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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Qatar Bans Beer Sales at World Cup Stadiums – When the 2022 World Cup kicks off this weekend in Qatar there will be no beer sold at the games. Needless to say this is not ideal for fans or for Budweiser who reportedly paid $75 million for the sponsorship. The ban on beer is the latest and most dramatic change to an evolving alcohol plan that has for months increased tensions between FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, and Qatar, a conservative Muslim nation where the sale of alcohol is tightly controlled. The New York Times has the breaking news.
The Ethical Case for Watching This Possibly Unethical World Cup – It’s been 12 years since FIFA shocked the world by awarding Qatar the 2022 World Cup over compelling bids from the United States, Japan and other countries. All of this despite Qatar’s horrid record of human-rights abuses. Now, many fans around the world find themselves in a conundrum. Is it morally responsible to watch the 2022 World Cup?
Financial Times weighs the question.
Changes Are Coming to Wordle – You love to solve it in three or four. Every once in a while you get it in two. But other times it takes you five or six (but we usually don’t talk about those days). It’s hard to believe Wordle has only been around for a year, but it has become a daily ritual for millions of people around the world. But now you might want to brace yourself. Changes are coming. CNN takes a look.
How Liquid Death Became Gen Z’s La Croix – The bottled-water wars have been raging since the 1980s and kicked into a higher gear when Coca-Cola and PepsiCo launched Dasani and Aquafina, respectively, in the 1990s. And while there are seemingly countless brands, the positioning always seems pretty similar – purity, natural, filtration, refreshment. Or at least that was the case until Liquid Death launched and became the hottest brand in the industry. Bon Appétit takes a look at how this upstart brand decided to throw the bottled water playbook out the window.
From $32 Billion to Criminal Investigations: How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Vanished Overnight – In recent weeks many have speculated no one has destroyed their image, brand and empire faster than Kanye West. To that, Sam Bankman-Fried says, “hold my beer.” CNBC unpacks how his world unraveled seemingly overnight.
The Evolution of Elon Musk: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly – Needless to say, Elon Musk has been in the news this week. Musk is, of course, a co-founder and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, and he is the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of more than $200 billion. He’s clearly brilliant – or at least we thought he was prior to paying $44 billion for Twitter and then quickly announcing the company may soon be bankrupt. But if you look at his career, Musk has proven to be a complicated figure, and there’s a lot to unpack. The Creative Mindset takes a stab at sorting out the good, bad and ugly of Elon Musk.
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Always Read the Obituaries:
Ernie Lazar, Who Trawled for Secret Government Documents, Dies at 77
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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.