Director John Adams, best known for his work in comedy, has joined bicoastal Original for exclusive representation. Adams comes aboard Original after a nearly nine-year run at the now shuttered Form where he directed campaigns for Bud Light, AT&T, Home Depot, and Snickers, among other national brands.
Adams began his career on the agency side as a copywriter and producer, including tenures at FCB San Francisco, Hal Riney & Partners (now Publicis & Hal Riney), San Francisco, and Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore. He broke into directing while serving as head of production at DDB Needham, Dallas.
Adams estimates that he has directed more than 400 spots, most of which leverage his understated approach toward dialogue-driven comedy. His most recent work includes a spot for Cellular One in which a teen reacts in incomprehension when her parents present her with an old fashioned device called a “camera.” (“Who would invent a camera-phone that doesn’t call anyone?” she whines.) He also directed a spot for Home Depot promoting a national “Tool Trade-In” event. In it, a man consoles a buddy who is about to part ways with a treasured, but aging drill.
“I was lucky that, from the start, I got to do things that involved comedy and storytelling,” Adams related. “Styles and fashions change quickly in advertising, but people will always enjoy spots that involve human storytelling.”
Original is led by executive producers Bruce Mellon, Joe Piccirillo, Marc Lasko and Jeff Devlin, and maintains production offices in Los Angeles and New York City. The company’s recently formed postproduction division, headed by Jonathan Del Gatto, provides editorial, design, graphics and visual effects services.
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