As a subject, ethics has occupied the thought of moral philosophers for over 2,000 years. And it doesn't appear to get too much easier.
But there are certain events, certain moments in time that we can point to, where we can see the stark difference between right and wrong. And our behaviors should be guided accordingly.
The question is: are we holding others accountable for their behavior as well?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
I'm not pulling any punches with the lack of ethics in some tech companies; how CMOs are using A.I.; fixing the robocall problem; the cost of autonomous vehicles is a concern; social video ads need your attention; a social media influencer study worth noting; some conditions in Amazon warehouses are brutal; Facebook's rough week; the hottest chat app for teens is...; the significant podcast statistic hiding in plain sight; the Spotify-Apple battle royale; phone numbers aren't good authentication data points; a new take on the data/oil analogy; your spouse doesn't know you as well as someone else; how museums are rethinking the way they collect art; and more in the A Question of Ethics edition of The Full Monty for the week of March 18, 2019.
The Full Monty makes you smarter faster, by curating essential digital business intelligence every week. Links are below with commentary in italics. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing.
Scott Monty Strategies leverages my time as an executive at Ford Motor Company and the counsel I've been giving to brands and agencies since. I've worked with digital communications teams, customer service leaders, and C-level executives at companies like Walmart, McDonalds, T-Mobile and IBM on issues related to strategy, crisis communications, customer experience, and digital, social and content strategy. I welcome the opportunity to explore a relationship with your team. Let's have an introductory chat. Or maybe you'd just like to pick my brain for an hour.
Top Story
"All the world's a stage"
— William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
The world saw the impact of a terrorist unleashed in two mosques in New Zealand late last week. Rather than try to describe the situation in my own words, I'll borrow from The New York Times:
"On Friday, a gunman strapped on a helmet camera, loaded his car with weapons, drove to a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, and began shooting at anyone who came into his line of vision. The act of mass terror was broadcast live for the world to watch on social media."
The original video was removed within the first hour, but by then, the damage was already done. Around the world, people copied and uploaded the horrific video to their own accounts and to additional platforms. And the tech companies had difficulty in taking them all down.
The A.I. that they've developed was too slow in flagging and shutting down violent videos. Some will say, "That's just how A.I. works. It's easier to match to known and expected things." Maybe so. But share a nipple on Instagram or a copyrighted song on YouTube and it'll get yanked immediately. Not to mention that Facebook says it can now detect revenge porn automatically.
The sad reality is this:
Tech companies don't care enough. If they did, they've have made this a priority.
"The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings."
– Albert Schweitzer
Tech companies have engineered a reality in which conspiracy theories and hate are allowed to fester and then go viral, both online and in real life. The power they have unleashed is beyond their comprehension (or at least their expectation). But hate and anger is what fuels the social web. And that drives clicks.
We've long believed that with great power comes great responsibility. And yet Mark Zuckerberg — who has operated Facebook by apology — wants to control the encrypted conversations of nearly a third of the world's population.
At some point, we need to hold such companies to account — not from a regulatory perspective, but from an ethical and human angle. Where is their moral compass?
At this point, their True North seems to be profitability and user growth. Sadly, the only way they may pay attention is from an exodus of users and advertisers.
Speaking of exodus, that's the book in the Torah and Old Testament that includes a story about the people worshiping a golden calf while waiting for Moses to return Ten Commandments.
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About this week's image: Garrit de Wet painted The Adoration of the Golden Calf in the first half of the 17th century to memorialize the scene described in Exodus in the Torah and the Old Testament, in which Aaron and the Israelites constructed a golden calf to worship while Moses went to Mount Sinai, from which he eventually descended with the Ten Commandments.
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
The latest in A.I., machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything. Aสแดษช๊ฐษชแดษชแดส Iษดแดแดสสษชษขแดษดแดแด / Mแดแดสษชษดแด Lแดแดสษดษชษดษข
CMOs are using A.I. primarily for personalization and predictive analytics. See what else they've got planned. (Marketing Charts) As with any kind of machine learning, the more data you have to work with, the better the system will get.
Robocalls are a growing problem. If only we could make the FCC care a little bit more about fixing it. (Last Week Tonight) Warning: strong language. And strong ideas.
