Personal Data Breaches: How US companies could use patients’ data from Covid vaccine drive - by Jessica Glenza

Data rights organizations have warned that patients lack a clear understanding of how information about their health, employment, contact or location details may be used if it is collected by private entities during the Covid-19 vaccine drive.

Some advocates have already expressed concerns that the information could be used for marketing, targeted advertising or de-identified and sold into the multibillion-dollar health data industry.

Read more at How US companies could use patients’ data from Covid vaccine drive | US news | The Guardian

Economic, Golden Rules, Individual, Marketing, Millionaires, Publicity, Rich, Success, Wealthy

Thomas C. Corley of Business Insider has spent years studying the habits of wealthy people.

He completed a "Rich Habits Study" in which he interviewed 233 people each worth more than $3.2 million, 75 percent of whom were self-made millionaires.

He compiled the 10 qualities that stood out to him as most common among—and most important to—those ultra-successful individuals. Firstly, innovation, because your million-dollar idea must be just that.

It needs to have some valuable quality that sets it apart from ideas that have come before. Here's how one designer used her innovation skills to create an invention that helps fight Parkinson's.

1)  Have an Edge: It's not just your idea that needs to stand out—it's you. Whatever your strong suit is, it needs to be strong enough to help you rise above the rest of the pack.

2) Be an Expert: You need to make sure you are constantly up-to-date on everything there is to know about the field you want to succeed in.

3) Skill Set: Learning on the job is great and all, but you need to make sure you have valuable skills that you accumulate over many years.

4) Work Ethic:This one's a no-brainer. If you want to be successful, you've got to be willing to work incredibly hard and devote lots of time and energy to your goal.

5) Focus UP: Once you're set on an idea, you need to be able to focus on making it a reality. If you're working on a million-dollar project, it requires your full attention, no matter how long the project takes.

6) Connections, Connections and more connections: You can never have too many connections. Seek out the people who can help you and don't be shy.

7) Don't work alone: It'll be hard to get anywhere without people supporting you.Get people to work with you who believe in you and support your ideas and are not scared to be critical of some of your proposals.

8) Never get discouraged and give up: Persistence, of course, is extremely important. Failure happens and can only help you to start over again with new fresh ideas.

9) Have faith in your ability to succeed:  Luck is not what makes things really happen. Vision, a good plan and focused hard work is the only path  to success.

10) Blow your own horn: make sure that after you have produced your product or service, people hear about it via a variety of publicity vehicles readily available to you. 

EU-Digest

Belgium: Burger King vs. Belgium: King Philippe Not Happy About Fast Food Ad Campaign - by Lucy Westcott

Who is the real king of Belgium

It's just typical. You wait your whole life to be king, only to be upstaged by an American fast food chain known for, among other things, cramming macaroni and cheese inside Cheetos-crusted breading.

As far as monarchies go, Belgium’s current royal family keeps a fairly low profile. That was until Burger King launched an interactive advertising campaign ahead of the opening of its first Belgium location, which lets people vote for the country’s “real” king.

If you visit WhoIsTheKing.be, you’re greeted with the words: "Two Kings. One crown. Who will rule? Vote now... " Burger King lets you vote for either, well, Burger King or Belgium’s King Philippe. The website then invites you to return on June 19, when the true “king” of Belgium will be coronated.

Voting for for 57-year-old Philippe isn't easy. After casting your ballot, you’re asked several times if you’re sure and reminded that Philippe “won’t cook you fries.” (Maybe he will?) The chain even has posters to download, stating: “Vote With Your Stomach;” “Belgian People, Choose A King Who Will Make You Fries;” and “Philippe, Another King Arrives in Belgium.”

Perhaps the ad campaign hit a bit too close to home: In 1950, Belgium held a referendum over whether to abolish the monarchy and let Leopold III, Philippe’s grandfather, resume royal duties after World War II.

It's safe to say that King Philippe is not amused. Representatives for the king asked Burger King about the campaign, Reuters reports.

"We told them that we were not happy with them using an image of the king in their campaign," Pierre-Emmanuel De Bauw, palace spokesman, told Reuters. De Bauw added that the Philippe’s image can’t be used for commerce. He appears in the Burger King campaign as a cartoon, and the royal family was not asked if Philippe’s image could be used.

Burger Brands Belgium spokeswoman Shanna Van den Broeck said the company is “deliberating on how to proceed” with the campaign.

