In 2001, Dennis Tito, a financial analyst with a background in aerospace engineering, became the world’s first space tourist. He bought a seat on a Soyuz spacecraft and spent a week cruising in the weightless environment of the International Space Station. He paid $20 million for the trip. It sounds like a dream vacation, a chance to experience zero-gravity and enjoy an alien’s eye view of the...
In an experiment conducted more than thirty years ago, volunteers were presented with two bowls of different sizes. The large bowl contained ten red jelly beans mixed with 90 white jelly beans. The small bowl held just one red bean and nine white beans. If the volunteers closed their eyes and picked the red bean from one of the bowls, they’d win four dollars. The bean selection would be random...
ETH Denver was the place to be at the start of March. At least if you’re a crypto enthusiast worried about the direction of the industry. The event began with a five-person band singing a protest song. They belted out rude lyrics about Sam Bankman-Fried and Do Kwon, and promised “not to use centralized exchanges run by these toxic dudes.” It’s a far cry from the days when the crypto industry...
When Apple released iOS 14.5 in 2021, the Cupertino hardware and software company dropped a bomb on the Internet’s advertising industry. The update for iPhones and iPads included a new privacy tool. App Tracking Transparency requires app-makers who want to track activity across apps to ask their users’ permission before they can collect that data. For advertisers and marketers, that need to...
In December 2021, Plexus Holdings, a drilling technology firm based in Aberdeen, Scotland, signed a new contract. The deal, with Cameron, a supplier of wellheads, extended a license agreement for Plexus to provide special equipment that prevents gas leaks during drilling operations. The agreement was an expansion of a series of previous deals between the two firms. “Following our recent...
Pepsi probably thought it had its timing exactly right. In 2010, the brand skipped its traditional Superbowl ad spot. Instead of spending millions for half-a-minute of audience time, and millions more for images of can-opening and lip-smacking, the brand decided to give money away. Its Pepsi Refresh campaign invited people to vote online for causes to which Pepsi would make financial donations...
In May 2017, Walkers, a British potato chip brand, launched a social media campaign. Fronted by retired soccer player and television personality Gary Lineker, the company invited people to publish their selfies on Twitter with the hashtag #WalkersWave. The selfies would be automatically incorporated into a frame held up by Lineker in a video that also showed a Mexican wave in a soccer stadium. A...
The campaign should have been everything that Keurig needed to stand out and win the coffee company a new, young audience. Nespresso had George Clooney. De’Longhi had Brad Pitt. Keurig would have recyclable coffee pods. All customers had to do after they’d finished making their morning cappuccino, was peel off the silver top, dump out any coffee grounds, and toss the plastic cup into the...
A baby doll sits with its eyes closed in almost empty room. The walls are white and bare. Opposite the toy is the black box of a PlayStation 3. The doll’s eyes snap open. It gurgles like a baby and reaches towards the console. The doll’s laugh shifts from a baby’s giggle to an adult’s maniacal laugh. Then it releases a scream. Tears flow as fire flashes in the doll’s eyes before the tears roll...
Whistleblowers are supposed to come out of defense institutions. They’re supposed to alert the world to abuses of power, expose egregious cover-ups, or reveal atrocities that have been swept under the carpet. They’re not supposed to come from Silicon Valley hi-tech companies built to help people show pictures of their cats. But when Frances Haugen sat down with 60 Minutes in October 2021, what...
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