Month: July 2018

The day of the robotic car on the racetrack is here. The autonomous vehicles aren’t competitive yet, but it is only a matter of time before they start to show in winners’ circles. This will have a profound PR effect on the sport. Rather than drivers being the heros, attention will be deflected to pit crews and engineers.  They are the undercard in today’s sport– celebrated but not nearly as much as the human who steers the car. Will racing lose its luster with self-driving vehicles or will it adapt by using ever more difficult courses that software can’t handle well? Both outcomes are possible. The goal of robotic racing is to develop technology that can be used in street vehicles. That defines the history of motorsport. All that is old is new again.

Build-A-Bear Workshops conducted a promotion that was too good to work and now has to deal with the wrath of disappointed customers. The creative idea was a “pay your age” discount. Rather than a usual price range of $20 to $35, a parent could get a bear for a three-year-old for just $3 or for a five-year-old for just $5. It worked too well. Long lines of customers formed at its stores and the company was forced to shut down the promotion, leaving scores of potential buyers disappointed and angry. There was no way of knowing in advance that its idea would turn into a monster. There are no good ways to forecast foot traffic for a new promotion as Victoria’s Secret recently learned. One proceeds with hope that it will work. When it does as it did for Build-A-Bear, a company has to be ready to satisfy its customers. Should Build-A-Bear try the idea in the future, it will be prepared but for now, it has to deal with a PR problem.

Bayer recently closed on the acquisition of Monsanto, and now, it is faced with an emerging crisis around Monsanto’s blockbuster weed killer, Roundup. A judge in San Francisco has allowed lawsuits to go forward that accuse the company of failing to warn that the chemical in Roundup, glyphosate, causes cancer. There are hundreds of suits and damages could run into billions. Monsanto has strenuously denied the substance causes cancer, but now it will have to take its battle to court and hope it can find a sympathetic jury. Chances are not good it can. Chemicals today have a poor image in the minds of Americans. They are no longer the promise of a bright future but substances of pollution and disease.  Monsanto will have to fight that perception at the same time it is proving glyphosate is not a cancer-causing agent. This could get expensive for Bayer.

President Trump announced the nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, on Monday evening and already a multi-million dollar PR brawl has broken out. Democrats want to gain the votes of three Republicans against the nominee. Republicans want to gain the votes of three Democrats for the nominee. In the worst case scenario, Republicans will have to muster all hands to approve him, including Senator John McCain who is fighting brain cancer in Arizona. The fight promises to be ugly with no holds barred. Kavanaugh will have to be extremely careful during Senate hearings if he wants to survive. There is a lack of open-mindedness on both sides of the nomination, which will make persuasion difficult. Democratic senators will ask loaded questions and attempt to bait him into error. He will have to use his rhetorical skills to sidestep verbal grenades and continue toward a seat on the Court. It won’t be pretty but it might make fascinating television.

The Brazilian soccer player, Neymar, is known for two things — his brilliance on the field and his over-acting when it comes to injury. During the World Cup, international audiences had a chance to see his hammy performances as he faked hurt. They did what one might expect. They mocked him. Upon calling out, “Neymar”, people fall to the ground and roll about in feigned agony. For Neymar, it should become clear, if it has not already, that the public is on to his performances as are officials. To preserve his reputation, Neymar needs to stop faking injury at every slight brush with an opponent. If he insists he has not been overdoing it, then one might ask how he got into the game of football in the first place. He would be too delicate to play. Neymar’s coaches need to call him to the side and explain how ridiculous he looks.

Britain’s decision to leave the EU wasn’t right from the moment it was voted on. Now that the secretary for Brexit has abruptly left his post in the UK, there is a chance for sanity to return. The country stood to lose far more than it gained from the rupture. It was as harebrained as Trump’s decision to begin trade wars with allies. It makes one wonder what has happened to the political world. Democracy is under threat. Strong rulers have risen to bend nations to their will. Free expression has been constrained in one country after another. Given economic strength, it should be the best of times. It isn’t.

 

Hawaii has passed a law banning certain sunscreens whose chemicals are thought to harm coral reefs. It is smart environmentalism and smart PR. The state has thrust itself into the forefront of places where efforts are being taken to keep reefs healthy. The worldwide problem of coral destruction is not going to be stopped by the banning of two chemicals but it will help. Coral bleaching is thought to derive from warmer water temperatures. The banned sunscreens won’t help with that, but they will lower potential harm the state’s reefs are suffering as they adapt to global weather change.

The world is paying attention to the 12 boys and their coach caught three miles inside a Thai cave. If anything goes wrong while divers extract them, it will be international news. This is a time when one doesn’t want to make even a single misstep. Not only would it harm someone, but it would paint the rescue operation as incompetent. Thai rescuers are proceeding cautiously, but they don’t have much time. Monsoon rains are coming and the cave complex already is flooded. As much as they pump, they can’t dry it out. Left out of the conversation at the moment is the foolhardy venture into the cave in the first place. Signs warned against it, but the soccer team and their coach went in anyway. There will be time for that once everyone is home safe, but now the reputations of Thai, British and American military divers hang in the balance. Can they bring them out and how fast? They are in a searing spotlight.

Artificial intelligence is getting closer to taking on and beating humans even in highly complex and unstructured games. DeepMind announced that its AI agents exceed human level gameplay in Quake III. This is an ever-changing 3D environment in which one captures the flag. The scientists who prepped the play had their AI program compete each time in a new configuration as it learned. Hence, it could not solve the problem in one space alone, but had to learn how to play in all of them. After about 200,000 training games, it passed the strong human level of play. Along with AI’s success at Go and Chess, it is one more leap in computers’ abilities to transcend humans. Some are terrified that computers will take over some day. Others say it is highly unlikely. While I’m in the latter camp, the power of AI is becoming a PR problem for developers and companies using it. They need to communicate its limitations and not just its abilities. Otherwise, it could well become a political issue in which AI is regulated.

Dairy farmers can’t sell their milk at a profit. Many have taken to dumping it. Cows don’t know that so they keep producing. Here is a program that pays farmers for excess milk and then turns it into cheese and yogurt for the poor. It’s smart PR. Product that would otherwise go to waste is being put to good use. It is not a new idea. The government had a surplus program that stored tons of cheese. The difference here is that private charities are tackling the problem and getting good results. There should be more of this in the US. Food dumping is almost a crime when hundreds of millions around the world go hungry. The richest country in the world can and should do better.