The offer applies to anyone aged 18-30 who is an EU citizen and a resident in Spain. It includes discounts of up to 90 percent on state-run buses and short-to-medium distance trains.
https://www.thelocal.es/20230510/spain-to-pay-national-bus-and-train-tickets-for-young-people-this-summer?tpcc=newsletter_subscriber&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=how_to_get_a_100_mortgage_in_spain_and_more_travel_discounts_for_young_people&utm_term=2023-05-10
Category Archives: politics
In search of cultural truths
by Marie Lena Tupot and Tim Stock, scenarioDNA inc.
No one will think about Italy’s “Barbie Venus” campaign 6 months from now, but many will continue to make the same mistakes as the world flies beyond 20th-century marketing techniques. The Italy campaign serves as a marker of dismay and innovation washing. Yet, it’s not only Italy’s minister of tourism missing the mark, we in New York were way off base with recent New York City rebranding too. There are real issues in these cases beyond a misguided art director that set the stage for policy planning globally.
Cultural truths need to be examined.
The most obvious is the generative AI version of Botticelli’s Venus. With the trend of de-influencing gaining momentum, Botticelli’s Venus is identified as an influencer named Venere and looks like an ad for Botox. Further, the campaign places Venere at age 30+. If art history rumors are true, the model for Botticelli did not live beyond her 22nd year. Botticelli’s paintings were an expression of love for a woman coming of age and otherworldliness regarding her absence. The knowing gaze of Venere is not evocative of the unreachable gaze of Venus.
So…where is the love, Italy? Venere begins her tour of Italy clothed while the marvel of Michelangelo’s David is being censored in the US states so much so that the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, and the director of Florence’s Accademia Gallery, Cecilie Hollberg, invited former principal Hope Carrasquilla for a personal tour after she was asked to resign for exposing students to the David. (Carrasquilla also showed her students The Birth of Venus in her natural state.)
Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè said in a press conference unveiling the campaign, “We are the most beautiful nation in the world but we are not the best at promoting ourselves. We need to regain our pride in being Italian, in our identity.” She missed the point. Modern pride lives within Italy’s contemporary makers, creators and innovators. None of which were included in the conception of the campaign.
A representative from Armando Testa, the agency that executed the Venere campaign, explained the need to use the Venus as “an easy, direct and immediately recognizable way to promote Italy abroad.” Marketers lose who they are when they resort to such shortcuts. It’s the same way with executive briefs. Richness and research get lost.
Marketers need to see the human beings in front of them.
Also, consider that when Italy blocked ChatGPT regarding data privacy concerns and generative AI, VPN activity in Italy rose 400%. At the time, there were Youtube instructions on how to circumvent the ban through VPN access. One might consequently assume that Italy certainly is not at a loss for inspired generative AI creators. Where were those creative technologists when Italy needed them? Italy’s National Innovation Fund supports such up-and-comer types through venture capital. Instead, they were having their wrists slapped because no one quite knows how to handle AI.
The allegory of rebirth and renewal makes perfect sense for Italy. A sophomoric generative AI version of Botticelli’s Venus does not make sense.
Recent tourism has boomed for Italy this spring without the guidance of Venere. That said, Italy cannot sustain itself on tourism alone. Its newly found post-Covid vitality must be driven from within its modern-day maker culture. This culture already exists. It holds the narrative red threads back to Botticelli. According to Frieze Magazine, “spontaneous, informal networks are transforming the art scene of the eternal city [Rome].” Why aren’t they being reached out to?
We can’t be creating media for the lowest common denominators. If we do, then media is simply chasing after phenomena that have already happened. Moving forward, campaigns should bring us to where our imaginations want to go. Gone is the world where campaigns start and end.
Campaigns are now living breathing records reflecting our own existence.
Does anyone want to be Venus Barbie? Doubtful. Do people want to feel the love of Botticelli that can only be found in Italy? Yes.
Recovery is critical for Italy, a country seriously impacted by COVID-19. But these lessons should be learned by all of us involved in messaging anywhere. Campaigns everywhere should be able to consistently evolve from informed ideas.
Zara, lies and Fashion’s big new row
There’s an unholy row going on in the fashion world this week, and it’s gripping stuff. It began last Thursday when the Financial Times published an interview with Marta Ortega Perez. Not a household name, but as the non executive chair of Inditex, the Spanish holding company for fashion brand Zara, she is one of, if not the most powerful people in fashion. Her father’s company, which she took over last year, produces 450m garments a year, driving sales of €32.6billion. In the last year, under Marta’s new watch, sales have risen 17%. The Ortegas are the Murdochs of the fashion world – just as powerful, possibly even richer and likely a lot less venal.
https://tiffaniedarke.substack.com/p/zara-lies-and-fashions-big-new-row
How Vulnerable Is LVMH?
