🧤Weekend Links 1/23
Bernie memes and pandemic retail tech: The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter #73
So. Before we get onto the links, let’s solemnly bow our heads in honor of how the Bernie Sanders mittens meme took over the world. You know the one.
Anyway, I thought the technical how of how the meme spread so quickly was interesting. Leaving the why to other folks, here’s the how:
Shortly after Sanders’ inaguration outfit was discussed on Twitter, user @taber created a transparent PNG of him for others to make memes with:
Users went wild with the meme.
The meme quickly mainstreamed, with Giphy and others offering transparencies to make GIFs with and Snapchat offering a Bernie filter.
Bernie Sanders’ campaign group, People4Bernie, quickly turned the meme into an official sweatshirt with 100% profits going to Meals on Wheels Vermont. The sweatshirt sold out within 24 hours.
From anti-fashion, pro-comfort inauguration gear to a successful charity fundraiser: That’s the lifecycle.
New Futures:
INDONESIA PRIORITING COVID VACCINE FOR INFLUENCERS: Indonesia’s government has included a limited number of internet influencers in the priority group to receive COVID vaccines. Influencers are expected to get their immunizations on-camera and discuss their immunizations online; the move was designed to help fight vaccine skepticism among the public.
Neal’s takeaway: Smart move.HOW ONE COLLEGE MADE ON-CAMPUS CLASSES WORK: After several serious outbreaks during the first weeks of the school year, the University of Illinois has held on-campus classes while keeping positivity rates under 1%. Their strategy centers around twice-weekly mandatory COVID tests for students, teachers and staff with test results within 12 hours and aggressive punishment of students not complying with protocol.
Neal’s takeaway: While the strategy appears to work, it’s expensive and may not be feasible for schools with limited resources.SINGAPORE AIRLINES WANTS TO BE FIRST AIRLINE WITH AN ALL-VACCINATED STAFF: Executives at Singapore Airlines, a quasi-government-owned company, want the airline to be the first in the world with an all-vaccinated workforce.
Neal’s takeaway: Businesses have been encouraging employees to get vaccinated since the first COVID vaccines were released, and the move could encourage more travelers to patronize the airline.AMAZON OFFERS TO HELP WITH VACCINE DISTRIBUTION, WITH A CATCH: In a letter to President Biden, Amazon executive Dave Clark offered to leverage his company’s resources to help the federal government distribute COVID-19 vaccines to the general public. The letter also specifically asked for immunizations at “the earliest possible time” for on-site employees at Amazon fulfillment centers, Amazon Web Services data centers and Whole Foods stores.
Neal’s takeaway: The offer to help the government is great, but I’m honing in on Amazon’s aggressive lobbying for immunizations for employees.STARBUCKS ASSISTING WASHINGTON STATE VACCINE ROLLOUT: Starbucks, which knows quite a bit about logistics, product rollout and running complicated projects with lots of moving parts, is loaning several employees “with expertise in labor and deployment operations, and research and development” to help Washington state set up its immunization program.
Neal’s takeway: My wife works in advertising, and her first reaction when she saw how bad immunization sign-up sites are in the US was “They should have called some video game companies! They’re the ones who know how to make sites that don’t crash when lots of people use them.” She’s right.
Advertising/Marketing/PR:
ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ EXPANDING MEDIA OPERATIONS: Prominent tech venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which already has a popular family of podcasts, is allegedly launching its own opinion publication. Eric Newcomer notes that a16z has had contentious relations with mass media for the past several years.
Neal’s takeaway: When companies make in-house content, it’s typically because they have a hard time securing coverage in outside publications or they want to speak to niche audiences… but in A16z’s case, it’s because they don’t like *the type* of coverage they’re getting.HOME DEPOT, OMNICOM EXPLORE POSSIBLE MISINFORMATION SUBSIDIZING: Shareholders at Home Depot and advertising giants Omnicom have filed resolutions asking if ad spend ended up on websites promoting disinformation and misinformation. For outsiders, online ad buying is an opaque and largely automated process where brands frequently don’t easily know the exact sites their advertisements appear on.
Neal’s takeaway: These resolutions were filed by shareholders and didn’t come from executives worried about blowback. As such, their forcefulness may be limited—and there’s also the risk of adopting overly strict whitelists which deprive non-troll sites of advertising revenue.SUPER BOWL AD PREVIEW: The first big announcements on Super Bowl 55 advertisements are expected this week; advertisers have been staying mum due both to uncertainty about COVID and worries about political violence in the US forcing them to change or scrap ad campaigns.
Neal’s takeaway: I mean, nothing’s normal in 2021—Super Bowls included.
Media:
POLITICO REVAMPING FOR NEW ADMINISTRATION: Politico is recalibrating its popular newsletters for coverage of the incoming Biden administration. A much-hyped guest author program backfired after reader protests over right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro writing a newsletter.
Neal’s takeaway: Politico’s guest author series was going swimmingly until it featured a popular Republican media personality—a lesson Politico is likely to learn from.DAILY WIRE EXPLORING ENTERTAINMENT SPINOFFS: Speaking of Ben Shapiro, his Daily Wire is now exploring an entertainment spinoff which will generate content aimed at conservative audiences. Their first movie is a school shooting thriller called “Run Hide Fight.”
