Out of Scope Issue 53: A very long short week
Is there such thing as brand safety in international crisis conditions?
This week, despite the holiday weekend, we’ve got a *lot* of news and branding content for you. When a major world power makes a potentially WW3-instigating move, is there any such thing as a good time to advertise? This week, we’re taking a look at how some social media users are attempting to make the most (money) out of the crisis, what happens when a cheerful commercial follows a bleak newscast, and the usual nonsense that the brands are getting up to in spite of it all.
💡ON OUR MINDS
Celebrating Black History Month
We’ve started our newsletter this month with a couple of spotlights on Black communities and individuals who have helped advance the media and communications industry. Today we’re shouting out two of our clients making a difference in the space.
The HL team is proud partners with Bleeker, a Public Benefit Corporation that uses its software platform to assist unrepresented talent in making meaningful career advancements through a wide variety of available services. Learn more about their dedication to BIPOC talent or get involved here.
We’re also honored to help OppZo and its cofounders, Warren Reed and Randy Garrett, bring its mission and vision to life. OppZo is unlocking access to capital for small and medium-sized businesses through AI, focusing on government contractors in distressed communities across the United States.
Thanks for reading! We hope you’ll join us in celebrating and supporting our partners who are working hard to foster inclusivity within our industry.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do.
For AT&T, Walgreens, and others, June (Pride Month) is for wheeling out those glossy rainbows badges, tastefully integrated within corporate branding on their social media pages, coupled with warm(ish) words of support for the LGBTIQA+ community.
And February is apparently for supporting Florida's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill, aimed to restrict discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.
Not only is this hypocrisy at its finest, but it may cost them customers. A recent McKinsey survey found a third of consumers stopped using a brand due to its social actions, and 71% stated they'd lose trust in a brand if they perceived its profits came before its people.
Monetizing a Major World Crisis
Some TikTok users are using the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a means of lining their pockets. Over the last day, live streams claiming to come from Ukraine have been popping up on social media and using monetization features to solicit followers and donations.
The issue being? Some aren’t coming from Ukraine at all. It’s a testament to showing how on the one hand, the internet can be an incredible source of support in a time of need; but on the other hand, there’s also a subset of nefarious actors willing to do whatever it takes to make a quick buck. And in this case, it’s exploiting a conflict with significant geopolitical implications + human loss and encouraging the spread of misinformation.
Over the near foreseeable future, civic media and journalism will continue to play a prominent role as reporters utilize access to on-the-ground footage on social media to put together a news narrative, like The Washington Post’s recent piece that examined TikTok videos of Russian forces closing in on Ukraine.
And in light of social media’s tendency to spread misinformation, some publications like Bloomberg and MIT Tech Review are taking this chance to remind us that reporting mistakes are inevitable during a crisis, even from legitimate news sources.
🏆 BRAND FAIL OF THE WEEK: Coinbase’s Unforced Error
This week Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong caught some heat for not giving credit where credit is due for the brand’s buzzy minimalist Super Bowl ad. He took to Twitter to tout the ad’s success due to their nontraditional approach and share some background on how it came together, explicitly stating that their agency partners pitched standard, gimmicky concepts.
But the CEO of the Martin Agency Kristen Cavallo clapped back with the receipts, citing presentation dates and page numbers where they shared Super Bowl ad concepts with floating QR codes on a blank screen.
After that, Armstrong added to the thread and claimed that “it felt like we were all one team, so I didn’t fully realize it,” but at that point, the damage had been done. Moral of the story? Being a good partner means sharing the wins – and that goes for both brands and agencies.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
President Biden announced that he’s nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. If she’s confirmed, she’ll be the first Black woman to serve as a justice. In his comms around the nomination, President Biden said, “For too long our government, our courts haven’t looked like America…I believe it is time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation.”
OG Wordle fans have been critical of the game ever since it was bought by NYT, which has resulted in what seems like more challenging puzzles and even ad trackers – a particular sore spot for some who were drawn to the game’s pureness, summed up in its heartwarming origin story. Nevertheless, we’re still playing.
