Business

We all like to think we’re immune to scams. We scoff at emails from an unknown sender offering us £2 million, in exchange for our bank details. But the game has changed and con artists have developed new, chilling tactics. They are taking the personal approach and scouring the internet for all the details they can find about us. Scammers are getting so good at it that even cybersecurity experts are taken in. One of us (Oliver Buckley) recalls that in 2018 he received an email from the pro-vice chancellor of his university. This is it, I thought. I’m finally getting…

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On the West Side Highway in Manhattan, there’s currently a billboard for some sort of placebo supplement. In the corner is a QR code for more information.

Unless the person in the passenger seat has a telephoto lens on their phone, there’s no way in the world that this is going to work.

My late friend Jay Levinson said that the most effective billboard would say, “FREE COFFEE, NEXT EXIT.” A call to action, relevant to the viewer, easy to see and understand.

Actual billboards are a whole category of media, but now we’re surrounded by a new kind, a smaller, more evanescent and common one: Social media posts. You might see a thousand of these a day.

Social media began as text updates from one human to another, but thanks to photo sharing, some of the posts have become something else entirely. A chance to create consistent, actionable and clear reminders of what you are and what you stand for.

But keeping Jay’s edict in mind, they work best when they’re about the viewer as much as they are about you. They work better when they can seen and understood from a distance. And they work better when they “sound like you.”

Here’s an example of a few dozen digital billboards that my fellow volunteers created for the Almanac. These blew me away. Free coffee indeed.

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Welcome to Marketing Morsels, a menu of delightful news items from the past week. Enjoy the assortment! Morsel #1: A Licker breaks loose from Netflix’s 3D billboard Resident Evil bursts onto Netflix in 12 hours! Just like this Licker burst out of a NYC billboard! pic.twitter.com/z4SvlJk0Pv — Netflix (@netflix) July 13, 2022 A new 3D…Read More

Social media users posted ideas about how to protect people’s reproductive privacy when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, including entering “junk” data into apps designed for tracking menstrual cycles. People use period tracking apps to predict their next period, talk to their doctor about their cycle and identify when they are fertile. Users log everything from cravings to period flow, and apps provide predictions based on these inputs. The app predictions help with simple decisions, like when to buy tampons next, and provide life-changing observations, like whether you’re pregnant. The argument for submitting junk data is that doing…

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The ingredients for life are spread throughout the universe. While Earth is the only known place in the universe with life, detecting life beyond Earth is a major goal of modern astronomy and planetary science. We are two scientists who study exoplanets and astrobiology. Thanks in large part to next-generation telescopes like James Webb, researchers like us will soon be able to measure the chemical makeup of atmospheres of planets around other stars. The hope is that one or more of these planets will have a chemical signature of life. There are many known exoplanets in habitable zones – orbits…

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Which way to head?

We live in a world characterized by mistrust, ill health, economic uncertainty, inflicted racial trauma, generational shift and the existential crisis caused by carbon. Not to mention the stress and dissolution of traditional pillars like organized education, office space and live gatherings.

And we live in a world with breathtaking medical technology, artificial intelligence, widespread and rapid cultural coordination, efficient farming, a move away from greed and the beginning of green tech. As well as self-driven learning, diverse cultural projects and the long tail.

Now more than ever, there’s room for leaders. Go first.

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The ongoing storm over TikTok U.S. user data and whether it is being accessed in China sent a wave crashing across the top of its global security organization, as global chief security officer Roland Cloutier will transition into a strategic advisory role and be succeeded on an interim basis by Kim Albarella. TikTok CEO Shou…Read More

On this week’s episode, we travel back to last April’s Convergent TV Summit once again for a conversation between Adweek’s former editor in chief, Stephanie Paterik; Allison Page, global president of Magnolia Network; and famous TV DIYers and partners Chip and Joanna Gaines. Back in 2018, the Gaineses stepped back from the series that made…Read More

After buying Twitter for $44 billion earlier this year, world’s richest man Elon Musk seems to have cold feet and is using the issue of bots on the platform as a convenient excuse to exit the deal. Musk is citing material breach as the reason he should be released from the deal. He’s saying there…Read More

Cooking and home hub Food52 is looking for some tasty recipes from Pinners. The Pinterest x Food52 Golden Recipe contest runs through Aug. 15, and Pinterest users are encouraged to share their favorite recipes for desserts, dishes or drinks, with 100 winners to receive $2,000 in cash, a Golden Recipe Contest trophy, a custom apron…Read More