Los Angeles-based DUCK has signed French-Swiss directing and art directing duo Ben & Julia.
Los Angeles-based DUCK Studios has signed French-Swiss directing and art directing duo Ben & Julia. The duo, who run Ben & Julia Studios in Berlin, are multidisciplinary talents whose work spans mixing animations, shooting live footage, producing drawings, and manufacturing puppetry for commercials, virals, music videos and animations. Ben & Julia first joined forces in 2006. Prior to this, Julia spent time as an associate producer and graphic designer for MTV and as an art director for TV and press. Ben worked as a director, editor and VFX artist for various agencies in Paris….Toronto-based production house Brown has signed director Scott Otto Anderson. The up-and-coming Sydney-based filmmaker, artist and designer directs music videos, television and commercial programming. Recently Andersen completed a feature-length documentary entitled Hairtales which is currently on the festival circuit. His experience as a spot director spans such clients as MTV, Honda, Lexus, Canon and Cadbury while also directing the cult music show, Alchemy, on SBS TV in Sydney. He also directs music videos for popular bands and musicians including Lady Sovereign's “Those Were The Days.” Anderson is a founding member of the directing collective Family and in 2009 he formed the company Photoplay Films with long-time collaborator Oliver Lawrence. Anderson's work for Wateraid was recognized in 2006 with a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He is repped by Saville Productions in the U.S. and Les Producers in France….Milla Stolte has joined goodness Mfg., a Trailer Park company, as director of strategy & planning, a newly created position at the agency. Stolte will oversee goodness' now combined planning and social media groups. Stolte spent the past two years at Tribal DDB N.Y. as head of planning & strategy across all accounts–Reebok, H&R Block, Disney, Nickelodeon, et al. She also led Tribal's social media arm, Radar. Prior to that, Stolte was a planner at Modernista!, focusing on accounts such as Hummer, Napster and Product (RED). Stolte is currently involved in several new business pitches for goodness, in addition to projects in development for LucasArts and Coda….
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