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Iceland marketing campaign mocks Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse in tourism ad

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A new marketing campaign for Icelandic tourism takes aim at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, mocking his recent video announcement of his company’s name change to Meta.

The video, released by Inspired by Iceland, a public-private entity that promotes Iceland and its products, featured a Zuckerberg lookalike named “Zack Mossbergsson” and identified as Iceland’s chief visionary officer.

Throughout the parody, Mossbergsson pokes fun at Zuckerberg’s infamous stiffness.

“Hello and welcome to this very natural setting,” Mossbergsson deadpans to the camera.

“Today I want to talk about a revolutionary approach to connect our world without being super weird.”

“Some said it’s not possible. Some said it’s out of reach. To them, we say it’s already here. Seriously. Look, it’s right here,” he adds while gesturing out the window to a snow-covered Icelandic landscape.

Mossbergsson goes on to introduce the “Icelandverse,” which is, as he describes it, “enhanced actual reality without silly looking headsets,” — a clear dig at Zuckerberg’s ambitions for a so-called metaverse virtual reality world.

Throughout the mock video, Zack Mossbergsson continually makes fun of Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous stiffness.
YouTube/
Inspired by Iceland
Iceland’s mocked version of Metaverse takes aim at Mark Zuckerberg’s theory for how social media will be in the future.
YouTube/
Inspired by Iceland

“It’s completely immersive with water that’s wet,” Mossbergsson goes on, adding that the “Icelandverse” comes complete with “skies you can see with your eyeballs.”

“The Icelandverse is unlike any other open-world experience with ‘-verse’ in name, because it’s real. Plus, you don’t need a funny-looking VR headset,” the caption to the video on YouTube reads.

Zuckerberg responded to the video on Facebook, taking it in stride.

“Amazing. I need to make a trip to the Icelandverse soon. Glad you’re wearing sunscreen too,” he said, referring to one scene in the video in which Mossbergsson’s face is caked in sunscreen, mimicking an embarrassing incident for Zuckerberg last year.

Mark Zuckerberg responded to the video on Facebook, saying he will “need to make a trip to the Icelandverse soon and glad Zack was “wearing sunscreen too.”
VIA REUTERS

The video had racked up more than 274,000 views on YouTube by late Friday.

“Metaverse” has become a major talking point in corporate America since Facebook announced its rebrand last month, with companies from Nike and Disney to dating app Bumble talking about how they’re going to capitalize on what some believe will be the next evolution of the internet.

Zack Mossbergsson introduced the “Icelandverse,” the mock version of Metaverse, as an “enhanced actual reality without silly-looking headsets.”
YouTube/
Inspired by Iceland
Metaverse has taken high recognition in corporate America since Facebook announced its rebrand last month, as companies like Nike and Disney are in talks of possibly capitalizing off the idea.
VIA REUTERS

The term, coined in the 1992 sci-fi book “Snow Crash,” refers to a next-generation internet access through augmented and virtual reality hardware.

In a demo introduced by Zuckerberg last month, a user wearing a headset walked the streets of ancient Rome, while another attended a virtual reality rock concert and afterparty.

Zuckerberg said the company plans to spend billions of dollars on developing the metaverse, and added that he hopes to have 1 billion people join the virtual world in the next ten years. Ad dollars from Facebook’s core products will supplement the development of the augmented reality project, which the company has said will not be profitable for years. 

Zack Mossbergsson’s face doused in sunscreen at one point in the video mimicked an embarrassing incident for Mark Zuckerberg last year.
YouTube/
Inspired by Iceland

Representatives for Facebook did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment on the “Icelandverse” video.

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Technology

BioWare’s Classic Star Wars Trailers Being Re-Released In 4K

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Image: BioWare

Star Wars: The Old Republic is 10 this year, and as part of the birthday celebrations BioWare have decided to do something I can’t remember ever seeing before; they’re re-releasing the game’s old trailers in an elegant resolution for a less civilized age.

The first one to be given the 4K treatment is Deceived, which was first shown off in June 2009, long before the game’s actual release, and at the time had a lot of people saying “holy shit this looks amazing”.

The trailer was made by Blur Studio, who are still around and doing amazing video game-related stuff, but who in 2009 were at the very forefront of taking the humble video game trailer and turning it into the expensive, cinematic masterpieces/monstrosities we know today. Indeed their approach was so new and well-received by fans that I interviewed them in 2010 about the transformation, and if you’re floored by these figures, imagine what they look like ten years later:

On average, I’d say a regular three-minute trailer…will take about three months and use between 40 and 50 people. The DC Universe Online cinematic we just finished stretched over about six months, and was touched by a total of 71 artists, from layout artists, concept designers to lighters and a team of FX folks.

