The Flack highlights changes and trends in the news, examples of communications practices, and content we at BYRNE PR thought you might find useful.
We hope you enjoy, and we always welcome your feedback.
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Liquor Stocks Are Priced For A Big Tobacco Moment – For years, distillers told everyone to drink responsibly. The message stuck, and now their stocks are paying for it. As The Wall Street Journal reports, shares in Diageo and Pernod Ricard have slid to tobacco-like valuations as Americans drink less for a fourth straight year, squeezed by $20 cocktails, GLP-1 drugs and a Gen Z that’s traded happy hour for Oura rings. But the column argues the gloom may be overdone. Canned, ready-to-drink cocktails are booming 20% to 30% a year – a sign younger drinkers haven’t quit, they’ve just changed how they buy.
Agency Bosses Say The AI Gap With Clients Is Only Getting Wider – At Cannes Lions, ad and PR agency leaders kept returning to the same refrain, Digiday reports: they are racing ahead on AI while their clients lag behind. One holding company said its AI platform has grown revenue by triple digits for five straight quarters, and the gap between what it can do and what clients are ready for keeps widening rather than closing. But marketers point to real friction, from legal and cybersecurity sign-offs to flat budgets and returns that can take months to show up. Of course, there’s a reason agencies like to tell this story: being ahead of the client is also the pitch.
Opinion: A Great University Undermines Its Mission – The New York Times editorial board makes a pointed case: the University of California’s six-year “test-blind” experiment has backfired. After dropping the SAT and ACT in 2020, the system is seeing sharp drops in student preparedness (incoming freshmen who can’t handle algebra) and more than 1,500 professors want the tests reinstated. With the regents set to meet July 14, the board urges them to reverse course.
Why 60 Minutes Staffers Are Becoming ‘Increasingly Anxious’ Ahead Of The New Season – 60 Minutes returns this fall for its 59th season, but as Cinemablend reports, the mood behind the scenes is anything but settled. Citing an unnamed insider, the piece says staffers are “increasingly anxious” under new CBS News chief Bari Weiss. They’re worried they can’t hold the editorial standards the show is known for and are bracing for what one source called “filler content.” The unease follows a wave of high-profile exits, including Scott Pelley and correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, on a day staffers reportedly dubbed “Black Thursday.” Weiss, for her part, still has leadership’s backing.
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Beach Reads:
The Latest Pringles Release Has People Asking The Same Question: Why?
The Disappearing Las Vegas Buffets Hold A Mirror To The American Soul
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flack
: one who provides publicity
flack
: to act as a press agent or promoter for something
The word flack was first used as a noun meaning “publicity agent” during the late 1930s. According to one rumor, the word was coined in tribute to a well-known movie publicist of the time, Gene Flack.