Beyond the usual menu of war and pestilence in the Middle East, and which celebrity is bonking which, that usually dominate the headlines, two very significant items have emerged over the last short period.
- The reaction of students at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida after the shooting on February 14 that killed 17 students, and wounded 17 more.
- Facebooks relationship with the truth and your personal data.
Both have the potential to be tipping points, but the question is can they really generate sufficient traction to result in lasting change.
The students at the MSD High school seem too have generated a response not seen before. The ‘March for our lives‘ rallies across the US, end even here in Australia are mobilising sentiment against the idiots who claim their unfettered right to own guns is inalienable, as never before. This shooting, terrible as it was, is just one of a very long line of mass shootings in the US, each met with political weasel words and sorrow for the victims, but nothing more.
But something has changed. Somehow.
Enough people seem to be prepared to say ‘enough‘ that some sensible changes may happen that will save a few lives.
Facebook has had its bum spanked by the only people who really count, those cloistered manipulators hiding in Wall Street, and a few high profile advertisers. The current congressional hearings may make for dramatic headlines, but unless regulation with teeth emerges, they will be just window dressing and a forum for congress members to get their names in the media.
The Facebook IPO in May 2012 was at the time one of the biggest ever, valuing the company at 104 billion, $38 a share, to the surprise of many pundits, myself included. Since the IPO, immediately after which the $38 a share seemed very generous, Facebook has cracked the advertising monetisation code and the share price was $185 as Cambridge Analytica emerged last week, then dropped like a stone to $162 before recovering a bit, wiping billions off the market value, and prompting Mark Zuckerberg to apologise in what seemed to be a pretty genuine manner.
The question is, will either be sufficiently sustainable to generate change?
I think ‘Maybe’ on both counts.
US Attorney General Sessions has proposed a formal ban on ‘Bump Stocks’ the device that turns a normal semi-automatic weapon to become a machine gun, used with such effect in the Las Vegas shooting last year. A small but sensible step in the right direction, but perhaps more tellingly, businesses, large and small, are now publicly shunning the NRA, and adding their voice to the calls for change.
Momentum is building.
Facebook, as well as all other platforms for digital advertising, has been under increasing pressure for some time, so much so that Zuckerberg released his new years resolution to ‘Clean up Facebook‘ on January 5. Early in 2017 P&G CMO Mark Pritchard took a huge swipe at the digital advertising industry in his address to the IAB, and there has been some changes emerging as a result, driven by other big advertisers taking Pritchards advice on board.
My view.
The ball is rolling on both counts, and momentum is building. Change will come slowly, and for some painfully, but common sense and decency will win in the end.
