⚡Weekend Links 2/20
Kit-Kat Advertising For The Win: The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter #80
It’s still a disaster in Texas right now! Send a few dollars to Austin Mutual Aid or any of these organizations and help with hotels/food/water/etc alright?
And on to the links.
New Futures:
TEACHING MACHINES TO CENSOR: An anonymous article by an alleged former Bytedance (TikTok’s parent company) employee in China gives details about how automated moderation on the company’s platforms works. In other TikTok news, lingerie brand Adore Me alleges TikTok removed their content featuring “plus-size, Black, and/or differently abled models and women of color” + writer Jess Jeho’s article on how TikTok’s algorithm realized she was bisexual before she did.
Neal’s takeaway: Algorithms gonna algorithm.~2 MILLION ILLINOIS RESIDENTS VACCINATED: Great news as almost 2 m jmillion Illinois residents have already received their first COVID vaccine shot and Chicago’s positivity rates are down to 3.6%.
Neal’s takeaway: Hell yeah!ON GETTING CANCELED: A must read from writer John Scalzi, who knows about these things, with general unstructured thoughts on being canceled.
Neal’s takeaway: Money quote = “The age of (unmediated) celebrity social media is (probably) coming to an end. At least for some people, and that’s not a horrible thing. If you don’t have social media, you make it more difficult to inadvertently show your ass on it, and on the flip side, if someone wants to drag you into the social media mudfling du jour, it’s more difficult for them to do so when you’re not there.”
Advertising/Marketing/PR:
KIT KAT UNOFFICIALLY WINS PANDEMIC ADVERTISING: Strategist Sam Hennig created a Kit Kat ad on spec that captured the remote office work pandemic vibe so completely that the brand shared it globally.
Neal’s takeaway: I know that feeling. Oh I know.COVID-19 VACCINE COMPANY FOUNDER HOSTS SUPERSPREADER EVENT: Eileen Guo over at the MIT Technology Review details how Singularity University founder and vaccine firm Covaxx cofounder Peter Diamandis ended up hosting a IRL tech conference in Los Angeles this summer which turned into a superspreader event with at least 12 guests/employees testing COVID-19+.
Neal’s takeaway: Oof.
Media:
IT’S GOOD TO BE ROKU: Roku have officially entered the ranks of the pandemic corporate winners with one of the best quarters in their history.
Neal’s takeaway: Per Roku, “To put our scale in perspective, Roku’s U.S. active account base is now more than twice the number of the U.S. video subscribers of the biggest cable company.”FACEBOOK ALLEGEDLY KNEW AD METRICS WERE INFLATED: Documents filed in a class action lawsuit allege that Facebook knew their “potential reach” metrics for ads were inaccurate, but that they delayed making any changes because they thought it would impact revenue.
Neal’s takeaway: Not a good look for Facebook.FACEBOOK LIMITING NEWS STORY SHARING IN AUSTRALIA: In the latest installment of the Australian government’s faceoff with Google and Facebook, Facebook have restricted sharing of content from Australian and global news sources by Australian users—leading to a massive drop in traffic.
Neal’s takeaway: Expect similar clashes in many more countries and regions in the 2020s.
Tech:
TECH AND TECH JOURNALISM: Caroline McCarthy has a must-read Twitter thread on the sometimes-antagonistic relationship between tech journalists and investors/executives.
Neal’s takeaway: Reporters on the tech beat face the same challenge of other beat reporters covering politics, the auto industry, finance, etc - that is, being part of the same ecosystem of the people you cover while knowing them personally and maintaining critical distance from them at the same time… with the added challenge of covering an industry that has ended up completely dominating the global ecnomy in the last 15 years.APPLE VS FACEBOOK: Walt Mossberg on the coming privacy showdown between Apple and Facebook.
Fun:
Incoming US ambassdor to Vietnam Dan Kritenbrink’s amazing Lunar New Year rap video.
Don’t be the head of PR for a UK supermarket chain that’s based in Wales (or work in PR, period!) and have a blog where you talk about how terrible Welsh people and the Welsh language are.
Joe Pesci’s mansion on Zillow is everything.
Celebrity journalists dish on their worst interview subjects ever.
Things I’ve Enjoyed Lately:
Learning about why quick serve restaurants are conquering the world.
A look back at pop-punk fashion.
This guide to the 100 best websites for writers in 2021.
Discovering that Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons made a psych pop album in 1969.
What I’m Working On Right Now:
I’m assembling a book proposal for a client. I’m ghostwriting an op-ed. I’m consulting on marketing for a new movie. I’m working on Disinfodex as part of the 2021 Berkman-Klein Center Assembly Fellowship. A few other things, too.
If you’re interested in hiring me for a consulting or creative project, let me know.
That’s it for this issue. 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 that 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.