Tag: Duane Jones
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Old joke
Old joke: “Day 19 of the experiment, I have successfully conditioned my master to give me food, smile, and write in his book every time I drool.” – Pavlov’s Dog The free-play phase of Altman’s AI attack seems to be standard sales practice, which can be benign or not. Duane Jones calls it Sampling. Send…
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Zit?
Elon has renamed Twitter to X, and adopted a new logo for X. More proof that he’s intentionally driving the company into the ground for an LBO. Brands that can’t be pronounced are guaranteed to fail. Remember “the artist formerly known as Prince?” Remember Latinx and Womxn? What’s the verb form? Instead of tweeting, will…
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Debs and Gompers would be proud
Franny the Nanny delivers a classic stemwinding labor speech. She knows how to sell. She doesn’t sidetrack into cultural crap or fine details. Pure labor vs capital, workers vs Wall Street. Gompers approved of women leading labor unions 100 years ago, so he wouldn’t be shocked at all. = = = = = The folks…
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Making the case, fucking the case
Perfect contrast between two pieces on the writers strike and AI and such. (1) The Ankler flawlessly makes the case that AI is worth worrying about, and a strike to control it is worth supporting. He rigorously avoids all politics and religion and cultural crap, following the oldest persuasive advice to perfection. Fairness Doctrine all…
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The Jones not taken
American Radio Library has added a few issues of Radio Topics from the early ’20s. One article was highlighting services provided by radio. First a bakery was using one-way radio to dispatch its electric trucks: More importantly, businesses were using radio as a premium in the Duane Jones sense, and sometimes a self-liquidating premium, paying…
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Balkanic eruptions
We used to iconize the Balkans as the home of unending unforgiving disputes over tiny points of doctrine or loyalty, incomprehensible to outsiders. The disputes are still there, as US learned when it tried to take one side in the tangle of Serbia vs Kosovo vs Albanian Kosovars vs Albanian Kosovars Who Like Serbia vs…
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Narrowly true
Nikki’s latest pullquote: China has been preparing for war with the US as it has built up its military over the last few years. While China had been expanding its military presence America has been complacent and ‘taking gender pronoun classes’. Technically true but misses the point. China already owns us COMMERCIALLY. Nixon invited them…
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Hall of one-way mirrors
Krystal is shocked that a behavioral researcher was caught faking data in a study on honesty. Krystal thinks that the government agencies who use such research will be misled. Nope. Government agencies conduct their own research, which is always VASTLY more thorough and accurate than the research allowed in academia. I saw a shadow of…
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YAVO 2
Detroit learned the Bud Light lesson heavily in ’57 to ’60. Executives, drunk with complacency and EXTREMELY drunk on actual martinis, decided to leave their dull boring customers behind. GM got rid of Buick’s portholes, then got rid of its traditional brand distinctions entirely. Ford dropped its beloved circular taillights. Chrysler got rid of quality…
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When Harry met Seagully
It’s well known that dogs want to eat what their human friends eat. Dogs get confused and frustrated when offered a human favorite food that tastes awful to the dog, like lemons. What about non-domesticated animals like seagulls, who enjoy stealing human food? Are they influenced by our favorites? A British study says yes, and…
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Some companies have learned.
The corporations who haven’t yet figured out QT are properly making news and causing boycotts. It’s worth noting that SOME big corporations have caught the wind change and altered their steering. Starting around 2018, USBank and Citibank both used the same rotating set of splash screens for their logins. The pictures showed aggressively Die-Verse and…
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Sure enough
I’ve wisely avoided paying attention to beer since I stopped drinking in 1990. Today, just for curiosity, I walked down the beer aisle in Safeway. Sure enough, most brands are half taken, while Bud Light is untouched. Last week I observed one of the few Bud buyers, who is precisely the exception that proves the…
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Gotchapower
Listening again to a 1950 Hollywood gossip show called Hollywood Byline. This episode is valuable because it’s uncut, including the offstage chatting and negotiating among the actors and producers. You can tell easily when the onstage parts start and end; all the voices are clear and organized and grammatical. I was comparing this on/off variable…
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Hindsight?
Timothy Calkins, associate chair of the marketing department at Northwestern Kellogg, told Fox Business: ‘I think we’ll see more brands be very cautious about getting into the middle of some of these really controversial issues. I think in hindsight a team would say, you really don’t want to get involved in that controversial an issue.’…
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Duane does Bud
Duane Jones dealt with the Bud Light problem. I cited it before, in a discussion of AI misunderstanding human motives: = = = = = START REPRINT: The Jones agency had produced a successful magazine ad for Heinz ketchup. A painting showed an elegant waitress holding a silver tray with a single bottle of Heinz,…
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