What’s In This Issue?
How Hot Dog Water Became The Hottest New Health Drink In America
Hot Dog Water officially launched this week and you can have some for just $38 a bottle. Before you roll your eyes in disgust, would it change your mind to learn that it helps restore the body’s homeostasis after an electrolyte imbalance? It is only if you read till the end of the small print that you would have seen the most important line: "Hot Dog Water in its absurdity hopes to encourage critical thinking related to product marketing."
Today the ridiculousness of marketing is all around us and this stunt illustrates that perfectly. For many consumers, the story you are trying to tell is nothing more than overpriced hot dog water. So how can you do better? How about focusing less on crafting a great story and more on making something that actually tastes good. And by the way, it's not actually the hottest new health drink in America. But hopefully you already figured that out. :-)
Facebook Quietly Tests Four Features To Save The Internet
Facebook is fond of running experiments, even though in the past this hasn't gone so well. Yet these missteps haven't stopped them from trying. This week they are testing a feature that allows you to track how long you spend on FB and set limits. Another involves an ambitious plan to try and fight back against fake news. A third uses AI to detect closed eyes in photos and magically "open" them. Finally, there is a feature that allows you to set "keyword snoozing" to fight spoilers and ensure you don't accidentally hear the score of that big game on social media.
Clearly, Facebook is trying really hard to predict what we want. The problem is, doing that is notoriously hard for humans, let alone computers. Yet eventually they will get it right and their efforts will inspire others to do the same. Together they can all make the tech we use more human, functional and predictive no matter if you need a photo retouched or algorithmic help to transform your media diet.
Greenpeace Asks You To "Confirm Your Humanity"
If you love powerful visuals and a creative idea that is impossible to ignore, you will be impressed by the new campaign from Greenpeace that takes the well recognized "confirm you are a human" graphic from the Internet and puts it on devastating photos showing the negative impact humans are having on wildlife around the world. The shock value of the pictures is high, the concept is clever and you can't help but pay attention. In the future, I suspect we will see even more ideas like this which take elements of the online world and merge them together in the physical world to break through the clutter.
