Goodby Silverstein & Partners has brought Mike Costello on board as an associate creative director. Costello comes to GS&P after spending four years at Leo Burnett Chicago as an ACD where he created award-winning work such as Allstate’s “DIY Mayhem” social campaign and Firestone’s “Pick Up” campaign, and most recently co-led the “Van Gogh BnB” effort for the Art Institute of Chicago.
The first-of-its-kind Airbnb “Van Gogh Bnb” “hack” was one of the most celebrated campaigns this year at Cannes, having won a total of 14 Lions (seven golds) across seven different categories. The campaign also nabbed six Clios, including the Grand Clio in Branded Entertainment and Content, and earlier this year it won a coveted D&AD Yellow Pencil. The integrated campaign led to the museum’s highest attendance in 15 years.
Prior to working at Burnett, Costello spent seven years at Arnold Boston as an art director and an ACD. There he was fortunate enough to contribute to award-winning work on ESPN, Carnival Cruise Lines and Celebrity Cruises, Volvo and McDonald’s, and was an integral part of the interactive team on the “truth” anti-smoking campaign.
His work on brands such as “truth,” the Art Institute of Chicago, ESPN, Allstate and others has been recognized internationally by nearly every major award show—including D&AD, Cannes, the ANDYs, the Clios, the Art Directors Club, Communication Arts, AICP Show and the One Show—across nearly every discipline, from social to interactive to print to film. He is a graduate of the VCU Brandcenter and the University of Colorado.
“Throughout his career, Mike has created edgy work that touches culture, from the ‘truth’ campaign to ‘Van Gogh BnB,’” said Margaret Johnson, partner and CCO at GS&P. “This is the kind of work we admire and look forward to seeing more of with his arrival.”
At GS&P Costello joins new creative directors Jens Waernes and Jeff Gillette, along with 11 new hires the agency made in its creative and design departments this summer.
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