Wildcard, The G.O.A.T. of Positive Image.

  When the acronym G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) is used it's usually tossed around by sweaty sports nerds arguing about field goal percentages and who has more rings. In this case we're talking about a man with quite possibly the most positive public perception in the world, Keanu Reeves. Surely you've heard of Keanu and his kindness?

  
We're looking back at how a young scruffy actor evolved into one of America's most adored celebrities. Let's get the obligatory bio out of the way, click the link for a short summary. You read it? That was fast, well good on you then. Keanu Reeves gained notoriety for his second film Bill and Ted's excellent adventure and it's sequel Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. He was cast as a sort of aloof stoner character which many people of the time could identify with. Since then the movie has become a cult classic and everyone knows the legend of the *air guitars and screams* "Wild Stallions!". And with a third film coming out in the next couple of years the hype for this series won't seem to die. Reeves is a pretty versatile actor portraying roles from the heroic Neo in The Matrix to his softer side in films like Lake House. Some true film snobs would argue that Keanu isn't a great actor but I would argue the opposite. I've seen Reeves take some pretty lousy scripts and make the best out of them. To the Bone was a netflix original film that tackled the difficult topic of eating disorders. While the film performed fairly well the writing was a tad bland. Reeves essentially made the film with his role of a particularly insightful doctor who's tough love saved the live's of many young women.

  
  Keanu Reeves has had an uptick in popularity over the last two decades. While he was famous early in his career he has achieved cult status as a person which is a strange to say the least. Reeves has cranked out some quality films in his career but none have had the success of the Matrix films and the John Wick series. If you enjoy gratuitous stylized violence then John Wick is a dream come true. While most action movies are lucky to get another shot, both series are slated to release a fourth film May 21, 2020, which has been dubbed as "Keanu day". In addition Reeves also has a prominent role in a potential smash hit video game called Cyberpunk 2077 which inspired the "You're breathtaking" meme. Personally I have been a huge Keanu Reeves fan since I was little. Growing up I wanted to be like him or Heath Ledger. Obviously I would do better to end up like Reeves but that's neither here nor there. 

   I usually like to speak for myself but I feel like this video illustrates what kind of person Reeves is. Keanu is truly a man of the people, so much so that he still takes the subway despite being worth millions of dollars. His acts of generosity are too numerous to count but one highlight was Reeves secretly donating millions to charity including children's hospitals. Celbritynetworth.com has chronicled many of his acts such as donating huge portions of his salary to the crews of his films. Reeves is cited as one of the most respectful men on the planet. Photos went viral of Keanu not touching women he was in pictures with out of respect for their personal space. He is always seen with his hand hovering behind their back but never making contact. Sandra Bullock once told a story of how Reeves made sure she wasn't embarrassed by stopping her dress from coming up during a stunt in one of their movies. Keanu is a gentleman among gentlemen. Reeves extremely positive and genuine attitude is impossible not to love. Even when hit with the hard questions, Reeves seems to always know what to say. If you've made it this far and you aren't thoroughly convinced that Keanu Reeves is the greatest man on the face of the Earth then I have failed him and I apologize. All joking aside if we would all strive to be a little more like him the world would probably be a much better place. 

Higher Education- University Of Alabama

  The University Alabama is practically synonymous with  college football. I have memories growing up of my father slinging curses towards the Crimson Tide for dismantling his Razorbacks nearly every year with ease. Needless to say Alabama football is a big part of marketing and recruitment boasting 17 national titles over the years. People treat head coach Nick Saban like a celebrity and most football players would be thrilled to meet him. With his record sitting at 149-21 he has an impressive figure to dangle in front of perspective students. Essentially, if Nick Saban asks you to come play for him, you come play for him. When you hear the words "Roll Tide" you get a clear image of red helmets dashing through Bryant-Denny stadium. The only thing detrimental to their image in a football sense is that some people hate winners (much like in the NBA with the former Warriors dynasty). When it comes to Alabama fans the word "bandwagon" is tossed around a lot. Their is no greater insult to a sports fan than being accused of bandwagoning. Think you've spotted a bandwagoner, follow these steps to identify them. While that particular wikihow link is ridiculous it does prove a point that even if someone is a bandwagon fan that's still good PR in a sense for organizations like the University of Alabama

  As for the academic side of things Alabama has a very clean  school website to show off their various programs. One of their slogans is evident on the site, "Where legends are made.". And this brings back to automatic association with football and it being a pathway to the NFL. Their "legends" include Joe Namath, Lady Bird Johnson, Julio Jones, and Harper Lee. Alabama wants to be seen as more than football and they try their best to polarize an image of achievable greatness in fields other than sports. You Think You Know Alabama? Well according to them they have more to offer. Their site has a nice crimson theme that makes it eye catching and easy to take in. Readability is, if a site looks too intimidating it turns many potential applicants away. Alabama has done a good job of creating an approachable hub for all things UA. It has tabs to redirect students with ease to their desired destination but keeps the signature 'Bama flair.

