a thought-provoking ramble on the state of life, clients and the universe at large
I admit it. Full confession. I have become obsessed with the cover of a song. Not just any song, mind you…an old song, an old famous song, an old famous song written and sung originally by legends and recently covered by a band and singer whose musical ethos is 180 degrees in the opposite direction….
Amazon is opening a book store at The Shops at Columbus Circle, right across from my office. I see the banner from our windows every day and I smile. Jeff Bezos gets it, he understands the time is ripe…but more on that later. Warby Parker continues to build out its physical presence, as does Bonobos….
“[What information consumes is] the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” -Herbert Simon, Nobel winner, Economics (1978) Think about that for a moment. Since the advent of movable type heralded the evolution of readily accessible information, our senses have been assaulted with ever-growing, ever-changing sources of information…
“I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” —December 11, 1936, King Edward VIII abdicates the Crown of the British Monarchy in an address directly to the British…
Oscar Wilde, ever one of my favorite sources for inspiration, once said: “In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.” Now, while I hate to be partisan in my writing, I do believe that while I will be primarily quoting US sources and focusing on recent events in “Lower…
In response to consumer pressure, some companies such as Kellogg’s, BMW, Warby Parker and Allstate have issued guidelines not to allow their digital advertising to appear on Breitbart News. The site, famous for its invective-filled headlines like “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy,”is the largest and therefore the symbolic epicenter of controversy over inflammatory…
2017 and my first big post. Number one, and most importantly, welcome to a new year and a fresh set of possibilities and opportunities that could help us change the world. Clearly, we have all followed the overwhelmingly expressed social media view that 2016 was a bust with fear expressed for what 2017 might bring….
We overuse the word “share” and undermine its most powerful meaning. Sharing has always been about giving something up that belongs to you, taking a piece from your whole and distributing it to others. When we were young, being a good sharer meant letting the other kid play with your toys. As we got older…
The debate over false and fake news continues, as it has for millennia. It will no doubt flare up as the means of information distribution get ever more efficient. And who knows? One day the Pinocchio effect might actually be realized, as embedded chips in our brains cause physical changes to our bodies if we…
“Providing relevant answers has been the cornerstone of Google’s approach to search from the very beginning. It would undermine the people’s trust in our results and company if we were to change course.”- Google, in response to SEME research. SEME, in this context, is for those who Googled and found links to Japanese culture: “The…
How impactful do you think social media was during the recent US presidential campaign? I’m not referring to the tweets or posts of either candidate. I’m more interested in the celebrity endorsements, the influencer factor if you will. A quick search and count will tell you that Clinton out celeb’d Trump by an exponential factor….
“Politics is just like show business.” – Ronald Reagan It’s hard to argue with that sentiment after the recent US election. However, my interest is more on the side of how the show-business effect impacted Millennial voter turnout than in the antics and theater of any particular candidate. To that end, it is important to note…
“A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes.” -Mark Twain (no one knows for sure if he said it) Even if he didn’t say it (and if you know—one way or another—please tell), it is prescient in its meaning today. Fake news is all the rage these days,…
So what was it that made it so hard to predict the recent US election that caught the data scientists; the media; the pollsters; the pundits and the bettors by surprise much like Brexit did in the UK a few short months ago? Could it be as New York Times (who got it dreadfully wrong…
It doesn’t matter where in the world you live. It doesn’t matter what your politics are. The negative, nasty and vindictive tone of the US presidential election—from all sides—has affected us throughout the globe. Saturday Night Live, the famous US comedy show, has been skewering both presidential candidates for the past few months…so well, in…
What do Vine and HBO have in common? What indeed? Vine—once the fresh face of what some said would replace TV—is fading into oblivion. HBO—which should have been heading toward extinction, according to many of the same analysts and pundits—is hot on watch lists across generations and platforms. User-generated six-second content was going to be…
There is much to learn from the current US presidential election, and that is without touching on issues and arguments. Those I leave to you, dear reader, whatever your political persuasion in whatever country you live. My focus has been on what we can learn from all of the noise around us…often DIGIBABBLE…that plays such…
Fifty years ago I celebrated my bar mitzvah, the traditional coming-of-age ceremony for Jewish males at the age of 13. While its origin is spiritual, gifts—to be honest—do play a role in the day, and in my day it was an often repeated joke at such events: “Today I am a fountain pen.” Truth be…
September 19, 2016, was a critical date for marketers. In fact, I’d argue it was a day when yet another devastating salvo was unleashed on the hordes of Digibabblists who swarm like Orcs…attacking those trying desperately to connect with their consumers; their users; their buyers; their clients. You see, on that day Google launched its…
Trump or Clinton? Donald or Hillary? I apologize to my friends outside the United States for leading with the existential question we here are faced with…Real Consequence Reality TV. However, I would argue, strongly, that we are yet another microcosm in the MACROCOSM that is a world struggling to understand the true impact of digital…
And the naysayers nayed… First a Tesla crashes, tragically killing its occupant/owner/“driver” while it was on autopilot And then…. The Falcon 9 rocket exploded early on September 1, during a static flight test on its launch pad in Cape Canaveral. The rocket was preparing to launch the Amos-6, an Israeli communications satellite, but both rocket…
Game of Thrones… Which after six seasons and a steadily growing global audience, watching across all platforms, continues to break records and win awards…and is often viewed as a metaphor for politics everywhere… No doubt beyond the great visuals, acting and scripts, the basic story talks to us in a visceral way…it’s all a game……