With seven Gold, 11 Silver and 11 Bronze medals at The New York Festivals International Advertising Awards held last night at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan, the German agency Jung von Matt took home the prestigious Agency of the Year Award, with Volkswagen winning Advertiser of the Year honors on the strength of nine Gold, six Silver and seven Bronze medals.
In an innovative approach to television advertising Jung von Matt designed an entire “Commercial Break” to feature DHL. Opening and closing shots portray a DHL delivery man receiving and dropping off packages and then feature the truck en route during normal commercial spots for brands such as Ricola and Rama.
One of the many impressive Volkswagen endeavors came out of Grabarz & Partner Werbeagentur GmbH, of Hamburg, Germany, which took an auteur approach to its Gold-winning TV spot for the Volkswagen Phaeton. Filmed in black and white, the commercial uses silhouette shadows of hands to create an otherworldly universe of swans, blooming plants and other ethereal creatures. The montage clears back to a simple shadow of hands to reveal the question “Isn’t It Beautiful What Hands Can Do?” The hands then close in on the phrase and open up to reveal the car and the text “Phaeton. Hand Made Perfection.”
The Grand TV/Cinema honor went to Vegaolmosponce, Buenos Aires, for its Axe deodorant spot “Shower/Fish.”
Three of Jung von Matt’s Golds were in TV/cinema: the aforementioned DHL work; bigFM’s “Speakers” and Solon AG’s “Hail. The return of the sun.”
Also scoring three TV/cinema Golds was DDB Group Germany GmbH, Berlin, and Publicis Mojo New Zealand, Auckland. DDB Group Germany won two of its TV/cinema Golds for “Horror Movie” (in the Cinema and Automobile categories) and “Cuckoo Clock” (in the Humor category). Publicis Mojo New Zealand garnered three TV/cinema Golds on the basis of a single spot, “Breathe” (Cinema, Environmental Issues, Direct Response categories).
Among the notable U.S. Gold winners in TV/cinema were: Arnold Worldwide, Boston, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami, for American Legacy Foundation’s “Truth” campaign “Singing Cowboy,” “Sodium Hydroxide” and “Garbage Cans”; Grupo Gallegos, Long Beach, Calif., for Energizer’s “Immortal”; Santa Monica production house harvest for the AIDS Awareness PSA “Roulette”; Leo Burnett , Chicago, for Ariston’s “Underwater World”; Lowe New York for GMC Acadia’s “Inspiration”; Outside Editorial, New York, for Jaguar’s “XK Launch” and Hyundai’s “Life Shapes”; and Santa Monica production company Tight for Dow’s “The Human Element.”
Winners from 68 countries were recognized at this year’s International Advertising Awards competition.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More