MAM
Cartoon Network US invites viewers to ‘Reverse Their Thinking’
MUMBAI: American Honda Motor and Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block are teaming for the first time to inspire creative, out-of-the-box thinking from viewers for an unusual promotion. The aim is to develop scores of original animated shorts in the vein of Adult Swim’s quirky, off-beat programming
Timed with the launch of Honda’s all-new 2006 Civic models and its new marketing tagline, Civic: It will reverse your thinking, the campaign will accept submissions of up to five minutes on Adult Swim.com received between 3 October and 27 November. Adult Swim animators of such hit properties as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and Sealab 2021 will judge all entries, choosing one winner that will be presented to the world on AdultSwim.com and on Adult Swim VOD. The promotion was created in conjunction with Honda’s advertising agency, RPA.
Adult Swim senior VP Mike Lazzo says, “One of the things we’ve heard most often about Adult Swim’s wide range of hit original shows is that viewers themselves feel they could come up with an equally outlandish premise for a new story or set of characters. We see this as the perfect opportunity for every would-be animator out there to show us how crazy they could get and beat us at our own game. I personally can’t wait to see what comes in!”
Honda senior manager national advertising Tom Peyton says, “The Honda Civic brand has always appealed primarily to a young adult demo. With Adult Swim’s overwhelming dominance in the television marketplace among hip, young adults 18-34, we knew it offered direct communication to our target audience. Adult Swim and Honda Civic share a distinct marketing sensibility, so this first-time partnership is a natural fit for both our brands.”
Adult Swim will create a 30-second spot to run throughout the solicitation period that will take viewers directly into the minds of the writers and producers at Williams Street, the Adult Swim production studio where most of its original series are created. Complete details of the campaign, an official entry form and the ultimate winning short will be offered both at AdultSwim.com, the network’s corresponding entertainment Web site, and via Adult Swim’s video on demand service.
Honda has also signed up to be one of the first sponsors of GameTap, Turner’s broadband entertainment network that combines video games with original programming in a unique branded environment. The Civic brand will be integrated into a number of GameTap-related media properties within the user interface, including sponsorship of leaderboards and GameTap’s “Info Fairy” which offers gameplaying tips for the hundreds of games currently available on the service.
Brands
Google completes $32 billion Wiz deal to boost AI and cloud security
Wiz joins Google Cloud but keeps multi-cloud support across rival platforms
NEW YORK: Google has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cloud security company Wiz, marking the biggest deal in the tech giant’s history and signalling a major push to strengthen security in the era of artificial intelligence and multi-cloud computing.
The New York-headquartered cybersecurity firm will join Google Cloud while continuing to operate under the Wiz brand. Crucially, the company will maintain support for multiple cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud, reflecting the reality that most large organisations run their systems across several cloud providers.
Google said the acquisition is designed to help organisations build and scale applications more securely as businesses and governments increasingly move critical systems and data to the cloud. At the same time, the rapid adoption of generative AI has introduced new cybersecurity risks, with attackers also using AI to launch faster and more sophisticated attacks.
Wiz has built a reputation for simplifying cloud security. Its platform maps entire cloud environments, identifying vulnerabilities, potential attack paths and misconfigurations before they can be exploited. By connecting insights from code, cloud infrastructure and runtime environments, it allows security and engineering teams to detect and fix risks early in the development cycle.
Bringing Wiz into Google Cloud will create what the company describes as a unified security platform capable of detecting, preventing and responding to threats across cloud and AI environments. The combined offering will also integrate Google’s own security capabilities, including threat intelligence tools, security operations platforms and the cybersecurity expertise of Mandiant.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move reflects the growing importance of security as more organisations rely on AI and cloud technologies. “Keeping people safe online has always been part of Google’s mission,” he said, adding that the partnership will help organisations innovate with greater confidence.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, said the goal is to make security an enabler rather than a roadblock for businesses building modern applications. He noted that the combined technologies will simplify the complex task of protecting hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
For Wiz, the acquisition opens the door to global scale while keeping its core philosophy intact. Co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport said the company remains committed to an open, multi-cloud approach and will continue supporting customers regardless of where their workloads run.
Over the past year, Wiz has expanded its platform to address emerging risks tied to AI applications, including tools that help organisations monitor AI usage, detect AI-specific vulnerabilities and secure AI workloads during runtime.
With Google’s infrastructure, artificial intelligence capabilities and security ecosystem now behind it, Wiz plans to accelerate development of its platform while continuing to serve enterprises, governments and start-ups operating across different cloud environments.
For Google Cloud, the acquisition adds a powerful piece to its security puzzle as competition intensifies among global cloud providers. For customers, it promises a future where building fast in the cloud does not have to come at the expense of staying secure.
