Bicoastal Brand New School has hired Ned Brown as executive producer for its Santa Monica office. He will work closely with Brand New School founder/creative director Jonathan Notaro, creative director Jens Gehlhaar and New York exec producer Danny Rosenbloom.
Brown most recently served as an exec producer at Hello & Co, a bicoastal house spawned by the coming together of companies Rock Fight and HKM. He earlier was exec producer at Rock Fight and HKM. At Rock Fight he oversaw the production of hundreds of high profile ad campaigns, including the Orbit Gum launch, and work for Absolut Vodka, Pizza Hut, Infiniti, Lexus, Saturn and Toyota. Brown had a hand in starting Rock Fight which merged with HKM in ’08, and then the two companies joined to form Hello & Co.
Prior to Rock Fight, Brown was exec producer at The Directors Bureau in a close ongoing collaboration with directors Mike Mills and Roman Coppola. Brown helped evolve The Directors Bureau from music video production shop to a prolific commercial production house.
The talent of the Brand New School directing collective, which works in all fields of commercial art, attracted Brown to his new roost. “Our industry is in a state of flux, in ways that none of us at this point fully understand,” said Brown. “With Brand New School’s collection of talented and dynamic people, we are poised to excel in whatever new direction the business goes.”
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