Established this past summer as a postproduction, sound design/ mixing and visual effects holding company, New York-headquartered Burning Suits has changed its name in light of the Sept. 11 tragedy. The new moniker is Creative Content Studios (CCS), with holdings that consist of New York houses Super Dupe, East Side Video, Lower East Side Studios, Arc Light, Crush and Post Perfect. Each shop retains its own name and identity under the CCS brand. CCS CEO Steve Hendricks explained that Burning Suits NYC was originally chosen as a name "to connote the spark of creative thinking and outstanding talent. We feel the same message can be conveyed as Creative Content Studios."……MTV Commercials, New York, has been shut down as part of the network’s consolidation….Director/cinematographer Carolyn Chen has joined bicoastal/international Believe Media for exclusive spot representation. Her former directorial roost was Picture Park, Boston and Santa Monica. She continues to be repped as a DP by ICM….Key artists and support personnel from Santa Monica-based 525 Studios are headed for digital studio R!OT, Santa Monica. In tandem with this infusion of talent into R!OT, plans call for 525 to curtail operations by year’s end. Both R!OT and 525 are members of the Liberty Livewire Pictures Group…..Director Scott Young and producer Todd Young, who had both been freelancing, have teamed to launch Addiction Films. Currently housed in interim space in Venice, Calif., the new venture is in the process of lining up sales representation….Director Tony Kaye is being repped as a composer through Amber Music, New York and London….NFL Films, Mount Laurel, N.J., has signed director Pier Nicola D’Amico….Executive producer Dick Gillespie has departed Spoke Films, Los Angeles and Chicago….Writer/director Linda Hassani has joined Steel Productions, New York…J. Walter Thompson San Francisco has merged with Tonic 360, a San Francisco shop that provides Internet-based services for its clientele. The new entity is called JWT & Tonic. Tonic 360 had been operating as a separate JWT unit ever since it was bought by the multinational agency in Oct. 2000. That acquistion took place after JWT’s New York office and Tonic 360 teamed to make a successful pitch for the Sun Microsystems account….Chuck Meehan and Tricia Ting have joined Los Angeles-headquartered ad agency davidandgoliath as associate creative director and art director, respectively. Meehan, who will play a principal role in spearheading work on the Universal Orlando acount, comes over from Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, where he served as a senior writer. Ting was most recently an art director at Leagas Delaney, San Francisco….
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