While deciding to re-release old trailers in 4K might sound like a silly thing for a major studio like BioWare to be bothering with, since they’re essentially just stale pieces of marketing, it’s important to remember just how big and important these clips were at the time.

Released between Lucas’ prequel trilogy and Disney’s own misfiring sequels, the series of trailers BioWare and Blur put together—there’s another excellent one in the interview—were treated at the time almost as standalone pieces of Star Wars canon, vignettes you could enjoy even if you cared nothing for the game itself, and if you had to ask fans for some of the most memorable video game trailers of all time, you’d likely find at least one of Old Republic’s clips making the list.

G/O Media may get a commission

Re-releasing them in 4K may not change the world, but it does give us a chance to revisit some classic Star Wars clips and have them looking better than ever.

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Business

Singapore start-up Mdada had $3 million in sales in 2 months on Facebook

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In September 2020, the three co-founders of Singapore-based Mdada, a social commerce start-up, did their first Facebook livestream to sell products. A year on, they can boast 500,000 Singapore dollars ($371,087) in weekly revenue, and they hit total revenue of 3.9 million Singapore dollars ($2.89 million) in just August and September of this year. 

The secret, according to one of its co-founders: “entertainment.”

“You need to plan your show, because this is not just selling, this is info-tainment. Entertainment needs to be high, and that can be very challenging because sometimes even I myself run out of ideas,” CEO and co-founder Pornsak Prajakwit told CNBC’s “Inside E-Commerce.” 

Together with co-founders Michelle Chia and Addy Lee, CEO Pornsak launched the company’s physical livestreaming hub in Singapore in August 2021, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. It boasts 11 livestreaming studios and its own warehouse in the same compound. 

The most expensive product Mdada has sold through a livestream was a Rolex Daytona Green Dial worth $120,000. To date, Mdada has garnered more than 5 million livestream views, with more than 28,000 followers. The company has grown to almost 30 employees.

Mdada declined to specify earnings figures but told CNBC that it’s profitable. The company’s unaudited revenue for the financial year ended Sept. 30 came in at about $15 million Singapore dollars ($11.1 million).

Mdada co-founders (l.-r.) Michelle Chia, Pornsak Prajakwit, and Addy Lee.

Mdada

Pornsak said the company trains sellers, whom the company calls “key opinion leaders.” 

Those individuals learn “exactly what to sell, when to sell, and who to sell to,” said Pornsak. “It’s all commission-based. So, the harder you work, the more you get.”

Pornsak said the longest he’s livestreamed in front of the camera in one stretch was 12 hours.

Commissions usually are 20-30% of the sale, depending on the product.

Push from the pandemic

Amid the pandemic, more companies have turned to livestreaming to reach customers remotely.

Fiona Lau, co-founder of Shopline, which helps small merchants set up online commerce, told CNBC that its merchant signup numbers increased 46% during the pandemic — with many of them adopting livestreaming in an attempt to replicate “human-to-human interaction.”

Citing the example of Alibaba’s Taobao Live session on Singles’ Day in 2020, which drew in more than $7 billion in transactions in its first 30 minutes, Pornsak said “this is where the future lies.” 

Pornsak spent more than a decade in the regional entertainment industry, and he acknowledged that his familiar face helps business.

“People trust you. When you tell them, ‘This is something that I’m using, and I really believe in it,’ I guess it’s more believable compared to someone who’s not a known face,” he said. 

Mdada ventured into the EU market in October, debuting a Mdada Travelogue series where it conducts livestream sessions as the team travels in Europe and introduces European brands to its platform.

Watch More: How livestreaming is changing the way people shop

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Business

Google Charges More Than Twice Its Rivals in Ad Deals, Unredacted Suit Says

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Google takes a cut of 22% to 42% of U.S. ad spending that goes through its systems, according to a newly unredacted lawsuit by state attorneys general, shedding new light on how the search giant profits from its commanding position in the internet economy.

The share the

Alphabet Inc.

GOOG -3.43%

subsidiary takes of each advertising transaction on its exchange—a marketplace for ad buyers and sellers—is typically two- to four-times as much as the fees charged by rival digital advertising exchanges, according to the suit, which is being led by Texas.

The unredacted filing on Friday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York came after a federal judge ruled last week that much of the antitrust suit could be unsealed.

“[T]he analogy would be if Goldman or Citibank owned the NYSE [New York Stock Exchange]” one senior Google employee said, according to the suit.

Google has called the lawsuit flawed. “This lawsuit is riddled with inaccuracies and our ad tech fees are actually lower than reported industry averages,” said Peter Schottenfels, a Google spokesman.

The suit alleges the company has deployed strategies to “lock in” publishers and advertisers and help the company’s ad buying tools win more than 80% of auctions on its exchange, a newly revealed figure. It gives a window into Google’s overwhelming dominance of advertising, citing Google documents that say the company served 75% of all online ad impressions in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2018.

