"When a selfie becomes an endorsement" by Michael B. Farrell | Globe Staff April 03, 2014
It had all the appearances of a serendipitous selfie.
The photo that Red Sox hitter David Ortiz took of himself with President Obama Tuesday quickly ricocheted around the Web, only to be exposed nearly as quickly as a marketing ploy set in motion by Samsung. It turns out the electronics giant had contracted with the slugger to be a social media ambassador.
Ortiz on Wednesday expressly denied that Samsung put him up to the photo. But his remarks about getting the photo, in which he exclaimed, “Yeah baby, cha-ching,” probably summed up the moment better than Ortiz had intended.
The Ortiz-Obama selfie is just the latest example of how marketers are finding new and creative ways to use social media to promote their products, typically using celebrities such as sports stars and actors and then relying on the public to distribute their message by sharing on Twitter, Facebook, and other channels.
I knew I didn't like $ocial media for so many reasoNSA.
The episode — at a White House ceremony to celebrate the Red Sox World Series win — also raised a host of questions and doubts: When is a social media moment also an advertising event? Are the celebrities genuinely excited or motivated by money? Should people be wary that every celebrity selfie is an endorsement of some kind of another? It’s often hard to tell, especially as celebrities and sports stars are sending countless tweets to legions of fans.
Just took a dump, tweet.
Obama certainly wasn’t clued in to the Samsung angle when Ortiz snapped the selfie.
“He did not know,” said Jay Carney, White House press secretary, when asked Wednesday whether the president was aware Ortiz had the promotional deal.
What did he know about the IRS spying on his political enemies, and when did he know it?
And why has the whoreporate pre$$ dropped the ball on that?
While Ortiz’s marketing agent acknowledged Samsung encouraged the slugger to take photos with his Galaxy Note 3 phone when the Red Sox visited the White House, Ortiz said the idea of the selfie with Obama was his alone.
“That was one of those things that just happened,” Ortiz told the Globe. “I gave him the jersey, and the photographers were going to take their pictures and I thought, really at the last second, maybe I should snap a shot with my phone while I have the chance. It had nothing to do with no deals.”
Related: Something fishy about David Ortiz’s selfie
Oh, NO! Big Papi is a liar! Being honored by the Liar-and-Thief!
Even so, as a piece of brand promotion, it was an astounding success — for Samsung and Ortiz alike. Ortiz’s selfie was retweeted more than 40,000 times after he posted it on his account.
And of course Samsung posted it on its own account, which has more than 5 million followers.
“Samsung took it to a new level. They said they were going to leverage the most popular guy in baseball and the leader of the free world. You can’t do better than that,” said Mike Lewis, who is the author of “Stand out Social Marketing.”
“The whole selfie thing has taken on a massive life of its own,” Lewis said, “especially when you get a guy like Ortiz doing it with Obama.”
I guess that's why it makes the front page!
As huge as it was, the Ortiz-Obama selfie isn’t Samsung’s biggest celebrity social media moment. That came when talk show host Ellen DeGeneres posted a star-studded selfie when she was hosting the Oscars in March. The most retweeted photo in Twitter’s short history, it was also the result of a product placement deal that Samsung inked with ABC, which broadcast the Oscars.
As for Ortiz, Samsung apparently didn’t have to do too much heavy lifting to get him on board. The tech-savvy Ortiz was already a social-media butterfly, and as for the “cha-ching” quip....
Why would I want to read more lies?
--more--"
But there was no deal!
UPDATE:
"Enough with Selfiegate, Jenny Dell joining Red Sox wives on the White House lawn, and Jonny Gomes’s star-spangled sportscoat."
Related: Red Sox, MLB unveil new mobile app for Fenway fans
Obama Has Sick Sense of Humor
See: Medicare to release billing data for 880,000 doctors
I don't think the doctors are laughing.
Neither am I:
"In Michigan, Obama presses for higher minimum wage" by Nedra Pickler | Associated Press April 03, 2014
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Pressing his economic case in an election year, President Obama came to Michigan on Wednesday....
An upbeat Obama struck a distinctly partisan tone at the University of Michigan, a day after his administration received an unexpected burst of good news when his health care law beat expectations for its first year of enrollment.
I think the man needs a mental evaluation.
Addressing a crowd of about 1,400 in a stadium that included many students, Obama cracked jokes about his Republican foes....
Maybe he and Kerry can do a club act.
