Amazon boss is out of this world

Last night Jeff Bezos arrived back on Earth, at least physically, totally ignoring the 165,000 people who signed a petition for him to stay in space.

His comments on landing were typically out-of-this-world, including thanks to Amazon workers who “paid for all of this”.

This is a level of tone-deafness that is a) astonishing b) normal for him.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez replied: “Yes, Amazon workers did pay for this – with lower wages, union busting, a frenzied and inhumane workplace, and delivery drivers not having health insurance during a pandemic.”

The merits of billionaires faffing about in space we’ll leave to others, but it did emerge very recently that some Amazon workers don’t have time for toilet breaks and instead urinate into plastic bottles.

Bezos probably did the same in his rocket, in fairness.

What’s interesting here is the emergence of a new class of company and executive that is totally immune/indifferent to press or popular opinion.

Bezos, Elon Musk and others do the very opposite of public relations, and it seems to do them and their businesses no harm whatsoever.

If you’re in PR, perhaps that is troubling.

There are whiffs of this approach from the new tech companies now listing in London.

Questions that companies would normally answer as a matter of routine are brushed aside.

The stance is this: We don’t feel like telling you, so we’re not going to.

So far, it is hard to argue that this approach is causing them undue difficulties.