Jamie Foxx Rescues Driver
Sometimes fantasy comes crashing into reality, leaving both looking the worse for wear. Other times, when tested, the on-screen hero comes through in a big way. That’s the story coming out of Hollywood after actor Jamie Foxx found himself in a life or death situation. Foxx heard a crash on the street outside his home. He ran outside to see a truck on it’s side, engulfed in flames. He could have called 911, he could have run, he could have done all manner of things nobody would have blamed him for. Instead, Foxx climbed inside the burning vehicle and rescued the man trapped there. Brett Kyle, 32, was driving too fast, reportedly drunk when he crashed his Tacoma in a…
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Zuckerberg’s vaccine comments ignite a firestorm
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has never been shy about expressing his socio-political perspectives on social media. Recently, the FB CEO chose to sound off while taking his new daughter in for her first round of vaccinations. While the post may have been meant to simply be the sort of Day In the Life picture just about everyone uploads to Facebook, the photo and caption: “Doctor’s visit – time for vaccines!” ignited a firestorm. Comments Keep Coming In To date, nearly 100,000 comments piled up on the picture, most from anti-vaccine apologists hoping to show others (and science) the error of their ways. One particularly harsh anti-vax crusader put it this way: “Injecting newborns and infants with disease and neurotoxins is…
Read MoreAT&T greets the new year by taking it back
No more two-year contracts with AT&T. The story broke through tech industry site Engadget.com, which reported they obtained internal memos claiming AT&T will kick off 2016 by eliminating two-year contracts, effective January 8. That means AT&T will officially join other competitors by forcing new customers – or current customers who want a new phone – to pay full freight upfront or pay for the phone in monthly installments. The move, pioneered by Verizon, effectively puts a stop to a major upside to switching to another carrier. Both T-Mobile and Sprint have offered to “pay you to switch” from the higher ranked carriers to offset any dreaded early termination fees. Those fees kept many On The Bubble consumers from trading into…
Read MoreAT&T and the Fall of Unlimited Data
Recently, the war for wireless supremacy took a strange turn. While the bottom tier of the Big Four are desperately trying to win customers by all but giving them cash, and, in some cases, actually giving them cash, at least one major player is actually charging more for its most popular plan. AT&T has been trying to get customers to abandon their unlimited data plans, but some have resisted. The carrier has decided that’s fine if you are willing to pay more. Last week the wireless provider said it would be raising its unlimited data plan rates from $30 to $35. Not much of a bump, but a curious move in a marketplace where they are not the top in…
Read MoreBigger is, once again, better!
There was a time, not long ago, when American consumers were thinking small. Smaller cars, smaller portions, even smaller homes. Those days are over. If the Small Movement was ever a trend, consider it done. When you ask retail CEOs, they will all tell you, Americans want Bigger along with their Better. Those two modifiers go together in the American consumer brain like peanut butter and chocolate. This newfound return to excess crosses just about every consumer segment. In consumer electronics, as tech gets increasingly more advanced, wireless and communicative, consumers are back to wanting bigger TVs and other devices. Sure, iPads are still selling, but the “mini” experiment? Not going as well as expected. And when it comes to…
Read MoreIs Alibaba Getting Even Bigger?
When it comes to business success, bigger and more is almost always better. Particularly when you can take something struggling and turn it into a winner … or better still, take a winner and turn it into an untouchable dynasty. That’s exactly what Alibaba founder Jack Ma is hoping to accomplish on the heels of his company’s takeover bid of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English only daily newspaper. If the deal goes through, Ma will be added to an ever growing list of Internet tycoons turning to print media in search of profit. Not that long ago – back in 2013 – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos came out of his own pocket to purchase the Washington…
Read MoreDid Crest Mislabel Their Product?
Few people noticed, but Crest’s mouthwash once featured one very questionable label. Whether it included an actual error, or left meaning open to interpretation, the phrasing was dubious. On the label, Crest promised customers 24-hour protection, but required them to use the product twice per day. Wouldn’t the need to use the product twice in 24 hours mean that it only offers 12-hour protection? Anything can offer 24-hour protection if you take enough of it, or use it several times per day. However, it seems unlikely that this was the message Crest wanted to bring across to the masses. Crest PR Success Even so, that is how the company chose to phrase it. Whenever Crest got the chance to elaborate…
Read MoreChipotle Still Reeling Thanks to E-Coli Scare
Chipotle just felt the “two” of the one-two punch land. Immediately after the CDC discovered an outbreak of e coli in locations in Seattle and Portland social media exploded with endless barrages of consumer doubt and disgust. Recently, the company was forced to disclose the outbreak was not contained and could be in as many as six states. Upon hearing that news, the market responded accordingly. Chipotle stock plummeted about 12 percent last. Now the company is facing a PR crisis on two fronts: consumer and investor. The consumer PR crisis is bad and getting worse. Every time the CDC announced a new state impacted by the outbreak – California, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, Oregon and Washington have been listed…
Read MoreWalmart Workers Seeking Wages
Black Friday is coming, and some Walmart workers are using the annual bacchanal of retail excess as an opportunity to push their political agenda in a headline grabbing way. The organization, called “Our Walmart” plans to start a fifteen-day fast scheduled to end on Black Friday. The effort has been dubbed “Fast for 15”, an obvious connection to the Fight for 15 movement, a grassroots group demanding a $15 minimum wage. According to press reports, the fast will include both current and former Walmart employees as well as other sympathetic citizens. The current roster of participants stands at well over 1,000. At this point, not every protester has pledged to fast for the full 15 days, while the founders of…
Read MoreWhy A-list Star Power is Not Enough
In the salad days of Old Hollywood, when the studio system ran Tinseltown, Star Power mattered more than anything else. Theater fans didn’t go to see this or that movie. They went to see the latest movie starring this or that person. And, when people didn’t know much more about a film than who was in it, that worked wonders. Today, not so much. In an era when even teaser trailers are endlessly dissected and discussed online, no movie is safe from negative impressions before release. And, if a film deviates from a proven formula, the results can be financially disastrous and catastrophic for an actor’s career. Making a “bad” movie when you are a relatively new actor can send…
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