The suit cites programs, with code names such as Bell, Elmo and Poirot, that helped Google generate more than $1 billion in sales.

The Department of Justice is investigating the U.S.’s largest tech firms for allegedly monopolistic behavior. Roughly 20 years ago, a similar case threatened to destabilize Microsoft. WSJ explains.

The case argues that Google’s business practices inflate advertising costs, which brands pass on to consumers in higher priced products. It also alleges that Google suppresses competition from rival exchanges and limits websites’ options for ad delivery.

Led by Texas Attorney General

Ken Paxton

and joined by 15 states, the suit complements a separate antitrust case by the U.S. Justice Department and 38 state attorneys general focused on Google’s search services, as well as a Utah-led lawsuit targeting Google’s Play app store. Those cases are set for trial in 2023 or later. The Justice Department is exploring a separate suit against Google’s advertising business.

Lawyers for the group of states in the Texas-led suit put a focus on the role of Google’s advertising exchange, called AdX, which they say charges a fee of between 19% and 22% of the prices advertisers are paying on the exchange to reach publishers. That is double to quadruple what AdX’s nearest competitors charge, according to the suit.

The company’s commanding market share in advertising helped it secure those larger fees, according to the suit.

Smaller advertisers pay even larger fees. Transacting on a separate system called Google Display Network, they pay fees ranging from 32% to 40% to Google. The rates are in line with Google’s public statements that publishers receive 68% of revenue from AdSense, a tool to serve ads to smaller websites.

In internal discussions about Google Display Network, executives said the company’s ad networks make “A LOT of money” in commissions because “we can,” according to the suit. “Smaller pubs don’t have alternative revenue sources,” a Google employee said.

When a system called header bidding opened Google’s ad auctions to rival exchanges about five years ago, a change that followed accusations that the tech giant’s systems were anticompetitive, a Google executive wrote in an email that the system posed “an obvious dilemma” that could reduce Google’s profit margins to “around 5 percent,” according to the unredacted suit.

The company deemed the threat of header bidding existential because the system would circumvent Google’s tools. In 2016, one employee worried that competition from rival exchanges would show that the 20% fee Google charged for its exchange “likely wasn’t justified,” according to the suit. Others strategized to “kill” it.

“AdX is the lifeblood of our programmatic business,” a company executive wrote in an email in 2017. “What do we do?”

The search giant sought to undermine header bidding through partnerships and software that protected its position, the suit says. Google offered an alternative to header bidding that appeared to be a concession to the competitive pressure, but the suit says it secretly developed a program called “Jedi” to ensure that Google’s exchange won auctions.

Google employees anticipated that the Jedi program could create blowback from clients and the public, saying it “generates suboptimal yields for publishers and serious risks of negative media coverage if exposed externally,” according to newly unredacted material.

The company’s staff also discussed playing a “jedi mind trick” on the industry by “getting publishers to come up with” the idea of removing rival exchanges “on their own”—primarily by fostering concern that header bidding would strain a publisher’s servers, the suit says.

In 2018, Google struck a previously-reported deal with Facebook that it code-named “Jedi Blue.” The complaint alleges that

Facebook

engaged in an “18-month header bidding strategy” to increase its leverage in such a deal.

The complaint alleges Google also developed Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP, a version of a website hosted on Google’s servers designed to load quickly on mobile phones, in part as a way to combat header bidding. Google explicitly designed AMP pages not to work well with header bidding, the suit alleges, and deliberately made ads that didn’t use AMP load with a one-second delay to give AMP what Google called “a nice comparative boost.”

Publicly, Google claimed the AMP sites loaded four times faster than non-AMP pages. But internally Google employees said they grappled with being asked to “justify” a system that actually made websites “slower,” according to the complaint.

Google internal documents show that AMP pages brought 40% less revenue to publishers, according to unredacted sections of the suit.

Texas Attorney General Paxton said that Google’s internal communications show it can’t justify its ad fees. “Only a monopolist can charge rates that are double the rates of its competitors and yet still increase their market share,” Mr. Paxton said.

Google’s Reach in Internet Economy

Write to Keach Hagey at keach.hagey@wsj.com and Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com

Copyright ©2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Business

How Peloton builds a community around health and wellness

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Cari Gundee rides her Peloton exercise bike at her home on April 06, 2020 in San Anselmo, California.

Ezra Shaw | Getty Images

Peloton wants to be known as a health and wellness company, not a fitness business, according to its chief marketing executive.

“We definitely want to make sure that we are reflecting the communities that we serve,” Peloton’s Chief Marketing Officer Dara Treseder told Julia Boorstin on Thursday during CNBC’s CMO Exchange virtual event.