Read more: Burger King vs. Belgium: King Philippe Not Happy About Fast Food Ad Campaign

Capitalizing on Capitalism: Unilever's Paul Polman Shares His Plans to Save the World - by Vivienne Walt

Step out of the frigid drizzle into Unilever’s factory outside ­Liverpool in northern England, and the brightly lit, automated assembly line gleams in stark contrast to the gloom outside. Thousands of bottles shoot down a conveyor belt with a click-clack sound, in a streak of bright purple.

Look more closely, and there is an important detail. The new bottle is squatter than the older, taller style on another assembly line, with a smaller dispenser and a label explaining that this version of Comfort brand fabric conditioner is good for 38 washes, rather than the 33 of the last-generation package. The message is clear: Customers need to help save one of earth’s most precious resources—water.

This might appear to be a clever bit of marketing by one of the world’s biggest consumer product companies, and marketing it surely is. But to Unilever (ul, +14.00%), its updated, concentrated liquid is also a crucial innovation. It’s one of countless tweaks underway by the Anglo-Dutch company in its more than 300 factories across the world, which churn out more than 400 brands for 2.5 billion or so customers—an astonishing one in every three people on the planet.

Central to these changes is a message Unilever is determined to convey to its investors, as well as to other companies: Big corporations need to change the way they do business, fast, or they will steadily shrink and die.

Read more: Unilever's Paul Polman Shares His Plans to Save the World | Fortune.com

Advertising budgets: Top 20 companies with the biggest advertising budget - by Tom Wadlow

According to Forbes’s extensive survey of global brands, the world’s most valuable brand Apple spends under a quarter of what the likes of Pampers and Gillette spend on advertising.

Automotive and consumer packaged goods firms occupy five of the top six advertising spends, with luxury brand Louis Vuitton also among the heavy spenders.

The top 10 advertising budgets for 2016 are as follows:

    Pampers - $8.3bn (Ranked 50th most valuable brand)
    Gillette - $8.3bn (28th)
    L’Oreal - $8.2bn (34th)
    Chevrolet - $5.1bn (59th)
    Louis Vuitton - $4.4bn (19th)
    Ford - $4.3bn (35th)
    Coca-Cola - $4bn (4th)
    Amazon - $3.8bn (12th)
    Sony - $3.7bn (76th)
    AT&T - $3.6bn (13th)
    Lexus - $3.6bn (63rd)
    Toyota - $3.6bn (6th)
    Samsung - $3.3bn (11th)
    NIKE - $3.2bn (18th)
    Google - $3.2bn (2nd)
    American Express - $3.1bn (24th)
    T-Mobile - $2.9bn (93rd)
    Nissan - $2.8bn (70th)
    Verizon - $2.7bn (21st)
    Chase - $2.7bn (65th)

Apple does not appear in the top 20. Its $1.8bn spent on advertising makes it the 33rd biggest spending company, despite its brand value being more than double that of any other in the world. 

Read more: Top 20 companies with the biggest advertising budget | Marketing | Business Review Europe

US firearms industry marketing guns to children says report from Violence Policy Center

NRA strikes again: marketing gun sales tochildren

The American firearms industry is targeting children as young as six with brightly colored guns and encouraging parents to let children take up shooting at an early age, according to a new report.

The Violence Policy Center, which aims to stop gun violence, said in its report that gun manufacturers are marketing to the youngest consumers because their primary market -- white men -- is aging.

"The firearms industry has set its sights on America's children. Much like the tobacco industry's search for replacement smokers, the gun industry is seeking replacement shooters," the group said in a statement.

"Along with the hope of increased gun sales, a corollary goal of this effort is the creation of the next generation of pro-gun advocates for future political battles."

Examples of "aggressive efforts" to market to children include rifles made with plastic parts so they are easier to handle, with less weight and recoil, the report said. Some manufacturers sell firearms in a variety of kid-friendly bright colors, including pink for girls.

The report also pointed out that the firearms industry and its lobby want parents to let their children "access guns at the earliest possible age."

The National Rifle Association, the main gun lobby in the US, previously had a website for its junior members, divided into "Under 8" and "8 and Up," the Violence Policy Center said.

Now called "NRA Family," the website's content includes a 2014 article reviewing the Thompson/Center HotShot youth rifle, calling it "a tiny gun intended for the very youngest shooters -- the ultimate first gun."
The article cited the manufacturer as saying the rifle is targeted to kids aged six to 12.

Gun violence is rife in the US, where a third of children live in a household with at least one weapon, according to the group Everytown for Gun Safety. Its statistics show that seven children and teens are killed with guns in the US on an average day.

Read more: Flash - US firearms industry marketing to children: report - France 24