Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 12

This past week, I debuted a new keynote talk at SXSW, and it was all about understanding people. I will share the full video when it comes out in a few weeks, but in case you want a behind the scenes look at the tips, here’s the full list:

When the Best Actor award was announced and Adrien Brody took the top honor for the second time, he headed toward stage and abruptly stopped. Realizing he was chewing gum, he took it out and threw it to his partner and “personal gum valet” Georgina Chapman. That was just part of the criticism that author Joe Berkowitz offers up for Brody who’s “case study in entitlement” was broken down in this article. The reaction to his speech (which broke the Guinness record for its length) was widely negati...

There aren’t many brands that define their entire category so much that people literally use the brand name interchangeably to describe the product. Kleenex has always had that for the tissue industry, and now they are doubling down on this dominance with a clever new partnership with movie database IMDB to offer “The Kleenex Score” to movies so you can anticipate how much a movie is likely to make you cry. Preparing for that moment, of course, involves getting the Kleenex ready.

This is ...

What would a world without any new music sound like? Perhaps we are already there, a reality music writer and journalist David Rowell explores in this deep exploration of the current and potential future of music and those who create it. From considering what it means for holographic versions of dead musicians to be going back on tour, to the impact of digital listening platforms like Spotify on music discovery—this is an wide-reaching but also deeply personal look at the forces subverting music...

The advertising industry is anxiously awaiting potential news that newly appointed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who started his term by single-handedly bringing the deadly measles disease backfrom near extinction, may turn his attention toward the pharma industry by banning all drug advertising on television. Unlike his widely criticized stance on vaccines, this is a move that most Americans support. It’s also one causing significant discussion among those in the advertising and media ind...

Here’s the TLDR version of this story: Elon Musk is a visionary who believes he alone knows what humanity needs to thrive in the future and he wants the freedom to execute his vision without any oversight from anybody. Dismantling the Federal government is the fastest way to execute this goal.

This past weekend the New York Times published a meticulously reported exposé of all the moves the Elon Musk and the DOGE group has made to take over the Federal Bureaucracy, as well as offered some...

Outside a Pop Mart store in Vietnam there is a line around the block at 2am. The cause for all this excitement is the latest blind box release of a limited edition figurine … otherwise known as an art toy. In case you’re not familiar, these figurines are collectibles that allow customers to “express creativity, find joy and connect with others.” That’s a quote from an executive at Pop Mart (obviously) but he’s not exaggerating that there are plenty of customers who devote hours to building their...

A little over six months ago, De Beers Group announced the DiamondProof “diamond verification instrument” at a jewelry trade show in Las Vegas. The idea was that this device could sit inside a retail jewelry location and immediately distinguish between a natural diamond versus a lab-grown diamond. The official announcement for the device included this telling line: “with research showing that almost half of consumers are unaware that every LGD can be readily detected, the device … help[s] underp...

For my book selection this week I’ll start by sharing that I have known this author for literally his entire life—because it’s my younger brother, Rahul! His first book, Community Data was just released this week by Oxford University Press. The book delves into the work he has been doing for the past few decades around data storytelling first as a research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab and currently as a professor teaching about data and journalism at Northeastern University in Boston.

How can...

What do you call it when unemployment is at record lows at the same time that hiring is similarly stalled? Actually, there’s no word for that because it’s never really happened—so experts came up with one: the big freeze. Usually if unemployment is low, that’s a good sign for job seekers. Unfortunately, the circumstances bringing about this current situation seem to be partially based on widespread uncertainty among workers … which means they will rarely leave a job to seek something else. Indee...