November 11, 2024
Elon Musk's Kodak moment
By
Don Wilkie
Years ago, Kodak, a long-forgotten company that was once the superpower of photographic film, came up with a brilliant marketing phrase: “The Kodak Moment.” There are very few marketing phrases that withstand the test of time. “The Kodak Moment,” however, made it into the American lexicon: “an occasion suitable for memorializing with a photograph.”
No one could have imagined or foretold that mighty Kodak would one day be relegated to the “dustbin of history.” It was all because of a change in the marketplace. The Goliath of film was slain by a tiny David: a 4” phone that took digital pictures.
Fast forward to 2022. Elon Musk bought 100% of Twitter for cash. Twitter was all his and he could do anything he wanted with it. One of the first things he did was to examine the extent of government influence. The ensuing “Twitter Files” made clear that Twitter had been an arm of the federal government. It had been used to reinforce government positions and squash dissenting opinions. Twitter censorship got so bad that a former president, Donald Trump, was banned from its pages.