The time has come to pay the piper. It is Celibacy, Migraine, Aphasia, Accordion and Potty Training Awareness Month. (Separately, not together.) It is also both Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome Awareness Month and Cataract Awareness Month. If you are a celibate transgender accordionist with cataracts, this, my friend, is your time. Now, you might ask, with all this awareness to be aware of, where to find the mind space for everything?» 3 Comments
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey, has transformed Istanbul with office buildings, shopping malls and mega-mosques. His plans for Taksim Square -- which required the clear-cutting of protected green space -- sparked protest, and now Erdogan is facing not only civil unrest but criticism from every sector of society. So what did Erdogan do? He dismissed the protesters as mere looters and blamed the media. The social media.» 2 Comments
Carrotmob.org, a movement of do-gooders who have genetically modified the consumer boycott with some Groupon DNA, has created consumer "buycotts." Companies are encouraged to change their practices not with a stick -- the threat of a boycott -- but with a carrot, the promise of new customers. This eliminates the boycott's extortionistic character and replaces it with positive incentive for change.» 0 Comments
Last week, Abercrombie & Fitch was pilloried in social media -- and mainstream media -- for obnoxious, self-indicting remarks made by its chairman Mike Jeffries... in 2006. Jeffries has long styled himself a provocateur. So it's no surprise that he's in the middle of a controversy. What's notable is that his arrogance and condescension are catching up to him on a 7-year time delay.» 13 Comments
I'm seeing GE in a different, flattering, energy-saving compact fluorescent light -- owing entirely to Focus Forward, a mesmerizing collection of mini-documentary films highlighting -- in GE's words -- "exceptional people and world-changing ideas that have impacted the course of human development ... or with great potential to significantly affect how we live in the next generation." I'm grateful to GE for identifying our common interests and establishing common ground.» 2 Comments
Enforced transparency and social media have not only taken every institution from its fortress and relocated it to a glass house -- the whole world is standing outside that house, gaping in. This is a really good time in history for business to behave itself. That means being good to those who depend on you. Customers, employees, neighbors, suppliers, shareholders, the trade -- everybody, everywhere.» 5 Comments
In an unexpected display of breathtaking courage, Johnson & Johnson has launched an advertising campaign heroically endorsing love -- hoping to rekindle our love affair with a decreasingly lovable brand. In the past three years, the company has been fined more than $1 billion, settled multiple regulatory actions and has faced huge lawsuits for a staggering series of failures.» 2 Comments
There are many explanations for this world of blunder. One is the idiotic value placed on being first with a shard of previously unreported information, no matter how dubious. Another is physics; in the vacuum of understanding that afflicts live coverage after breaking news, anything that fills the gaping void looks irresistible. The final reason is the most counterintuitive: the news channels have little capacity for actual journalism.» 12 Comments
A la carte digitally delivered TV is a non-starter. Except that it's now here. Cord-cutters can now have access to almost everything cable offers at much lower cost.» 7 Comments
You can't please everybody, nor should you try. But you can't ignore everybody, either. You do not exist without them. And is there any stakeholder relationship more elemental than a theater and its audience?» 3 Comments
