Mediaboss Marketing

Herman Cain remembered the 1996 moment that changed his political trajectory as clearly as any in his life.

The businessman was advising Jack Kemps vice-presidential campaign and accompanied the boss to the iconic Sylvias soul food restaurant in Harlem for an event. A man in the crowd shouted out to Cain and his colleagues: Black Republicans? Theres no such thing. The same man, in Cains telling, called them Uncle Toms. The episode so angered Cain that when he got home from that campaign swing, he switched from a registered independent to a card-carrying member of the Republican Party. And over the next quarter-century, the child of the segregated South became one of the best-known Black Republicans in the country, briefly rising to be his partys presidential frontrunner for the 2012 nomination and remaining one of the most quotable stars in conservative media.

So committed to his partys stick-it-in-the-eye ethos was Cain that he flew to Tulsa, Okla., for President Donald Trumps first return to the campaign trail after 100,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths, despite dire warnings from public health experts. At that indoor rally on June 20, the stage 4 colon cancer survivor posed for pictures without wearing a mask and sat in the packed stands with fellow fans of the President. On June 29, Cain tested positive for the coronavirus. On July 2, his aides announced he had been hospitalized. While fighting the disease, his Twitter account continued to criticize mask-wearing and to promote unproven endorsements of hydroxychloroquine. On July 30, Cain aides announced he had died. From the White House, Trump attributed the death to the thing called the China virus. Cain, among the most prominent Americans to die during this pandemic, was 74.

In many ways, Cain and Trump were cut from the same cloth. Neither had been elected to any political post before running for the White House. Both delighted in needling the Republican Partys establishment and the mainstream press. They shot from the hip, campaigned in slogans and didnt much care to learn the details. Both men were dogged by allegations of sexual affairs and inappropriate behavior, and both denied the allegations; they proved disqualifying for Cainwho ended his bid in December 2011 under intense scrutinybut they did not derail Trump just one election cycle later. They were also both savvy exploiters of the media, often saying things they knew would provoke outrage and thus amplify the celebrity at the core of their bids. Indifference towardif not hostility againstwhat had come before was a cornerstone of their strategy, not a flaw.

Cain was born in Memphis in 1945 to a domestic worker mother and a janitor father. When his dad was hired to be the chauffeur for the head of Coca-Cola, the family moved to Atlanta, where Cain would graduate from Morehouse College. He then completed his graduate studies at Purdue University after civilian service in the Navy. From there, Cain moved from engineer to executive with Pillsbury and its subsidiaries of Burger King and Godfathers Pizza, where he would be its C.E.O. In 1988, he oversaw Godfathers buyout from Pillsbury. Throughout the same time, he held positions with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. That part of his resum led Trump to consider Cain for a position in his Administration, a move that drew dissent from fellow Republicans who were not eager to revisit the allegations against Cain. For three years, Cain led the National Restaurant Association, a lobbying arm for the industry that paid settlements to at least two women who detailed Cains unwanted advances.

His was not a typical career in his post-C.E.O. years. Cain became a sought-after motivational speaker, an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2000 and a Senate one in 2004. As the Tea Party movement started to organize after Barack Obamas election to the White House, Cain emerged as one of its strongest spokespeople. When the 2012 election cycle began, Cain decided to run the scrappiest of campaigns focused on an untraditional travel schedule that often seemed more like a book tour than an organizing effort. His novel 9-9-9 tax planproposing a 9% corporate business flat tax, a 9% personal income flat tax and a 9% national sales taxdrew eye-rolls from economists but curiosity from voters. Antipathy toward frontrunner Mitt Romney proved sufficient to give Cain a chance to rise in the late summer and fall of 2011, until his personal life just proved too much. But he didnt shrink from public life. Instead, he became a ubiquitous voice and reliable critic of Democrats.

Hell perhaps remain best known, though, for his tax plan that made little sense to most economists. Even with his death, the 9-9-9 sloganeering stayed on the front-burner. On Twitter, Romney took one last good-natured jab at the tax plan: St. Peter will soon hear 999! Keep up the fight, my friend.

For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Philip Elliott at philip.elliott@time.com.

Read more here:
Herman Cain Helped Define the American Black Conservative Movement. He Also Set the Stage for Trump - TIME

With COVID-19 soaring out of control again in most of our states, and the national death toll climbing rapidly toward 200,000, what do we get from the self-proclaimed very stable genius in the White House?

Columns share an author's personal perspective and are often based on facts in the newspaper's reporting.

With COVID-19 soaring out of control again in most of our states, and the national death toll climbing rapidly toward 200,000, what do we get from the self-proclaimed very stable genius in the White House?

Another dose of hydroxychloroquine and an endorsement of some voodoo medical opinions, thats what.

