10 minutes estimated reading time
Platinum jubilee versus pride
Transforming logos for Pride has lost brand impact | Marketing Week – When the mass market starts arguing over who gets the specially altered distinctive asset for the month, it’s probably time to retire the whole code-playing business forever. Monkeys cannot run the zoo – especially the zoo’s Special Surprise Tricks Unit, which designs things to influence the monkeys without them knowing anything about it. Pride month clashed with the platinum jubilee. Brands got involved with the platinum jubilee celebrations as planning got under way by local councils and British embassies by mid-May. The platinum jubilee allowed brands to reach a wider swathe of consumers than would otherwise be the case and increase their relevance to consumers lives. Celebration of pride month was seen as brands ‘deprioritising’ the platinum jubilee on one side, while platinum jubilee critics were seen as been prejudiced in nature. What struck me was the quiet of the voices in the middle ground of the Pride – platinum jubilee dispute. Perhaps its better for brands to stay out?
China
Investors return to Chinese stocks after sell-off triggered by Covid and geopolitics | Financial Times – worthwhile considering alongside the following story: Chinese ex-securities regulator handed suspended death sentence | Financial Times. And then there is the ‘headwinds’ hitting stocks: From Tencent to Alibaba, Tech Headwinds Are Hitting Chinese Firms Hard – Bloomberg
Chinese Influencer’s Ice-Cream Pitch Inadvertently Introduces Fans to Tiananmen Square Massacre – WSJ – there is a ‘Brass Eye’ quality to the influencer clip, I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone thought that they were being edgy and set him up. ADV China has an interesting video about the ‘Streisand Effect’ that occurred when Mr Lipstick was detained
Consumer behaviour
The West’s Struggle for Mental Health – WSJ – American psychiatrists have been studying rates of functional mental illness, such as depressive disorders and schizophrenia, since the 1840s. These studies show that the ratio of those suffering from such diseases to the mentally healthy population has been consistently rising. Ten years ago, based on the annual Healthy Minds study of college students, 1 in 5 college students was dealing with mental illness. – and depression has surged 135 percent over an 18 year period. The finding are that “The more a society is dedicated to the value of equality and the more choices it offers for individual self-determination, the higher its rates of functional mental illness.”
The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them – The New York Times
Culture
Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary to Launch ‘The Video Archives Podcast’ – Variety – maybe a worthy successor to Alex Cox’ Moviedrome?
Economics
Getting Deglobalization Right by Joseph E. Stiglitz – Project Syndicate
Just Say No to “Friend-Shoring” by Raghuram G. Rajan – Project Syndicate – not an argument that I particularly agree with
Energy
Toyota’s prototype ‘cartridge’ is a way to make hydrogen portable | Engadget
Samsung sued over battery management algorithms – eeNews Power
LNG revolution: Germany’s plan to wean itself off Russian gas takes shape | Financial Times – also a good opportunity to pivot to hydrogen
Finance
Ex-Merrill Banker’s Broker App Boosts Valuation to $5.4 Billion – Bloomberg
FMCG
☕️ Candy in your coffee – this seems to be an extension of the ‘sweet flavours’ available historically from the likes of Dunkin Donuts and other coffee outlets
UK sales of low-alcohol and no-alcohol beers almost double in 5 years | Financial Times
Germany
German elites close relationship with, and facilitation of authoritarian regimes comes under examination: After Xinjiang Revelations, Germany’s Ties to China Are Under the Microscope – DER SPIEGEL and Olaf Scholz and Ukraine: Why Has Germany Been So Slow to Deliver Weapons? – DER SPIEGEL
Hong Kong
National security law: can Hongkongers still hold June 4 commemorative events marking anniversary of Tiananmen Square crackdown? | South China Morning Post – political scholar Steve Tsang, director of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, also said the security law was intended to ensure activities that were deemed unpatriotic could not take place in Hong Kong. “It has been enforced in a way to secure an intimidation effect,” he said. “Unless someone or members of a civil society organisation are prepared to be charged and jailed … they will not hold a public event of any sort.” Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said a large vigil commemorating June 4 might be seen as an act that undermined China’s sovereignty and therefore was not worth the risk. Asked what kinds of June 4 events might be allowed in the future, the pro-Beijing scholar said: “Some implicit actions, in private, and in small groups, should be fine under the current political atmosphere.” Simon Young Ngai-man, associate dean of research at HKU’s law faculty, said the question centred on whether such acts signalled “seditious intent”, which might risk violating the Crimes Ordinance – an offence punishable by up to two years in prison for first-time offenders. “Note that intending to promote feelings of ill will and enmity between different classes of the population is also a seditious intent,” he said. “The precise meaning of ‘exciting disaffection’ is unclear. Does it cover any kind of criticism of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments?”