“One of the things I do with my marketing team is we debate … and some people are like, ‘We’re a fitness company, and this is what it means to be fit.’ And I have to be like, ‘No, no, no. We are actually a health and wellness company, and that comes in different shapes and sizes.'”

Peloton has recently added “mood rides,” which are geared to different emotions such as being happy, sad or calm. These rides as well as guided meditation classes are examples of how Peloton is trying to raise awareness around the importance of mental health, in addition to keeping in shape.

Treseder went on to say that Peloton’s rampant growth during the pandemic largely stemmed from its loyal user base sharing their personal experiences with the brand. Peloton counts 2.33 million connected fitness subscribers — people who own a Peloton product and also pay a monthly fee for access to the company’s digital workout content. 

“The reality is when you try to force something, it just doesn’t work,” she said. “So for us, that intentional cultivation of community is really focused on finding where there are organic sparks of connection within our member base, and then kind of pouring fuel on that … shining a spotlight on those things.”

Peloton has said it plans to soon ramp up spending on paid marketing, in order to advertise both its lower-priced Bike and its updated Tread machine.

But Peloton also uses its now-famous team of instructors to connect with members. The trainers are active across social media platforms and frequently interact with members online.

“We want them to be superstars,” Treseder explained. “They’re employees, and so they’re invested in the success of the company. And we are invested in their success.”

One instructor, Cody Rigsby, is competing on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” Another, Alex Toussaint, was recently signed by the athletic apparel brand Puma.

“I give so much credit to John [Foley] because that’s a very hard thing to do. … The natural thing to do is to say let’s control them, let’s brand them,” Treseder said about Peloton’s CEO and how he thinks about the instructors. “The fact is, that actually doesn’t work, and people can see right through that.”

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Business

Stylist on Ozy’s The Carlos Watson Show says saw ‘questionable marketing spin’

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A stylist who worked on Ozy Media’s The Carlos Watson Show has slammed the company’s ‘questionable marketing spin’ and the ‘unethical’ decisions made by executives after a tsunami of scandalous revelations led to it shutting down for good.  

Kimmy Erin Kertes, who goes by KimmyErin on Instagram, posted a series of photos – first of her cozied to co-founder Carlos Watson, and then of him in the outfits she seemingly styled throughout the show.

Kertes made the post on Friday, soon after Watson gathered the company’s staffers at the headquarters in Mountain View, California, to announce through tears that the company was finished.

‘Let me explain,’ she started the lengthy caption on the post, noting that Friday, when she found out she was losing her job, was ‘heartbreaking to say the very least’.

She noted Watson’s charm, charisma and easy-to-follow vision, ‘especially in light of the racial injustice,’ but then criticized Ozy’s board and executives for their ‘unethical and brutal choices,’ adding that she ‘always wondered’ if the company was ‘a house of cards’. 

Stylist Kimmy Erin Kertes (pictured left with Watson) who dressed Ozy’s Carlos Watson when he appeared on The Carlos Watson show posted an Instagram Saturday in the wake of embattled digital news site Ozy Media shutting down – and she slammed the company’s ‘questionable marketing spin’ and the ‘unethical’ decisions made by executives

 

Kertes, who goes by KimmyErin on the social media site, posted a series of photos alongside a lengthy caption (pictured) after Watson just yesterday gathered the company’s staffers at the headquarters in Mountain View, California, to announce through tears that the company was finished

 How Ozy Media imploded in a week:   

  • On Sunday, the New York Times revealed that Ozy co-founder Samir Rao allegedly impersonated a YouTube exec to impress potential investors 
  • On Wednesday, a Forbes article revealed how Ozy operated a toxic and abusive culture of overworking young and inexperienced employees
  • The article also detailed how Ozy profited off the insurance money of a cancelled music festival in 2019 likened to the Fyre Fest fiasco 
  • Wednesday also saw Ozy investor Ron Conway, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, surrender all his shares of the company  
  • On Thursday, Ozy Chairman Marc Lasry stepped down, saying the company was in need of crisis management leadership 
  • That same day, former BBC anchor Katty Kay, one of Ozy’s biggest names also resigned after learning of Rao’s alleged behavior
  • CNN later released a report detailing how Ozy CEO Carlos Watson acted as a ‘bully’ who never took no for an answer 
  • On Thursday, the NY Times found that television producer Brad Bessey had quit Ozy in August when he found out the show he was producing had no cable deal 
  • Sharon Osbourne also spoke up on Thursday, revealing that Watson’s claim that the Osbournes invested in the company was a lie
  • Shortly after 5pm on Friday, Ozy’s board said the company was shutting down 

‘The crew of The Carlos Watson Show was blindsided by an article in The New York Times revealing damning information about potential securities fraud and fake audiences and questionable marketing spin,’ Kertes penned.