The Chief Tweeter took to his favorite communications medium this past week to once again promote the multi-syllabic anti-malaria drug as an effective treatment for the disease caused by the coronavirus. Scientific studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine can actually do more harm than good when used to treat symptoms of COVID-19, but science matters not to the Chief Tweeter, who also recently said that 99 percent of the victims arent really very sick and recover very quickly.

Would he be so blas about a terrorist bomb blast that killed more than 150,000 people in and around the Trump Tower in New York City? Im trying to imagine his response to such a calamity and pair it with his cold-hearted dismissal of the COVID-19 death toll.

The Chief Tweeters source of medical expertise this time was some members of a group called Americas Frontline Doctors, who took part in an event sponsored by Tea Party Patriots Action, a dark money group that has helped fund a pro-Trump political action committee.

I think theyre very respected doctors, the Chief Tweeter said.

Really? Lets look at the credentials of the most outspoken of these very respected doctors. That would be Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Houston pediatrician who is also the spiritual leader of Fire Power Ministries, a church that preaches doctrine that would boggle the mind of even the most evangelical of evangelicals. Ah, yes; an industrious multi-tasker is Immanuel.

As a minister, Immanuel preaches that female gynecological disorders are caused by sexual intercourse with demons. These demons, that she calls spirit husbands and spirit wives, once walked the Earth in physical form, but they were not permitted aboard Noahs ark and consequently were drowned in the flood. Now, says Immanuel, these formless creatures visit humans during the night in sexy dreams, which are not really dreams but are actually spirit spouses having their way with their sleeping hosts.

According to Immanuel, these demons are responsible for diseases of the female reproductive system, male impotence, most financial troubles, marital discord and spiritual malaise.

And that aint all, folks. As a doctor, Immanuel also claims that some therapeutic drugs contain alien DNA, and that government scientists are working on a vaccine to prevent religious faith. This clinical claptrap is actually available for public perusal on YouTube.

You could also find Immanuels very respected advice on the Chief Tweeters Twitter feed, where she lauds the power of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure and tells the public that masks are not needed to fight the pandemic. More than 10 million Americans read this advice from a very respected doctor before Facebook took down her page.

Immanuel responded to Facebooks action by threatening to have Jesus unplug Facebooks servers. My question: If Immanuel has so much influence with Jesus, why doesnt she ask him to banish the coronavirus to Hades?

This is the expertise that the Chief Tweeter and his son, Chief Tweeter Jr., shared on Facebook and Twitter. To their credit, both Facebook and Twitter removed the content in an effort to keep their sites free of potentially harmful information about the virus. Of course, this brought forth conservative claims of censorship.

Another of the very respected doctors, Simone Gold, complained about this so-called censorship by tweeting that there are always opposing views in medicine. Okay, thats why a second opinion is needed about the consumption of hydroxychloroquine and the wearing of masks.

This second opinion, which is extremely negative on the use of the drug and extremely positive on the wearing of the masks, has been offered numerous times by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert. This has made Fauci the target of several critical tweets by White House aides and conservative members of Congress, some of which have been retweeted by the Chief Tweeter.

Fauci said this past week that he will deal with the attacks by keeping his head down and doing his job. Imagine how much better life would be for all of us if only the Chief Tweeter would keep his head down and do his job for a change.

Glenn Ickler of Hopedale is a retired newspaper editor.

Go here to read the rest:
Column: If only the president kept his head down and did his job - Milford Daily News

For over 17 years WTR has brought the breaking news, strategic analysis, in-depth interviews and practical intelligence that truly matter to corporate and law firm trademark professionals. The latest delve into our unrivalled archive rediscovers issue 26 of the magazine, which was published 10 years ago this month.

Taking to the streets lessons in anti-counterfeiting

While trademark counsel rarely have the opportunity to take to the streets, valuable insights can be gained from the frontline experiences of investigators including the need to respect and understand

your enemy. Investigator Kris Buckner presented lessons from in the anti-counterfeiting trenches. Read more here.

Trademark infringement is there an app for that?

Apps are an accepted and valuable part of everyday life. A decade ago, though, Apples App Store and Google Play were just two years old. In 2010, the year the iPad was launched,WTRanalysis noted the need for software developers to walk a fine line between policing marks and allowing nominative use. Read morehere.

A web of confusion

A decade ago the question of how far Google could go when using third-party trademarks as keywords to trigger advertisements in its popular AdWords advertising programme was a hot topic. A recent decision in Europes highest court had seemingly clarified the position, but analysis suggested that, if you dug deeper, uncertainty remained. Read more here.

