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.”
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