Antonym Flamethrower Eviction Edition
Antonym Flamethrower Eviction Edition
Dear Reader
Q: What noise does a privacy time-bomb make? A: TikTok, TikTok...
Hurrah — Dad jokes rule! At least they do in a newsletter where no editorial supervision is available to filter them out.
This week we skirt around the edges of surveillance capitalism, the Government’s ads asking people not to make ads, and an anachronistic Fonzy dance number.
But first, enjoy the bathos of a Trump henchman shilling plastic footwear to seniors.
IT WOULD BE RUDY NOT TO
Wondering about the dark forces funding Trump’s allies? Wonder no more: Rudy Giuliani gave the game away by offering an undisclosed discount for plastic sandals if you enter a secret code (“Rudy”).
(Via Marketing Brew.)
TIKTOK IS DEVOURING OUR ATTENTION: ALL OF IT
I had a chat this week with three knowledgeable youngsters aged 15-25 about TikTok. The youngest was with us for work experience and gave a presentation at the end of his time about the platform. TikTok is their number one social media— they could talk about the same memes, compare the ways they got the best of it and talk about what “things were like in 2020” as if they were remembering a by-gone age that in my temporal awareness took place, er, last week. They admitted to using TikTok for “at least half an hour a day” — although they was a tense vibe that suggested all of them were on it much longer than that.
I can understand that. No matter one’s age, TikTok grips the attention tightly once it has calibrated its feed of videos to the user’s interests. They want to be surprised, entertained, informed? It’s got them. They want to have their views confirmed and dreams fed steroids? No problem—in minutes its algorithmic legerdemain will shift and shimmer into new objects of desire.
My young colleagues were appreciative of this cleverness—they noted that when they got bored of, say, a certain joke or song and started scrolling past it, TikTok adjusted itself quickly and found them new delights. Interestingly, their experiences were definitely different, perhaps more so then they’d expected. There were trends they all knew about but each of them also had strands of content and favourite in-jokes of which the others were unaware.
I asked them what they thought about privacy, given the massive concerns in the US about Chinese government access. They were aware but relaxed about the issue — they didn’t have anything Beijing would be particularly interested in, was the consensus. It was not the time to lecture—but I did send them a few links afterwards, including last week’s Fear of Fitbits Edition of this newsletter.
:: If you fancy trying your hand at using data on TikTok to investigate wrong-doing, the masters of open source intelligence, Bellingcat have published a free handy guide: Investigate TikTok Like A Pro! | bellingcat
SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM KICKING UP A GEAR
Following the TikTok meeting, a quote from Shoshana Zuboff’s landmark The Age of Surveillance Capitalism resurfaced in my feeds serendipitously:
"When I speak to my children or an audience of young people, I try to alert them to the historically contingent nature of “the thing that has us” by calling attention to ordinary values and expectations before surveillance capitalism began its campaign of psychic numbing. “It is not OK to have to hide in your own life; it is not normal,” I tell them. “It is not OK to spend your lunchtime conversations comparing software that will camouflage you and protect you from continuous unwanted invasion.” Five trackers blocked."
– Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Of course, Zuboff was talking mainly about American corporate surveillance in that passage. The TikTok craze—I won’t say “TikTok generation” because it’s sweeping through all ages now, as Facebook did a decade ago—gives little opportunity to safeguard your privacy with ad blockers or opt-outs.
Meanwhile The Economist this week has a good briefing of the platform’s rise and why it is a worry not just to the US social media giants, but to security experts and policy-makers. If you don’t know much about it, or regard TikTok as an amusing but shallow sideshow, best to read up on it sooner rather than later.
ELON TIME COMING
While Elon Musk inelegantly retreats from his Twitter takeover attempt, Tesla has been overtaken as the largest manufacturer of electric cars by BYD. The FT has a profile of “nutty professor” CEO Wang Chuanfu:
Half-year sales figures showed that BYD — short for “build your dreams” — sold more vehicles than Tesla. About half the cars currently sold by BYD are plug-in hybrids that China counts as “new energy vehicles” alongside pure battery and hydrogen-powered models.
In dethroning Elon Musk, Wang also achieved what General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen have all failed to do.
“Even Musk underestimated him,” said Tu Le, managing director of Beijing-based consultancy Sino Auto Insights. “But there is no doubt that his ambition equals his peers or competitors.”
HACKERS HIJACK COURT CASES
Reuters has an in-depth investigation into an India-based hacking group that has disrupted trials from “London to Lagos”, with stolen email records being leaked or submitted in at least eleven trials. One counter-surveillance expert in the UK said that it was an “open secret” that private investigators “use Indian Hacking groups to target opposition in litigation battles”.
How Mercenary Hackers Sway Litigation Battles | Reuters
REVEALED: THE FONZ WAS A JOY DIVISION FAN
UK GOV PSA: STOP MARKETING NOW!
