Reader Feedback: Dec 2009 / Jan 2010

The Future of All Media?

The language and energy of Ashton Kutcher's Katalyst are right, but the goals seem fuzzy ("Want a Piece of This?"). Perhaps the best news is that Pepsi's top guns see that less control of the brand means more contact with the community. Let's hope Kutcher & Co. don't run out of celebrity capital!

Kaleel Sakakeeny
Boston, Massachusetts

Kutcher's strategy effectively answers key questions about how to achieve true marketing success by leveraging social-media platforms. Among them: Who do we want to talk to? What conversations are those people already having? How can we add value to the conversation without coming across as "too salesy"? At what point can we earn their trust so that we can get their input regarding our product or service? When and how can we actually pitch them?

Octavian Jurj
Portland, Oregon

I glanced at the comments on FastCompany.com that say Ashton is the next hot thing for the entertainment industry. I say: Think bigger. He's developing a model that could be the next big thing for the political industry. Shouldn't our politicians be so accessible that we know what they're doing every moment of the day via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube? Yes, and, if you agree there, couldn't Ashton be the next big thing in Congress? Or the White House? What he had to say in this article proves he has more sense than the knuckleheads running our country. Go Ashton! You've got my vote!

Angela "Gertie" Refsland
Minden, Nevada

This is a great piece and a glimpse into the future of entertainment, as Ellen McGirt noted. It's fascinating to see Katalyst working on feature films and big-budget productions while simultaneously developing things like Zegura's fantasy-football property. This is a team that "gets it" and traditional media/agencies/brands will continue lining up to collaborate with them.

Brady Sadler
Manchester, New Hampshire

Food for Thought

"The Miracle Worker" hit at the center of so much I try to consider (and rationalize) via work, substance, social impact, and ego. Most people in this space are loaded with that conflict but fall into the trap of espousing a sense of certainty. Whole Foods' John Mackey clearly has lurched through a journey of anything-but-certainty. In truth, I think we're all stumbling forward, likely aware of the integrated ideal that heroes like Paul Hawken uphold, but nicked by compromises of "reality." Then again, even Hawken had to leave a company selling absurdly priced English gardening tools to stand at the pulpit and address the clergy.

Robbie Vitrano
New Orleans, Louisiana

I found your article on John Mackey puzzling. It seemed less like objective reporting and more "tainted" with value judgments from a position of suppositions and presumptions of a business paradigm that may or may not be occurring. Just because a lot of people believe that if we all step off on our left foot facing west at once we will slow the rotation of the earth doesn't make it so. Likewise, just because many intellectuals believe capitalism is dead does not make it so. It may be that we do not completely understand it and cannot articulate its dynamics in our complex world.

Ronald Munoz
Littleton, Colorado

I really liked how Danielle Sacks laid out the tension between the philosophical and the practical. I was left wondering how much of a libertarian Mackey really is, however. Does he think that the profit motive will naturally lead to ethical practices, or just that ethics and the market are compatible?

Gregory Ferenstein
Irvine, California

Editor's Note:

Several weeks after we published Danielle Sacks's article, Whole Foods Market founder and CEO John Mackey resigned as chairman of the company. "I have decided to voluntarily give up my title as chairman of the board," Mackey wrote on his blog on Christmas Eve. "Whole Foods, along with many other companies with combined CEO/chairman roles, has been targeted by corporate-governance activists for several years now seeking a separation of these roles." However, some Mackey supporters didn't buy his explanation. "You may spin it any way you want, but I see your resignation as succumbing to the pressure exerted by liberals," one fan responded to Mackey, adding, "We will no longer be shopping at Whole Foods."