13 May 2024

Welcome to The Advisory Club: Weekly Update, a summary of conversations and topics posted and discussed on WhatsApp by 646 media, communications, and marketing professionals from around the world, 6 May - 13 May 2024

Send me a note for a link if you'd like to join it live.

General Discussion

Unsolicited advice. 101 gems of excellent advice, including this one: Most arguments are not about the argument, so most arguments can't be won by arguing.

Pulitzer reflections. What this years selections say about the state of American journalism. From Nieman Labs.

SXSW, innit. A little bit of Austin is coming to London.

Sussex rebrand. Astute take on Harry and Meghan, or a distraction from a bigger struggling brand narrative?

Worm snack. This explains a lot about RFK Jr. Thanks Olaf Grewe

Inclusive culture. Advita Patel interviews Courtney Williams from the Obama Foundation on building cultures of inclusion.

Make work better. Newsletter suggestion from Sonya Cullington

Monopoly power. The US department of Justice is hammering Google. Via Andrew Bruce Smith

Press release ban. A UK publisher's new policy to stop using press releases has the community wondering: how will this actually work in practice? Thanks Nigel Sarbutts

Empathy. I've been thinking a lot about empathy lately. In life, work, politics. Now apparently, private equity giant KKR is, too. Julio Romo has also been thinking, and writing about it. I wondered, is it a skill? A disposition? A mood? According to this from Jules Day , it's at least partly genetic.

Baby Reindeer. It's a show on Netflix. A crazy, disturbing show about abuse and trauma. Then there was a crazy, disturbing interview with one of people the show is based on (thanks Sarah Street ). More context from Claire Martin . As Adam Rubins said: "Everything about this is uncomfortable. The show, the interview and its phenomenal success. A big win for algorithms everywhere."

Podfluence. Podcasters are the new influencers. Thanks Candace Kuss

Ghostwriting. Is it fraud? By Samantha Wilkins

Artificial Intelligence

Hype bubble. Is AI about to have a dotcom moment? Via Julio Romo

Chatbots. What to expect from the next generation. Thanks Keren Darmon

Seven questions. Jenny Nicholson experiments in real time with all kinds of AI applications; here's an interview with her.

Black Box. Podcast recommendation from Sonya Cullington : "[It]...covers everything from people having relationships with chatbots to how it's helping prevent cancer."

Singapore. Amazon going in hard with AI training here. Via Jon Chin . And also from Jon: BCG lessons for leaders on what people really think about AI.

Clone-caster. A Dutch news outlet has cloned one of its top-rated presenters.

Future state. Bob Pearson on the future of AI and communications.

Turban-tastic. Meta's AI chatbot has a tendency when it comes to depicting Indians.

And a grab-bag from Andrew Bruce Smith : an AI-synthesis of TED talks about...AI (that I hope I can post in the comments), Randy Travis gets his voice back with a Warner Music experiment, a new crawl feature from Screaming Frog, OpenAI's new media manager tool in development, their approach to "responsible" porn, how ElevenLabs is making an army of voice clones, an AR headset using ordinary eyeglasses, and why we all should stop worrying about the AI apocalypse.

Mis/Disinformation

Anti-reality. There has been a shift in how autocracies are using propaganda, and it's working, argues Tom Nichols in The Atlantic.

Hype hurts. How exaggerating the risks of disinformation helps propagandists, too - from Foreign Affairs.

Knowledge vs wisdom. Jamie Klingler offers this from Turkish-American novilist Elif Shafak.

And from Sergii Bidenko

ESG & Sustainability

Coffee sneakers. A cool collaboration by Zèta and Nespresso.

Hopeless and broken. The Guardian asked 380 climate scientists how they feel about the future. Grim reading.

Creative Displays Of Brilliance

Keep on walking. It helps your creativity.

Give the world a Coke. From The New Yorker, in 1959.

Bridge hack. Testicular cancer awareness campaign from Famous Campaigns via Gareth Thomas

Politics & Policy

New fascism. Tucker, Dugin and the normalization of authoritarianism.

Cast From Clay. I see interesting things just about every day from Tom Hashemi and his "creative consultancy for policy" - just thought I'd pass that along!

Baby bust. Implications from the coming population sag in major East Asian countries, from Foreign Affairs, and a related piece from Reuters on China, via Julio Romo

Crisis, Risk and Resilience

High water. New flood emergency communications help from Philippe Borremans

Risky business. The UK gym chain PureGym is facing a boycott call after it's CEO spoke out on Gaza on the Question Time television program.

Behavioral Science

Choice engines. How AI-driven choice architecture might save us all a lot in terms of money, safety and health - thanks Shayoni Lynn FCIPR FPRCA

Memory help. Write things down. From Popular Science.

Bio Comms

Grain of salt. Excellent history on ... salt. From The Age Of Invention newsletter.

Personalized vaccines. How mRNA vaccines might lead to customized cancer prevention and treatment. From Axios.

The Library

No books to suggest this week but I did catch Civil War, a new film from writer/director Alex Garland. Here's the trailer. And here's a review. I found it deeply, sleep-disturbingly troubling. Partly because it's so plausible in my native US, and partly because it's so real, today, in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel and beyond.

Dexa. A search engine to dig through podcasts and videos for what you want.

Meet-Ups

Thanks!

If you'd like to jump into the live conversation, drop me a line for a link, and thanks as always to those who contribute each week.