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Geopolitics

P.R. Nightmare: Porn Star Luka Magnotta And His “Killer Beer”

A little lesson in what not to do when a porn star killer posts a photo of himself on Facebook drinking a bottle of your delicious beer.

The Labatt/Magnotta debacle prompted an outpouring of sarcastic responses on Twitter (DennisVanStaalduinen)
The Labatt/Magnotta debacle prompted an outpouring of sarcastic responses on Twitter (DennisVanStaalduinen)

BERLIN - Somewhere in Canada, Charlie Angelakos, marketing head of the Labatt beer brand, may have just faced the most uncomfortable meeting he ever had with his bosses. Because his department made one, but crucial, mistake: it tried to get the Montreal Gazette to take down a picture on its site featuring Luka Rocco Magnotta, porn actor and alleged murderer, holding a bottle of Labatt Blue beer.

Angelakos asked that "in view of the nature of the story" the picture be removed and another, Labatt-less picture of the alleged killer be used – and promptly unleashed a galloping case of what is known as the "Streisand effect."

According to this rule, asking for the removal of any reference or image, particularly online, automatically engenders the high-profile publicity you hoped to avoid by asking for removal – indeed much more publicity than you would have faced if nothing had been undertaken. What's more, because it's online, it hangs around for much longer than anything in the print or visual media would.

Magnotta, dubbed the "Canadian psycho," is suspected of having killed a Chinese student, cut up his body, and sent the parts out in parcels by mail. The alleged killer, having fled Canada, was arrested in an Internet café in Berlin.

Essentially, albeit unwittingly, Angelakos has cemented Labatt beer, for the foreseeable future anyway, in the minds of consumers as "killer beer." The photo has now been copied thousands of times, posted on blogs, featured in media reports. And tweeters are going crazy outdoing each other on #newlabattcampaign with snappy lines such as: "I'd give an arm and a leg for a Labatt."

Read the full article in German by Benedikt Fuest

Photo - DennisVanStaalduinen

*This is a digest item, not a direct translation

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Society

Shakira, Miley Cyrus And The Double Standards Of Infidelity

Society judges men and women very differently in situations of adultery and cheating, and in divorce settlements. It just takes some high-profile cases to make that clear.

Photo of Bizarrap and Shakira for their song “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”
Mariana Rolandi

-Analysis-

BUENOS AIRES — When Shakira, the Colombian pop diva, divorced her soccer star husband Gerard Piqué in 2022, she wrote a song to overcome the hurt and humiliation of the separation from Piqué, who had been cheating on her.

The song, which was made in collaboration with Argentine DJ Bizarrap and broke streaming records, was a "healthy way of channeling my emotions," Shakira said. She has described it as a "hymn for many women."

A day after its launch, Miley Cyrus followed suit with her own song on her husband's suspected affairs. Celebrities and influencers must have taken note here in Argentina: Sofía Aldrey, a makeup artist, posted screenshots of messages her former boyfriend had sent other women while they were a couple.

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