From the category archives:

Capitalism

Good-bye “What’s Next”, hello “What’s Now”

by Simon on August 23, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Brands, Capitalism, Consumers, Economy, Future, Technology

As anyone who works in the advertising or entertainment business will tell you, their industry is undergoing seismic changes in the face of new technology that enables both business and consumers to create content at virtually no cost. This means old business models no longer apply, job titles are changing and most businesses are being [...]

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Worldnomads Footprint Projects: Lessons in smarter business and effective community building

by Simon on August 13, 2010 · View Comments

in Brands, Capitalism, Causes, Consumers

I think the World Nomads Footprint project is super smart on many levels.
It’s premised on the fact that when you visit a community you make an impact. As such, you have a small responsibility to give something back. So when you purchase one of their travel insurance policies, you choose a project and get to [...]

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Lessons from BP and bankers: The need for a more sustainable future

by Simon on August 6, 2010 · View Comments

in Brands, Capitalism, Consumers, Economy, Future, Globalization, Social media, thought leadership

I woke up this morning and read this post by Robert Kuttner in Huffington Post. I think his opening points are spot on. He tells us that Wall Street and BP demonstrate the same problem.
In both cases, a powerful, politically protected industry invented something that could not easily be repaired when it broke. We [...]

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Cannes Advertising Festival Social Media Seminar (video)

by Simon on June 21, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Capitalism, Causes, Community, Non Profit, Optimism, Philanthropy, Social media

Here’s a link to five minutes of video from my seminar yesterday with Alec Ross from the U.S State Dept.. The topic was: ‘The How of Social media: Make or Break Lessons in Today’s Most Powerful Instrument of Change’.  Plus a synopsis of the talk with hyperlinked case studies can be found here. Thank you again [...]

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Cannes Advertising Festival Seminar: Social media as an instrument of change

by Simon on June 20, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Brands, Capitalism, Consumers, Globalization, MEDIA, Social media, Values

For those at the seminar who want further information, or for those who couldn’t make it, here are a synopsis, a list of key points and links to the case studies that I mentioned in my seminar at Cannes today.
SYNOPSIS: The advertising world is reeling from change – and it’s not just because they have [...]

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Why Capitalism is Irrational: ‘First as Tragedy, Then as Farce’ by Slavoj Zizek

by Simon on June 9, 2010 · View Comments

in BOOKS, Capitalism, Economy, Future

This week’s book  review and giveaway is ‘First as Tragedy, then as Farce’ by Slavoj Zizek. It’s a zestful and intelligent critique of contemporary capitalism in which Zizek asserts capitalism is completely irrational in a way that is impossible to ignore considering the recent financial crisis.
Using this example, as well as many others in recent history, [...]

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Rage against the ATM machine

by Simon on April 9, 2009 · View Comments

in Capitalism, Viral

The G20 protests across London were alarming for many reasons. Not the least of which was the role of the media. Image after image showed knots of photographers and cameramen jostling for position at the front of each march. There’s even a moment in this footage when a protestor is about to smash a window [...]

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