Ozy has faced a snowballing crisis after allegations the company’s COO, Samir Rao (pictured), impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with investors

The Times article she referenced, which was published on Sunday, single-handedly sent Ozy Media plummeting to its demise within a week. 

The story revealed that Ozy’s COO Samir Rao allegedly impersonated a YouTube executive to impress potential investors at Goldman Sachs as he tried to raise $40million from the investment bank – a potential case of securities fraud. 

Ozy Media’s known investors are Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of the late Apple founder Steven Jobs, venture capitalist Ron Conway and former Google exec David Drummond.

Berlin publishing giant Axel Springer, investment bank LionTree and the radio and podcast company iHeart Media also invested in the company.  

Earlier this year Emmy Award-winning television producer Brad Bessey quit the company after he discovered he was producing a show for Ozy without there being a network on which to air it. 

Bessey joined the fraudulent network show in June 2020, to work on The Carlos Watson Show – a daily, half-hour talk show presented by Watson, who is also Ozy’s CEO.

He was told repeatedly that the show would be broadcast on the cable channel A&E. 

Kertes referenced Bessey in her post, noting that as he ‘left for ethical reasons, (she) stayed on for the paycheck and the hope that somehow we would find our audience and get the message out’. 

Kertes noted Watson’s charm, charisma and easy-to-follow vision, ‘especially in light of the racial injustice,’ but then criticized Ozy’s board and executives for their ‘unethical and brutal choices,’ adding that she ‘always wondered’ if the company was ‘a house of cards’ 

Kertes was obviously saddened by what The Times’ story revealed and later posted an Instagram story showing off her hair after leaving the salon adding that ‘everything is gonna be alright’

She noted that she was looking forward to the show ‘moving production to LA in January,’ after revealing that serving as Watson’s stylist was a ‘sacrifice my daughter and husband made to not have her mama home’.

Kertes was obviously saddened by what The Times’ story revealed. She said: ‘I feel like I have to delete his photos off my website and social media. 

Earlier this year Emmy Award-winning television producer Brad Bessey (pictured) quit the company after he discovered he was producing a show for Ozy without there being a network on which to air it 

‘It’s a bummer that I can’t be proud of some thing I was a part of for 17 months of a pivotal moment in time and in my life navigating work as a new mom. It’s a bummer I can’t be proud of Carlos Watson. It’s a bummer it was just a paycheck.’ 

Days after The Times story broke Forbes revealed how Ozy operated a toxic and abusive culture of overworking young and inexperienced employees, making workers in their 20s manage entire departments.

Eva Rodriguez, 24, a creative director at the company since 2017, found herself so overburdened at her job that she was rushed to the ER and later admitted into a six-week outpatient program for ‘extremely depressed people’ after suffering from a panic attack late last year.

As for Kertes, she’s ‘not going to let one dude’s greed and drive erase my (and my colleagues’) hard work’.

She noted that more than 100 ‘talented, hard working people have lost their jobs and I worry greatly that more fallout will come. l that will be hard for all of us to digest’.

Kertes signed off the caption by saying: ‘So that’s where I’m at. Heart broken.

Sending love and solidarity to all who were affected that I’ve been lucky enough to meet.’  

Eva Rodriguez (pictured), 24, a creative director at the company since 2017, found herself so overburdened at her job that she was rushed to the ER and later admitted into a six-week outpatient program for ‘extremely depressed people’ after suffering from a panic attack late last year 

Kertes said in her post announcing she lost her job at Ozy’s The Carlson Show: ‘It’s a bummer that I can’t be proud of some thing I was a part of for 17 months of a pivotal moment in time and in my life navigating work as a new mom. It’s a bummer I can’t be proud of Carlos Watson. It’s a bummer it was just a paycheck’

She later posted an Instagram story showing off her hair after leaving the salon. ‘Super heartbreaking day for me professionally… But I got my hair did. And it looks great. Everything is gonna be alright,’ the text over the photo read.

Meanwhile, along with its news department and number of non-fiction television shows, in 2016 Ozy launched its own Manhattan-based music and comedy festival, OzyFest – which brought a cease-and-desist letter from Ozzy Osbourne who claimed that the name was too similar to his Ozzfest music festival.

Watson had once vowed that the annual event was going to be ‘the new South-by-Southwest,’ but former employees and insiders said that the struggling festival was more akin to the infamous Fyre Festival.

By 2018, Ozy was raising eyebrows with the claim that it had sold 20,000 tickets to that year’s event at the Rumsey Playfield despite the venue only having a capacity of just 5,000.

‘We had never proven the ability to sell even 5,000 tickets,’ a former employee told Forbes. ‘When we were trying to sell 5,000 tickets we were begging people to buy them. We were putting them on discount, discount, discount, giving them away.’

Much like the Fyre Festival, the failed 2017 event meant to promote the Fyre music booking app, Ozyfest seemed to be an expense that promised much more than it could deliver.

