June 23, 2017 nº 1,877 - Vol. 14
"If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you."
Billy Wilder
In today's Law Firm Marketing, How a single word can control your prospects' actions
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Read Migalhas LatinoAmérica in Spanish every Tuesday and Thursday. Visit the website at www.migalhas.com/latinoamerica
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1 - George Clooney's tequila firm Casamigos sells for $1bn - click here.
2 - London mayor calls on UK to retain single market membership after Brexit - click here.
3 - Georgia top court bars doctors from suing state over abortion law - click here.
4 - Apple uses Supreme Court decision to attack Qualcomm - click here.
5 - Petrobras settles U.S. lawsuit with The Vanguard Group - click here.
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China raises heat over foreign investment
Shares in two of China's biggest conglomerates, Fosun International and HNA, fell by about 6% on Thursday, amid rumors that banks had been ordered to assess their loan exposure to them. Reports said the banking regulator had also told lenders to investigate loans to Anbang Insurance, Odeon UK cinema owner Dalian Wanda and Zhejiang Luosen. All five are big overseas investors. China's banking regulator has concerns too about how it's all been funded. The sale of short-term high-return wealth management products is of particular concern. The warning about "systemic risk" sends a message to some of the country's most prominent - and most connected - business leaders.
Ford to move US production of Focus to China
Ford is to move US production of its new Ford Focus car to China in 2019, despite having faced pressure to keep manufacturing jobs in America. The carmaker said the decision would not lead to layoffs in the US. But the move marks another change to its plans for producing the new Focus. The firm in January scrapped plans to move US production to a new $1.6bn plant in Mexico after criticism from Donald Trump. Currently, Ford makes its Focus cars in Michigan, Germany and in China.
Tesla in talks to set up electric car factory in Shanghai
The company said foreign production was needed to make its models more affordable overseas. Its plan for a plant would require a Chinese partner.
How a single word can control your prospects' actions
by Tom Trush
In an experiment described in the book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion," author Robert Cialdini reveals an almost magical mind trick you can easily apply to your marketing message.
In fact, it involves adding only one word to your copy.
The technique is based on the principle that people seek reasons for taking action when you ask them to do something.
As Cialdini explained, Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer demonstrated this fact when she went into a library and attempted to cut in front of several people lined up to use the copier.
During the first test, she used the following appeal: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush?"
This request-plus-reason approach resulted in 94% of the people allowing her to skip ahead in line.
Next, she shortened her request and tested it on another set of people. "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?" she said.
This time only 60% of the people complied.
At first glance, you might suspect the drop in response during the second test was due to the missing phrase "because I'm in a rush"
But Langer made a third request that proved the entire phrase wasn't the difference. Instead, the disparity was a result of a just one word ?- "because."
"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?" she said in her final appeal.
This request resulted in 93% of the people giving up their space in line.
Surprisingly, she experienced this high success rate even though she didn't provide a motive or any extra information that would warrant anyone taking action. All she did was add the word "because" and restate the obvious.
So next time you want to pump up the persuasion in your copy, include the word "because." This simple word acts as a trigger that not only tells your prospects why they should comply, but also increases the likelihood they will take action
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Tom Trush is available at https://www.writewaysolutions.com
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Derrame
Con tres votos a favor y dos en contra, la Segunda Sala de la SCJN de México, amparó a Pemex Refinación contra la resolución de la Sala Especializada en Materia Ambiental y de Regulación del entonces Tribunal Federal de Justicia Fiscal y Administrativa para la reparación del daño por un derrame de hidrocarburo ocurrido en el municipio de Silao, Guanajuato, en el 2014. La Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente (Profepa) en el Estado de Guanajuato estableció que la reparación del daño ambiental la debería atender la petrolera. (Presione aquí)
Inversiones
Braskem SA, la mayor compañía petroquímica de Latinoamérica, invertirá US$ 675 mlls. para construir una sexta planta de producción de polipropileno en Estados Unidos. Braskem espera completar la construcción de la unidad con sede en La Porte, Texas, en el primer trimestre de 2020.
Hospedaje Turismo
Puerto Rico firmó un acuerdo con Airbnb, la plataforma de búsqueda de hospedaje on line, con el cual la empresa recolectará un impuesto por hospedaje a sus anfitriones en la isla y entregará lo recaudado al gobierno del territorio estadounidense, informaron el jueves autoridades. El gobernador Ricardo Rosselló dijo que la recolección empezará en agosto.
Outrage at Republican health bill secrecy
US Democrats are up in arms about secretive Senate Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, with no sign of a bill a week before a crunch vote. Trump's party has been busily crafting a behind-closed-doors healthcare bill without holding any public hearings. A Republican leader says he will present a draft bill on Thursday. The legislation affects affect tens of millions of Americans and a fifth of the US economy. A non-partisan congressional review predicted that version would leave 23 million fewer people insured over the next decade. The House bill would also cut some $800bn from Medicaid - a government health program for the poor. Senators are writing their own version after their colleagues in the House of Representatives passed Obamacare repeal legislation six weeks ago. (Click here)
European Court blasts Russia 'gay propaganda' law
Russia's "gay propaganda" law is discriminatory and encourages homophobia, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. The Strasbourg judges said Russia had discriminated against three gay rights activists who opposed the law. It was adopted in 2013, banning promotion of homosexuality among people under 18. The law "reinforced stigma and prejudice and encouraged homophobia", the ruling said. Gay rights groups condemned the law. Under the law, private individuals deemed to be promoting "homosexual behavior among minors" face fines of up to 5,000 roubles ($85), while officials risk paying 10 times that amount. Businesses and schools can be fined up to 500,000 roubles. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but anti-gay prejudice is rife. Critics see the propaganda law as part of a state campaign to marginalize LGBT activists, whose work includes dissemination of sexual health advice. (Click here)
Missouri AG files suit against three opioid manufacturers
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley filed a lawsuit against three of the largest opioid manufacturers on Wednesday. Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson & Johnson and units of Endo International Plc. are accused of violating consumer protection laws by deliberately and carefully crafting a "campaign of deception." The complaint alleges that the companies employed deceptive trade practices and cited fake research to convince doctors and consumers that their products were safe despite knowing they were addictive and potentially life-threatening. In 2015, 33,000 people nation-wide, including roughly 500 Missourians, died from non-heroin opioid overdoses. Hawley plans to put any monetary compensation won through the suit towards drug rehabilitation and other family services for those who have been impacted by addiction.
