Noted design, animation and mixed media collective Psyop, with operations in New York and Venice, Calif., has joined bicoastal/international production house Smuggler for worldwide representation and production.
The move brings together two high profile entities. Psyop’s body of work includes campaigns for such clients as adidas, Coca-Cola (including the lauded “Happiness Factory” directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick for Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam), Fanta, Guinness, Orangina and Renault. Along the way the Psyop coterie of talent has earned Silver Cannes Lions, multiple AICP Show honors, a Gold Clio and a Silver Art Directors Club Award.
Meanwhile Smuggler’s trophy case includes the Cannes Lions Grand Prix and the Palme d’Or, and a directorial roster featuring the likes of Jaron Albertin, Steve Ayson, Brian Beletic, Adam Berg, Jun Diaz, Filip Engstrom, David Frankham, Nacho Gayan, The Guard Brothers, Neil Harris, Randy Krallman, Renny Maslow, Bennett Miller, Henry Alex-Rubin, Guy Shelmerdine, Chris Smith, Stylewar, Jon Watts and Ivan Zacharias.
“I think that together both companies will be stronger and have the experience and ambition to take on different challenges,” said Patrick Milling Smith, Smuggler’s executive producer.
Justin Booth-Clibborn, Psyop’s managing partner, concurred, “Both companies have built strong brands by focusing on producing great creative work, so it’s obviously a good fit at a time when the industry is producing tremendous new opportunities and challenges both creatively and in terms of production.”
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