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☆ 5 marketing experts on how to pull off a heritage-month campaign that's authentic and builds trust with the community
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Erica Sweeney | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

"I want all businesses to make people of all stripes feel warm and welcome," he told Insider. "There are times when something can be well-intentioned but could be wildly off," he told Insider. Michelle Thames, founder of Thames Media Solutions. Courtesy of Michelle ThamesAuthentic marketing resonates with people and is more likely to boost brand awareness, said Michelle Thames, founder of Thames Media Solutions in Chicago. "It's definitely important to have a connection instead of just posting a meme and slapping up a picture, which doesn't really resonate," she told Insider.

☆ Shaq is finally served in FTX investor suit, lawyers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —After months of attempting to serve Shaquille O’Neal in a lawsuit against celebrities who endorsed the now-bankrupt FTX crypto platform, lawyers for a group of FTX investors said they finally succeeded on Sunday. “Plaintiffs in the billion $ FTX class action case just served @SHAQ outside his house,” the Moskowitz Law Firm tweeted. O’Neal was the last of the celebrities in the class-action suit to be served a legal notice, according to court documents. FTX collapsed into bankruptcy on November 11 after depositors and investors yanked their money amid concerns about the platform’s balance sheet. Bankman-Fried, who was arrested in December and is out on house arrest, has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

☆ Edward H. Meyer, Who Turned Grey Ad Firm Into a Global Player, Dies at 96
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Edward H. Meyer with his wife, Sandra Meyer, in an undated photo. Edward H. Meyer, who built what became Grey Global Group into one of the world’s top 10 advertising companies before selling it to Britain’s WPP Group PLC for about $1.75 billion in 2005, died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. In his 35 years as chief executive, Mr. Meyer transformed Grey from a minor U.S. ad agency into a giant with operations in more than 80 countries. He also diversified it into a broader array of services, including direct marketing and public relations.

NEW YORK, April 14 (Reuters) - Firms find that investors penalize their stock less for high greenhouse gas emissions if they voluntarily disclose that data, researchers at Lazard's climate center said on Friday. For energy companies the effect was more pronounced: Disclosure actually increased their P/E measure by 0.8%. "People might assume the worst if you don't disclose," said Peter Orszag, chief executive of financial advisory at Lazard. Many firms have pledged in recent years to reduce their carbon emissions, but the report found this had little observable impact on their valuations. "Investors may not interpret pledges as bearing material weight, but rather as ... bolstering public relations," the report said.

☆ Slutty Vegan, the buzzy $100 million restaurant empire backed by Shake Shack's Danny Meyer, faces wage theft lawsuits in two states
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Three employees are filing a lawsuit against Brooklyn's Slutty Vegan restaurant. The workers claim the restaurant failed to pay bonuses, did not adequately compensate for overtime, and miscalculated paychecks, according to the lawsuit. Founder Pinky Cole is also facing a lawsuit from an employee of her Atlanta restaurant Bar Vegan over alleged wage theft. Slutty Vegan opened its Brooklyn location in September 2022. Cole addressed the lawsuit in an Instagram post, writing "I don't lie, I don't steal and more importantly, I DON'T PLAY WITH PEOPLE'S MONEY."

☆ A Chinese company is reportedly planning to replace some human copywriters and graphic designers with AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A marketing company in China reportedly has plans to replace some of its human contractors with AI. A memo seen by Bloomberg says BlueFocus plans to replace external copywriters and graphic designers. Experts previously told Insider some jobs in media can be at risk of being replaced by AI models. A marketing and brand management company in China has plans to replace some of its copywriters and graphic designers with generative AI models like ChatGPT, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. Generative AI can potentially affect 300 million-full time jobs around the world, research from Goldman Sachs found.

