Editor Michael Coletta has joined Red Car‘s national roster. He will tap into the company’s reach across the country, particularly in the New York and Chicago markets where he is quite active. Coletta comes over to Red Car from Nomad Editing Company, which he joined last year.
Known for work with a character-driven comedic flair, Coletta said that his passion is shaping narrative. He has cut for such clients as Budweiser, Volkswagen, MasterCard, Verizon Wireless and Motorola.
Coletta studied film and photography at Columbia College, Chicago. He began his cutting career as an assistant editor at Szabo-Tohtz Editing, which became Skyview Film & Video where he was promoted to full-fledged editor. After a decade there, he moved to The Lookinglass Company, which eventually merged with and became part of The Whitehouse.
At Lookinglass, Coletta edited Budweiser’s “Out of Towner,” “Jerry” and “Phone Chain,” spots directed by Allen Coulter of Hungry Man for DDB Chicago which collectively earned a 2002 AICP Show honor in the Advertising Excellence/Campaign category. (Coulter is now with Station Film.)
“Out of Towner” was also nominated for a primetime commercial Emmy in ’02. In the ad, the Jersey Guys of “how ya doin'” fame meet their match in the person of a country bumpkin who walks into their bar hangout. The stranger is from out of town and repeatedly answers the “how ya doin'” query with his mundane just-flew-into-the-airport, met-some-nice-people, visiting-relatives recap of his vacation experience.
Coletta later relocated from Chicago to New York and joined Bug Editorial where he worked for three years before hooking up with 89 Editorial in ’04. At 89 Editorial, he worked on numerous high profile spots and campaigns, including the True Blood commercial promo series, and Purity Organics’ viral spot “Tirade.”
The latter, directed by Geordie Stephens of Tool of North America for McCann Erickson, New York, was a SHOOT Top Spot of the Week (8/7/09).
The commercial opens on a businessman who has lost his cool on the phone and expresses his anger for what’s being done to him by cursing his displeasure to a colleague. We only hear the business guy’s end of the conversation–or at least a portion of it as each swear word is bleeped out. At some points we hear one prolonged bleeping tone. The man’s anger escalates until he takes a swig from a bottle of Purity Organic Juice. The drink proves to be an instant calming elixir as the guy takes a deep breath and asks, “Anyway, how are the kids doing?” He goes on to say that he’s doing fine, that he is still singing in the church group and life is good.
His transformation reaffirms Purity’s slogan that its juices help people “become more pure.”
As for recent work, Coletta edited via Nomad a Little Debbie campaign directed by Steve Chase of Curious Pictures for agency Luckie & Company. Those spots are slated to air in early September.
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