The viral and dangerous internet challenge that has teens eating laundry detergent Tide Pods has put Procter & Gamble in PR crisis mode. Blaire Nicole, Founder & CEO of Media Moguls PR, joined Cheddar to explain the best way for brands to handle such an event.
Procter & Gamble responded to the Tide Pod challenge by launching a commercial featuring New England Patriots star Rob Gronkowski. Nicole said P&G was swift in its response, but may have been better off featuring peers that would be more relatable to the teens taking part in the challenge. She does not believe P&G's brand will suffer because they are not at fault for the challenge.
Nicole also discussed the responses made by Facebook and Youtube. Google, which owns Youtube, said it's taking down clips that show people taking bites of the pods and giving users who post the clips a strike on their channels. Nicole said they made the proper response, especially in the wake of the Logan Paul videos.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
