Wall Street is freaking out as EA caves again to social media outrage over its ‘Star Wars’ game
Everyone’s favorite evil gaming company, EA, has angered the nerds, and for the first time on record, nerd rage has been measured on the stock market. On top of the 60 bucks for the game, players would be able to pay to unlock characters like Darth Vader, rather than doing it the old fashioned way. The old fashioned way, by the way, was estimated to take 60-hours of game play. After people threw a collective fit online, EA has backtracked, temporarily removing the in-game purchases. Correlation isn’t causation, but there may be some financial pressure behind the move:
EA’s stock is down 7 percent month to date through Thursday compared with the S&P 500’s 0.4 percent gain.
Why Toyota, the Car Company, Now Wants to Be Known More as a ‘Mobility’ Company
Trying to teach students to elevate brands over their products and categories has its challenges. But the coming technological shifts (read: automationopalypse) is paying off, as companies are realizing that the product sands are about to shift from under their feet, they are broadening what they stand for.
Toyota kicked off their own transformation with a new campaign and an 8 year partnership with the Special Olympics.
With the kickoff of its “Start Your Impossible” campaign earlier this month, the Japanese automaker has put the world on notice that it is now a mobility company, a brand whose products obviously include cars but one busy broadening its offerings to a wide variety of futuristic devices, often with built-in digital capabilities, that enable human motion in ways that go well beyond driving down the road.
Noted nice guy with an amazing collection of sneakers, Fabio Costa, is the creative director on the new campaign. They’re in good hands.
Brands have Nowhere to Hide in Post-Apocalyptic Political America
Gotta be who you are. Gotta have a point of view. Your gonna get yours either way. Oh, and companies should probably stop leaving social media to interns. Keurig, Papa Johns, and Jim Beam are a few brands who’ve found themselves in the position of being attacked by crazy people throwing coffee makers or trying to distance themselves from Nazis.
These situations, said Norm Johnston, global chief digital officer for Mindshare, are a reminder that for companies today “there is nowhere to hide.”