⚡Weekend Links

When the newspaper starts a casino: The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter #84

Hello internerds. Let’s get down to some links.

New Futures:

Raghu Chaitanya @kidoredo

Digital infrastructure has been a life saver during the pandemic. Sometimes I wonder if a lot of us have taken it for granted. This is a brilliant read on what we should learn from #Covid by @harari_yuval #ReadoftheDay #T4

ft.comYuval Noah Harari: Lessons from a year of Covid | Free to readIn a year of scientific breakthroughs — and political failures — what can we learn for the future?

• Yuval Noah Harari’s COVID lessons.

• Why some direct-to-consumer businesses are making peace with their Amazon frenemy.

• Credit card swipe fees are about to jump up, hurting businesses who are already at a disadvantage beause of COVID-19.

Advertising/Marketing/PR:

Adweek @Adweek

McDonald’s offered a limited early release of its new chicken sandwich on a website perplexingly spelled "chkndrop." So Popeyes bought 50 similar URLs with slightly different spellings—and put up webpages featuring jokes about the spelling.

adweek.itHow Popeyes Trolled McDonald’s New Chicken Sandwich DropIf you misspelled chkndrop.com, you might still get a free chicken sandwich.

• Popeye’s vs. McDonald’s SEO trolling.

• Facebook launching advertising campaign defending targeted advertising.

• Inside the Venezuelan creative agency diaspora.

• The subtext and behind-the-scenes of Google abandoning cookies.

• Target investing $4 billion in store growth and supply chain tech.

Media:

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken

Maybe they should call it Paramount Pro or Paramount XP.

nytimes.comWhy Plus Is a Minus When Naming Your Streaming SiteAn idea that seemed like a real plus when streaming was newer has fallen into cliché.

• Why every streaming platform has a + on it.

• Axios discontinuing their Codebook cybersecurity newsletter.

• Al Jazeera launching right-wing news platform for US conservatives.

• Spotify is investing a whole, whole lot of money in podcasting.

• Marvel exec Kevin Feige on bridging the gap between casual and hardcore fans.

• Post-Bon Appetit, Sohla El-Waylly’s signed some big name management.

• Inside Twitter’s new monetization features.

• NFTs and the media industry.

• YouTube’s TikTok clone.

• In a sign of a healthy media economy, the Toronto Star is launching their own online gambling brand.

Tech:

Hacker News @newsycombinator

Apple Card Disabled My iCloud, App Store, and Apple ID Accounts

dcurt.isApple Card disabled my iCloud, App Store, and Apple ID accounts • Dustin CurtisAbout ten days ago, when I went to update a few apps in the App Store on my Mac, I was met with a curious error. The internet is filled with stories from people whose Google accounts were locked for unexplained reasons, causing them to lose all of... | Dustin Curtis | Designer, hacker, investor, nom…

• What happens when Apple cuts off your accounts because of a data glitch.

• Magick and the internet.

• Why the US government (and other governments) buy location data from app makers.

• Restaurant-tech firm Toast is flirting with an IPO.

• Instagram expanding Rooms functionality in a fresh addition to our interacting-by-video hell.

Fun:

Andrea Hernández 🌺 @iiiitsandrea

this is hilarious but also why GenZ dunks on Slack lol

newyorker.comThe Eight People You Meet on SlackEvan Allgood and Sarah Kempa humorously imagine eight common public personas on Slack.

• The eight kinds of people you meet on Slack.

• Stay at the Silence of the Lambs house.

• Fisher-Price’s My Home Office for children.

  Stewart Brand @stewartbrand

  Want a full time biotech job to revive the Woolly Mammoth and eventually restore the species to the northern wild? We're hiring. Details at the link and below. reviverestore.org/funding-opport…

  

• Bringing mammoths back, the fellowship.

• Why Chicago White Sox fans are the heaviest drinkers in baseball.

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Things I’ve Enjoyed Lately:

• The Obsessed and late ‘80s metal-DC hardcore crossover.

• The history and design legacy of instant noodles.

• Land of the Giants’ epic podcast on YouTube’s history.

• How to read the room without a lot of data.

  RAMZEE @RamzeeRawkz

  My fav Bowie clip ever is him talking about how the Art establishment co-opts particular voices out of a fertile art movement to kill off that movement by creating singular voices to perpetuate the idea of Art as rare commodity by geniuses rather than something within all people

  

• David Bowie on establishment co-opting of subculture.

That’s it for this issue. Email me here and please don’t hesitate to contact if I can be of assistance + thank you for taking the time to read this damned thing.

Love and coffee,

Neal

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About This Newsletter: Neal Ungerleider is a strategic communications consultant who works with individuals, brands and agencies. He writes this weekly newsletter about the media communications industrial complex and hopes you find it useful. Check out his bio, his portfolio, and current projects.

Connect on Twitter or LinkedIn and learn more about at nealungerleider.com. To reach Neal, reply to this email or drop a line in the comments.