By Robert Goldrich
You’ve heard about a basketball player taking another “to school,” meaning he or she has convincingly outperformed his or her opponent on the court. Well now literally being taken to school–albeit elementary school–is Ruth Riley, star center for the WNBA’s Detroit Shock women’s professional basketball team.
We see Riley get off a yellow school bus. First she’s on the public address system announcing the cafeteria’s menu to the student body. Next, she in a classroom diagramming basketball plays–including a pick ‘n roll off of a double screen–on an overhead projector.
Seated at a small desk along with her new pint-sized playmates, the six-foot-five Riley is handed a note asking “Do you like me?” with “no” and “yes” boxes–each waiting for a check mark. We then see her using a hand-crank pencil sharpener.
Next we’re in arts class, with Riley constructing a mini-replica of the 2003 WNBA championship trophy. Meanwhile a little boy has built a miniature penguin.
From the classroom, we’re taken to the gymnasium, where Riley is blocking shot after shot being put up by her height-deprived classmates. Then it’s high fives all the way around, with Riley congratulating each of her fellow students.
The camera shows us a basketball on which the message, “It’s personal,” is written. Next we see a Detroit Shock logo on a basketball and then contact information for buying tickets to the team’s home games. At that point, we hear a child say to Riley, “You’re not really in the fifth grade.”
The spot was directed by Paul Riccio of Public Domain, New York, for agency Olson & Company, Minneapolis.
Steve Shore executive produced for Public Domain, with Alicia Valdez serving as line producer. The DP was Ari Issler.
The agency creative team consisted of creative director Tom Fugleberg, art director Derek Till, copywriter Scott Dahl and producer Joel Dodson.
Editor was Pete Fritz of Ohio Edit, New York. Audio mixer/sound designer was Conrad Sanguineti of Phantom Audio, New York.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