Kaitlin McCready

I think his appeal is super simple—he’s for something and has a clear vision for it. Best leaders focus on what they’re for, not against.

They’re continuing to be very clear about who they are. Now we need to stop normalizing it.

Mission Unclear What Trump’s war announcement reveals about a common communications mistake. Plus: Ryan Gosling gives us hope for humanity (maybe?).

The messaging is so all over the place and at the same time not saying anything.

Would love to see fewer polls on “do you approve of this war?” And more of “what do you think the goal of the war is?”

We are all Janet Flitchen

CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar t...

New from 404 Media: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples' movements, according to an internal DHS document. Shows for the first time DHS tracked phones via process for putting ads in ordinary apps—video games, fitness apps, many more www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-i...

Real question: do they think we live in caves? Do they think we're unaware that ranked choice voting exists (successfully) in other places and adds real value?

@axios.com @samallard.bsky.social

www.axios.com/local/clevel...

Mission Unclear What Trump’s war announcement reveals about a common communications mistake. Plus: Ryan Gosling gives us hope for humanity (maybe?).

"When the action starts before the objective is clear, the narrative gets written by everyone else."

readtrustissues.substack.com/p/mission-un...

I continue to be bewildered by the lack of an objective in the messaging. But to not see it in a letter to the very people who are supposed to execute something without an objective is disturbing.

Credit to the comms team here—this is brilliant narrative framing.

They needed to contextualize "why now." This accomplishes that while also dismissing accountability.

But it won't be effective bc it's too late—it wasn't part of the initial messaging from the President, so now it seems defensive.

This is amazing.

www.getyourfuckingmoneyback.com

Yesterday I had a Lyft driver who told me he was desperately trying to get a job with Amazon for the health benefits, even though he know it would make his health worse.

He was desperate because he went from paying nothing for health insurance to paying $303/month in January.

Co-sign this

Your team is AWESOME.

I'm joining a Run for Something candidate call tonight at 8 p ET.

Can't think of a better way to pregame for the State of the Union.

@amandalitman.bsky.social @runforsomething.net

I’m a communications pro. I took a job in public sector exactly because of what you’re talking about—how people experience government IS communications!

Glad to finally have an end to one of the truly dumbest episodes in a while

Now THIS is how you write a headline.

1 Brief
2 Contextual
3 Intention-oriented

Mia Valentina Paz Faria A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas Detained for 70 days “I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by @micarosenberg et al for ProPublica:

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.

Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

Why should I believe you? Anthropic's Super Bowl ad staked its position on a promise to be different. I once made a similar promise—and I watched it come undone on live TV. Plus: The other Super Bowl ads I noticed.

Anthropic's Super Bowl ad established how it's different from OpenAI. Its critics already are calling that Anthropic won't be able to deliver.

I once made a brand promise to be different—and I watched it fall apart on live TV.

I learned a lot from the hardest day in my career:

Prominent climate scientist argues it's time to ditch the 'myth of neutrality' | CBC Radio Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe talks to Bob McDonald about the polarization of science and why she thinks scientists should stop pretending to be neutral when it's our planet at risk.

“Scientists should stop trying to be neutral and instead embrace their values,”says a group of top climate scientists, including @katharinehayhoe.com. The neutrality myth is harming the reputation of science right when we need it most.” #ClimateCrisis

Science isn’t neutral. It’s science.

It just reminded me that the bald eagle is essentially a mascot for big government and environmental regs since it prob wouldn’t exist anymore if it wasn’t for EPA. So yeah.

I can’t stop thinking about how Redfin/Rocket Mortgage believe we need to both 1 buy a house and 2 endure a tragedy to build relationships with neighbors

I think Amazon just confirmed the average person's greatest fears about AI with that Alexa ad.

Budweiser ad is a great opportunity to recall the reason we still have bald eagles at all is thanks to big government intervention.

MAGA: Yeah, Greenland!

Also MAGA: Get Puerto Rico out of the Super Bowl halftime show.

Depressing that Redfin / Rocket Mortgage think we need to both buy a home and endure a tragedy to build relationships with neighbors

Angry Italians boo American athletes and JD Vance at Winter Olympics While spirits were high throughout the opening ceremony, when Team USA marched through the stadium, they were met with a chorus of boos from furious Italian fans inside.

But the booing was not audible as I watched live.

Did I just miss it or is the media in its “sharpening the lens of the reality distortion” era?

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/winter...

Good time to remind people that being an illegal immigrant is a civil offense. Not a criminal one.

"Nothing is true and everything is possible." And yet we are willing to trust a random person with a phone over the government. Plus: why are people more mad at Tim Cook than other business leaders?

“In the age of manufactured imagery that at best confuses people and at worst ruins lives, this matters. We still possess the ability to trust individual people and discern reality from theater, in spite of reasons that would seem to make this task impossible.”

These corporate responses are falling flat in part bc the people making them are also leaders in their own right—and they’d never run their biz like this.

Make it a business convo. If I were the comms staff, I’d frame w/ “this isn’t working bc the actions don’t align with the org’s stated goals.”