Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category
Monday, February 25th, 2013
How tight of a grasp does social media have on our society? With tools like Facebook and Twitter, the ability to stay connected to the world is at our fingertips. But how far is one willing to go in order to “stay connected”?
Three companies are focused on one goal; the expansion of communicative life for individuals after death. These unique programs facilitate the posting of messages through media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
_LivesOn is one of the tools for this new era. It is a project created by the UK advertising agency, Lean Mean Fighting Machine. In short, the tool is being developed to monitor an individual’s Twitter patterns, enabling it to carry out a similar tweeting style once the user has deceased.
DeadSocial is another option for those individuals who want to keep an ongoing presence in the social media world. This “post-death social media” master is similar to a memory box. It allows its members to schedule posts to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn on special dates or events. The programs main goal: One will never miss their significant others birthday or their anniversary date, even if they are no longer “physically” here.
If I Die is the third tool available for those searching to take the emotional route while staying connected. It allows for the users messages to post after death, with the option of a private or public setting.
Who can utilize these tools? Well the answer is simple, yet unsettling to a few. Everyone is welcome to become a member of these programs. DeadSocial creator, James Norris, commented that “he’s considered the potential for abuse but thinks the public nature of messages will be a deterrent.” DeadSocial, similar to the others, requires each of its members to identify a trusted “executor” for identifying the death and it also limits its members to six posts a week.
This is the next step in the world’s use of social media. It illustrates the progress in which technology and programs have been making, while opening the doors to new ideas and fads. The responses to these new programs have been overwhelming as well as accepted throughout the world. Society is urged to view and conceptualize death in a more logical fashion by these types of programs.
Is grave tweeting in your future?
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Friday, February 22nd, 2013
Those dreaded bills! What can one do if the pile keeps growing? A native New Jersey couple decided to solve their bill problem through the creation of the fraudulent charity, the Hurricane Sandy Relief Foundation (HSRF).
After Hurricane Sandy hit, many areas which were left devastated looked for aid. One way relief was given was through the contributions of charities. To try and capitalize on this, John Sandberg and Christina Terraccino of Sparta created the Hurricane Sandy Relief Foundation, which they said was a way to raise money by storm victims for other storm victims. Their website, created the day prior to the storm, http://sandyrelief.org/, received more than $631,000 in donations.
So what does one possibly do with all of that money? Help victims relocate their homes? Help build up the shore area or dress people who lost all of their clothing? Unfortunately, this was not the case here – roughly $13,000 from the foundations bank account were allegedly transferred and used by the couple!
What I feel to be even more appalling is the percentage of the donations that were actually given to the victims of the hurricane. The state financial records indicate that less than one percent of the money donated has been disbursed to aid the hurricane victims.
Sandberg and Terraccino’s creation has caused them multiple violations of consumer fraud and charity laws. Thankfully they can expect to be fined for up to $20,000 for each of those violations.
In regards to the donations raised, the Division of Consumer Affairs has ensured that the donations given to this charity will be used towards the purposes initially represented through the foundation.
Is this couple and fraudulent charity being dealt with? The state claims so, but the foundations website has yet to be shut down and their PayPal account continues to accept donations. I guess we’ll have to watch this story as it continues to grow…
Posted in Featured, Legal Reputation, Only in New Jersey, Reputation Headlines | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
America has made a huge mistake – only this time, they’ll have to answer to the fashion police. In preparation for the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics, it was recently made public that the U.S.A.’s Olympic uniforms, designed by Ralph Lauren, were actually made in China. What obviously followed here was a huge wave of backlash and criticism for two reasons: 1) the severe lack of patriotism that this implies and 2) the possibility that these uniforms were not created in the most ideal work environments.