If driverless cars are going to change the world, they need to be affordable. (Guardian) As with any cutting-edge technology, early versions are quite expensive. When Henry Ford introduced the Model T and a desire to create transportation for all, it took 10 years to get the price to drop.
The CDC is opening an investigation into e-scooter injuries. "Preliminary observations from the study found that the vast majority of injuries — 98 percent of them — happen to riders who aren't wearing helmets." (Engadget) Just a friendly reminder: if you're using a scooter, please wear a helmet.
Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.
The psychology behind brand storytelling should be apparent by now. Creating empathy and using social proof are helpful in that regard. (AdWeek) But all too often, brands forget this: don't always make it about you.
And if you're going for empathy, the link between brand and leadership means connecting with your heart. How do you do that? (Foster Thinking)
If you work in influencer relations, you'll want to download this social media influencer study from Trust Insights that looks at engagement by platform, and by audience size. (Trust Insights) Bottom line: larger audience means less engagement.
Are influencers ignoring your emails? There's something you can do about it. (Agility PR) I receive a lot of pitches; one bit of advice is this: please take the time to read and understand the people whom you're pitching. Don't cut and paste.
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Retail Apocalypse
Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.
The Amazon Diaries is a series that contains stories from workers at every level of the Amazon empire. This is the story of the relentless misery of working inside an Amazon warehouse. (One Zero) This is a serious issue, and one that we as consumers don't have much control over. Perhaps as you consider your next Amazon purchases, consider bundling them rather than making multiple small orders, as a start.
If you haven't taken a moment to recommend The Full Monty in the past month, please find a couple of minutes. Three effective tactics (do one, two or all three): 1. Share the URL smonty.co/fullmontysub with a group of your friends at work, a community of practice that is relevant, on Slack, a Facebook Group, etc. with a recommendation. 2. Write a review on your blog, LinkedIn or in your column. 3. Tweet a recommendation. You could try this one or create your own.
Platforms
News to know about relevant social media and technology platforms that may affect your business.
Two important Facebook executives are leaving: Chris Cox, the head of product, who has 13 years at Facebook, and Chris Daniels, the head of WhatsApp. And Zuckerberg is taking full control. (Recode) It should be noted that this came directly on the heels of Zuckerberg's privacy/encryption announcement regarding the merging of Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Glad to see someone appears to have ethics.
Twitter is introducing a new 'Subscribe to Conversation' feature to allow users to follow topics of interest. (TechCrunch) Now I'd like a feature that allows me to opt out of people who use the Twitter-equivalent of reply all.
Twitter is getting snappy: when you swipe left on the Twitter timeline, it will immediately open the camera function. (TechCrunch) If this sounds close to Snapchat, you're right.
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Snap is launching a gaming platform next month. (Cheddar) Gaming is certainly hot, and Snap is smart to capitalize on mobile eyeballs for gaming, when people are away from their gaming consoles.
The hottest chat app for teens is...Google Docs? (The Atlantic) Makes sense. They're not allowed to use their phones in school, but they're in GDocs all day, which has a chat feature. Boom! Teen ingenuity FTW.
Wondery does a masterful job of selecting shows that will work cross-media. In short, if there isn't a potential to develop a show into another form of intellectual property (a movie or a TV show), Wondery probably won't back it. (Fast Company) We've recommended a number of their shows here, particularly Business Wars.
Program of the Week: The featured show is Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad. A cold case investigator and an investigative journalist try to solve a case each week. The twist is that you can help them. The show debuts the week of April 1.
If you're not already, please subscribe to The Full Monty podcast, 7 minutes of weekly business commentary, many times with a historical or literary twist. It's like Paul Harvey for business. New episodes every Wednesday.
Try this at home: "Alexa, play the latest episode of The Full Monty."
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more. Pสษชแด แดแดส / Sแดแดแดสษชแดส / Hแดแดแดษชษดษข
Phone numbers stink for security and authentication. Here's why. (Krebs on Security)
As Lyft, Pinterest, Postmates, Slack and Uber — among some of this decade's most prominent start-ups — get ready to list on the stock market, investors are preparing to write checks to a new generation of companies created by their workers. (The New York Times)
Measurement / Analytics / Data
The future is not in plastics, but in data. Those who know how to measure and analyze it will rule the world.
