Out of Scope Issue 55: Not flying spiders too… 🕷🕸😫
The hits keep coming and they don’t stop coming.
This week, we watched the Gender Pay Gap Bot take on hypocritical Women’s Day posts, tuned in for Peloton’s first foray into the world of podcasts with Tunde Oyeneyin’s “Fitness Flipped” show, and gasped in horror at the potential for parachuting giant spiders flying up the East Coast this spring. Read on for the latest nonrequired thinking on reputation, business, and culture from your trusty Out of Scope crew.
💡ON OUR MINDS
CRUSHING DISSENT IS BAD FOR BUSINESS
Turns out, waging war against your neighbor and imprisoning your citizens for dissenting is terrible for business. Netflix and TikTok suspended most services in Russia after Russia passed its latest "fake news" legislation. The law allows prison sentences (up to 15 years) for spreading information against Moscow’s war narrative.
Even luxury brands are edging away from Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
Facebook (er, Meta?), via Sheryl Sandberg, has stepped in to say that social media networks are bad for dictators and isn’t surprised to see Russia’s people have been cut off from connecting and potentially organizing.
Meanwhile, both the United States and Russia are using influencers and content creators to spread their messaging around Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While the White House worked with Gen Z For Change to identify TikTok creators and brief them on information they could use to inform their audiences, VICE uncovered a coordinated campaign in which Russian creators on TikTok were paid to post videos that reflected the pro-Kremlin agenda.
🏆 BRAND FAIL OF THE WEEK: Everyone Who Got Caught By the Gender Pay Gap Bot
What’s International Women’s Day if not for corporate statements acknowledging the value women bring to the workplace? Well, this year, it was to watch the mess unfold as the Gender Pay Gap Bot called out organizations whose tweets didn’t quite match up with how they compensate their women employees.
In an extra bit of irony, some companies then rushed to delete their tweets to avoid public humiliation. Happy International Women’s Day indeed, eh? Unfortunately for them, one Twitter user was paying close attention.
It’s a testament to how performative some corporate communications have become in recent years. Companies make public statements designed to produce goodwill without having done the work on the front-end to guarantee their words align with their actual actions. The end result? A bruise to their reputation when they’re caught in the act.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
Following a viral social media post, thousands of people are booking Airbnbs in Ukraine without intent to use the rentals. Etsy is also being used to donate money to Ukrainians directly. Both companies are leaning into the online momentum by eliminating seller fees for Ukrainian users. Whether it’s the visual of someone’s face or home that makes the transaction more meaningful and enticing, it’s notable that people trust these online platforms rather than donating to an organization like Red Cross or Unicef.
In a bid to keep up with competitors, Twitter has hired a teen tech prodigy, Michael Sayman, to build experimental products to attract a younger audience. While Twitter has struggled to find its footing amongst the youth in recent years, many in the space believe its anonymity may be the key to its success (is Twitter the new Tumblr?). As Sayman argues, “Young people want a service where they can share their thoughts without the pressure of having an algorithm factor their physical appearance into the popularity of their content.”
Peloton is expanding its communications ecosystem with a new podcast, “Fitness Flipped,” hosted by fan-favorite instructor Tunde Oyeneyin who interviews fellow instructors, actors, authors, and athletes on fitness, wellness, and mental health. This move is a natural extension of the brand’s ever-growing content library, leveraging the insight that many consumers listen to podcasts while exercising and the growing popularity of its "Outdoor Audio" offerings in the Peloton mobile app. While initially speculated that the podcast would be exclusively available to Peloton users to lure subscribers with exclusive access, the podcast is available to stream on all major podcast streaming platforms.
Uber, Lyft, and other companies that use independent contractors as drivers announced plans to spend $1M in ads to hinder Washington’s efforts to promote unions. The ads will aim to oppose the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a bill that makes it easier for gig workers to unionize. The ads will run across TV and online, featuring anecdotes from workers who prefer the independent contractor model vs. a company employee.
ICYMI, Kanye West has been having… a moment. While many have been enjoying watching the wild ride, it’s clear that Kanye is taking things out on Kim in the very public eye - potentially normalizing spousal abuse and making it harder for others in similarly toxic relationships to feel comfortable coming out to share their own stories. As Nicole Froio puts it, “the cycle of abuse triggered by the end of an abusive relationship should not be accepted as tabloid reporting material or as fodder for joke Tweets.”
Disney employees are upset and speaking out after discovering that Disney donated nearly $200,000 over two years to members of the Florida legislature that pushed forward the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Meanwhile, Disney has not explicitly spoken out on the bill or issued a statement. Instead, the company forwarded the press an internal email from CEO Bob Chapek, where he and the leadership team expressed their support LGBTQ employees and their families and communities, because “corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds.”
Most of the internet knows that the only appropriate social media behavior on International Women’s Day is to recognize important and influential women in our lives. One person who didn’t get the memo? Stefan Cohen of Bain Capital, who tweeted a poorly-timed announcement of the firm’s new crypto arm, and *shocker* it’s all men. While he quickly apologized, the damage was done, and the cryptosphere was once again derided for being a boys’ club.
Should we be bracing for a siege of giant invasive spiders, or not? That’s the question at hand as publications like Axios and The Cut reported this week that massive spiders will fall from the sky – but others are saying that some reporters got carried away and the spiders are not deadly or as big as claimed, nor are spiders going to rain from the sky. Even news publications need to check their sources - the people of the Eastern seaboard would certainly like to know whether they should be bringing their umbrellas!
Another week, another fraudster. Brother and sister duo John and JonAtina Barksdale have been charged after making false statements about the cryptocurrency Oremus Coin, defrauding investors out of more than $124M and claiming it was supported by one of the largest mining operations in the world. Ormeus was even advertised in Times Square, which misrepresented the value of its revenue, mining operations, and more.
🥊QUICK HITS:
In case you missed these stories this week.
The GOAT Tom Brady has applied for 26 trademarks, aiming to use his name across many product categories, including meal kits, skincare, furniture, jewelry, and more.
The New Yorker examined the “Special Operations aesthetic” that seeped into pop culture like video games and Nerf guns following 9/11, shedding light on the correlation between glorified firearms culture and real-life violence.
The Godfather and mobsters go hand in hand, both on and off the screen. Apparently, mobsters have been using the film to inspire how they live, act, dress, and even speak.
Dating app Tinder is moving to add a background check to their networks. Users will provide information about themselves and their matches, and a third-party company that Tinder employs will pull relevant background information on the other.
We’ll see you here next week! 👋
HL
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