☆ Trump could admit to having an affair — if only so he can use Melania as a defense if his case ever makes it to trial, legal experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Three former prosecutors told Insider that AG Alvin Bragg's hush-money case against Trump is weak. But if the matter does make it to trial, the former president could use his wife to his benefit. More than a week after former President Donald Trump was indicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records, legal experts are skeptical of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case. Three former prosecutors speculated about possible defense strategies the former president might use in such a case. But legal experts stressed that any speculation about a possible Trump defense at this point is still entirely conjecture.

CNN —Flowers, a coconut and a round of cheers were part of the celebrations following the inaugural test run through India’s first underwater metro tunnel on Wednesday. “This is a historic moment for Metro Railway,” Kausik Mitra, chief public relations officer for the Kolkata metro system, said in a statement. Once open, Howrah Maidan will be the deepest metro station in India. The full metro line through Howrah Maidan will be 4.8 km (three miles) long. Kolkata was the first city in India to have a metro system.

☆ Who says romance is dead? Couples are using ChatGPT to write their wedding vows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —When Elyse Nguyen was nearing her wedding date in February and still hadn’t started writing her vows, a friend suggested she try a new source of inspiration: ChatGPT. Nguyen ultimately ended up using a good portion of ChatGPT’s suggestions and said her husband was on board with it. “It helped alleviate some stress because I had no prior experience with wedding vows nor did I know what should be included,” Nguyen said. The Writer’s Block Assistant tool helps users write vows, best man and maid of honor speeches, thank you cards and wedding website “about us” pages. We’re working on responsibly innovating using AI to advance the wedding and event industry as a whole.”Michael Grinn and Kate Gardiner used viral AI tool ChatGPT to write the Ketubah, a Jewish wedding contract, for their June wedding.

At least 133 people, including women and children, were killed after Myanmar’s military junta bombed Kanbalu township in the central Sagaing region on Tuesday, the human rights minister of the ousted shadow National Unity Government Aung Myo Min told CNN. Like much of Sagaing, the area is not under the control of the military junta. I saw flesh on the road.”The eyewitness said he saw dozens of bodies after the attack, including children as young as five. The attacks have killed civilians, including children, and targeted schools, clinics, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. And a military airstrike on a school in Sagaing in September killed at least 13 people, including seven children.

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - Private equity firm KKR & Co Inc (KKR.N) has agreed to buy a significant stake in FGS Global in a deal that values the financial communications group at about $1.4 billion. As part of the deal, KKR will buy up a 30% stake from senior employees at FGS Global and its largest investors, including London-based advertising giant WPP Plc (WPP.L). WPP, which was founded by Martin Sorrell, will retain a majority stake in FGS Global. Existing investor Golden Gate Capital is selling its entire stake to KKR, which is investing in FGS Global through its $8-billion European Fund VI. FGS Global currently employs more than 1,200 people across 27 offices globally.

☆ Former Twitter executives sue company to recover over $1 million in legal fees
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The complaint also describes legal fees linked to probes by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department, though without disclosing many specifics of the investigations. Agrawal continued to field requests through the fall and after he stepped down from Twitter, according to the complaint. And late last year, it said, the Justice Department contacted Agrawal and Segal’s attorneys about multiple investigations into Twitter. Letters to Twitter seeking reimbursement for the legal expenses were ignored for months, according to the complaint. As of Monday, the executives still have not recovered the fees, the complaint said.

☆ Think You Know How ‘Succession’ Ends? Want to Bet?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Wilson Wong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“Succession” has earned acclaim for its depiction of the fictional lives of the mega-rich, power-hungry and venal Roy siblings (Connor, Kendall, Shiv and Roman) as they vie for control of Waystar Royco. “I might spend it on a trip to Tuscany.” (The location of the drama-filled Season 3 wedding of Caroline Collingwood, Shiv, Kendall and Roman’s mother, on the show.) Jayson Buford, who placed a $20 bet with nine of his friends at his “Succession” watch parties, said betting was “a fun activity to do to supplement the idea of the show, which is very communal. It’s a show about a family, people have watch parties, people gather, and it plays within that.” Mr. Buford believes that Waystar Royco is going to dissolve and that nobody will take over the company. Logan “thinks Kendall is an addict, and he doesn’t think Shiv is smart,” he said.

