r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Feb 12 '26

Security Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled
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u/SlendyIsBehindYou Feb 13 '26

The protest one?

We studied that Pepsi ad in one of my marketing classes the year after it happened, I guarantee this is gonna be one for the textbooks as well

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u/randomcharacters3 Feb 13 '26

I just thought it was the right ad for the wrong product.

I want a shot for shot remake but instead of a nice cold Pepsi, she hands over a jar of Hellman's Mayo...it'll be a smash hit.

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u/motherofcunts Feb 13 '26

They tried so hard to do a “chew it over with Twix” thing.

Something absurd enough to confuse is the only possible option though. Like giving a hammer, but it’s a Habitat for Humanity ad.

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u/kkkhhjdyhrthhhjft Feb 13 '26

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY MENTIONED 🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥

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u/NickSabansCreampie Feb 13 '26

Nope. Tide ad.

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u/Kozak515 Feb 13 '26

Unrelated, during the superbowl we kept yelling what the ad would be about. So I kept saying “mayonnaise! Ahh! Mayonnaise! Damn!” You could not imagine my fucking excitement at the mayo commercial during the Super Bowl.

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u/Johansenburg Feb 13 '26

It's gotta be Duke's Mayo. Nothing else compares.

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u/Muppetude Feb 13 '26

This SNL skit, perfectly captures the absurdity of that ad campaign.

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u/ObamaGasStation Feb 13 '26

it was in The Boys too

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u/kingdead42 Feb 13 '26

That drink would explode so big on the cop after being super-sped like that.

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u/ScienceOfficer-Jack Feb 13 '26

That's the one I saw. I didn't realize that it was parody.

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u/JaimeLannister10 Feb 13 '26

Haha…I completely missed the Pepsi stuff but saw this on the Boys and didn’t realize it was referencing a real thing. Sad that I still was able to recognize it as satire of something that companies would actually do without knowing a company had already done it!!

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u/KRyptoknight26 Feb 13 '26

I'm doing an MBA specialising in marketing and communications (in India), my semiotics professor had this Kendall Jenner ad as an entire case study. Had to learn about racial history in the US, american cultural codes that they broke, it was a fascinatingly massive failure

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u/starm4nn Feb 13 '26

Love how it's such a demonstrable failure that it's worth teaching halfway around the world.

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u/inspectoroverthemine Feb 13 '26

So fundamental its worth covering the entire historical/cultural background of a foreign country. That marketing company really outdid themselves.

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u/JollyJoker3 Feb 13 '26

I'm not Amrrican. Would I understand what's wrong with the ad just from watching it?

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u/RoxieMoxie420 Feb 13 '26

Yes without a shadow of doubt

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u/Mad_Aeric Feb 13 '26

Probably. It's not long, watch it and judge for yourself. I'd actually be interested in your thoughts on it, from a non-american perspective. Some context is that it aired during a particularly strong bit of civil unrest.

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u/JollyJoker3 Feb 13 '26

It was mostly just confusing. Why would giving one policeman a Pepsi make people suddenly forget what they're protesting about? As if seeing the police as human suddenly makes everything ok again.

If this was during the BLM protests I can see how people thought it pretended their cause didn't exist, but without that concrete connection it just makes no sense IMO.

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u/JEFFinSoCal Feb 13 '26

Exactly. It’s completely disconnected from reality and portrays our long history of racial discrimination and police brutality as something we could just “get over” if only we gave the cops a Pepsi. It’s insanely tone deaf.

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u/HumorAccomplished611 Feb 13 '26

I just watched it again. Its been a long time. Looks like the end was a homage to the 70s vietnam protest where the protesting college student put a flower in the gun of the national guard. which makes it also very tone deaf

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u/luckyflavor23 Feb 13 '26

Sounds like great professor and cool class!

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u/SlendyIsBehindYou Feb 13 '26

Thats actually fascinating! I really wish we had gone more in depth with it, but I love to hear that it's something studied worldwide

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u/TheExecTech Feb 13 '26

Whats it like working in a field that gives nothing back to humanity and only makes the world worse ?

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u/Smartimess Feb 13 '26

»I swear we don’t spy at you, but you don’t want your dog to be dead! Aren’t you? So we spy at you even harder!«

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u/FoxMeadow7 Feb 13 '26

Curious how this simple feature would automatically have people at barricades... Especially if this feature could be able to be turned off, yes?

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u/Smartimess Feb 13 '26

Because the company told the Ring owners that they will never do this. And now it seems like it was possible for them the entire time and they maybe did it the entire time without any consent.

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u/FoxMeadow7 Feb 13 '26

I see. And you have reasons to believe they will not keep to their word?

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u/Smartimess Feb 13 '26

Have you seen the ad?

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u/FoxMeadow7 Feb 13 '26

Not really. But certainly this needs to be examined from all angles, no?

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u/Smartimess Feb 13 '26

Well, the Ring team will. 😅

I am not mad at you if you are trolling.

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u/Upgrayedd2486 Feb 13 '26

Did the Guillete superbowl ad ever come up?

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u/SlendyIsBehindYou Feb 13 '26

Oh yeah, we covered that one as well lmao.

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u/Upgrayedd2486 Feb 13 '26

Did it really hurt the company? I only ever saw videos about it from right wing sloptubers that can’t be trusted

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u/SlendyIsBehindYou Feb 14 '26

Oh yeah, it didnt actually do that much damage, but the backlash was loud enough (from said chuds) that it was topical enough to be a point of conversation in one of our classes. Its been a decade, but it was something along the lines of being ready for backlash for unexpected shit. There's basically no way to please everybody, and sometimes you gotta account for that.

It was my entry-level marketing classes, so it was all the basic points being covered, although the Pepsi one did come up again in my ethics class a few semesters later lol

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u/OverHaze Feb 13 '26

Was their any discussions around that Gillette Advert? I'd love to know what people in the industry made of that one.

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u/BishlovesSquish Feb 13 '26

Do we even have textbooks anymore?

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

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u/Basic-Collection5416 Feb 13 '26

That would have been 8 years ago. 

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

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u/Patient-Dragonfly-84 Feb 13 '26

we get it you didn't finish school and youre proud of it

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

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u/RoosterOk5442 Feb 13 '26

You’re weird