The latest dud idea from the bunch of non-geniuses in the current UK government, now lame ducked but insisting on taking us all down with it is a recommendation that companies cut marketing spend to avoid higher costs to consumers, says Marketing Week:
The government is set to launch a campaign aimed at getting businesses to divert marketing spend into cutting prices to help mitigate the cost of living crisis.
The agency team working on that ad campaign must feel like turkeys mucking in to help the abattoir’s Christmas recruitment effort.
I can’t bring myself to get too worked up about it as it isn’t even the stupidest thing to happen in the government this past two weeks. That would be the announcement that the shameless outgoing prime minister was trying to hold his wedding reception within the shadow of the mighty oak where he was going to build a £150,000 tree house for his son. There’s no suggestion that the taxpayer would have paid for the tree-house, but given that the crooked oik had been receiving various kinds of hospitality from former-KGB agents in their Italian villas when Foreign Secretary, one shudders to think who might have actually been paying for it.
EVERY LITTLE YELPS
Meanwhile in consumer products price inflation news a peace deal that will cause ripples across the markets. Tesco and Heinz have agreed on how much they will hike the prices on beans and ketchup. Tesco had objected violently about alleged 33% hikes in the price of red sauce.
I’m such an instinctive Heinz loyalist that is only now, in retrospect, that I realise the incredible power of its brand. Somehow the beans, ketchup and canned soups that have been non-negotiable elements of my shopping trolleys real and virtual since I had any say in the matter had been made in the same imaginary savoury version of the Willy Wonka factory since my childhood.
Meanwhile Sainsburys got in a cheap shot in on Twitter, reported the FT:
A tweet from J Sainsbury on Friday highlighted promotional pricing on Heinz tomato ketchup with the words “Out of ketchup? Not at Sainsbury’s. We’ve gone straight to the sauce to help you ready your BBQs”.
Coincidentally, research from Gartner of 450 top marketing executives showed that of all the threats they face, many are not worried about consumer price inflation. This is because generally it means they will make more money. Gartner says their “optimism may be misplaced”.
Two one-para stories about confidence men
First, a glorious demonstration of John Le Carré's storytelling in his masterpiece, A Perfect Spy. Rick, the protagonist’s father—modelled on LeCarré’s own—was a shameless conman, always on the make:
One later footnote belongs to this brief but glorious high point of Rick’s affluence. It is recorded that in October 1947 he sold his head. I chanced upon this information as I was standing on the steps of the crematorium, covertly trying to puzzle out some of the less familiar members of the funeral. A breathless youth claiming to represent a teaching hospital waved a piece of paper at me and demanded I stop the ceremony. ‘In Consideration of the sum of fifty pounds cash I, Richard T. Pym of Chester Street W, consent that on my death my head may be used for the purposes of furthering medical science.’ It was raining slightly. Under cover of the porch I scribbled the boy a cheque for a hundred pounds and told him to buy one somewhere else. If the fellow was a confidence trickster, I reasoned, Rick would have been the first to admire his enterprise.
Our second one paragraph story is also based on true lies, and a little more open ended. It comes from the Inside Number 10 section of today’s—10th July—edition of The Sunday Times, recounting the events around the resignation of Boris Johnson, the worst prime minister in living memory (mine at least):
“The PM told a group of us a story about a relative of his,” a No 10 adviser said. “A great-uncle, I think. For some reason this person was on the run from the authorities and holed up in a town hall, surrounded by police. He also had a flame-thrower. I’m not sure how the incident ended but that was the metaphor the PM used when talking about the leadership. He said it would take a flame-thrower to get him out of there.”
A irritatingly compelling detail of that story though, is that it is unclear whether it is the PM or his would-be ousters who will need to use the weapon. You can imagine that in his mind he will be the one making a break for freedom.
Technically, he’s not left the building yet. Watch out for scorch-marks.
C’EST TOUT!
That’s the whole of everything for this week, except for the post-script. I hope there was something here you liked. Please do share, like and all of the rest of it if you did…
Antony
PS Other things too good not to share
Who will replace Boris Johnson and be the next prime minister? | The Times
How to really change someone’s mind | Financial Times
Perhaps the deep problem is that formal debate is a performance, like professional wrestling. Audiences pick a side and enjoy the show.
But people do not usually change their minds because they enjoy a show, nor even because of a dazzling display of logic. People change their minds because they persuade themselves. Rapport, listening and inviting people to elaborate can all open a space for that self-persuasion to happen. But a world champion debater cannot change your mind; only you can do that
Will the crypto crash de-rail the next web revolution? | FT
Why Iraqi moustaches are making a comeback | The Economist
How’d all those brands get into Stranger Things | Marketing Brew