Then in 2019, Watson made an ambitious gamble by scheduling Ozy Fest for Central Park’s massive Great Lawn, vowing to sell 100,000 tickets and promising appearances from comedian Trevor Noah and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

Planning for the event got off to a rocky start after the company was busted using an image of the much more popular Global Citizen Festival in ads for the Ozyfest- a bait-and-switch that Ozy execs blamed on a rogue team member.

And the promised lineup for the event was even more sleight of hand, according to former employees.

‘The way they’d get guests on their TV shows and guests on their festivals is they’d lie and say they already had commitments from X, Y and Z,’ one employee who worked on Ozy Fest told Forbes.

‘And they were like, oh that person dropped out, oh that person can’t participate. But they never had those people to begin with.’

Insiders say it came as a relief when Ozyfest (pictured) was cancelled at the last minute by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who also called off the New York City Triathlon due to a searing heatwave that hit 100 degrees. Likewise, Ozy’s 2020 festival was canceled due to the pandemic 

Another employee told Forbes that unlike other media outlets that give trade air-time with guests who appear on their shows by allowing the stars a chance to talk about their projects or causes, Ozy’s high profile guests were always paid for.

‘Ozy would bill them as ‘friends of Ozy’ and that’s why they’re there,’ says the former employee. ‘But no, they were paid to show up. Everything has a price tag.’

Documents filed with the New York City Buildings Department showed the 2019 festival was only licensed to host 15,500 people per day during the two-day festival.

Staging the event would have cost some $6million, in addition to the millions Ozy likely spent on advertising, according to experts consulted by Forbes.

Insiders say it came as a relief when the festival was cancelled at the last minute by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who also called off the New York City Triathlon due to a searing heatwave that hit 100 degrees.

Likewise, Ozy’s 2020 festival was canceled due to the pandemic. 

Kimmy Erin Kertes’s full statement addressing Ozy Media’s shutdown and losing her job on The Carlos Watson show

Let me explain…

SO many DMs came in after I posted in my stories that, professionally, 10/1/21 was heart breaking and to say the very least, disappointing and honestly it’s easier to just post and set the record straight one time than respond to everyone – THANK YOU all for your sweet words.   

The week was a roller coaster of emotions as me and the crew of The Carlos Watson Show were blindsided by an article in the @nytimes revealing damning information about potential securities fraud and fake audiences and questionable marketing spin… search ‘ozy nyt’ should you want to follow along, but every major outlet has covered their own gnarly headlines criticizing the company and its founder, @ozycarlos seen here, and its COO.

The company created amazing, beautiful content. Carlos is the most charming human and charismatic leader on the planet whose vision was easy to follow, especially in light of the racial injustice we were seeking to right when I was contacted about this gig by the inimitable @bradbessey last summer. 

We scrambled, in a pandemic, to create this show that we thought was airing on prime time cable network, so honored to be a part of a conversation to heal, change, and ‘reset America’. When Brad left for ethical reasons as now documented by NYT, I stayed on for the paycheck and the hope that somehow we would find our audience and get the message out. There was a lot of hope. 

I saw questionable marketing spin but there were still wins and the guests were incredible. Some favorites included Gloria Steinem, Cory Booker, Gabrielle Union, and a truly incredible conversation with that gun-toting crazy couple the McCloskys where even they were able to recognize that Carlos had an incredible ability to diffuse and have tough conversations on both sides of the political spectrum. 

Despite the many unethical and brutal choices the board and executives have made, the project was worth the travel, the sacrifice my daughter and husband made to not have her mama home, and the Herculean challenges building a wardrobe for daily episodes in a pandemic without getting the time to do fittings with limited budgets and a host of other challenges that presented as the show evolved. 

Despite the massive stress the job would bring, I’m not relieved it’s over. They were moving production to LA in January and it would’ve been a really fantastic part-time gig. I’m actually pretty heartbroken over the whole situation. 

I always wondered if it was a house of cards, clearly it was, but I feel like we’ve all been a little duped. I feel like I have to delete his photos off my website and social media. It’s a bummer that I can’t be proud of some thing I was a part of for 17 months of a pivotal moment in time and in my life navigating work as a new mom. It’s a bummer I can’t be proud of Carlos Watson. It’s a bummer it was just a paycheck….. 

Yesterday, I felt ashamed for believing. Today, I’m going on the record to say that I’m not going to let one dude’s greed and drive erase my (and my colleagues) hard work. 100+ talented, hard working people have lost their jobs and I worry greatly that more fallout will come. l that will be hard for all of us to digest. So that’s where I’m at. Heart broken. Sending love and solidarity to all who were affected that I’ve been lucky enough to meet.