At Obama’s side for his three-hour visit to this Midwest battleground state was Representative Gary Peters, a Senate candidate embracing the chance to appear with the president before voters this year. Some other Democrats have shied away from Obama amid the debate on his health care plan, but Peters opted to appear with Obama as the president echoed his State of the Union affirmation that no American working full time should live in poverty.
Just the fact that they are $pells failure for this president and his presidential legacy.
Related: State of the Union Set the Tone For 2014 Elections
‘‘It would lift millions of people out of poverty right away,’’ the president said of his proposal. ‘‘It would help millions more work their way out of poverty right away.’’
Where were you six years ago when Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority? All we got was a really crappy health law.
**************
Michigan also has an effort to put a measure on the November ballot to raise the state minimum wage from $7.40 to $10.10 an hour.
Nationally, Obama wants to raise the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 as part of an election-year economic agenda focused on working families. The White House says that would benefit more than 970,000 workers in Michigan.
We will get to some of them below.
The Senate could vote on a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 as early as next week. The Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said Wednesday that if Republicans block Democrats’ efforts, he would be open to negotiating a compromise.
One potential compromise could involve a moderate Republican, Senator Susan Collins. The Maine lawmaker, who faces reelection this year, said she’s talked to senators of both parties about a smaller minimum wage increase plus renewing tax breaks for small businesses that buy new equipment or hire veterans.
It's always got to be some sort of extortion when it comes to AmeriKan bu$ine$$ and its bought-and-paid-for Congre$$.
What the web version omitted from the print version I bought:
"What we know for certain is $10.10 isn't going to get through the Senate," she said."
No joke.
--more--"
Related:
"On their way to the campus, Obama and Peters stopped at Zingerman's Deli, an Ann Arbor landmark, where they ordered Reuben sandwiches and were served by a Michigan graduate who makes $9 an hour — a rate above the current federal minimum wage. "That's worth celebrating," Obama said.
Is that what the waiter majored in, and what is his debt load?
Peters could benefit from the publicity that a presidential visit brings, since he has not been elected statewide and polls show many voters are unfamiliar with him. Asked whether he was concerned about absorbing backlash from Obama's unpopular health care law, Peters stressed the president's economic message. Still, appearing with Obama is not without risk. An EPIC/MRA poll of voters in the state taken in February showed 61 percent of respondents have a negative view of Obama's job performance, verses 37 percent positive."
And that is where he is supposed to be popular, as I was told they will be promoting the unpopular law in a new political campaign!
Now about those working families:
"Juggle of family, job priorities daunting for White House staff" by Juliet Eilperin | Washington Post March 30, 2014
WASHINGTON — Even as Democrats push family-friendly policies as a top priority, those within 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue continue to wrestle with the fact that their own workplace often falls short of those ideals.
Do they? They didn't get unemployment benefits extended like they said they would, and then dropped the matter completely since budgets are already done for next two years.
Obama will host a White House Summit on Working Families on June 23....
Related: Obama's Legacy
It's another failed presidency!
More than five years into the administration, the White House has taken several steps to make one of the most demanding offices in America more manageable for working parents.
It has expanded paid parental leave, installed more nursing rooms within the complex, and provides a low-cost, emergency day care service.
A few of its highest-ranking women — including Burwell, national security adviser Susan Rice, and UN ambassador Samantha Power — have children at home.
I'm so happy the war criminal ladies of Obummers cabinet have day care available.
Aides acknowledge that the benefits offered to the well-paid, white-collar employees at the White House are far better than those available to most low- and middle-income Americans, who often have little time with their children because they are working long hours. But White House officials say they still struggle to reconcile their professional and family duties.
The arrogance emitted here is unfathomable. Too out of touch in that D.C. bubble!
The majority of top White House aides have grown children, no children, or a stay-at-home spouse. That last category includes Burwell and Rice, whose husbands have taken breaks from full-time jobs as a lawyer and journalist, respectively.
Is that an option for you, American -- if you are lucky enough to have a job?
Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer has publicly vowed to seek a better work-life balance after he ended up in the hospital twice last year, returning to work the day after he was released after having a small stroke.
‘‘It’s just inherently not a family-friendly place,’’ DeParle said. ‘‘There’s just no way that life in the West Wing can be, when you’re leaving your house at 6:30 or 6:45 in the morning every single day and being in meetings going from 7:30 in the morning to 8:30 at night.’’
Sixteen current and former White House officials said in interviews that they knew what they were getting into when they accepted their jobs, and they said that high-powered positions in law and business are similarly time-consuming....