☆ Tech layoffs raise new alarms about how platforms protect users
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Some also formed ethical AI teams and invested in oversight groups. And Facebook-parent Meta suggested that it might cut staff working in non-technical roles as part of its latest round of layoffs. “With that outsourcing, I feel like they had this comfort level that they could cut some of the trust and safety team, but Twitch is very unique,” the former employee said. It invested heavily in content moderation, public policy and an oversight board to weigh in on tricky content issues to address rising concerns about its platform. Tech leaders may also be grappling with the fact that even as they built up their trust and safety teams in recent years, their reputation problems haven’t really abated.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence Karine Jean-Pierre was involved in a drunk driving accident in March 2023, posts use unrelated photos
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

There is no evidence for claims that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was involved in an accident for drunk driving in March 2023, despite posts retweeted at least 18,000 times. “DC METRO POLICE REFUSING TO RELEASE BODYCAM FOOTAGE OF KARINE JEAN-PIERRE ACCIDENT,” reads part of the text. White House spokesperson Michael Kikukawa said the claim “is not true.”Outlets (here ) (here) have reported that Jean-Pierre lives in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. DC Metro Police said there is no record of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre being involved in an accident for drunk driving. The White House called the allegation false, and photos used to illustrate the claims show unrelated events.

☆ Inside Nike: Sources share claims of sexism, cheating, abuse at the world's wokest brand
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Joshua Hunt | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +51 min

The conservative blowback came as no surprise to Parker, who told Nike's board of directors to expect some short-term backlash. In late 2014, the BBC sent a film crew to Portland to interview several former Oregon Project employees. "He would be at the side of the track calling out runners' splits but wouldn't call Kara's out," Adam Goucher told me. When people asked why she left the Oregon Project, she said it was a "personal decision." "I don't think it has anything to do with who the CEO is," Goucher told me.

☆ Academic researchers blast Twitter’s data paywall as ‘outrageously expensive’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

But Twitter’s new tiered access system undercuts all of that, the researchers said. That represents 0.3% of what researchers used to be able to collect in a single day, the letter said. Before the change, researchers could pay about $500 a month for the ability to access up to 10% of the roughly 1 billion tweets a month that flow across Twitter’s platform. Now, though, “the most expensive Enterprise tier would cut that by 80% at about 400 times the price,” the researchers’ letter said. “The new pricing plans will also end at least 76 long-term efforts, including dashboards, tools, or code packages that support other researchers, journalists, first-responders, educators, and Twitter users.”

☆ A new group of Twitter vendors is suing the company for alleged unpaid bills
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —A group of Twitter vendors on Tuesday filed a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the company has failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in overdue bills. The company alleged that it began contacting Twitter in November about overdue and pending invoices for services rendered under a contract signed in March 2022. Twitter owes the captioning company around $42,000, according to the complaint. YES Consulting, which said it provided leadership training to Twitter employees per an agreement signed in March 2022, alleges that Twitter owes it approximately $49,000 for services provided between August and November last year. The vendors are seeking damages in the amount each company is allegedly owed by Twitter, as well as interest.

☆ One of the oldest restaurants at Downtown Disney in California is closing down
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Catal Restaurant and Uva Bar at Disneyland California's Downtown Disney are closing on 14 April. The restaurant has been in business since the Downtown Disney District opened in 2001. Catal Restaurant and its accompanying outdoor bar – Uva Bar – have been permanent fixtures since the opening of Downtown Disney in 2001. The theme park says that the restaurant and bar are closing "to make way for an exciting new addition to the Downtown Disney District." The change is part of a large redevelopment of the Downtown Disney District, which is home to a number of restaurants, shops, and entertainment options.

