In a time where misinformation, disinformation and outright fake news are features of our online landscapes that diminish trust, you'd think that brands (and Volkswagen in particular) would think twice - at least, think carefully - about actively doing anything that can negatively impact their brand reputation and instead do everything that promotes a sense of trust in their brand. Given that what's good, bad or ugly is often highly subjective it's hard to pinpoint a specific prank done by a … [Read more...] about Volkswagen pranks its tarnished reputation on April Fool’s Day
Ethics
FIR 203: Insurrection and Sea Shanties
'Trust' was the major theme for discussion in the January episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report podcast aka FIR 203 that Shel and I recorded last weekend and published on Monday. It underpinned all other topics we discussed as we started the episode reviewing the key analysis in the Edelman Trust Barometer 2021 - the report concludes that there is a 'crisis of leadership' with a growing trust gap and declines in trust worldwide; and without a trusted leadership source to look to, people … [Read more...] about FIR 203: Insurrection and Sea Shanties
FIR 192: The latest employee revolt
The February episode of “The Hobson & Holtz Report” features Neville and Shel discussing these topics: The Houston Astros’ owner hosts a clinic on how not to deliver an organizational apologyOracle workers are the latest to engage in employee activismFacebook has way more users than Instagram but Instagram is number one in some important metricsAn IPO filing lists the company’s influencers as a potential threatHow brands should handle communications during the coronavirus epidemicTwitter … [Read more...] about FIR 192: The latest employee revolt
FIR 183: Let’s get personal
The May 2019 edition of “The Hobson and Holtz Report,” aka For Immediate Release episode 183, features Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz talking about these stories: A trio of technologies — from Google, Amazon, and The New York Times — show how marketers will be able to get into your head, assess your emotional state, and manipulate your intent.GDPR is one year old. Has it succeeded in protecting Europeans’ privacy?PR professionals are relegating earned media to the dustbin.Arabic podcasts are … [Read more...] about FIR 183: Let’s get personal
SDF Podcast 23: Pretty crazy ideas about the Facebook
“The ever-present function of propaganda in modern life is in large measure attributable to the social disorganization which has been precipitated by the rapid advent of technological changes.” This is not the latest comment on the perpetual missteps, mishaps and misuse of Facebook, but a quote from Harold D. Lasswell, eminent media scholar and creator of the eponymous and never-aging model and formula to determine media effects: who says what to whom in which channel with what effect? Who … [Read more...] about SDF Podcast 23: Pretty crazy ideas about the Facebook
Emerging tech:
Your bookmark for 2019
"We know from human history that developments in technologies over the centuries, ranging from the Industrial Revolution through to the invention of the automobile, then airplanes and so forth, the landscape of progress is littered with human casualties. People die because of these things being tested."
A provocative statement, the first thing you hear in episode 1 in the third season of the Digital Download podcast that I did with host Paul Sutton last month in which we discussed emerging … [Read more...] about Emerging tech:
Your bookmark for 2019
SDF Podcast 18: Inertia, ethics, and breaches of trust
Data, data everywhere, but ethics in short supply. The latest episode of the Small Data Forum podcast follows the classic narrative arc of a three-act story. Beginning, middle, and end. The set-up, the confrontation, and the resolution. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. And although our wide-ranging discussion did run the risk of leaving all three co-hosts in the depths of despair, Neville Hobson, Thomas Stoeckle, and I end up hoping that the asteroid NASA predicts is hurtling towards earth … [Read more...] about SDF Podcast 18: Inertia, ethics, and breaches of trust
Exposing the realities of our relationships with Facebook and other social platforms
This week has been an extraordinary one, not only for Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and members of the US Congress but also for users of Facebook and other social networking platforms wherever they are in the world. Indeed, it has been a week of revelation and food for considerable thought on a grand scale. During two days, on April 10 and April 11, the Facebook co-founder and CEO appeared before members of the US Senate and Congress to answer questions about Facebook and how it handles … [Read more...] about Exposing the realities of our relationships with Facebook and other social platforms