Citizen data scientists desire to do data science but are not formally schooled in all the ins and outs of the data science life cycle. (ZDNet) With the advent of more machine learning solutions, this means they may not need such formal schooling to discern insights.
The traces we leave on the Web and on our digital devices can give advertisers and others surprising, and sometimes disturbing, insights into our psychology. The Internet Knows You Better Than Your Spouse Does. (Scientific American)
I'm pleased to be heading to the Adobe Summit as an Adobe Insider. And you can join me — just use the code S19SMPC to save $200 on registration or watch the live keynotes here.
How can you energize your team and give them actionable ideas for boosting customer engagement? It's all about applying Timeless Wisdom to your process — practical and relatable lessons drawn from historical and literary contexts, updated to inform business growth.
Combine this with Fortune 10 executive experience and some great stories, and you'll be happy that you spent a fraction of what it costs to send your team to a major conference. I'll spend anywhere from an hour to a whole day with your team and give them the power to develop trusted, lasting relationships with your customers.
Let's chat and see if I can customize a session for you.
Mental Nourishment
Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.
Ramin Djawadi may not be a household name, but you've most likely heard his music. He's the composer for Game of Thrones and this is how his music helped make the show a hit. (The Atlantic) Side note: he's also behind Westworld.
Comedian isn't the first word you associate with Machiavelli. Most familiar today as the godfather of Realpolitik and as the eponym for all things cunning and devious, the Renaissance thinker Niccolรฒ Machiavelli also had a lighter side. (The Public Domain Review)
With storage spaces filled with works that may never be shown, some museums are rethinking the way they collect art, and at least one is ranking what it owns. (The New York Times) No, the Marie Kondo effect hasn't reached museums, but they all have limited space, and bequests and gifts make it difficult to manage. They have to make some hard decisions.
"I regard it as a criminal waste of time to go through the slow and painful ordeal of ascertaining things for one's self if these same things have already been ascertained and made available by others."
—Thomas Edison
Top image credit: The Adoration of the Golden Calf by Gerrit de Wet, first half of the 17th century (Wikimedia Commons - public domain)
Facebook opts for more intimate, private conversations; cameras under the watchful eye of A.I.; darker skin and autonomous vehicles don't mix; the percentage of marketing executives who'll increase their budgets this year; advertisers continue to overlook women over 40; retailers are eliminating innovation labs; the hotly anticipated Infinite Dial 2019 shows a dramatic increase in podcast consumption; Facebook's reputation took a hit last year; the only growing social network; Airbnb is going mainstream; one network's attempt at quashing anti-vaccination content; businesses are collecting a 'rolling hairball' of data but have trouble with insights; the problem with nostalgia; and more in the Private (To Us, at Least) edition of The Full Monty for the week of March 11, 2019.
Special thanks to colleagues who inspired me with link-worthy stories: Chris Brogan, Tom Webster, Jay Baer, Ann Handley, Jason Falls, Mark Schaefer, and Josh Spector. All of these fine folks crank out some amazing content on a regular basis. Check them out. The Full Monty makes you smarter faster, by curating essential digital business intelligence every week. Links are below with commentary in italics. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing.
In the last decade, we've spent so much time accumulating friends and followers on various social networks that it's become impossible to truly follow all of them. This is a vestige of our DNA: in Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind, Yuhal Noah Harari referred to "the tens of thousands of years during which our ancestors hunted and gathered."
So, we hunted and gathered on social networks as well, to the point where we've got more than what Dunbar's number suggests we can handle. And now, like any pendulum, it's beginning to swing the other way.
Mark Zuckerberg's 3,200 word manifesto on the future of Facebook indicates that it will increasingly shift its focus away from public posts to private, encrypted, and ephemeral communications on its trio of messaging apps (Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp). How they'll be able to sell advertising against fewer public data points is something that Zuckerberg hasn't addressed. But Zuckerberg was more emphatic in his focus on safety and the spread of misinformation.
Here's the thing: while it may make users more comfortable that their data aren't public, the fact remains that users' data will still be on the platform. Facebook might as well have said, "Your secret is safe with us." Not to mention that by forcing publicly odious opinions and fake news to go underground via private messaging, it's going to be even more dangerous and insidious because of Facebook's (or anyone else's) inability to track it.
Bottom line: Facebook isn't doing this because they heard our concerns about privacy and are now turning over a new leaf. Facebook's plan is to dominate private messaging.