While LVMH isn’t universally adored, it is broadly respected. Efforts by the group’s brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior to become more culturally relevant, particularly among young consumers, hardly hurt: Today, for every social media post and protest placard denouncing the mega-rich, there are just as many venerating their lifestyle and offering tips for how to attain it. Plenty of French people are proud that Europe’s biggest company, and the world’s richest person, are French.
Should the winds of policy ever really swing against rising inequality, LVMH will, of course, be a prime target no matter how many times they’ve opened their ateliers. But the days feel like a distant memory when, in 2011, a leading French newspaper put Arnault on its cover with the phrase “Casse toi, riche con” (politely translated as “Get lost, rich jerk”) or when François Ruffin made a national hit with his 2015 documentary “Merci, Patron!” (“Thank, Boss!”) — a political satire that featured hidden-camera footage of LVMH fixers attempting to buy off a disgruntled former worker and pressuring left-wing activists.
https://www.businessoffashion.com/briefings/luxury/how-vulnerable-is-lvmh/?utm_source=newsletter_professional_thisweek&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=This_Week_In_Fashion_140423&utm_term=NOQSPKAL6RAPTLIYH32735FBG4&utm_content=top_story_title
Athletes pen letter to House: Drop trans sports ban
Dozens of athletes wrote a letter to the House on Monday urging lawmakers to drop proposed legislation that would prohibit transgender and intersex girls and women from participating in sports.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/athletes-pen-letter-house-drop-011252866.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALNu1WB-2rNTU_N0SnDYif6HlladsFTDpP9-6_Iwnrdo9H9i6kfQBBO8hCDQP3gzsqJ9UVo9GNMAopOPVk-py95GzBn0qmujoXc6UgxdToX2KQVcDOZcyxdQhONDygm_PFnIuDtownNkJaFagpLgzPqXvQZXnBK1PCmZlG8IVitp&guccounter=2
Why Business Leaders Must Resist the Anti-ESG Movement
The culture wars in the U.S. continue to rage, and they’ve come for business. Companies are being dragged into issues that stir emotions, such as abortion, gay and trans rights, racial and gender equity, and climate change. In particular, business is facing questions about its stance on societal issues mainly from the right side of the political aisle. So with 70% of America’s top execs calling themselves Republicans, business leaders now find themselves in an odd position: accused by high-profile members and pundits from their own party of being part of a “woke” or “anti-ESG” progressive agenda.
https://hbr.org/2023/04/why-business-leaders-must-resist-the-anti-esg-movement
ChatGPT Opens Door to Four-Day Week, Says Nobel Prize Winner
“They could take away lots of boring things that we do at work … and then leave only the interesting stuff to human beings,” he said. The transition for workers will be made less painful by slower adoption by companies despite the technology “moving fast,” he added.
Some are concerned of the impact the technology could have on society. Tech leaders, including Elon Musk, signed an open letter last month calling for a pause to the training of powerful AI systems.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-05/chatgpt-opens-door-to-four-day-week-says-nobel-prize-winner
The meat industry blocked the IPCC’s attempt to recommend a plant-based diet
In the published report, the line was changed to “balanced, sustainable healthy diets acknowledging nutritional needs,” skirting a direct mention of beef and dairy, what a sustainable diet actually looks like, or any reference to the Western and largely wealthy countries that should most urgently start eating less meat.
While Monday’s IPCC report was the result of synthesizing years of research, Brazil and Argentina have been diligently pushing to delete references to “plant-based diets,” meat as a “high-carbon” food, and “Meatless Mondays” for years, according to a previous draft leaked in 2021 and analyzed by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative outlet.
https://qz.com/ipcc-report-on-climate-change-meat-industry-1850261179?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_twitter
“Bootstrapped”: Alissa Quart on Liberating Ourselves from the Myth of the American Dream
That TikTok hearing was pretty messed up, right? (Op-Ed)
Instead of asking actual important questions related to how TikTok does business and uses the data it gathers from users, Congress was focused on being xenophobic, and people noticed.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/24/23654831/tiktok-congressional-hearing-xenophobia-china
Analyzing Trends with Tim Stock 