A celebration of corporate excellence

On 25 May 2010 WTR announced the winners of its fourth Industry Awards at an exclusive

ceremony in Bostons Harvard Club. We profiled the winners, with insights from the teams at Coty, Eli Lilly, Nokia, Pernod Ricard and many more. Read more here.

Inside the USPTO (July 2010)

David Kappos, then director of the USPTO, provided an update on operations at the office, outlined the Trademarks Next Generation project and discussed whether IP offices should get involved in anti-counterfeiting work. Read more here.

More than a tea party (2010)

Coming at the tail end of a global recession, the 2010 INTA Annual Meeting suggested that trademark practice was certainly rebounding; firm receptions and parties were in full swing and the conference had a discernible buzz. Read morehere.

Other instalments in the From the WTR archive series:

Follow this link:
From the WTR archive: A snapshot of trademarks a decade ago - World Trademark Review

Director and Writer: Kate Prince

Choreography: ZooNation

Commissioned to show alongside The Royal Ballets Alice in Wonderland, ZooNations The Mad Hatters Tea Party is the perfect companion piece to the now-classic ballet. As director, Kate Princes dance merges street and hip-hip with the anarchic feel of Lewis Carrolls novel.

We meet Ernest, a psychotherapist who is starting a new job. Working at the Institute for Extremely Normal Behaviour, Ernest is anxious to make a good first impression. Designed by Ben Stones, the Institute is a grey, numbing place devoid of colour and excitement. Normal here reads as bland, uneventful even conformist. Ernests challenge is to reform some newly-admitted patients, who claim to be from a place called Wonderland. He has one month to complete his task.

Holding a therapy session, Ernest (played by Tommy Franzen) isnt quite prepared for what he finds. The Wonderland patients tumble into the session, brimming with energy. The Institute, it is clear, has had little effect on them so far. Ernest struggles to maintain control of the room.

Part of the commission was for ZooNation to explore mental health issues, and The Mad Hatters Tea Party beautifully illustrates the individual struggles of Lewis Carrolls characters. The March Hare (a brilliant Bradley Charles) is unable to find love; Alice herself (a punk-ish energy from Kayla Lomas-Kirton) is dealing with an eating disorder. Ernest identifies their issues quickly, but finds himself asking whether naming the problem is enough. He begins to think beyond the Institutes fanaticism for normality. What if there is no normal? What if Wonderland really exists?

Princes dance language clearly delineates each character. We have hip-hop energy from The White Rabbit (Jaih Betote), the Ska influence of a fabulous Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee (Rowen Hawkins, Manny Tsakanika) and the Queen of Hearts wowing us with her grasp of ballroom (a commanding performance from the late Teneisha Bonner). By blending dance styles, Prince reminds us that one voice does not speak for everyone.

Right at the centre of the dance is of course, The Mad Hatter. Played by Isaac Baptiste, The Hatter is a calm, reassuring presence. In a performance loaded with charisma, Baptiste leads the story through its feverish beginning, clearing the way through conflict, to a resolution. He is the therapist Ernest longs to be.

In narrating their own stories, the characters leap out from the page. Being filmed, this production also gives us the advantage of getting up close to these performances. There is a psychological intensity to The Mad Hatters Tea Party that reminds us that Carrolls work was not only whimsical; it had a darker edge that ran against the cosy narrative of traditional childrens fiction. There is madness, there is loss, and there is no easy answer to either.

Accompanying this extraordinary range of contemporary dance, The Mad Hatters Tea Party is filled with music. Written by DJ Walde and Josh Cohen, we move from original songs, to pulsating beats that fill the theatre. Walde and Cohen mix and layer styles so that the music becomes another character, making this Tea Party a heady, exhilarating experience.

Finding something new in Carrolls text is a challenge. The dance looks beyond the curious tropes the fretful Rabbit, the grinning Cheshire Cat into what Carroll could not explicitly say, but instead inferred. Victorian England was its own Institute for Extremely Normal Behaviour, and any deviation from centre was regarded with great suspicion. In this suffocating atmosphere, Carroll wrote about the individual. Bizarre, contradictory and by definition, one of a kind. The Mad Hatters Tea Party not only explores the need for individualistic expression, but the role imagination has to play in our lives. It calls for a safer, kinder space; living without fear or judgement. In Carrolls time, as much as our own, its a message that bears repeating.

Available here until 14 August 2020

The Reviews Hub Score

The rest is here:
The Mad Hatter's Tea Party - #FromOurHouseToYourHouse, The Royal Opera House and The Roundhouse - The Reviews Hub

The playbook is familiar, though the particulars are new: Beyonc unveils a new project. Details, though scant, are pored over for clues. Social media immediately bubbles with anticipation and debate.

