By Christine Champagne
If you are a parent, you have probably been in this position: The night before school, your child suddenly informs you that he or she desperately needs a few random items for class the next day. And, of course, it’s always something-like a clarinet reed or a baseball glove-which you can’t just pick up at an all-night convenience store. Next morning, you find yourself scrambling to locate the necessary objects so your kid won’t go off to class empty-handed and disappointed.
That’s exactly the scenario cleverly portrayed in a new Debit MasterCard spot created by McCann-Erickson, New York, and directed by Samuel Bayer of bicoastal Mars Media for MasterCard International Corporation. Shoot Online subscribers may read this week’s Top Spot of the Week in full by accessing the Current Issue in the Members Area.
CLIENT
MasterCard International Corporation/Debit MasterCard.
PRODUCTION CO.
Mars Media, bicoastal.
Samuel Bayer, director/DP; Stavros Merjos, president; Bill Sandwick and Tracie Norfleet, executive producers; Linda Masse, producer. Shot at Los Angeles Center Studios, and on location in Los Angeles and Montrose, Calif.
AGENCY
McCann-Erickson, New York.
Joyce King Thomas, executive VP/deputy creative director; Larry Platt, senior copywriter; David Fox, art director; Jonathan Shipman, VP/executive producer.
EDITORIAL
Bug Editorial, New York.
Andre Betz, editor.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Company 3, Santa Monica.
Stefan Sonnenfeld, colorist.
Nice Shoes, New York.
Tim Crean, online editor/visual effects artist.
AUDIO POST
The Anx, New York.
Carl Mandelbaum, mixer.
MUSIC
Big Foote Music, New York.
Sherman Foote and Darren Solomon, composers; Ray Foote, executive producer.
SOUND DESIGN
Bug Editorial.
Andre Betz, sound designer.
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 โ 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