☆ Musk’s Twitter promised a purge of blue check marks. Instead he singled out one account
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Some VIP Twitter users woke up on Saturday expecting to have lost their coveted blue verification check marks in a previously announced purge by Elon Musk. But one high-profile account did lose its blue check over the weekend: the main account for the New York Times, which had previously told CNN it would not pay for verification. Although the New York Times’ main account lost its blue check, its other accounts, such as those for its arts, travel and books content, remained verified. Musk has been threatening to take away “legacy” blue check marks from users verified under Twitter’s old system since shortly after he bought Twitter last fall. In early November, Twitter launched the option for people paying for its Twitter Blue subscription service to receive blue checks.

☆ Florida insiders react with shock, amusement, and dread after Disney outmaneuvers DeSantis to keep most of its power
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

It appears Walt Disney World won't be losing power over its land after all — at least not yet — following a high-profile battle with Republican Gov. "It was a pretty brilliant move by the outgoing board to basically take all the power away," one Florida-based lobbyist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Insider. Ron DeSantis got married at Disney World in 2009. Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida who co-authored the book "Politics in Florida," told Insider. The company told Insider in a statement that it was "discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums."

☆ Fact Check-Alkaline hydrolysis, or liquid cremation, does not mean human remains are ‘fed to the living'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Alkaline hydrolysis is a form of flameless cremation where a human body can be liquified and turned into wastewater after death. An alkaline hydrolysis machine is used to perform a “bio-cremation,” (also known as aquamation or water cremation) (here). The video shows Fisher explaining how the alkaline hydrolysis machine called the Resomator works. The NFDA’s model guidelines for states to base laws governing alkaline hydrolysis can be seen (here). Experts say liquid from alkaline hydrolysis is sterilized with no trace of human DNA and is then treated at water treatment facilities before entering common households.

☆ Black Lives Matter dodges Adidas legal battle, but other brands using striped logos remain targets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Danni Santana | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Adidas has retracted its notice of opposition against Black Lives Matter trademarking its logo. But BLM's stripes are yellow as opposed to Adidas' black and white branding. In the notice of opposition, Adidas went into great detail about its 70-year history using the three-stripe mark in collaborating with artists and athletes. An Adidas spokesperson told Insider that it will withdraw its opposition to BLM registering its trademark "as soon as possible." Adidas has at least five pending cases involving its three stripes logo against companies like Elite Custom Wear, Equicor LLC, and Sol Echo.

☆ Twitter says portions of source code leaked online
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The leak saw excerpts of Twitter’s source code — the programming that powers the Twitter platform and its internal tools — posted to the online software repository GitHub, according to a court filing Friday by a Twitter attorney. The account was created on Jan. 3 and does not appear to have posted any other material besides the Twitter code. Leaked source code can not only provide insight into how a company designs its product but can also give criminals the chance to find or exploit security flaws and vulnerabilities. Twitter has launched an effort to identify the person or group behind the FreeSpeechEnthusiast GitHub account, as well as anyone who may have interacted with the leaked code. He has also said Twitter will charge fees for other software applications to access Twitter’s platform.

☆ Hate Crowded Cruises? 6 Small-Ship Getaways to Book Instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Eleanor Mcgrath | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

CUTTING EDGE On its route to the North Pole, Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot, a hybrid-electric polar exploration vessel, glides slowly through the ice so passengers can view arctic foxes, whales and walruses. Popular megaships with over 6,000 passengers—and extras like an ice-skating rink, IMAX, crazy waterslides and Broadway-scale theaters—welcome the budget-conscious. “Smaller expeditions are up 43% over 2019,” reported Misty Belles, vice president of global public relations for Virtuoso, a network of 20,000 travel advisers. Sleek vessels now break through Arctic ice floes to access the North Pole, and river cruises let the curious visit multiple towns without enduring turbulent seas. Here, a few examples of what small ship cruises can offer.

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