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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday – September 3, 2026: Dead. Locked.
For the last several weeks, the media has been obsessing over the case of Lindsay Clancy, a mother who admits to killing her three young children.
There’s no argument that Clancy killed her children: the only question is whether she should be convicted of murder or acquitted because she committed these acts while suffering from postpartum psychosis.
The defense has put on a compelling argument: Lindsay asked for help and didn’t get it. She never would have done this if she were in her right mind, etc.
The jury appears to be somewhat swayed by the arguments. As of this evening, they said they were deadlocked as to whether or not to find her guilty of murder. Many women have come out in support of Lindsay, saying they, took have suffered from postpartum depression and believe this should be taken into account.
Here’s the problem, though. It’s estimated that nearly half a million women a year suffer from serious postpartum depression. Postpartum psychosis occurs in 1-2 cases per thousand women. Yet very few of these people harm their children—let alone murder three of them!
If everyone who suffered from some sort of serious mental problem went around killing their loved ones, we would have a serious breakdown of society. But, thankfully, that doesn’t happen.
Yet in today’s world, it appears violence and even murder can be condoned for the “right” reasons…such as Luigi Mangione gunning down the CEO of United Healthcare.
Mangione pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and will likely serve a long sentence. Lindsay Clancy will either spend the rest of her life in jail or in a mental treatment facility. But as a society we have to be clear that there are rules that must be followed, and when they’re not, there are serious consequences.
The jury may be deadlocked. But the verdict on society for recognizing violent crime and punishing it must be clear: If we allow these kind of crimes to go unpunished, we are guilty of not punishing violent criminal acts when they occur. And that’s not a pattern we want to be locked into.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – August 27, 2026: End of an Era
This week, in less than 24 hours, we lost two generational performers. . . the singer Dolly Parton and the actor/musician Tim Curry.
Those of us of a certain age grew up with these two incredible talents. Dolly Parton made country music accessible to a wider audience, took us along for the 9 to 5 ride, and even had her own amusement park. What I didn’t realize was what a prolific song writer she was—writing more than 3000 songs, nearly half of which have never been commercially released.
But beyond that, Dolly was incredibly generous—sending millions of books to school children and funding the development of one of the key COVID vaccines. And she never took herself too seriously.
Tim Curry threw convention to the wind with his incredible portrayal of Dr. Frank-n-Furter, the “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transvlyania” in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
But that was only one role. Curry’s credits range from Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island to King Arthur in Spamalot, and included roles in Annie, Clue, and Home Alone, as well as playing Mozart in the film Amadeus.
Yet behind the scenes, their off-screen lives were stressful. Dolly was the main caregiver for her husband of more than 60 years before his passing. Curry suffered a major stroke 14 years ago, which left him partially paralyzed, but didn’t stop him from continuing to do voiceover work.
In a world where celebrities come and go quickly, these two outstanding talents created amazing performances for decades that will be remembered decades into the future.
I imagine they’re working on a duet right now: “Let’s do the time warp again, Jolene!”
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – August 20, 2026: Culling the Flock
The furor in America continues to build dramatically. Not about gas prices or affordability. Not about tainted lettuce at Taco Bell. Not even about UFOs or data centers. No, the greatest threat to democracy today has been declared to be . . . . Flock cameras.
If you haven’t been following this, Flock Safety has deployed somewhere around 100,000 devices across the US that use cameras, image recognition, and machine learning software to identify license plates, quickly locate gunfire, and provide video surveillance.
The concern is that these devices are causing dangerous intrusion into personal privacy. This has reached near-hysteria due to recent revelations that in at least 12 states, a number of police officers—who are the audience these devices are intended to help—have made unauthorized use of the devices to track their own personal targets. In one case, an officer in Massachusetts is accused of accessing Flock cameras hundreds of times to track his estranged wife’s location. In Milwaukee, an internal affairs officer supposedly tracked 10 individuals who were not under criminal investigation—while investigating the inappropriate use of technology by other officers.
Flock says the cameras store only limited information for a finite amount of time, and that they have been responsible for catching all kinds of criminals and solving cases that would have gone cold without this technology.
While there’s no question there has been unacceptable abuse, it’s not clear why the anger is directed at Flock and not at the local jurisdictions who have allowed their police officers to misuse the system without repercussions. It’s likely not the first technology to be misused by bad actors, nor will it be the last. Perhaps we should be asking why these abuses were allowed to continue for so long unabated? Where are the safeguards in the law enforcement community to note these abuses and put a stop to them?
Flock is facing a PR nightmare right now. They’ve already announced they are limiting the time any collected data can be stored (and they never store names or personal data—only license plate numbers, which are public information). It behooves the company to come up with a system that uses their AI technology to look for patterns that might suggest abuse and flag these to customers sooner rather than later.
But for those who believe vandalizing these cameras will solve the lack of privacy problem, let me remind you of something you may find more disturbing:
There are currently 100,000 Flock cameras deployed in the US, but more than 300 million smart phones in use by over 90% of the American population today. We voluntarily use these devices to share much more data (including location, personal information, and financial data) on an ongoing basis—and much of that data is stored and used by third parties to target messages to users.
Are those upset by license plate readers looking at culling the wrong flock?
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – August 13, 2026: Bait and Switch
This week, we learned that Donald Trump’s exit from Turkey last month was not on the older Air Force One jet, as previously reported, but on an alternative Air Force plane he was secreted into from a nearby catering truck.
It appears that intelligence sources believed the threat to the US president was significant enough to warrant making not one but two switches in aircraft to safely leave Turkey. However, the incident raises a several important questions.
First, to complete the charade, most of the president’s entourage—including the Secretaries of State and Treasury, the press secretary, and the entire press contingent—were left on the targeted plane. A few close confidants accompanied Trump to the third Air Force jet. But those left onboard Air Force One must be wondering why their lives were considered much more expendable than those of the few who left with Trump.
Second, while the switch may seem worthy of James Bond, why were we told about it? This worked specifically because no one was aware it was happening. Not only will it never work again, but any other similar tactic will be more likely to be exposed. It’s kind of like finding the perfect hiding place for Hide and Seek, and then broadcasting it over social media. So much for that secret.
Third, how did we let ourselves get in this position to start? Perhaps accepting a $400 million jet (the first plane considered vulnerable) as a gift from another sovereign nation was not such a great idea.
Let’s hope we don’t see this kind of switch happening again any time soon.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com