Blagger's Blog- Guns don't stop storms, store wars, cliffside shopping

Quote of the Week

Weekly High

Outdoor brand 37.5 Technology has had a great week. After the annual Outdoor Retailer expo in Salt Lake City saw widespread boycotts, with companies protesting the state of Utah’s poor record on protecting public land, the firm in question used the money it would have spent on event presence to construct the world’s most remote pop up shop-  only accessible to mountaineers. The stunt made headlines, and raised awareness about the ongoing sell-off of America’s wilderness. Nice work.

Weekly Low

Silicon Valley startup, Bodega, caused widespread outrage this week after the firm- which manufactures and installs ‘unmanned boxes’ filled with perishable good that can be bought via a smartphone app- was accused of having a model that could put traditional ‘mom and pop’ corner shops out of business. Queue a huge backlash, and plenty of homages to the importance of small stores for communities, not to mention their delightful quirkiness.

Need to know

• British adults are consuming 9% more media than they were in 2016, and TV is top of the list.
• Facebook is in hot water, again, over its ad system- apparently anti-Semitic phrases are seen as legitimate categories to sell advertising to by the network’s algorithm. 
• Pinterest has passed the 200million monthly active user mark.

Just in case you missed us

This week on the blog we have been questioning whether the iPhone X is asking too much of customers and stretching the limits of ‘loyalty’, or not. The jury is obviously going to be out until the first pre-order stats arrive, but either way the £1,129 price tag raises some serious points regarding ecosystem brands.

The Blagger’s Blog is Smoking Gun PR’s weekly roundup of media news, sans effort

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