Tuesday, February 22, 2011

"Now I keep the cow and my family has milk" - Jose Guzman Santana


PepsiCo has made a deal with Mexican farmers, buying crops directly from 300 small farmers with a guarantee for upfront payment.

Unsurprisingly, this move is more of a strategic business move than a social one.

Nowadays, most corporations take on social responsibility not voluntarily, but for tax reasons or peer-pressure because of the industry standard to commit to the public good.

It's good to see that PepsiCo has a good PR agency - lets just see how much change they really make down south.

Check out the NY Times article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/business/global/22pepsi.html?src=me&ref=business


Monday, February 21, 2011

Drowning in a sea of advertisements

Chapter 12 of The Press spoke about the imbalance of news content and advertisements, that in an attempt to engage readers, the media has been swamping their outlets with too much advertisements.

This is a reality in every industry - from fashion to cars to news reporting.

In my opinion, content should be engaging enough that it doesn't need to be overrun with advertisements to gain traffic.


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Moral policing





This is something I've struggled with for quite some time. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

The internal debate that I have goes as follows:

How much, if at all, does anyone have a right to enforce morality?

Putting guards on the GW to make sure people don't make the jump is a larger question - one that concerns authority and our right to free choice.

However, preventative moral watchguards with the rise of technology are a different story.

Should craigslist have a personals section? Should pornography be outlawed? These are tough questions to answer.

I am confident, though, that Gizmodo's recent article on how to cheat online and get away with it crosses the line.

Erika Stalder outlines and details different methods of cheating on your significant other, providing links to websites like Ashley Madison, a discreet affairs website, or AlibiNetwork, a website that will send fake doctor appointment confirmations to throw off suspicion.

My moral compass tells me that as crafty as the article is, I can do better than that. But what about people like Chris Lee? What if he had come across this article before he decided to venture onto craigslist?

It's a tough call, but I just think its wrong.

Check it out at: http://gizmodo.com/#!5758082/how-to-cheat-onlineand-get-away-with-it

Oh, Chris Lee.







Not only is it embarrassing that he threw away his political career in the hopes of what probably would have been a disappointing rendezvous in a cheap motel, its just lame.

Lee did the same, unoriginal act that politicans, atheletes and entertainers have been doing for centuries - except he couldn't quite manage to get it right.

Just three weeks after Lee was tempted into infidelity by a Craigslist post by a lonely 34-year old, all of his emails and pictures were released in a Gawker exclusive feature.

Successful or unsuccessful, whether the affair lasts for days or years, infidelity, which seems to be part of a politician's job description these days, has been done too many times to be deemed scandalous. Nowadays, its just boring.

Check it out on gawker: http://gawker.com/#!5755071/married-gop-congressman-sent-sexy-pictures-to-craigslist-babe