Will the law treat opioids more like cigarettes or handguns?
Governments are suing pharmaceutical makers over the opioid epidemic. They'll need to prove that companies borrowed "a page from Big Tobacco's playbook." The abuse of brand-name prescription opioids, such as Purdue's OxyContin and generics like oxycodone, has become a public health crisis. Overdose deaths in the US, including from prescription drugs and heroin, exceeded 33,000 in 2015 (the most recent year for which data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are available), up from 19,000 the year before. One study by Wolters Kluwer Health estimated that costs related to treatment, policing, and lost economic output reach into the tens of billions of dollars a year. At issue in the current wave of litigation is who should pay those societal costs: taxpayers or drug companies? The public officials spearheading the suits compare their cases to those filed by states against major tobacco companies in the 1990s. In court papers, Ohio's attorney general, Mike DeWine, accuses the drug companies of "borrowing a page from Big Tobacco's playbook" by allegedly concealing addiction risks from physicians and patients, much as the tobacco industry for decades obscured the addictive quality of nicotine and the health dangers of smoking.
EU Court: vaccines can be blamed for illnesses without scientific proof
The European Court of Justice ruled Wednesday that vaccines can be blamed for causing illnesses even if there is no scientific proof. The court explained: "In today's judgment, the Court holds that evidentiary rules allowing the court, where there is not certain and irrefutable evidence, to conclude that there is a defect in a vaccine and a causal link between the defect and a disease on the basis of a set of evidence the seriousness, specificity and consistency of which allows it to consider, with a sufficiently high degree of probability, that such a conclusion corresponds to the reality of the situation, are compatible with the Directive. Such evidentiary rules do not bring about a reversal of the burden of proof which it is for the victim to discharge, since that system places the burden on the victim to prove the various elements of his case which, taken together, will provide the court hearing the case with a basis for its conclusion as to the existence of a defect in the vaccine and a causal link between that defect and the damage suffered." (Click here)
Egypt top court halts Red Sea decisions
Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court has temporarily halted decisions regarding a deal to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia until it can establish who has jurisdiction over them. The Egyptian government transferred the two islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia in April 2016, based on the belief that they had always belonged to Saudi Arabia. In June 2016 the transfer was invalidated by a lower court in Cairo but that decision was overturned by a separate court. Last week Egypt's parliament agreed to go through with the plan despite public criticism. Both the Egyptian and Saudi governments say the islands, which have been under Egyptian protection since 1950, are Saudi territory. The Egyptian people, however, are eager for an economic revival after years of political upheaval and believe Egypt's sovereignty over the islands was establish before Saudi Arabia was founded.
Israeli judge says airlines can't reseat women at request of men
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men sometimes refuse to sit next to women — including on planes. Now an Israeli court says airlines cannot ask a person to change seats based on gender. (Click here)
Chagos legal status sent to international court by UN
A dispute between the UK and Mauritius over disputed island territory in the Indian Ocean is to be referred to the International Court of Justice. The UN General Assembly voted by 94 countries to 15 that The Hague should examine the legal status of the Chagos Islands. The former British colony used to be part of Mauritius but was detached in 1965 and is now home to a US airbase. The Foreign Office said it would be an "inappropriate" use of the ICJ.
United States suspends all Brazilian meat imports
The United States has suspended Brazilian meat imports over "recurring concerns about the safety of products intended for the American market". Several countries banned Brazilian meat in March, when prosecutors said health inspectors there had been taking bribes to approve sub-standard meat. The US didn't impose a ban then; instead, it introduced checks on all of Brazil's meat shipments. t says now a significant proportion of Brazilian meat failed safety tests. (Click here)
Trump: 'I did not make, and do not have' recordings of Comey'
After it was leaked that he allegedly asked former FBI Director James Comey for loyalty during a private dinner, the president suggested there may have been "tapes" of their conversations.
Venezuela top court allows investigation of chief prosecutor
Venezuela's Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed an investigation into the country's attorney general, Luisa Ortega, for "alleged commission of serious offenses in the exercise of office." (Click here)
Trump proposes a law that's existed for 20 years
Trump called for a new law barring immigrants from receiving welfare for at least five years at a rally on Wednesday. But neither Trump nor nearly 6,000 of his die-hard supporters seemed to realize that the law has already existed for more than 20 years. Trump received a standing ovation and pledged his administration would put the legislation into effect "very shortly." "I believe the time has come for new immigration rules which say that those seeking admission into our country must be able to support themselves financially and should not use welfare for a period of at least five years," Trump said.
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