MetaFilter posts tagged with corporations

The leader is not the architect of the system but its product.

plexi — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:20:08 -0800

"This is an America that has transferred its allegiance to spectacle, to pseudo-events, that no longer can determine what is real and what is illusion, that confuses how they’re made to feel with knowledge, that confuses propaganda with ideology, and that’s exceedingly dangerous. All totalitarian societies are image-based societies, and that’s what our society has become."

Liberal media? Free press? Journalistic integrity? How quaint.

mek — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:40:04 -0800

The NYT reports that GE has brokered a deal between MSNBC and Fox News to "reconcile" Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly, preventing further criticism of each other or GE. The deal went into effect June 1, the very same day Olbermann declared he was "quarantining" Fox, avoiding discussion of the channel in the future. Mr. Olbermann, who is on vacation, said by e-mail message, “I am party to no deal.” Glenn Greenwald breaks down the political consequences of the deal.

war profiteering in Iraq

nickyskye — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:15:47 -0800

It is fitting that today’s deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq’s cities coincides with a meeting in Baghdad to auction off some of the country’s largest oil fields to companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and British Petroleum. It is a reminder of the real motives for the 2003 invasion and in whose interests over one million Iraqis and 4,634 American and other Western troops have been killed. However, today's bidding was not the bonanza that was expected. Iraqis in Baghdad celebrate the withdrawal of US troops from the country's cities and towns yesterday. Bidding war for Iraq's huge oil contracts sputters into life.

15 Companies That Might Not Survive 2009

CunningLinguist — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:53:14 -0800

Say goodbye to Blockbuster, Sbarro's, Rite Aid, Krispy Kreme and Chrysler. 15 US companies that probably won't make it through 2009.

buy-ology blue

nickyskye — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:02:09 -0800

"You aren't in as much control as you think you are." Buyology by Martin Lindstrom. Cigarette Health Warnings Stimulate Smoking. Subconscious Encounters: How Brand Exposure Affects Your Choices . A sign is anything that can be used to tell a lie. Semiotics Advertising Semiotics A couple of other books about the brain and social interactions: Google book: A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink Google book: On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee Decoding advertisements Branding and Religion The Mad Men popsicle ad with Virgin Mary.

For a Prosperous Tomorrow

streetdreams — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:15:37 -0800

Anarkon is a corporate collective comprised of the nations most innovative and forward thinking businesses, known internally as Affiliates. Our primary objective is to sell a long overdue revolution to the American public through an innovative branding and advertising campaign which will benefit today’s large corporations, the American economy and the consumer alike.

OMNOMNOMopoly

TheOnlyCoolTim — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:12:28 -0800

Sysco : whether it's Wendy's, Applebee's, the local diner, a fancy restaurant, the cafeteria, or Guantanamo Bay, it's what you eat. Serving over 400,000 businesses, the "Wal-Mart of Food Service" has all the bases covered, from "Unique 3-D technology gives you the look and texture of a solid muscle chicken breast, at a fraction of the cost" to more gourmet offerings.

Forgetting Equatorial Guinea

dead_ — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:38:35 -0800

Equatorial Guinea is more than your average headline-making, human rights-eschewing African nation. Likening the country’s uneasy street-silence to that of Pyongyang, deported journalist Peter Maass reveals an unparalleled culture of fear blanketed by an international media blackout. But for the Whitehouse, ExxonMobil and Teodoro Obiang—Equatorial Guinea’s torturous leader—the poverty, abuse and dead-quiet are business as usual.

Cette bud n'est pas pour vous

Artw — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:59:06 -0800

Save Budweiser! – An American beer titan may be bought up by evil Europeans, only you can save it!

...GE had long done business with the bin Ladens. In a misguided attempt at corporate synergy, I called GE headquarters...

amberglow — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:31:03 -0800

"You Don't Understand Our Audience" --what John Hockenberry (formerly of NBC, now at MIT Media Lab) learned about network news--good guys and bad guys, the "emotional center", synergy, facts, and why fewer and fewer watch nowadays.

You were poked by Big Brother.

Reggie Digest — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:27:17 -0800

Over the past couple of years, Facebook has become increasingly popular, until it seemed like everyone and their grandma was joining up. A new feature, called Facebook Beacon, lets corporations join the fray. Might this be cause for concern? Previously.

