Posts by George Darroch
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Respect to all of them.
Is it just the dead who feature in this worthy series, or do the living get a look-in too? I'd love to see a John Pule wall, or a giant Westra.
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Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to BenWilson,
If it wasn’t for spam, my children would have starved.
It's actually quite nutritious, you know. Mash it, boil it, roast it, put it in a stew, put it in a sandwich, serve it on toast.
Spam is also cheaper than a food bag. Not as cheap as a food parcel.
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Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to Dylan Reeve,
Given that there was no specific obligation to Tweet at all, or in any specific way, I can’t see it as being ‘paid’.
The reciprocal obligation is a very strong one, hardwired into human brain circuitry (according to Kahneman and others). It's very well known in psychology, and it's certainly very well known to the PR industry. You give something to someone, the obligation to give back in is very strong. It's actually painful not to.
You're being paid for the potential.
Potential. But it's a potential that is realised with enough consistency that it can be counted on as real.
The expectation is that a percentage will make some noise, and that most of that will be positive. If you get just 20% giving it coverage, and most of that is positive or neutral, you've more than paid for the cost of the advertising, because the product now has the positive associations that the trusted correspondents have in the minds of consumers.
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(This is to distinguish it from advertorial, in which you are paid to have a certain kind of relationship with a product. In this less well-defined case, an interaction with a product is created that would not otherwise have existed, but the terms of that relationship are not predetermined.)
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Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to Steve Barnes,
So they were “paid” $140-$179 to Blog, Tweet or, dare I say it?, Facepalm it.
Yeah, someone gives you something free, they are paying you - for the potential to market their business. You're being paid with goods or services, and you may value those goods or services at less than their effective price.
I don't think it's an ethical issue, so long as you're not pretending to be a journalist while doing so (interacting with the product and then creating publicity for that product). I realise that a huge and increasing part of paid writing now consists of such interactions, and I consume some of that writing without compunction. I'd like to coin such work as commentorial.
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I rather like delivered food. And I rather like good ingredients.
As you note, it's this combination that works. $179 for five 'family' dinners seems to be right on the high side of things, but if there are people with that kind of money in NZ (there clearly are), then more power to them. A long time ago I did some work with an organic soup company - their food seemed terribly overpriced, but now you can find the same products in every supermarket in Australia and New Zealand.
I'd like to talk about this product. I'd also like to talk about what it takes to deliver (in the widest sense) good healthy food to every home in New Zealand.
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Such a pity. There was, and still is, a place for ordinary and not-so-ordinary people to deposit information in the public good.
I had hopes for it. I even deposited something that needed publication and didn't have an obvious home (it eventually found an international audience, through a mixture of old and new media).
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It's awful. Thank you for posting this - I haven't watched it, and will not, but I've seen videos of police and military brutality towards captured suspects (often accused of serious crimes), and it turns me. I don't want to see these things unless I have to.
It also shows us why we should set very firm limits on the application of force by police - because violence of any kind is not the role of the police, and because the capacity for escalation is rapid. Boots quickly hit heads, and batons hit bodies, and where such conduct is normalised.
Someone I know was subject to prolonged and intense pain holds by NZ police after an arbitrary detention (he was not charged with anything, there was no conceivable reason), and while there was strong video evidence, did not go forward with the issue. In the absence of an independent police complaints authority, he felt the act would be fruitless. Where there is no independent press, a breakdown of the rule of law, and no independent judiciary, the outcomes are much worse again.
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So much goodness this week; so much consistency from Watercolours, and the Phoenix Foundation have been producing goodness for such a long time that it’s easy to take for granted just how incredible they are. They might be part of the furniture, but they’re that amazing ornate sofa that fills the room and makes you incredibly comfortable. (Like a few others; have Carter, Donnelly, Runga, or the Neilsons ever made a bad album?)
My favourite mashup of the week? Call Me A Hole – Carly Rae / Reznor.
https://soundcloud.com/pomdeterrific/pomdeter-call-me-a-hole
Loud and stupid. Turn it up and sing along. (Why it works just so well – the songs have the same father.)
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Hard News: Photoshocks, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
An audience that’s a lot more sophisticated (and cynical, both for better and worse) that it used to be.
People say that. I don't believe them. Our brains operate on a base pattern-dependent level, and going up and beyond that takes work, and requires deliberate engagement. Being informed protects you somewhat, but most people don't have that information readily to hand. Those who do must see past what their brains compile for them.
It's really hard work to think past a made-up and photographed celebrity on the side of a bus-shelter.