“Billion Dollar Bully” Yelp Keeps Pressure On Businesses

Despite bad publicity and lawsuits, Yelp continues to tank ratings in order to punish those who won’t advertise.

By Art Keller | February 5, 2020 | Advertising, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Food, Law | Advertising, Billion Dollar Bully, Bullying, Communications Decency Act, Conflict of Interest, David Balto, Davide Cerretini, Dining, Documentaries, Eric Goldman, Extortion, Food, FTC, Harvard Business Review, Kaylie Milliken, Levitt v. Yelp, Marketing, Ratings, Restaurants, Reviews, Section 230, Vince Sollitto, Yelp, Yelp Exposed

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Podcast #32: Josh Golin on Marketing to Kids

Josh Golin, Executive Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, fights a metastasizing marketing machine that has swept kids into its orbit of consumerism and surveillance.

By Mo Lotman | June 19, 2019 | Advertising, Community, Culture, Education, Ethics, Family, Law, Media, Podcasts, Privacy, Psychology | Activism, Advertising, Alexa, Amazon, Baby Einstein, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Children, Citizenship, Commercials, Community, Consumerism, Critical Thinking, Digital Nanny, Disney, Echo Dot for Kids, Ed-Tech, Edward Markey, Environment, Fast Food, Hello Barbie, Internet, iPads, Josh Hawley, Marketing, Mattel, Movement Building, Obesity, Pornography, Schools, Scree-Free Week, Screen Time Action Network, Screens, Smartphones, surveillance, Technology in Schools, TV, Violence, YouTube

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Podcast #27: Robert Lustig on Biochemistry and Health

Author and endocrinologist Robert Lustig explains the neurochemical difference between happiness and pleasure and how it’s been exploited to make so many of us fat, addicted, and depressed. Then, he reminds us how to reclaim our health.

By Mo Lotman | February 27, 2019 | Cognition, Environment, Family, Food, Health, Medicine, Neurology, Podcasts, Well-Being | Academia, Addiction, Adolescence, Alcohol, Amino Acids, Aristotle, ATP, Availability, Behavior, Biochemistry, Caffiene, Calories, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Cavities, Cell Death, Child Development, Chronic Metabolic Disease, Chronic Renal Disease, Clinicians, Cocaine, Computers, Connection, Connectivity, Contentment, Contribute, Coping, Cortisol, Dementia, Dentistry, Depression, Diabetes, Diet, Dieticians, Doctors, Dopamine, Drugs, Dyslipidemia, Endocrinology, Enjoyment, Environment, Exercise, Exposure, Facebook, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Flow, Food, Food System, Fructose, Giving, Glucose, Happiness, Health Care, Heroin, Hypertension, Hypothalamus, Information, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Marketing, Metabolic Syndrome, Metabolism, Mindfulness, Mirror Neurons, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Money, Multitasking, music, Myelin, Neurons, Neurotransmitters, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Obesity, OCD, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Opioids, Peer Pressure, Personal Responsibility, Philanthropy, Pleasure, Polycystic Ovarian Disease, Prefrontal Cortex, Processed Food, Profit, Propaganda, Quantification, Refining, Regulation, Religion, Reward, Sales, Seizures, Seratonin, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Social Security, Stimulation, Substance Abuse, Substances, Sugar, Suicide, Taking, Taylorism, Technology, Tolerance, Tryptophane, Utilitarianism

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Curbing Our Tech Obsession: What, Why, & How

Young people are obsessively checking their phones more every year. Here are some reasons why, and strategies to regain control.

By Larry Rosen | January 30, 2019 | Media, Neurology, Psychology, Relationships, Society, Well-Being | Addiction, Alerts, Android, Anxiety, Apple, Attention, Blue Light, Boredom, Circadian Rhythm, Cues, Depression, Digital Media, Digital Wellness, Distracted Driving, Distraction, FOMO, Google, Information Foraging Theory, Marketing, Metacognition, Nir Eyal, Nomophobia, Obsession, OCD, Psychology, Sleep, Smartphones, Social Media, Social Obligation, Teens, Tim Wu, Young Adults

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Geofencing: Corporate Surveillance in the Real World

Geofencing is the way corporations and advertisers track your every move–literally.

By Isabel Sterne | August 8, 2018 | Advertising, Economics, Privacy | Advertising, Android, Apps, Geofencing, iOS, Location Tracking, Marketing, Privacy, Smartphones, surveillance, Tracking, Urban Outfitters

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Literary Twitter: Marketing, Shaming, & Censorship in the World of Publishing

Twitter has become deeply integrated into the literary world, creating a vastly different dynamic between authors and readers.

By Lucy Uprichard | December 6, 2017 | Community, Culture, Media, Publishing | Agents, Amazon, Bestseller Lists, Bestsellers, Celeste Ng, Censorship, Criticism, Cyberbullying, Donna Grant, Engagement, Fiction, Followers, Goodreads, Handbook for Mortals, Harlequin Teen, Jonathan Franzen, Lani Sarem, Laurie Forest, Literary Agents, Literary Criticism, Literary Twitter, Literature, Marketing, Pressure, Publishers, Publishing, Rebekah Fitzsimmons, relationships, Sarah Schulman, Self-Promotion, Shaming, Social Media, The Black Witch, The New York Times, Twitter, Valerie Peterson, Virginia DeBerry, Young Adult, Zadie Smith

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For Yelp, Extortion Has a Starring Role

Yelp uses the power of its rating system to bully small businesses into buying their expensive advertising; if they decline, so do their ratings.

By Art Keller | August 23, 2017 | Advertising, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Food, Law | Advertising, Alia Meddeb, Better Business Bureau, Billion Dollar Bully, Bullying, Dining, Documentaries, Extortion, Food, FTC, Google Reviews, Janie Gilarde, Kaylie Milliken, Marketing, Morocco, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, North African Cuisine, Ratings, Restaurants, Reviews, Rod Brant, Tunisia, Yelp

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Your Media Diet, Now With Gas

Pumping gas is not something that I particularly relish, but on the list of modern-day inconveniences it ranks pretty low. [...]

By Mo Lotman | March 25, 2015 | Advertising, Media | Cars, DOOH, Gas, Marketing, Media, Subscriber, Television

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