Director Dave Laden, whose PETA PSA “Grace” earlier this month was honored in the Public Service category of the AICP Show, has joined Hungry Man for worldwide representation. Laden helmed “Grace” via Hollywood-based Über Content, his previous production house roost.
Conceived by L.A. agency Matter, the PSA–which made SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery in Nov. 2009–opens at the Thanksgiving dinner table where a family is gathered before a sumptuous feast, which includes a big turkey. A young girl then says grace, expressing “thanks” for the turkey, the turkey farms where they put turkeys in dark little sheds for their entire lives and where the birds’ feathers are burned while they’re still alive. She then gives thanks for the people who think it’s fun to kill turkey’s by stomping on their heads, and for “the chemicals, dirt and poop inside the turkey we’re about to eat.”
At the very end of grace, she adds, “And thank you for rainbows.” A supered message concluding the spot reads, “Go Veg–PETA.”
Laden’s industry roots are in ad agency soil. He began his career as an art director at Ogilvy & Mather, New York, working on such accounts as American Express, IBM and Hershey’s. He went on to become an associate creative director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, creating for Comcast, the California Milk Processor Board and Saturn, among other clients. During his Goodby tenure, he also got the opportunity to direct commercials for Saturn, the X-Games and nonprofit organization called Youth Speaks.
Laden directed projects via Teak Motion Visuals, a San Francisco-based hybrid editorial/production shop, before joining Über Content in late ’07.
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