The “pandemic-proof” creator economy isn’t just booming; it’s the future of work, according to Vox’s Rebecca Jenning. As the boundaries between professional and personal continue to blur, more people are increasingly identifying as “content creators” — regardless of their 9-5s. Jenning argues that the qualifications for becoming a “creator” have become even more irrelevant, at times obfuscating the true lived experience of those who decide to publicize and monetize every aspect of their lives. Despite all this, the creator economy continues to draw people in due to its assumed flexibility, autonomy, and the opportunity to get rich quick.
After Salesforce announced it's exploring entering the NFT market, more than 400 employees signed an open letter about their concerns of engaging with a "highly speculative financial asset" that has potential environmental and economic impacts, ultimately noting any company involvement could result in "increased attrition." It looks like, for the time being, the blockchain will remain a divisive issue across companies as stakeholders fail to find any common ground.
And for a deeply grim example of how some are fighting to take control of narratives that have lost control on the internet, a father created an NFT of a grisly video that caught the murder of his daughter Alison Parker, who was reporting on-camera during a routine local news segment. As Cristiano Lima writes, this is “a complex and potentially futile bid to claim ownership over the videos — a tactic to use copyright to force Big Tech’s hand.”
@deuxmoi is an anonymous Instagram account that exposes Hollywood with salacious celebrity gossip submitted by readers (#anonplz). It’s both a reputational hazard and gain for celebs, as every small interaction with an individual can be used against them in a more explosive way than ever before. And with the account being an excellent source to discover underrated spots that celebrities hang out in, DeuxMoi hast’s recently transformed the dining scene in NYC, as followers flock to restaurants where they can get a meal for the chance at a potential celeb sighting — regardless of how good the actual food is.
Sustainability continues to take center stage as a top corporate communications initiative, further emphasized as LinkedIn released its first-ever Global Green Skills Report. The first-of-its-kind report specifically evaluates data on green skills and jobs intended to help policymakers and business leaders transition the global workforce to a green economy future. Key findings include that green talent in the global workforce grew 38% from 2015 to 2022, but it’s still not enough to meet the demand of job postings requiring green skills, which grew at roughly 8% annually since 2015.
Book authors and movie and TV writers are having a hard time deciding whether or not to include the pandemic into their modern-day narratives. Some omit it completely because they think that including the topic paves way for emotional exhaustion since we’re still in it. Others find it hard to be writing about anything else.
We love a clever play on words, especially when it’s also culturally relevant (Tuesday was 2/22/22), and most especially when it’s in service of communicating to users what the heck was going on with Slack Tuesday (the platform was down for most of business hours).
It's been quite a week for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. He called on the Dept. of Family and Protective Services, licensed professionals, and the general public of Texas to report parents of transgender minors to state authorities if it appears the children are receiving any form of gender-affirming care. The price of non-compliance? Per Abbott, that's tantamount to not reporting child abuse.
On top of that, former Head of Texas' power grid, Bill Magness, testified under oath that Gov. Abbott ordered him to keep electricity prices sky-high (around $9,000 per megawatt-hour to be exact) during Texas' winter storm blackouts in February 2021. Abbott's campaign claims he had no hand in pricing and encouraged everyone to do everything they could to prevent loss of life. Political opponent Beto O'Rourke dubbed the increase to Texan's bills the "Abbott Tax."
Applebee's has paused advertising on CNN following the juxtaposition of its upbeat commercial alongside Russia-Ukraine coverage. The network has also removed picture-in-picture advertisements following the unfortunate transition.
🥊QUICK HITS
In case you missed these ads and hot takes this week.
Maybe print isn’t dead after all. Through a series of handwritten notes taped to the front door to his apartment, one reader tries to find his “stolen” copy of New York Magazine that escalates into an all-out “sign war” with his neighbors.
Ad Age reports that Republicans are massively outspending Democrats in political ad spending, setting the stage for a bunch of pointed messaging that is sure to come prior to midterms.
A deeper dive on why gun manufacturing Remington’s “predatory marketing” led to a settlement for Sandy Hook victims’ families and what it could mean for the gun industry at large.
Firefox jumped on the opportunity to stay relevant with a partnership with Disney, to promote its latest Pixar film “Turning Red” which features an animated red panda - which is also the inspiration for the web browser’s mascot.
We’ll see you here next week! 👋
HL
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The fine print:
This newsletter was brought to you by Anna Delvey and Julia Fox’s upcoming collab