Senior White House officials earn anywhere from $80,000 to $172,200 a year, according to federal disclosure reports. That is higher than the average American’s salary, though also below what many top professionals earn in Washington’s private sector.
I just $topped feeling $orry for them.
The work culture within the White House has begun to shift somewhat, driven by a president and his wife with two teenage daughters and a generation of men and women who are uncomfortable with the idea of putting their family responsibilities on hold.
One day, press secretary Jay Carney didn’t come in until midmorning....
Oh, heavens!
--more--"
God help them!
"Mass. lawmakers hail Pope Francis’s message; Focus on fairness and inclusion" by Lisa Grace Lednicer | Globe Correspondent March 31, 2014
WASHINGTON — Representative Jim McGovern wondered if progressives like himself still had a place in the church. He felt “a little bit of an outcast,” he said, because of his liberal views on abortion and gay marriage.
*******
As the pope celebrates his first anniversary as head of the Catholic Church, McGovern and other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation said in interviews that his pointed criticism of income inequality and his soft-pedaling of divisive social issues are having a profound impact on liberal Catholic politicians.
You would think they would be music to my ears, right?
You would think they would be music to my ears, right?
*******
The pope’s pronouncements have special resonance in Massachusetts, among the most Catholic states in the nation....
Oh.
Oh.
Liberal and conservative Catholics agree on this: The new pontiff’s tone and behavior are different from his predecessors’. He has shunned the more elaborate trappings of the office and condemned the fiscal policies that have opened up a vast gulf between rich and poor around the globe....
Which is great, but the thing is still widening.
Which is great, but the thing is still widening.
Like other voting blocs in Massachusetts, Catholics tend to vote Democratic and be economically liberal.
Not this one.
A poll commissioned by the Boston-based consulting group MassInsight last fall showed that 68 percent of Catholics say that the economic system is stacked against the middle class and that “only the very rich and the government seem to be doing well.”
Maybe I should attend a mass.
Not this one.
A poll commissioned by the Boston-based consulting group MassInsight last fall showed that 68 percent of Catholics say that the economic system is stacked against the middle class and that “only the very rich and the government seem to be doing well.”
Maybe I should attend a mass.
The Catholic Church has been entwined with Massachusetts politics for more than two centuries, and it has had an especially complex relationship with the state’s most well-known political family....
One guess who.
The church’s intervention in politics has often come on the conservative side of the political spectrum....
“On a range of issues, the church had no moral credibility,” said Michael Sean Winters, a visiting fellow at Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.
It's the pooper-pumping thing, isn't it?
It's the pooper-pumping thing, isn't it?
More recently, the church has again begun notching political victories....
Francis’ words have had an impact beyond Massachusetts. President Obama and Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois have quoted the pontiff in speeches. House Speaker John Boehner has invited Francis to address a joint session of Congress.
Walsh wants him here, and Obama didn't plagiarize anything.
Walsh wants him here, and Obama didn't plagiarize anything.
Representative Stephen F. Lynch of Massachusetts says Francis’ condemnation of economic inequality “has been heard loud and clear here.”
**************
“There’s a sudden interest in income inequality on the GOP side of the aisle,” said Stephen F. Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America and former national co-chair of Catholics for Obama. “I’d attribute it to the new framing of the conversation that’s coming from Rome.’’
Took 6 years for him to start talking and he needed shaming from the Pope?
Btw, that interest was always there in some Republican circles.
Btw, that interest was always there in some Republican circles.
"Businesses seek tax break to balance wage hike; Open to a higher minimum wage" by Deirdre Fernandes | Globe Staff March 31, 2014
Many Massachusetts businesses have backed off their fierce, longstanding opposition to raising the state’s minimum wage if, in return, lawmakers drop a planned increase in the unemployment insurance taxes that businesses pay and make broader changes in the jobless benefits program.
Business leaders say this “balanced approach” would probably win many employers’ tacit support for raising the pay of the lowest-paid workers.
“I think we’d be more tolerant, more accepting to an increasing cost in one area if we could point to a decreasing cost in another area,” said John Regan, a lobbyist for Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a trade group.
I already don't want the raise then. It will put me in a higher tax bracket.
Thanks for offering, though!
I already don't want the raise then. It will put me in a higher tax bracket.
Thanks for offering, though!
For starters, businesses have mounted an aggressive campaign to persuade legislators to stop an average 30 percent increase in the unemployment tax from taking effect at the end of May.
