How’s Ronaldo’s Cola incident related to the Big Tech?
People are tired of the monopolies, their power and the negative impact they have on our lives.
It takes a lot of courage to fight the power they have accumulated over the years, and there are two people who have done well in the last week and created refreshing headlines:
The first one you probably could not miss — Ronaldo created a provocation as he took the two Cola bottles that lay in front of him, demonstratively moved them from the frame, and took a water bottle instead (a simple action that erased 4 Billion from the value of Coca-Cola, which was, by the way, the sponsor of the event).
The second event — a brave appointment of Biden in the public sector.
With your permission, before I talk about the appointment, I will quote Guy Rolnik (TheMarker) from his column last weekend to clarify the part of the courage required: “Some readers wondered where to find a candidate with experience, knowledge and managerial ability not directly or indirectly related to monopolies, partners in the big law firms and the club of lobbyists, PRists and economists of the giant companies.
Here came Biden with an answer: whoever wants to bring about real change and revolution in economic policy should not look for experienced, serious and acceptable candidates for the elite of politics, business and academia. On the contrary: he should look for candidates who have challenged the establishment, the political elite, the government, business and academia. “
Biden has appointed Lina Khan, 32, a justice-fighter and anti-monopoly lawyer for a hugely influential position: chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that protects consumers from unfair acts of non-competition by companies.
When it comes to unfair competition, there is one sector that has not been touched on so far — the big tech companies, which worryingly for technology giants, Lina Khan is one of their tough and vocal critics.
So what do you need to do if the organization you work for is a monopoly (or big enough and acts like one) that abuses its power (from introducing unnecessary chemicals into our bodies, “contributing” to low self-esteem to adverse mental health impact)?
You can polish your legal department’ nails like Zuckerberg did when he was preparing for the Senate hearing, but you better take an example from the rebranding process created by lingerie company Victoria’s Secret.
Victoria’s Secret decided to replace the “angels” with women with significant career achievements, who work for equality, and instead of continuing to show us scorched and mute hangers, decided to contribute to whom the new role models are in society and chose seven ambassadors, one of which is Megan Rapinoe, a professional football player, a member of the United States soccer team, has won twice the World Cup, Olympic gold medal and second place in the World Cup. Since 2018, she has shared the role of captain of the United States national team with Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan, and is known for her social struggle for equal pay between professional footballers. Pretty impressive!
And until harmful monopolistic companies are smart to change their strategy (both in branding like Victoria and in products and services as well), we, as consumers, are left to act like Ronaldo.
What other monopoly strategy changes have you seen?