On Friday, Beyonc will release Black Is King, a visual album connected to Disneys remake last year of The Lion King, on the Disney+ streaming platform. Announced a month ago, Black Is King is a typically ambitious latter-day project for Beyonc she wrote and directed it, and is executive producer that adapts the Lion King story to a wider narrative of African history and heritage. It also represents Beyoncs latest move as a self-directed business figure, aligning herself with a major media partner, as she has done before with Tidal, HBO, Apple and Netflix.

Black Is King, which is based on songs that Beyonc created for The Lion King: The Gift, a companion album to last years remake, carries added weight since Beyonc herself has made a case for its topical significance.

The events of 2020 have made the films vision and message even more relevant, she wrote in a rare explanatory post on Instagram. I believe that when Black people tell our own stories, we can shift the axis of the world and tell our REAL history of generational wealth and richness of soul that are not told in our history books.

Beyonc and Disney have offered few details about the project itself. It was made with an international creative team, including many Africans, and its cast has boldface names like Lupita Nyongo, Pharrell Williams, Naomi Campbell, Jay-Z and Tina Knowles-Lawson, Beyoncs mother. The list of directors who worked with Beyonc on the project includes Emmanuel Adjei, Blitz Bazawule, Pierre Debusschere, Jenn Nkiru, Ibra Ake, Dikayl Rimmasch, Jake Nava and Kwasi Fordjour.

Even basic points remain mysterious. Officially called a visual album, it appears to be a series of music videos linked through a narrative sequence, though it is not clear even how many songs or films are included. Representatives for Beyonc and Disney declined to comment.

But a lack of information has only stirred the pot, as online commentators having seen just two brief trailers have debated topics like whether Beyonc is exploiting African stereotypes, and whether the apparent presence of a white butler at a Black womens tea party is a sign of racism.

In some ways, that reflects one of Beyoncs great talents stoking public conversation with her art, while explaining very little about it.

She is allowing her art to speak for itself, said Treva Lindsey, an associate professor of womens, gender and sexuality studies at Ohio State University, who has commented frequently on Beyoncs work. I always see Beyonc as opening up space for robust conversations. It often says more about us as consumers and critics than it does about her.

What is more clear, however, is Beyoncs media strategy, which she has been developing in plain sight over the last decade. After beginning her career as a teenager in Destinys Child and doing what is expected of all rising stars, like giving interviews by the early 2010s she had largely abandoned the standard pop-star script, and remade herself as a self-contained cultural brand. She now almost never speaks to the news media.

Part of her approach has involved leapfrogging from one platform to another to suit the needs of each project. In early 2013, HBO showed her autobiographical film Life Is but a Dream; later that year, she melted the internet and upended the music business by releasing her album Beyonc on Apples iTunes with no notice.

Lemonade, her 2016 album, was first released on Tidal, the streaming service taken over by Jay-Z, her husband, in which she is a partner, and had a companion film shown on HBO, with segments directed by Mark Romanek, Jonas Akerlund, Melina Matsoukas and others. Last year, Netflix carried Homecoming, the film of her performance at Coachella from 2018.

In this trajectory, Disney+ is simply the next hot media platform with something to offer Beyonc, said Dan Runcie, who writes about the business of streaming and hip-hop on his site Trapital.

This is well within the wheelhouse of the Beyonc empire, Runcie said, given how much shes not locked herself into one particular partner, but thought of herself as a broader enterprise and kept her options open.

With greater control, Beyonc has changed her musical priorities. No longer chasing pop hits, she has used her albums and multimedia projects to explore challenging material, and made issues like gender and race central topics of her art, with the Black experience and Black womanhood, in particular becoming her overarching theme in recent years.

This has, perhaps paradoxically, made Beyonc even more famous and influential, with her every appearance, utterance or Instagram post scrutinized for hidden meanings. That fame can bring more attention to her themes of Black lives and Black struggles like her Black Panther-inspired dancers at her Super Bowl appearance in 2016, or images invoking the toll of Hurricane Katrina from the video of her song Formation said Robin M. Boylorn, an associate professor of communications at the University of Alabama.

Boylorn also pointed to Beyoncs Coachella appearance, where the star performed an ode to the dances and marching bands of historically Black colleges and universities with signifiers that may have gone over the heads of many white people in the audience, though their use by Beyonc drew attention and led to wide media coverage.

Her taking a space like Coachella, that is inherently white, and making it a celebration of Blackness, Boylorn said, speaks to her being able to shift the narrative and also literally shift the face of the conversation. That is just a remarkable use of her platform.

What statement Beyonc makes with Black Is King remains to be seen (at least for one more day). But that statement is likely to come primarily through the film and not any comment.

She says less, Lindsey said, as she has more power.

Visit link:
Beyoncs Black Is King Is No Secret, but Still Comes With Mystery - The New York Times