Chicago-headquartered Leo Burnett Co. has hired veteran commercial music composer Ira Antelis as director of Music-Aid. This new initiative is driven by Burnett USA chairman/chief creative officer Cheryl Berman to promote effective music use in TV, radio and online advertising. Antelis, who maintains his Chicago-based Antelis Music (which will work only on Burnett and non ad-related projects), will collaborate directly with the agency’s creative and production departments. He will report to Burnett director of television production Jonathan Davis….Seth Epstein, founder of Santa Monica-based Fuel, has exited Razorfish, the New York-headquartered digital communications firm that acquired Fuel last year. Epstein was unavailable for comment at press time. But according to Fuel executive producer Matthew Marquis, the production house will continue to represent Epstein as a spot director….Director Dennis Gallegos has joined New York-based eo productions….In an effort to reposition itself as a new media company as well as a commercial house, Dallas-based Concrete Productions is changing its name to Blind Spot Media and is opening a Santa Monica office; the Concrete directorial roster remains intact and new signings are pending….New York-based editorial and design house 89 Greene has become the exclusive U.S. rep for Kuala Lumpur-based editor Kate James….Creative director/designer Nicholas Koenig has entered into an exclusive relationship with Radium, which maintains digital studios in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He will focus on production design, storyboards, matte paintings and character design for spots, but will also be involved in CG R&D of various animated characters for new intellectual properties….Karen Bianca has been named head of production at bicoastal Curious Pictures….Composer/producer Sidney Woloshin of music house Sid Woloshin, New York, has died of pneumonia at the age of 72.…
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