MAY 17, 1996/ Partizan Midi Minuit, London and Paris, has opened a U.S. office in New York. The new venture has stateside production support from bicoastal/international Propaganda Films, and has hired Cecilia Arca, formerly of Riviera Films, New York, as head of sales….In Los Angeles, John Cigarini, owner/president of bicoastal BFCS, will shut down that production company by early July…. Robert Campbell has joined Tony Kaye Films, London and West Hollywood, as executive producer. Most recently Campbell was at multinational Spots Films, executive-producing for director Tarsem….
MAY 17, 1991/A coalition of advertising executives in New York has launched Ads Against AIDS (AAA), announcing a nationwide advertising competition to help combat the virus. Heading up production of the winning spots will be Laura Nelson, VP/executive producer, DDB Needham; Carole Cohen, senior VP/broadcast production manager, McCann-Erickson; and Rick Wylie, VP/executive producer, BBDO….Killer Music, Hollywood, has signed 13 major feature composers for spot work—among them, Academy Award-winners Bill Conti, Jerry Goldsmith and Henry Mancini….Swell Pictures has unveiled its new division, Bazooka Graphics, Chicago….
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