Now when people hear the phrase “Made in China”, certain ghastly images come to mind – most notably the chance that American uniforms were made in Chinese sweatshops. Unfortunately, to add icing to this ‘cake’, Lauren will not reveal the factory in which the uniforms were made, thus making it even more likely that they were, in fact, made in sweatshops. In case you’re not familiar, common practices in China’s sweatshops include: paying the workers $1 per hour, not giving them days off and withholding the first month’s pay check (just because), among other things. These conditions cause the workers to have to work overtime and to forfeit a month’s wages if they quit.
Not to mention, the uniforms are supposed to represent the United States of America. Knowing that they were made in China takes away from that sense of pride and patriotism.
Recently Ralph Lauren released a statement promising that they will work to increase manufacturing in the U.S. for the 2014 Olympic uniforms. Since the U.S. Olympic Team is privately funded, Lauren noted that he will be working to communicate with the industry and the government to address this issue.
In addition to all of this, there has been a great deal of criticism on the actual look of the uniforms.
As Vicki Hyman said in The Star-Ledger, the uniform gives off the “I-enjoy-sipping-cocktails-on-my-yacht” kind of vibe rather than the “I-enjoy-running-the-100-meters-in-less-than-10-seconds” vibe.
This just goes to show you, while you might think it doesn’t matter, people are always watching what you are wearing. Appearance isn’t everything but when you are a well-known clothing designer tasked with outfitting your nation’s Olympic team, it definitely adds to your reputation. So dress appropriately for the situation!
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Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
As the world continues to become inundated with certain controversies, it has become hard to avoid the name “Kony.”
With more than 100 million views in a matter of days, director Jason Russell’s thirty minute video illuminating the Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony has ultimately become one of the most viral videos in internet history. Russell and his San Diego-based non-profit organization Invisible Children released the video “KONY 2012” to make Kony a recognizable criminal worldwide, due to his alleged abductions, abuse and murders of thousands of children over multiple decades. Quickly following its release last week, Facebook and Twitter pages flooded with information pointing to the shocking video. Despite certain criticisms about the organization and the video, we at Evergreen Partners would like to focus on the good: the astonishing impact of the video and how it has exemplified social media’s strong affect.
These days, it’s hard to avoid the constant influx of social networking. With Facebook to keep in touch with friends of the past, YouTube for a quick laugh, and Twitter to update followers about your lunch in 140 characters or less, social media is now a part of our daily monotony, without truly contributing much to our lives. Until now.
Russell’s short film was intended to illustrate the horror and injustice Africans have been facing for nearly 26 years, while also rallying American support to find and penalize Joseph Kony for his child army, sex slavery and brutal violence. Prior to the release of the video, Kony’s name was merely meaningless to the majority of United States citizens; however, after the video appeared on YouTube last Monday, celebrities and citizens alike began sharing the video to continue awareness. Oprah Winfrey, P. Diddy, Rihanna and Justin Bieber – among others – used social media to pass along information about Kony and the Invisible Children organization on their Twitter pages (which, combined, reach over 45 million people). Realistically, without a social networking forum available, how else could one person speak directly to so many individuals?
Simply stated, they couldn’t. But today, with thanks to our favorite social networking sites, almost one-third of the United States population has witnessed the KONY 2012 video. To put this in perspective, another YouTube phenomenon, Rebecca Black’s “Friday” merely received 10 million views within several weeks. KONY 2012 has reached an audience ten times that size, and received over 500,000 pieces of commentary, fueling a global discussion.
 KONY 2012 is proof that social media can be a truly unbelievable tool for grassroots activism. Social media enables ordinary people to have a voice, to send a message and to reach more people than one would potentially meet in a lifetime. Instead of getting caught up in the dispute that surrounds the Invisible Children and Kony, we would like to remind our faithful Reputation Roulette readers to step back and appreciate the positivity that this situation has brought forth. When used correctly, social media can engage and impact the world.
For more information on media’s affect on KONY 2012: http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/ccp/social-media-vital-in-kony-2012-campaign
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/iman-baghai/kony-2012-why-i-support-t_b_1339474.html
Posted in Celebrity Reputation, Featured, Reputation Headlines | No Comments »
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