 

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Technology

Nintendo’s Metroid Dread Marketing Campaign Is Well Underway In Japan

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Image: Nintendo

Nintendo has been criticised in the past for not giving the Metroid series enough spotlight compared to certain other franchises, but it seems things will be different this time around.

Ahead of the release of Metroid Dread next month, Nintendo is rolling out the red carpet for its intergalactic bounty hunter. In addition to all of the trailers, reports and social media posts it’s released so far, the company has also gone to the extent of throwing up gigantic Switch ads at train stations in Tokyo:

While it might not seem like much, keep in mind this is Metroid we’re talking about here. Seeing Samus instead of Super Mario, Link or Animal Crossing is a big deal, and it’s great to see Nintendo giving the conclusion to the original Metroid saga the attention it deserves.

It seems the new entry for Switch is already on track to become possibly the best-selling Metroid game to date – with the title topping Amazon and other pre-order charts just days after it was announced. And with Metroid Prime 4 still on the way, Samus’ resurgence is likely to only get bigger and better.

Do you think Nintendo has done enough for Metroid Dread ahead of its release? Will you be picking up Dread when it arrives on the Switch on October 8th? Show your support in the comments below.



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Business

Cattle producers have a beef with 35-year marketing campaign

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Colin Woodall, the chief executive officer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, explains the goal of being climate neutral by 2040, noting that ‘we’re taking this extremely seriously.’ 

Cattle producers for 35 years have been bankrolling one of the nation’s most iconic marketing campaigns, but now many want to end the program that created the “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner” slogan.

What’s the ranchers’ beef? It’s that their mandatory fee of $1 per head of cattle sold is not specifically promoting American beef at a time when imports are flooding the market and plant-based, “fake meat” products are proliferating in grocery stores.

“The American consumer is deceived at the meat counter and our checkoff funds do not do anything to help create clarity or answer the question of where was that sirloin born, raised and harvested,” said Karina Jones, a Nebraska cattle rancher and field director for the R-CALF USA trade group that is seeking to end the checkoff.

In this June 10, 2020 file photo, cattle is seen at a feedlot in Columbus, Neb. Cattle producers for 35 years have been bankrolling one of the nation’s most iconic marketing campaigns, but now many want to end the program that created the “Beef. It’s (AP Photo/Nati Harnik File)

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Opponents of the beef checkoff program, which was established by federal law in 1986, are urging cattle producers to a sign a petition calling for a referendum vote on terminating the program.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last month granted an extension until Oct. 3 for them to collect the required signatures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Petition supporters argue the beef checkoff is a government-mandated assessment to fund government speech. Beef checkoff funds by law cannot be used to advertise against other meats such as pork or chicken, nor can they be used for lobbying. But they complain much of the money nonetheless props up lobbying groups such as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association that oppose mandatory country-of-origin labels.

They also point out that today’s U.S. cattle industry is radically different than it was when the checkoff program was put into place, with more imported beef and greater meatpacker concentration.

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“Now we are paying the advertising bill for four major meatpacking plants that are able to import beef and source it from cheaper countries and fool our consumers,” Jones said.

The petition has created a schism in the livestock industry between those who support the checkoff and those who don’t.

But consumers have a stake in the fight as well.

One way to look at this is that consumers probably should not like the checkoff program because it raises their beef prices, and some consumer groups are opposed to it for that reason, said Harry Kaiser, director of Cornell University’s Commodity Promotion Research Program. Another way to look at it is that the checkoff also funds research into beef safety and the development of new beef products, he said.

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“Consumers pay a few pennies more, but it is a safer product, a better quality product,” Kaiser said.

Kaiser, who conducts research for the U.S. Agriculture Department on commodity advertising and promotion programs, wrote in an economic analysis that domestic beef demand between 2014 and 2018 would have been 14.3% lower without the consumer advertising and other promotional activities of the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board. In 2019, the board had a budget of $40.5 million to spend on activities that aim to increase beef demand.

Kaiser also noted in a phone interview that the checkoff-funded marketing research found that one reason consumers have been reluctant to purchase beef is because they felt it takes too long to prepare after coming home from work. That led to development of more easy-to-prepare beef products that consumers can buy at the supermarket and just pop into the microwave to cook.

But cattle producers say it’s been two decades since checkoff-funded beef innovations like the flat iron steak, a high-value cut that came out of a low-value area of the carcass that previously had just been made into chuck roast.

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Since 1966, Congress has authorized industry-funded research and promotion boards to help agricultural producers pool resources and develop new markets. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service now provides oversight for 22 such commodity programs, according to its website.

The mandatory nature of the various commodity checkoff programs has been controversial, sparking thousands of lawsuits over the years. Three cases reached the U.S. Supreme Court with mixed outcomes, Kaiser said.

