Company. He later shifted from the latter for a stateside representation stint with the former Metro Pictures, and then briefly at bicoastal/international Partizan in ’02. That same year, he moved his Canadian representation to Industry Films, Toronto. In ’05, he signed with Tate for stateside representation.
Brown has gained a reputation as a visual director whose work often reflects a candid yet stylized realism on scales both large and small. Brown’s body of work also reflects a human element ranging from emotionally heart warming to humorous. His credits include high profile campaigns for Volkswagen, The Canadian Ministry of Energy, and Pfizer. Over the years Brown has directed for such major brands as Pepsi, Molson, Sony, Ikea, Samsung, Ford, Toyota, Lexus, Coors, Budweiser, Kia, Visa and MasterCard.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More