Translation: campaign checks are being written.
If that increase is canceled, businesses would avoid paying an average of $240 a year more for every worker they employ.
That's what, less than $5 a week?
Translation: campaign checks are being written.
If that increase is canceled, businesses would avoid paying an average of $240 a year more for every worker they employ.
That's what, less than $5 a week?
Massachusetts businesses have lobbied for years to revamp the state’s unemployment insurance system, which they say makes it harder for them to compete with companies in other states that pay less to finance jobless benefits. Massachusetts has some of the most generous unemployment benefits in the nation, and businesses in the state pay some of the highest unemployment insurance taxes.
Yeah, unemployment is a real gravy train.
Yeah, unemployment is a real gravy train.
Only businesses in New Jersey, Oregon, and Connecticut pay more, on average, according to the US Department of Labor. New Hampshire companies pay a little more than half of what Massachusetts businesses pay.
Increasing the minimum wage, meanwhile, has moved to the top of many political leaders’ agendas.
Yup, MUST BE an ELECTION YEAR!
***************
The costs could be absorbed by minor price increases, said Representative Tom Conroy, a Wayland Democrat, while many businesses would benefit from additional consumer spending generated by putting more money into workers’ pockets.
(Blog editor just shakes his head at the answer being higher prices to offset the hike. Then what';s the point of a raise if prices go up with it?)
(Blog editor just shakes his head at the answer being higher prices to offset the hike. Then what';s the point of a raise if prices go up with it?)
“When you’re talking about net cost, it’s quite minimal,” Conroy said. “It helps us address the growing income inequality in our country.”
Ea$y for him to $ay.
Ea$y for him to $ay.
Business lobbies such as Associated Industries of Massachusetts and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce are trying to leverage the issue to advance their efforts to control unemployment costs. Both the House and Senate are considering measures that would make modest changes in how unemployment insurance premiums are calculated and would lower the costs to most businesses by $400 million to $700 million, Conroy said.
That's a LOT of MONEY!
That's a LOT of MONEY!
Business officials concede that lawmakers are unlikely to undertake more sweeping — and controversial — changes that could lead to significantly lower costs over the long term, such as bringing Massachusetts benefits in line with those in other states. For example, Massachusetts allows workers to collect benefits for up to 30 weeks; nearly every other state sets the limit at 26 weeks.
Why give them anything, huh?
Why give them anything, huh?
For the time being, business leaders are focusing on getting the Legislature to freeze unemployment insurance taxes at the current rate. Without a freeze, businesses would pay more than $2.2 billion a year in unemployment insurance taxes, up from the current $1.7 billion. That would translate into an average cost of $940 per employee, up from just over $700.
A restating of the earlier numbers with a somewhat deceptive presentation, no?
A restating of the earlier numbers with a somewhat deceptive presentation, no?
“We’ll be the highest in the nation,” Paul Guzzi, chief executive of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, warned at a recent breakfast program....
We will at least be first in something besides same-sex marriage because we are last in just about everything else.
We will at least be first in something besides same-sex marriage because we are last in just about everything else.
Massachusetts has routinely frozen the amount that businesses pay into the unemployment trust fund for the past few years, fearing the additional costs to businesses would make companies reluctant to hire and would hurt the economy.
But this year, the freeze has become enmeshed in the complicated negotiations over the minimum wage and broader changes proposed for the unemployment insurance system.
The state recently gave businesses a one-month extension to pay their first quarterly unemployment insurance bills, effectively delaying the rate increase until May 30, to give legislators time to complete negotiations and possibly enact a freeze.
Dan Kenary, the president and cofounder of Harpoon Brewery, said he supports raising the state’s minimum wage and backs changes in unemployment insurance, such as making companies with seasonal workforces that lay off employees more frequently pay more. But he said he is disappointed that the rate freeze has become entangled in political back-and-forth.
The unemployment insurance trust fund ended 2013 with a balance of nearly $700 million, and businesses do not need to significantly increase contributions this year to build the fund because the economy is improving, Kenary said.
“With businesses, there’s already so much uncertainty,” Kenary said. “It would be great if government didn’t add to it.”
--more--"
Related:
Raising incomes requires mix of minimum wage, tax credits
Mass. House approves bill raising pay
Time to go to work.
Related:
Raising incomes requires mix of minimum wage, tax credits
Mass. House approves bill raising pay
Time to go to work.