But if you've shared a secret on their platform, your secret is out. Given their past performance on data and trustworthiness, is it reasonable to expect them to perform differently under these new circumstances?
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
– Benjamin Franklin
If you enjoyed this commentary, please sign up for Timeless Wisdom in addition to this newsletter. I'll be sharing some additional thoughts about this move by Facebook.
About this week's image: The Raft of the Medusa is the work of Thรฉodore Gรฉricault, who took a contemporary news event and transformed it into a timeless icon. In 1816, the French naval vessel Medusa sunk off the coast of Africa, which left 147 sailors adrift on a hastily constructed raft. That number dwindled quickly, with only 15 remaining after a 13 day ordeal at sea that included incidents of cannibalism among the desperate men. The larger-than-life-size painting captures the moment the raft's emaciated crew spots a rescue ship.
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
The latest in A.I., machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything. Aสแดษช๊ฐษชแดษชแดส Iษดแดแดสสษชษขแดษดแดแด / Mแดแดสษชษดแด Lแดแดสษดษชษดษข
Vaak, a Japanese startup, has developed artificial intelligence software that hunts for potential shoplifters, using footage from security cameras for fidgeting, restlessness and other potentially suspicious body language. (Bloomberg) Hmm. A.I.-powered cameras that presuppose criminal behavior? Sounds an awful lot like Minority Report.
Google has announced a new module for its machine learning framework, TensorFlow, that lets developers improve the privacy of their A.I. models with just a few lines of extra code. (The Verge) We're glad someone is using A.I. for increasing privacy.
Tesla is dealing with the failure to achieve full self-driving vehicles by moving the goalposts, as it continues using its customers as unpaid safety drivers for its technology. (Ars Technica) Did we say you'd be able to summon your car autonomously to Los Angeles from New York by 2018? We meant "future use of these features without supervision is dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers as demonstrated by billions of miles of experience." Or something.
Researchers have developed a smart stop sign that will flash a light at the right moment to make sure drivers don't roll past the sign altogether, therefore raising the risk of an accident. (New Atlas)
A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology found that individuals with darker skin are 5 percent less likely to be detected by autonomous vehicles. (Vox) Good grief. Algorithmic bias, most commonly reflecting human biases, is a big problem in the world of A.I. and machine learning. That's because the algorithms rely on training data from the real world—including content from media outlets like Vox.
Do consumers dislike personalized ads? It's the usual conundrum: consumers want personalized ads, but don't want to give up the necessary data. (eMarketer)
It's time to put more effort into your email newsletter. One reason: it's slow-cial media. (Emma) It's one of the few things over which you exercise as much control as possible.
Women have never been more engaged, more motivated, more in control of their lives than ever before. And brands are missing out as they continue to overlook women over 40. (AdWeek) Interesting finding during the week that included #InternationalWomenDay.
People would not care if 77% of brands disappeared. However, more than three-quarters (76%) of consumers expect brands to contribute to their quality of life and well-being, according to a new report on meaningful brands. (Havas) It's time to start making consumers care – by caring about what matters to them.
New research finds that as Generation Z and young Millennials exhibit much greater price sensitivity and much lower brand loyalty than prior generations—a challenge for brands looking to grow loyalty with this elusive group. (Agility PR) As if we didn't have enough generational challenges already.
And if you need a positive boost about the power of humanity as a new brand gets off the ground, check out this Twitter thread. (Twitter)
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Retail Apocalypse
Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.
There was a false alarm (updated, via AdWeek) that Amazonabandoned thousands of third-party wholesalers, with no notice. It is pushing third-party vendors to sell directly to consumers. (Quartz) This would obviously be disruptive, but could also be seen as a potential anti-competitive practice, as such vendors may not be set up to go DTC and Amazon is guaranteed to win. Further, with continued investment in private-label products, such a move by Amazon could be seen as a way to clean house to make way for its own products.
More retailers are doing away with "innovation labs" and instead simply integrating innovation into their operations. (Digiday) As it should be. Innovation should be a cultural thing, not the responsibility of a single department.