  One of the main draws of UA is that it's pretty much the only thing in Alabama that gets national attention. People seem to care less about the important and historic civil rights movement landmarks and more about one of the top colleges in the country. I guess to an extent looking at UA is like looking toward the future instead of at the past which could be seen as a good thing I suppose. Driving nearly anywhere in Alabama a large roadside sign can likely be seen for the states pride and joy.

  Lastly I took a look at Alabama's social media imprint. I have to say that I wasn't impressed by their Facebook page. It was nice but it was on par with schools much smaller. Not to bash SAU but our page and UA's were comparable, which can be seen as a good thing for us. It just felt slightly underwhelming after seeing their school website. They have their community outreach and school events documented with fairly high quality photos, that was the highlight of their page in my opinion. Their Twitter however was exceptional. The aesthetics of their profile picture which features a gorgeous image of a white building on campus contrasted by the vibrant pink flowers surrounding it was a home run in my book. The content was fairly substantial as well. Recent posts featured info about on campus events and, of course, a football sizzle reel. All in all I would give Alabama an 8.8 on the patent pending "Jonah Rathburn Comprehensive Marketing Analysis Scale"

Breach of Ethics- Uber's Autonomous Killing Machine

  Back in 2018 Uber caught some well deserved for flak an incident that occurred in Arizona involving one of their experimental self-driving cars. I'm sure anyone who's ever seen a sci-fi movie can guess what happened. The car evidently lost control and killed a pedestrian. This is far from the first time a self driving vehicle test has gone wrong but this does appear to be the first incident of a death resulting directly from automated driving technology.

Uber Self Driving SUV Before Crash

After Crash

 The fatal accident took place on the night of  March 18th, 2018 in Tempe, Arizona. 49-year old Elaine Herzberg was struck and killed while cycling across the road. Was Uber held responsible for the accident? Of course not. The autonomous car had a back-up driver behind the wheel in case of emergency situations. According to the company the auto braking system was not enabled for the computer driven mode. This decision was made in an attempt to fast track Uber's self driving taxi service by giving the effect of a smoother ride, previously the program made the car stop frequently making for a bumpy journey. This meant that true emergency breaking was left to the back-up driver who was not aware of their surroundings at the time. It was discovered that the car registered an "unknown object" which it shortly after recognized as a bike six seconds before collision. This system did not alert the driver, because the "shape" it had initially detected was classified as "benign", who looked up one second before impact and attempted to swerve to miss the cyclist. In other words the braking program had been redesigned to take risks and chances. The driver had been streaming popular TV hit TheVoice before the crash which didn't help their chances of getting away Scot-free . Due to possible negligence on their part they were being faced with possible manslaughter charges.

Dash Cam Footage Leading Up To The Accident

  In the end Uber got away with nothing more than a settlement with the victims family members. But as more accidents involving self driving cars occur the research seems to keep moving forward uninterrupted. This brings forth classic ethic dilemmas, should a machine be able to make potential life and death decisions. If a school bus is out of control and hurtling down the wrong lane can a machine possibly sacrifice the life of it's driver by veering off the road to save the live's of the children on board? Science fiction writer Issac Asimov has prompted questions like this for many years with his Three Laws of Robotics.

  Something else that may help outline possible problems with self driving vehicles is the  Trolley Problem. In short the Trolley Problem is just an example used in ethics studies to show the logical, sentimental and/or duplicitous nature of human beings. Part of being a human is free will. If you want to run  family of three off the road and kill them rather than chucking yourself off a cliff to let them survive you have that choice. Obviously the opposite could be true as well, a human could use their free will to save lives. But in the end this tech essentially takes the choice out of people's hands. This is a argument that is liable to go on for the rest of human existence, the bare bones question is, is it ethical to let machines decide who lives or dies based on programming?


