Amazon’s PR campaigns keep blowing up in the company’s face
Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/interface/2020/2/12/21133393/amazon-jay-carney-op-ed-bernie-sanders-jobs-working-conditions
Reported today in The Verge.
Amazon's PR campaigns keep blowing up in the company's face
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A little over a year ago, when Amazon's phony "search" for a site for a second "headquarters" was revealed to be a sham, I noted that for a rich tech giant the company seemed surprisingly tone-deaf. A billion-dollar giveaway to one of the world's biggest corporations caused an outcry with the electorate and their representatives. As a result, the deal that Amazon negotiated for itself in New York City blew up, forcing the company to pay for office space with its own money rather than taxpayers'.
In the aftermath of that debacle, I wondered if the company might be chastened, or even apologetic. Instead, though, it has plowed ahead with the confidence of the god Maui in Moana - and the response to any criticism has been a smug "You're Welcome." The basic idea, borrowed from Steve Jobs-era Apple, is to cow any critics by referring loudly and constantly to the company's successes.
The latest example of Amazons's policymaking through self-congratulation comes from Jay Carney, the company's public relations chief. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Carney reminisces about the time Sen. Bernie Sanders called him to praise Amazon raising its minimum wage to $15. (That's an annual salary of $31,200; meanwhile, CEO Jeff Bezos made $4.1 billion selling Amazon stock in the past 11 days alone.)
The point of this reminiscence is to take credit for doing more than the absolute least that Amazon could do, while attempting to shift the pressure for improving worker conditions back onto members of Congress like Sanders:
We know $15 is not a lot. In fact, we believe $15 shou