Neal’s takeaway: The Daily Wire performs astoundingly well on Facebook and Twitter, which gives them a natural funnel to get people to watch content. But in order for the content to succeed, the content has to actually be good.LABOR LAWS FOR THE CREATOR ECONOMY?: Mark Sternberg explores organizing movements for the creator economy, where self-employed creative workers double as entrepreneurs and burnout risks are high.
Neal’s takeaway: Labor laws were written for a time before Uber, Patreon or Ebay. They need an update.FORBES LAUNCHING SUBSTACK COMPETITOR: In the latest sign that newsletters have become big business, Forbes is launching an invite-only paid newsletter program which will allow creators to launch newsletters on Forbes’ platform in exchange for 50/50 rev share. (Disclosure: I was a writer for True/Slant back in another incarnation of the internet; True/Slant was later acquired by Forbes and became a key part of their tech stack.
Neal’s takeaway: Forbes’ name has prestige, but the 50-50 revenue share is a steep commission that may lead to only having writers that *don’t* need the income—with a corresponding rise in pieces that don’t move conversation.JOE RICKETTS LAUNCHING NATIONAL NEWS OUTLET: Billionaire TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts is launching a national news site called Straight Arrow News based in Omaha which will be “dedicated to unbiased, nonpartisan reporting.” Ricketts previously owned the DNAInfo.com family of websites, which he shut down a week after employees voted to unionize.
Neal’s takeaway: At press time, the Straight Arrow News site has numerous CMS and 404 errors. In addition, given Ricketts’ on-record Republican activism, “unbiased, nonpartisan” will be a tough sell to the public.WATTPAD ACQUIRED: South Korean internet company Naver has acquired Wattpad for more than $600 million. The popular short story and fan fiction site has an extremely loyal userbase and regularly outpunches its weight in cultural impact, but has had historic problems monetizing.
Neal’s takeaway: Wattpad has amazing user metrics and successfully navigated the transition to mobile. It is probably also incubating more than a few future best-selling writers.WHATSAPP FACING TOS CONFUSION: Facebook bungled the global rollout of a new 4000-word terms of service for WhatsApp, leading large numbers of users to adopt alternatives like Signal and Telegram. Influencers such as Elon Musk and Edward Snowden also encouraged users to switch. Mark Zuckerberg publicly admitted Facebook did not properly explain the terms of service changes, leading to misinformation around privacy and security.
Neal’s takeaway: Most terms of service take hours to read. When changes are made to terms of service, companies risk reputational loss and customer loss if they don’t clearly explain what changes are being made.
Tech:
HUDSON NEWS PARTNERING WITH AMAZON ON CASHIER-LESS STORES: Airport newsstand Hudson is partnering with Amazon on cashierless locations utilizing Amazon’s Just Walk Out tech. A pilot project at Dallas Love Field will require users to swipe a credit card at entrance with products they take out of the store then automatically charged to their credit card.
Neal’s takeaway: A pandemic is the perfect time to test pilots like this. The technology sounds great… if it works and customers aren’t trapped behind non-functioning turnstiles. Airport kiosks have extremely high foot traffic that are hard to replicate in lab stress tests.ALBERTSON’S TRYING AUTOMATED PICKUP KIOSKS: Supermarket company Albertson’s is experimenting with automated pickup kiosks through their Chicago-area brand Jewel-Osco. The kiosks, manufactured by Estonia-based Cleveron, have refrigerated and deep freeze zones so ice cream, canned goods and produce can go into the same order. Other grocers are trying similar pilots, including Walmart.
Neal’s takeaway: Like many other grocers, Albertson’s has been trying to navigate a highly uncertain business environment. The challenge for supermarkets is for these very old-school brands to adopt and implement new technologies.GOOGLE THREATENS TO BLOCK AUSTRALIAN USERS: Google threatened to block access to their search engine in Australia if the Australian government proceeds with legislation requiring them and Facebook to pay media companies for content included in search results or news feeds.
Neal’s takeaway: Search engines are money, and Google doesn’t want any precedents to give legislators in any other markets any other ideas.EPIC GAMES HIRING LOBBYISTS: Fortnite developers Epic Games are hiring lobbyists in Washington from Subject Matter and the Gibson Group to assist in their antitrust case against Apple.
Neal’s takeaway: The future of app store access and royalties will be one of the crucial clashpoints of the next decade and Epic Games’ decision to fight Apple will likely embolden other companies.RIP LOON: Alphabet is putting Loon on hold. Loon, an attempt to offer internet access to remote areas through equipment held aloft on giant baloons, ran into logistical and internal Alphabet issues.
Neal’s takeaway: It might be the futurist in me speaking, but part of the challenge is that Loon was ahead of its time. Give the concept 10 more years.
Fun:
WALLACE & GROMIT AR GAME: UploadVR have put together a new augmented reality Wallace & Gromit game which is one of the best attempts I’ve seen yet to migrate Pokemon Go-type tech to being inside the house.
INSIDE CHICAGO’S MOST EXPENSIVE HOME: Just imagine how much this would cost in San Francisco or New York and what life would be like if you had a home custom-designed to highlight your art collection.
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
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.
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