Director Tom Routson has signed with Moxie Pictures, bicoastal and London, for global spot representation. He comes over from Tool of North America where he has been a prolific comedy helmer for more than 10 years.
Routson’s credits span commercials for such clients as DHL, Bud Light, Allstate, ESPN and Heineken. He directed the lauded Budweiser “Lizards” campaign out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. His international reach is reflected in AICP Show-honored work for such clients as Pohjola Insurance’s “Rock Star” via TBWA Finland, Helsinki, which was honored in the Talent/Performance category, and Nestle Milkybar Munchies’ “When Kids Attack” via Lowe, London, which garnered an AICP honor for Humor.
Additionally Routson has made inroads into emerging platforms, directing and conceiving of Triangle, a live-action interactive short that was one of four produced last year by Tool as part of its “Touching Stories” initiative to explore storytelling potential on Apple’s iPad (SHOOT, 8/20/10). Routson’s strong narrative Triangle is a choose-your-own ending tale of greed and betrayal in which a priest and a tattooed roughneck vie for the affections of a beautiful young woman. At the same time, all three are competing for a suitcase full of money. The adventure ends with someone laying dead in a vacant lot while someone else walks away with the cash–only the viewer (who becomes a video game player of sorts) decides who survives.
Routson made his first industry mark as an agency creative before successfully establishing himself as a director. He served as an art director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, moved over to Fallon as an art director and then returned to Goodby as an associate creative director. In 1999, he decided to pursue a full-time directorial career and signed with Tool.
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