🎥BlackBerry: The Movie
Links w Stephen King AI adventures, Twitter ghostwriters & White House TikToks: Context Collapse #151
Greetings from Chicago, greatest inland port city in the world. I had the chance to go to Jackalope Coffee & Tea in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood last weekend. The coffee (the Buzzed Monkey, actually) was great but the chalkboard art was even better. So good, in fact, that I had to share it.
Here in the United States, we’re headed into the pre-Labor Day week, traditionally been the slowest news week of the year alongside Christmas/New Years week. However, this is 2022. A fair chance of either alien invasions, massive blackouts or geopolitical chaos taking place any given week.
Regardless, I’ll risk it and take a week off before the Q4 advertising/marketing/PR industry scrum begins. We’ll be back publishing week of September 5; in the meantime check out our interviews with Corey Wilks and Joel Johnson for more good things to read.
New Futures:
Grocery stores invading malls.
Forrester to companies: Let your office employees work remotely, you dummies.

Advertising/Marketing/PR:
Cameo’s going after the corporate market.
“Russian propaganda has gone full 1984.”
The strange tale of Lenny Dykstra’s Twitter ghostwriter.
G/O Media launching guarantee-backed advertising program.
When freelancers pretend to be full-time employees.
Biden admin teaming with TikTok influencers to promote student loan forgiveness.

Media:
YouTube soft launching podcast hub.
TikTok testing “Nearby” feed for videos.
“Twitter labeled factual information about covid-19 as misinformation.”
Meghan Markle’s podcast launches on Spotify w/ Serena Williams as first guest.
AI rapper turned out to be… pretty racist.
Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing as the “Chip & Joanna of MAGA America.”
Twitch, facing competition, is dropping exclusivity clauses.


Tech:
Glenn Howerton & Jay Baruchel to star in upcomming BlackBerry movie.


MyFitnessPal is putting barcode scanning for calorie logging behind a paywall.
Mark Zuckerberg appears on Joe Rogan’s podcast for three hours.
Peloton is now selling their bikes, apparel and accessories on Amazon.
Another quarter, another Google search algorithm update.
RIP, Snapchat drone, you were too beautiful for this world.
Twitter’s ex-cybersecurity head is not happy.


Misc.:
Anita Anand and William Dalrymple’s Empire podcast tells the story of the British in India. I really enjoyed the first episode about the East India Company, which tells the story of how a small corporation with one original, non-military goal quickly ends up conquering vast territories of land and dragging their home country into war all in the name of maximizing shareholder return. Relevant for the 2020s!
And, last but not least…