TypoWiki

amberglow — Tue, 29 May 2007 08:46:31 -0800

Fontfilter -- ever wondered what font a logo uses? Wonder no more. (site's in German but the chart is simple--there's also a reversed one, by font instead of by company)

corporate profiting in Iraq

nickyskye — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:52:04 -0800

"On May 10th, 2007, this video was banned in Congress" - Filmmaker, Robert Greenwald, wanted to show a four minute clip of his film when testifying to Congress, but Republicans disallowed it. This is the clip from his excellent movie now available on Google Video, Iraq for Sale.

Disney's Private Government

TheOnlyCoolTim — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:37:28 -0800

The Reedy Creek Improvement District's goal "is to provide effective and efficient services to the public and our taxpayers." The taxpayer is Disney, and the taxes are used to provide services for Disney by contracting the services to Disney. The RCID is a county-like entity in Florida, composed of the cities of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, which are also controlled by Disney. The government of the RCID is elected by the landowners - Disney executives who own five-acre plots, the only non-corporate and non-government landowners. The governments of the cities are elected by the residents - about 40 Disney employees split between Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista. The Rotten Library (SFW article on a NSFW site) discusses the district, which is administered from a SimCity 2000 construction site.

Cancer

homunculus — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:52:19 -0800

Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers. That's the good news. The bad news is that because there's no patent and it's so cheap to make, researchers may not be able to get funding from the private sector for further research since the treatment wouldn't make a profit. [Via Hullabaloo.]

Undark and the Radium Girls

jonson — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:03:15 -0800

Undark and the Radium Girls is the fascinating true story of several female employees of the US Radium Corporation at the turn of the 20th Centry. The women were employed to paint radioactive "Undark", a glow-in-the-dark paint for military application (dials that needed to be seen at night, etc) onto the machinery. The women were given lethal amounts of paint & fine brushes, which they all routinely kept sharp by wetting the tips in their mouths. Twenty years later, as their jawbones disintegrated & the tumors began to spread, they started down the path to figuring out who had murdered them, and how.

The Trouble with Enron

Gyan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 09:19:27 -0800

Open Secrets - the trouble with Enron

Top properties of the nation’s 15 largest media companies

Kwantsar — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 20:55:29 -0800

Top properties of the nation’s 15 largest media companies [big pdf, From AdAge]

Can't set up a snitch line? We're outta here.

telstar — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 17:57:40 -0800

"Workers were also told not to flirt with one another." After eight years of "fiasco", Wal-Mart bails on Germany.

Symposium on Director Liability

monju_bosatsu — Wed, 31 May 2006 10:51:47 -0800

Forum: The Pros and Cons of Director Liability. [more inside]

"If You Worked Here, You'd Be Heartless By Now"

usedwigs — Thu, 18 May 2006 08:17:30 -0800

The 10 Worst Corporatioins of 2005 Listed alphabetically, here are the 10 Worst Corporations of 2005 and brief lowlights of the activities that earned them a place on the list

Every little helps

MrMerlot — Wed, 10 May 2006 02:04:49 -0800

British supermarket giant Tesco recently posted profits of £2m ($3.73bn), like most modern employers it decided to reward its employees for their hard work: by giving them a free meal in the staff canteen worth £1.40 ($2.60). Others were offered sausage rolls and tuna sandwhiches. Does this make Tesco the most tightfisted corporation of all time? Or are their others equally parsimonious? Or even worse?

New SEC Executive Compensation Proposal

monju_bosatsu — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:29:13 -0800

The SEC has proposed new rules [pdf] to drastically increase requirements on executive compensation disclosure. You can read a summary of the proposal in the SEC's press release, as well as statements from Chairman Cox and Commissioner Atkin. [more inside]

even posting "Pepsi Blue" would make us liable.

amberglow — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 22:08:45 -0800

"Drove my Chevy to the levee..."? That's a lawsuit. "Pass the Courvoisier"? Yup. Lawsuit too. Artwork using Barbie Dolls? Lawsuit again... It's all part of the Trademark Dilution Revision Act, which would eliminate the non-commercial "fair use" protections of trademarks in art, literature, and speech-- To amend the Trademark Act of 1946 with respect to dilution by blurring or tarnishment. It goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the 16th, and there's a large roster of groups fighting it, including the American Library Association, EFF, and more, saying that consumers as well as artists would be preventing from exercising their free speech rights unless it's amended.

Pepsi Blue?

twistedonion — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 06:17:17 -0800

davos 2006: Is Red the new blue? GAP, NIKE, American Express and Bono get together to save Africa from Aids. Bono, asked if he was being used by big business, replied that he was not a "cheap date."