Tag: small business for sale

Miller Genuine Draft and the black hole of space advertising

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This week Miller Genuine Draft aimed to be the latest brand to launch a seltzer. Just not the brand extension product you can buy at a store. No, Miller was going to launch a seltzer into space. The brand had spent the preceding days hyping its stunt of launching a hard seltzer—beer’s latest trendy rival—as a gesture of hostility toward yet another tasteless carbonated beverage in a can. Miller has seen the proliferation of hard seltzer, like so many boozy bunny rabbits, increasingly take shelf space and cultural real estate from the original suds. Perhaps the bulk of its disdain is saved for beer brands that have jumped on the clear bevvie bandwagon such as Michelob Ultra, Bud Light, Corona, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. T-minus 45 minutes until MGD launches a hard seltzer. Into oblivion. Tune into @MillerLite 's page to watch it all go down! pic.twitter.com/nGUTycScvx — Molson Coors Beverage Company (@MolsonCoors) May 13, 2021 This was going to be the “beer’s beer” brand’s own little “Stratos” moment. A live broadcast across social media of an elaborately expensive and ultimately pointless stunt. “We brew beer, it’s what we do, it’s what we love,” says the spokesman. “But then so many other brands started hopping on that bandwagon, then all of a sudden there came this overwhelming expectation for us to do the same.” It wouldn’t have to look far for that expectation. Miller parent company Molson Coors has been more than happy to jump on the trend, with hard seltzers such as Vizzy and Coors Seltzer. Sofia Colucci, VP of the Miller Family of Brands, told AdAge , “This program is really meant to reinforce the role of one of our key brand portfolios—the Miller Family—and that we’re a beer’s beer. The only seltzer launch we’re planning is this launch into oblivion, so yes, Miller will remain dedicated to beer and beer only.” Live at 4pm EST. Seltzer gets the launch it deserves ????. https://t.co/yMNtBbmqaO — Miller Lite (@MillerLite) May 13, 2021 When it finally came time to follow through on this elaborate gimmick, though, the brand blinked. There was no real launch. The rocket exploded before taking off. Read More …

The CDC’s new masking rules don’t mean you can unmask just yet

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On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued huge news: If you’ve been fully vaccinated, you can stop wearing a mask. Now, health experts are expressing concern about the new rule and telling Americans to proceed with caution. The CDC’s new guidelines come with a few caveats. Americans must follow the rules of local businesses and mask up on planes, trains, buses, and other transit. But for the most part, vaccinated people can go back to the way they lived life before the pandemic. What these broad recommendations don’t account for, health experts say, is how much COVID-19 is spreading in a given community versus how many people are vaccinated. I remain concerned that we will see summer surges in states with low vaccine rates… but again, those states were largely unmasked to begin with. ????‍♀️????‍♀️????‍♀️ But – at some point, people can do unsafe things ***as long as*** it doesn’t endanger the rest of us. — Megan Ranney MD MPH ???? (@meganranney) May 14, 2021 The problem is the way the recommendation bifurcates Americans into two health statuses: vaccinated and unvaccinated. There are people who do not want to get vaccinated and the new guideline may alienate unvaccinated Americans. The hope is that the recommendation will incentivize unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated. But that may not be the way it works out. “These guidelines rely on unvaccinated people to keep masking, and to be forthcoming about that status,” writes pediatrician Daniel Summers, in an opinion piece for The Daily Beast . “If you believe the same people who think Naomi Wolf is making good sense about the vaccines are going to cough up the truth to a maître d’ before taking their seat at a restaurant, please see me about a hot new purchase opportunity for shares in a diamond mine.” Doctors and health experts are worried there may be COVID-19 case spikes in areas with low vaccine rates and higher case numbers Read More …

A 20-year Apple veteran just unveiled a wild new kind of speaker

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From the still-iconic iPod to the human curation of Apple Music to the meticulous design of the digital instruments in Logic X, it’s pretty clear that music is deep in Apple’s DNA. That’s why it’s worth paying attention when a 20-year veteran of the company’s industrial design group goes off to start his own audio hardware company. [Photo: Cell Alpha] Christopher Stringer helped design the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch, and other Apple hits. Now he’s the cofounder and CEO of Syng , which is unveiling its first product, a large round speaker called Cell Alpha that sits on a stand on your living room floor or a tabletop. The round enclosure contains woofers on the top and bottom and a trio of mid-range drivers in the middle. The design has a retro-future vibe, as if someone set out in 1970 to envision the sound system of 2050. Stringer believes audio hardware has fallen way behind advances in sound design coming from the entertainment industry today. Audio modes are still basically confined to mono, stereo, or surround sound. “It’s not obvious how limiting that is,” he says. Read More …

The best 11 ambient noise and music apps to help you stay focused

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While research tends to go back and forth on the advantages of noise versus silence for creativity and productivity, I always find myself more relaxed and focused at work after turning on a light amount of ambient sound, usually with some combination of rain, fan noise, and white noise. That habit has turned me into somewhat of an ambient sound connoisseur. Too many ambient noise apps come with cheap sound effects, annoying commercial breaks, or exorbitant subscription fees Read More …

How startups can create a culture where women can win

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Silicon Valley’s bro culture is infamous. Bloomberg’s Emily Chang wrote an entire book about it aptly named Brotopia , where she called out the toxic culture women face in the tech industry. In software development, “ shift left ” refers to finding and fixing defects early in the product lifecycle. To fix bro culture, we need to shift left and start early in the company lifecycle: Startups must create a culture where women can win. I’ve heard people argue that the real problem is a lack of pipeline, that there aren’t enough girls choosing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The truth is, the industry is unattractive to women because it’s an unfriendly place, as I’ve learned firsthand working at startups. Over half of women working in tech report experiencing gender inequality at work. Tech giants like Google (no, I never worked there) and Oracle (yes, I once worked there) have come under fire for sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. Sidelining, mansplaining, patronizing, and pay gaps: A career in tech is still hard for women. Life in a startup is seemingly even harder. “How do you do it?” people often ask me. Like most women, I’ve had to navigate subtle and not-so-subtle biases at different points in my own career. Along the way, I’ve come to realize that terms like “imposter syndrome” unfairly place the burden to adapt squarely on women. Instead, it’s the environment that must change. The onus is on startups to create a culture where women can thrive. Start at the top, and start early Tech startups are overwhelmingly (72%) founded by men, who mostly recruit from within their own network and end up hiring more men who look just like them. The key to changing the company dynamic starts at the top. You need to bring on female leaders early—within the first five hires. Diversity and inclusion shouldn’t be an afterthought that’s addressed after your company has a dedicated HR team. It must be deeply embedded in your company culture from day one. Read More …