A weekly roundup of media news and talking points, sans effort

 

Thought for the Week

“Got to the airport, realized I left my ID at home. TSA allowed me to use my Facebook profile instead.” Zach Klein, via Twitter, commenting on how representatives of the US Transport Security Administration accepted his Facebook profile as a suitable photo ID to travel on. Welcome to 2014 then.

 

Weekly High

As the Christmas rush reached its peak, festive big hitter Coca Cola unveiled a brand new type of billboard in the shape of this gift wrap dispenser, allowing passer’s by to tear off as much as they needed to ensure their loved ones had on-brand messaging to open on 25th December.

Weekly Low

Less than a year after they partnered up, Alicia Keys and Research In Motion’s Blackberry brand have decided to part ways. The female chart topping pop star was drafted in as the tech firm’s ‘global creative director’, despite her love of iPhones being common knowledge. Over the last almost-12 months nobody is really clear on what she did for the company in question, other than appearing in a few adverts; in short- a pointless celebrity endorsement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTovdgEBXQ4
 

Things that may happen in the next week

Britain may well be counting the cost of yet more extreme weather as emergency services in many coastal areas from Scotland to southern England are currently on high alert. Motorsport fans will mark Michael Schumacher’s birthday on Friday, as the world’s most successful F1 driver continues to fight for his life in hospital following a skiing accident last Sunday. Aid workers will continue to try and highlight the impending humanitarian disaster South Sudan is facing as the country’s government continues to fight rebel forces.

Just in case you missed it…

A legal action has begun in California over allegations that Facebook “misleads users into believing they have a secure, private mechanism for communication, when in fact Facebook mines user data and profits from those data by sharing them with third parties.” Read the full story here.
 
If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!