Budweiser accidentally stepped into a pile of putrid politics. This isn’t about politics, though. This is what nobody’s talking about. This is about Bud Light’s real mistake.
For those of you not familiar with the basic story, in a botched marketing campaign meant to demonstrate its “inclusiveness,” Bud Light managed to both exclude and alienate its core market. Since then, sales have dropped more than 20%. The latest figures show they continue to drop and that the ensuing boycott has now extended to other Anheuser-Busch products.
This is not a good look if you’re the head of marketing. And that’s where the real mistake comes from. It’s a mistake made by all too many companies, big and small.Continue Reading “Nobody’s Talking About Bud Light’s Real Mistake”
My Life With AI—Part I: Early Geekdom
For reasons that aren’t important right now, I spent my high school years channeling my inner Spock. Relying on logic to drive your life rather than the vicissitudes of emotion made things quite amazing. Today we’d call it going down rabbit holes. Back then, I merely explored wherever my curiosity took me.
“Hold on!” you’re saying, “isn’t ‘curiosity’ an emotion?”
Well, some psychologists might agree, (see Litman, “The Measurement of Curiosity As a Feeling of Deprivation,” Journal of Personality Assessment, 82(2), 147-157). Spock merely uses it as a statement of fact. In Episode 26 of Season 1, “Errand of Mercy,” in Star Trek—The Original Series, he says, “It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.”
There is an intersection between Litman (who says curiosity is a “motivation”) and Spock’s use of the term. Think of what happens when you hear a strange noise on the other side Continue Reading “My Life With AI—Part I: Early Geekdom”