New York Times Report On Uber Crash
NPR's Take
Streetblog.USA Negative Take

#1 Crisis Public Relations- Antonio Brown

By now everyone has heard Antonio Brown's name being passed around by sports fans and nightly newscasters alike. Why is everyone so fascinated by this man? The answer to that is simply because he's a walking PR circus and one hell of an athlete. But as the story usually goes, with great power comes great responsibility and all that. Brown set several records for receiving and returning some years back which cemented him as arguably the best wide receiver in the league. 

To give a brief breakdown of why he's such a hot commodity for NFL teams: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4TeefMSsLc   - AB Career Highlights

"Brown has amassed more receptions and receiving yards than any other player since he entered the league.
During his first season with the Steelers, the team advanced to Super Bowl XLV but lost to the Green Bay Packers. He finished his rookie season with 16 receptions for 167 yards in ten games. During his second season, Brown became the first player in NFL history to have more than 1,000 yards receiving and returning in the same year. For his efforts, Brown was selected as a punt returner for the 2012 Pro Bowl. In 2013, Brown became the only receiver in NFL history to record five receptions and at least 50 yards in every single game of an NFL season. Although his on-the-field productivity continued over the next several seasons, including leading the league in receiving yards in 2014 and 2017"

 Many fans were excited about Brown's departure from the Steelers after a 9 years stint there. Several of his teammates were sad to see him go but Brown had grown tired of the scenery so he essentially forced a trade. Picking back up on his landing he ended up on the Oakland Raiders which sounds like a match made in football Heaven. The Raiders needed some all-star caliber talent to launch them into a deep playoff run and ignore the negative media already surrounding Brown's image. Thus far he had been painted as a "Rick Flair-esque a**hole you love to hate". The media enjoyed focusing on his lavish spending and flippant attitude toward essentially everything. The bad boy image works for some but amid the excitement there were whispers about Brown desperately wanting a Superbowl ring. Jon Gruden and his Raiders were shaky at best and even with Brown a Superbowl was very far from guaranteed. Soon we started to see ridiculous coverage pop up about Brown arguing with Gruden and claiming he would not play without his old football helmet. While many players are superstitious or have sentimental attachment to gear this seemed out of pocket for Brown from my prospective. Brown's helmet was over 10 years old and therefore could not be approved for play. Brown even took to twitter seeking a similar helmet less than 10 years old and even inquired to the company about producing more of that model of helmet specifically for him, as it had previously been discontinued. Following was a scandal involving Brown raising hell in the Raiders front office and even recording a private conversation with Gruden and leaking it, which by the way according to California state laws is illegal if both parties did not consent to recording. eventually brown posted several cryptic messages on social media. 

"You are going to piss a lot of people off when you do what's best for you" and later, simply "Release me.". And that they did. Upon the Raiders cutting Brown he was almost instantly picked up by none other than the New England Patriots which left NFL fans who were sick and tired of seeing Tom Brady kick everyone's tail reeling. Much like a famous NBA player we'll leave unnamed (*cough cough* Kevin Durant), A.B. finessed his way onto a championship winning team and was almost guaranteed a ring. Reports came out that Brown had planned this all along and that media influencers he consulted recommended he pull his little "helmet gate" stunt and cause trouble so as to get cut. Why would he do this? To signed by the New England Patriots of course. Many people saw him as an idiot but in reality his working of the system was closer to a stroke of genius. Not to mention the memes spawned by all the trouble Brown has caused have been some of the funniest all year. They say any publicity is good publicity but I think we all know that isn't the case.

But when you decide to essentially cheat the system life finds a way of getting you back. Shortly after joining the Pats allegations of sexual assault from Brown's former trainer came to light. The accounts were fairly thorough but sadly when you reach a certain status you become seemingly untouchable....for a while that is. Brown went on to play a game and even score a touchdown for the Patriots but as another alleged victim came forth their hand was forced. The Patriots cut Brown and have given little comment about the situation except that they had to do what was best for the franchise. After being cut Brown went on a social media rampage calling out the NFL for having double standards. In his various posts he calls out everyone from Robert Kraft, to Shannon Sharpe, to his former teammate Ben Roethlisberger for their confirmed and alleged instances of sexual misconduct. Now as more allegations unfold Brown has announced he's done playing in the NFL. Is this the end of this PR train wreck? Probably not. If you get the urge to watch Brown continue to make a fool of himself, feel free to drop him a follow on twitter so you can stay up to date on all of his angry posts calling everyone and their dog out. - https://twitter.com/ab84?lang=en