Ten Stories We’ve Enjoyed This Week

24th November 2019

From The Guardian. Climate Visuals is a project that aims to create a new visual language for climate change. Images of polar bears, melting ice and factories do not convey the urgent human stories at the heart of theissue.

Times are changing? ‘Several of the biggest social media platforms are beginning to test changes that cut down on scorekeeping, discourage harassment and aim to improve users’ well-being.’ Tech companies targeting your sanity?

From Planning Dirty – ‘Comms Planning Checklist.’ A list of questions to show thebreadth of an idea through media and culture.

‘When the scientists behind the Doomsday Clock
published their yearly assessment of how close we are to planetary doom, they added a new dimension to the dual threats of nuclear proliferation and climate change, namely “theintentional corruption of the information ecosystem on which modern civilisation depends”.The Guardian : ‘the viral spread of misinformation, widening news deserts and the proliferation of fake news will threaten life as we know it.’

‘Companies making the most profound impact on both industry and culture’ These are Fast Company’s most innovative companies of 2019. Top 5 include – Meituan Dianping, Grab, NBA, Disney and Stitch Fix.

Long but good piece from profgalloway.com on the developing TV market – Stream On. Love the observation that Jeff Bezos, with Amazon Prime, paid $508m for each Emmy Award won; and whilst it took Netflix one year to attract about 7 million subscribers, Disney+ attracted 10 million in one day…..
…and still on the subject of streaming, from WARC and @Faris – How do brands reach those consumers who only watch commercial-free, television-like content, whilst still leveraging the uniquely powerful combination of semi-focused attention on sight, sound and motion that can stir theheart? Is this The Golden Age of Product Placement?

Airbnb become an Olympic Partner. From their website – ‘better for locals, better for athletes, better for everyone’. However, this piece suggests they are looking to replace Hotels; and hoteliers are not best pleased…..

‘Traditionally, political parties would have fought each other for the top spots on the evening news – timing announcements to maximise their chances of becoming the lead news item on coveted broadcast slots. But change is underway…’. the push notification is one of theonly ways to cut through the noisy filter bubbles that many of us now occupy. This is how thepush notification came to rival the Six O’Clock News.

From Treehugger. ‘The task was to design a home that can be dismantled after a period of time and used again as if it were just simple prefab modular pieces. This is the Sky City Challenge: The future of housing.

Oh dear…Armour glass’ windows on new Tesla Cybertruck shatter during demonstration (and Elon Musk’s net worth plunges $768m in a day)

‘Why do we always remember men for their battles, fights, and duels. Where are thehomages for those men who forged the path for sensitivity?’ Great piece from Nivea – Here is to men that are strong enough to be sensitive. (reg may be necessary)

Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg star in a spoof of this years John Lewis Christmas Ad… and still with the President – ‘Tiny Hand’ will be your new comic sans. Here’s how and why…