Ideas
Interview: Katherine Boyle, venture capitalist – reinvigorating American manufacturing
There’s no such thing as data — Benedict Evans and more at the FT: There is no such thing as ‘data’ | Financial Times
Putin’s Hard Choices | Foreign Affairs
Diabetes drug leads to notable weight loss in people with obesity – study | The Guardian – interesting article that touches on multiple aspects of obesity as a chronic condition. The biggest issue is that government’s aren’t looking to treat it as the chronic condition related to an an endocrine system imbalance that it is. I worked on a rival drug to the one mentioned, which is being promoted in the US and other countries at the moment
What If Ukraine Wins? | Foreign Affairs and Chartbook #128: Mission command – NATO’s Strangelove vision of freedom enacted on the Ukraine battlefield
Innovation
An Oxford case study explains why SpaceX is more efficient than NASA — Space Business — Quartz – Planners behind projects that attempt to achieve a massive gain in a single leap, they posit, enmesh themselves in psychological patterns that lead to failure. They delude themselves in thinking the actual costs of the project will be much less than expected, because if the real costs were known, the projects would never be attempted. Platforms, on the other hand, grow incrementally. These aren’t just digital constructions but real world activities that share several characteristics: Repeatability, extendability, the ability to absorb new knowledge and adapt to new situations.
South Korean steelmaker warns green push will benefit China and India | Financial Times – unless western markets demand supply chain traceability
How to Identify Underrated Markets
Japan
The Japan that Abe Shinzo made – by Noah Smith – Noahpinion
Korea
‘Muscles look cooler’: South Korean women reshape idea of beauty | South Korea | The Guardian
Luxury
The Inside History of the Queen’s Top-Secret Tweed – Robb Report
Why buzzy Instagram accessories labels are investing in ready-to-wear | Vogue Business
Bottega Veneta to re-release archival pieces, build lifetime repairs | Vogue Business – I was surprised that they weren’t doing lifetime repairs previously
Marketing
Brainlabs goes for global growth with strategy change
Media
Visual Artist Amber Park on Navigating the NFT Space as a Female, Asian, Queer Creative
Online
Brand Health Check: Is it the end of the road for Uber in APAC? | Marketing | Campaign Asia
Nike will end run club app in mainland China — Quartz
Retailing
Why Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores | The Economist
What Happens When You Pivot to a Reels-only Strategy on Instagram? | Later
Security
Microsoft Azure cross-tenant cloud security flaws concerning – Protocol – “It’s concerning. And it is a pattern,” said Rich Mogull, CEO at independent security research firm Securosis and a longtime security industry analyst. “And so the question is: Do we believe that that’s because they’re under greater scrutiny? Or is it that they have more problems? It might be a little bit of both.” At cloud security firm Orca Security, whose researchers have found two of the cross-tenant vulnerabilities in Azure services, the issues strongly suggest that Azure is not withstanding the pressure applied by researchers to the same degree as AWS and Google Cloud, according to Orca CTO Yoav Alon. – the more things change, the more they stay the same
Deadly secret: Electronic warfare shapes Russia-Ukraine war | AP News – Russian jamming of GPS receivers on drones that Ukraine uses to locate the enemy and direct artillery fire is particularly intense “on the line of contact,” he said. Ukraine has scored some successes in countering Russia’s electronic warfare efforts. It has captured important pieces of hardware — a significant intelligence coup — and destroyed at least two multi-vehicle mobile electronic warfare units.
Singapore
Jack Ma’s Ant Group unveils Singapore digital bank – ANEXT – in overseas expansion push | South China Morning Post – ANEXT Bank will provide digital financial services to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that have cross-border operations, it said in a statement on Monday. Ant’s wholesale license allows it to serve small and mid-sized firms and other non-retail segments, and requires a capital commitment of US$73 million
Telecoms
Apple’s Space Ambitions are Real | I, Cringely
Web of no web
Marketing in the metaverse: An opportunity for innovation and experimentation | McKinsey
VR speculation – Apple looks to its first headset for next breakthrough product | Financial Times and Apple prepares new video content to support VR headset launch next year – report – Telecompaper
Immersive VR deck claimed as world’s first ‘metaverse… Smart2.0
Apple dives deeper into cars with dashboard software | RTE
A primary metaverse leader is leaving Microsoft at the wrong time — Quartz – Kipman’s exit came as a surprise to some AR industry insiders. Kipman has been the leading evangelist for Microsoft’s immersive computing efforts since the launch of the HoloLens AR headset in 2015, which he helped develop. In addition to the HoloLens, Microsoft offers its bleeding-edge Azure Kinect spatial computing depth camera, which captures and tracks 3D objects. The company has also developed Microsoft Mesh for shared AR interactions, supports a wide array of VR headsets via its Windows Mixed Reality platform, and boasts one of the most popular VR communities in AltspaceVR. Quietly, Microsoft has become the biggest name in the metaverse next to Meta, largely due to its focus on business enterprise users. But now that Microsoft is losing its immersive computing champion, where does the company’s metaverse path lead? And why is Kipman leaving at such a crucial moment?
From new headsets to a VR bar — fantasy meets reality | Financial Times