Returns are one of the biggest issues for e- and m-commerce, but they could also hold the key to helping keep stores relevant, if technology can be used to make returns work more effectively. That's what kiosks from Happy Returns are designed to do. (Internet Retailing)
If you haven't taken a moment to recommend The Full Monty in the past month, please find a couple of minutes. Three effective tactics (do one, two or all three):
1. Share the URL smonty.co/fullmontysub with a group of your friends at work, a community of practice that is relevant, on Slack, a Facebook Group, etc. with a recommendation. 2. Write a review on your blog, LinkedIn or in your column. 3. Tweet a recommendation. You could try this one or create your own.
Platforms
News to know about relevant social media and technology platforms that may affect your business.
Part of Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2019 (see more below in the Media section) included social media usage. Here are nine key discoveries in 2019 social media research. (Convince and Convert) This one may surprise you: only one network grew last year.
Pinterest has unveiled a Catalogs feature; it enables marketers to showcase multiple product images, sorted by category, and make them into dynamic Product Pins. The company has also added Shopping Ads to its self-serve Ads Manager platform. (Marketing Land)
Media
The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them. Vษชแด แดแด
There's only one Blockbuster store left in the world. What's its secret? (CNN Business) Hint: there's one kind of content is provides that Netflix and Amazon don't.
Netflix is a threat to the entire Big Media establishment – and Big Media is coming for Netflix. (Axios) It's not just coming from one direction. With Hulu, Disney+, Amazon, WarnerMedia, and others, this is an ongoing battle.
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The New York Times is growing its audio business, with five new hires to grow The Daily and more. (New York Times)
Program of the Week: The featured show is Consider Our Knowledge, an award-winning home for the best NPR parody that we know of- where the news is fake, and the jokes are real.
If you're not already, please subscribe to The Full Monty podcast, 7 minutes of weekly business commentary, many times with a historical or literary twist. It's like Paul Harvey for business. New episodes every Wednesday.
Try this at home: "Alexa, play the latest episode of The Full Monty."
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more. Pสษชแด แดแดส / Sแดแดแดสษชแดส / Hแดแดแดษชษดษข
Even as North Korea and the U.S. met, North Korean hackers were at work hitting over 100 targets in the U.S. "For 15 months, they haven't tested weapons because of this negotiation but over those same 15 months they have not stopped their cyber activity." (New York Times) Because no one can see those.
A U.S. Senate report details the efforts of the Russians regarding Brexit. The senators also challenged the adequacy of the investigations by Facebook and Twitter into the allegations of widespread social media interference by the Russians during the referendum. (The Guardian)
Deepfakes—completely fabricated images and videos—are a terrifying prospect, but are they a real threat? (The Verge)
Regarding the sharing economy: 'sharing' was supposed to save us. Instead, it became a Trojan horse for a precarious economic future. (OneZero) Virtually none of the sharing economy startups have demonstrated a cash flow-positive business model. At the center of it all: when you leave decisions up to society as a whole, people will chose the cheapest alternatives, and things will tend toward chaos rather than order.
Measurement / Analytics / Data
The future is not in plastics, but in data. Those who know how to measure and analyze it will rule the world.
What is the true business value of social media engagement? It may be difficult to tie to specific financial events, but here are eight conclusions to consider. (Mark Schaefer)
How can you energize your team and give them actionable ideas for boosting customer engagement? It's all about applying Timeless Wisdom to your process — practical and relatable lessons drawn from historical and literary contexts, updated to inform business growth.
Combine this with Fortune 10 executive experience and some great stories, and you'll be happy that you spent a fraction of what it costs to send your team to a major conference. I'll spend anywhere from an hour to a whole day with your team and give them the power to develop trusted, lasting relationships with your customers.
Let's chat and see if I can customize a session for you.
Mental Nourishment
Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.
A visual representation of how Daylight Saving Time affects the country, as a cartographer mapped hours of daylight and darkness across the U.S. (Mental Floss) If you need me, I'll be in the dark in Michigan in the morning.
Wearing rose-colored glasses always leads to an unfair distortion — looking back on the best of the past while comparing it to the worst of the present. The Problem with Nostalgia. (Longreads) Or, Nostalgia Ain't What It Used to Be. Just ask my kids.
Can I bring some Timeless Wisdom your way? I speak to executives, teams, and groups about avoiding shiny object syndrome and finding the truth in human nature that drives customer behavior and digital transformation. Let's set up some time to chat!
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