The nation’s highest court ruled in 1997 in a case by fruit tree farmers that commodity advertising was constitutional because it was a part of a broader regulatory program. But four years later, the Supreme Court ruled a federally mandated mushroom advertising program was not part of a larger regulatory program and was therefore unconstitutional as compelled private speech. And in 2005, the Supreme Court found the beef checkoff program was constitutional on government speech grounds.

While these programs are now constitutional as part of a broader regulator scheme, Kaiser said a conservative Supreme Court could overturn these precedents, which are similar to requiring workers to be in labor unions.

COLORADO AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY RALLIES AGAINST STATE’S MEATOUT DAY

This is not the first time critics of the beef checkoff program have tried to wrangle enough signatures on a petition. The Agricultural Marketing Service received a petition from cattle producers in 1999 and determined the signatures fell short of the required number.

It takes the petition signatures of 10% of the nation’s cattle producers — in this case 88,269 valid signatures — to put the issue before the agriculture secretary. Any cattle producer who has owned, sold or purchased cattle from July 2, 2020 through July 1, 2021 is eligible to sign the petition. Vilsack would then decide whether to hold a referendum on ending the program.

So far, checkoff opponents have gathered around 30,000 signatures, Jones said.

Kansas rancher Steve Stratford, one of the people who initiated the petition, said meatpackers — who do not pay into the checkoff program — are the ones whose profit margin has increased while the checkoff has been in existence.

“Long story short: The person that is paying the dollar is not the one reaping the benefits of better demand and higher beef prices,” Stratford said.

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But Greg Hanes, the chief executive officer of the beef board that runs the checkoff program, said that when it was established there was a “conscientious decision” not to have the packers participate so that it is driven by producers. He noted that market dynamics are always changing and, at times, the packers are doing better than producers and sometimes producers are doing better than packers.

Hanes defended the checkoff, saying that it is especially important for research in nutrition and that without the program consumers don’t get information on the benefits of beef.

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Technology

World’s Largest Chip Maker to Raise Prices, Threatening Costlier Electronics

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The world’s largest contract chip maker is raising prices by as much as 20%, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that could result in consumers paying more for electronics.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to increase the prices of its most advanced chips by roughly 10%, while less advanced chips used by customers like auto makers will cost about 20% more, these people said. The higher prices will generally take effect late this year or next year, the people said.

Apple Inc. is one of TSMC’s largest customers and its iPhones use advanced microprocessors made in TSMC foundries. It couldn’t be determined how much more Apple would pay.

A TSMC spokeswoman declined to comment on prices but said the company works closely with customers. An Apple spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The price increases come in the wake of a global semiconductor shortage that has affected Apple and most car makers, including General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. In August, GM said it had to idle three factories in North America that make large pickup trucks, the company’s biggest moneymaker. Last week, Toyota said it would curb production by 40% in September.

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Technology

Vanguard Marketing Doesn’t Mention Activision

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Image: Activision Blizzard

Call of Duty: Vanguard was officially announced yesterday, the first major Activision Blizzard reveal since the corporation came under public scrutiny for its abhorrent treatment of female employees. A minor detail in the reveal video has some speculating that Activision is keen to avoid reminding everyone it’s involved in the game’s development.

This strange phenomenon was first noticed by Twitter user Neoxon619, who pointed out that the end of the Call of Duty: Vanguard trailer didn’t include an Activision logo alongside those for developing studios Sledgehammer Games, Treyarch, and Beenox. In fact, the video doesn’t mention Activision anywhere but in the legally required, small-print copyright information.

A quick examination of previous reveal trailers on the series’ official YouTube page shows that a prominent Activision logo has been present as far back as the announcement video for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which was first uploaded to the channel on May 23, 2011.

Neoxon also highlighted the fact that Activision’s logo is missing from the Call of Duty: Vanguard page on Battle.net, the company’s digital storefront. Again, Kotaku confirmed this is a common inclusion on several of the platform’s Call of Duty listings, where Activision’s graphic can be seen positioned above the logos for games like Modern Warfare, Black Ops: Cold War, and Black Ops 4.

“Call of Duty has continued to expand into an incredible universe of experiences,” an Activision rep told Kotaku. “This was a creative choice that reflects how Vanguard represents the next major installment in the franchise.”

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Activision Blizzard is still embroiled in controversy following a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that accused the massive corporation of fostering an environment of harassment and abuse targeted mainly at female employees for years. Since then, several notable figures have departed the company, including Blizzard president J. Allen Brack, Blizzard head of human relations Jesse Meschuk, and Diablo 4 lead designer Jesse McCree.

The omission of Activision logos from Call of Duty: Vanguard marketing has been roundly mocked on social media as a cowardly distancing of the game from the publisher’s involvement.

“If this doesn’t show you how terrified Activision is for the lawsuit,” wrote one user in response to Neoxon’s original tweet, “then I’m not sure what to tell you.”



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