Weekly Distillation: No. 5
Black Lives Matter, Rum, Deepfakes, China & Lego, Marketing Fails In A Crisis, Post-Covid Offices
Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash
This week I’ve been trying to explain to my young children why the America our family loves is on fire. Why a black man would be killed by the police. And why people are angry and marching about that. And why there has been looting. And what tear gas is. In the middle of a pandemic. Privilege, protest and power - and at the heart of it, a good man, murdered.
“I can’t breathe” - George Floyd
“If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.” - David Livingstone
“If I have to jump six feet to get the same thing that you have to jump two feet for - that's how racism works.” - Ta Nehisi Coates
“A report has been made by H.M.'s Privy Council, which, I trust, every gentleman has read, and which ascertains the slave trade to be just such in practice as we know, from theory, it must be. What should we suppose must naturally be the consequence of our carrying on a slave trade with Africa? With a [continent] vast in its extent, not utterly barbarous, but civilized in a very small degree? Does any one suppose a slave trade would help their civilization? Is it not plain, that she must suffer from it? That civilization must be checked; that her barbarous manners must be made more barbarous; and that the happiness of her millions of inhabitants must be prejudiced with her intercourse with Britain? Does not every one see that a slave trade, carried on around her coasts, must carry violence and desolation to her very centre?” - William Wilbeforce
Skim it in a minute
Photo: Getty Images
We have a growing issue of fake news and what we can trust. This photo in Forbes was perturbing. Not one of these people in the picture is real - they are fakes created through the use of artificial intelligence. Well worth a read.
The BBC highlighted multiple examples of fake or historic videos being shared during the protests in America this last week. And in China the focus is on Lego propaganda (see below) to perpetuate the story it wants known as it seeks to create increasing global influence and fight back against the narrative that it is to blame for Coronavirus.
“Controlling the means of perception is fundamental to power,” Schrader said. And the better China’s propaganda works, the more power it will have to shape the rest of the world.
Major brands have been rapidly posting and sharing why they are taking this last week of direct action against racism seriously and will take action. Which is to be encouraged. But as this post calls out - what exactly is that action? Are they using it as more brand building and trying not to be tone deaf? As an organisational leader, avoid the trap of meaningless platitudes. Do something that costs.
Forgotten about Covid? Here’s a little insight into what going back to an office is going to be like. It might not be as good as it was before. I’ve heard of spot temperature checks, thermal checking door cameras and mass volumes of hand sanitiser. By the way - distilleries can make more money from selling spirit for hand sanitiser than they can for selling it for Gin or Vodka….so stock up on your spirits.
If you expect the world to be different in 2 years, you’re naive; but if you expect it to be the same in a decade, you’re an idiot.
A good insight as to why a crisis makes us all early adopters and why change will happen rapidly - but the world may stay largely the same for a while yet.
In the midst of a heavy week, this also amused me - a parody of the enthusiastic startup entrepreneur. Humility always pays.
My writing this week
This week I wrote about how an organisation should respond to a moment like this. Leaders should listen first and learn. Then identify with and stand alongside those that are suffering. And finally, create or even better give away your power to enable minority creators to bring about real change.
A long read for the weekend
This book is excellent on systemic racism in the UK and well worth the read to educate yourself. This article gives an overview. I’m hearing again and again that black people are fed up trying to educate white people on racism. White people make it the responsibility of people of colour to do the work for them - whereas it should be on white people to do the work to understand the privilege and structures that exacerbate and cause racism. Reading this book is one simple way to close that gap and do the work.
Alongside this, read the challenging view that racial injustice in the US was created in Britain.
One of the best reads of the last year for me was the book Dictatorlands: the men who stole Africa, where it’s pretty obvious that European nations (including Britain) were largely to blame for many of the despots who ended up in charge and ravaged and plundered their nations.
The other weekly distillation
“the action of purifying a liquid by a process of heating and cooling.”
A light and quick look at Spirits that have caught my eye or tongue.
I was going to write about gin this week but it felt only apt to cover Rum. A fascinating drink and one making a real recovery, particularly in Scotland. But it’s also one with a dark past, with the origins of rum in Scotland going back to the slave trading time. From part of the British Empire, the Caribbean islands became a good source of sugar cane. To work the plantations, slave traders captured or bought or stole people and transferred them in horrific conditions to then work often to their death with little freedom. As the sugar cane journeyed to Scotland, the product was then part of a boom in rum production - making many men in Glasgow and beyond rich.
I like Dark Matter for a few reasons - it’s a great craft distillery in Banchory in Aberdeenshire. I love the simplicity and modern look of the branding. And it’s also not making a big play on the story of rum from the Caribbean, leaning into a scientific focused brand instead. When you open the bottle, it smells like Christmas. Here’s what mixes well with Rum.