Morning Brew Daily - Wall St. Thirsts For Tariff Refunds & AI ‘Workslop’ Costs Millions

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Episode 678: Neal and Toby talk about why some Wall St. firms are hoping the Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariffs which could lead to a massive influx of refunds. Then, AI was meant to increas...e productivity when, actually, it causes more work than necessary. Also, China takes its soy-buying business from the US to Argentina, causing some pain to US farmers. Meanwhile, Neal shares his favorite numbers on an Instagram milestone, Broadway musicals, and the Ryder Cup.  You can try reMarkable Paper Pro Move for 100 days for free. If it’s not what you’re looking for, get your money back. Get your paper tablet at https://www.remarkable.com today Get your MBD live show tickets here! https://www.tinyurl.com/MBD-HOLIDAY Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠  Watch Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Many employees can't afford a hefty medical bill that pops up out of the blue, but it happens. And employees who are financially stressed are, understandably, more likely to be distracted at work, costing their employers greatly in lost productivity. Luckily, AFLAQ plans help with out-of-pocket expenses not covered by health insurance and can be offered at no direct cost to businesses. Learn more at aflac.com slash morningbrewerdaily. That's aflack.com slash morning brew daily. Good morning brew daily show. Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, American soybean farmers are scrambling after being snubbed by their
Starting point is 00:00:38 biggest customer. Then AI Workslop is giving employees headaches and costing businesses millions. It's Thursday, September 25th. Let's ride. Man, it feels good to be back. Toby, thanks to you and Kyle for holding down the fort while I gorge myself on apples and honey. You know, over the last few days, I had some downtime. And all I could think about was how excited I am for our holiday party coming up in December. There are already hundreds of you signed up to come. And after today, there's going to be a lot more. Yes, Neil, that's because we've been in the pre-sale portion of selling tickets, but now the sale is open to everyone. As a reminder, this event has the potential to be the greatest evening of business news you can have with your clothes on. You'll hear us relive some shows from the past year,
Starting point is 00:01:27 play some games, and most importantly, meet Neil, myself, and hundreds of other MBD listeners in person. Even if you don't live in New York City, I'd say this is worth a trek to Brooklyn. for. So yes, pre-sale period is over. The sale is now open to absolutely everyone. And you can sign up for tickets by heading to the link in the show description. Go pause the show. Give it a click right now, and we will see you all there. And now a word from our sponsor, Remarkable, Neil, do you feel like more of a writer or a texter? What's the difference? Writers have prestige, a sense of craftsmanship, and they're more present than just typing away at their phones all day. Sounds to me like someone's jealous that I have all these friends texting me. I'm not jealous because one, those are spam,
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Starting point is 00:02:56 and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 premium and a year of Xbox GamePass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox Wireless Controller. Learn more at Windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last ends June 30th terms at AKA.m.m.m.m.m.m. Wall Street has found a new way to potentially make money off of Trump's tariffs that is risky, but has some asimestric upside. Investors have begun buying up claims to tariff refunds from American companies that have been hit with Trump's
Starting point is 00:03:26 import duties. The idea is importers have been dutifully paying their customs import fees, but may be entitled to refunds if the Supreme Court ultimately rules that some of the tariffs Trump pass are unconstitutional. But since that is still a big if hedge funds and investment firms have been offering up cash at a discount of the claims value. For example, if an importer paid $50 million in reciprocal tariffs, an investment firm might buy the refund claim for $10 million or about 20% of its face value. But not all tariffs are the same or carry the same risk of being overturned. Trump's first set of tariffs announced in February on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada tied to the fentanyl crisis, are considered a lot more legally durable, so investors
Starting point is 00:04:12 are only paying about five cents on the dollar for those claims. His second set, the so-called Liberation Day tariffs that were first announced in April, are viewed as more vulnerable in court, making those refund rights fetching closer to 20 cents on the dollar. So, Neil, investors are dipping a toe into buying these tariff refund claims for pennies on the dollar, hoping for a massive payout if some Supreme Court decisions fall their way. While importers are happy to have a little cash in their pockets now rather than hope for a refund, there really is a market for anything and everything. It really is the rights to tariff refunds. I think we've seen it all, and I'm expecting a Michael Lewis book and subsequent movie starring Steve Carell coming soon.
Starting point is 00:04:52 There is so much money at stake here. The United States government has been bringing in so much money through these tariffs. They have brought in $80 billion through June 30th that are subject to these particular, that could be subject to refund. So there is so much money at stake here. The United States government through June 30th has brought in $80 billion in connection with these particular emergency tariffs and Apollo, a big private equity firm, estimates that right now the United States government is bringing in $350 billion in tariffs annualized, which corresponds to 18% of annual household income tax. payment. So even if the Supreme Court invalidates these tariffs and orders refunds, the government is
Starting point is 00:05:38 going to fight tooth and nail in order to, you know, prevent these refunds from going out, which is why we're seeing this particular price being placed on these refunds. Why would a company sell their right to a refund, though, because there is a lot of money at play. Why wouldn't you just sit on your haunches? Hope the Supreme Court strikes it down and take a lot more money down the line. It's kind of like a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush right now. Legal challenges are very, very slow to move. Government is going to drag this process out for sure. And immediate cash does cushion some of these current tariff losses that you're taking. A lot of these businesses are paying far more money and import fees than they have in the past. And they're having a Wall
Starting point is 00:06:16 Street firm come to them and say, hey, we're not going to pay you the full amount, but we'll pay you some cash right now. And some people are looking at that check and saying, absolutely, I don't think that these are ever going to, I'm never going to see these. I need the cash now. I need to stay in business now. So yes, I will take your money right now. That is why companies are selling their rights to a refund. Yeah, the Washington Post talked to an executive or just the leader of a maker of drawstring bags. And he's paying an extra $75,000 on each shipping container from China and $50,000 extra on goods from Cambodia because of the tariffs. He's had to cut his workforce from nine employees to just three. So it's kind of just a mom and pop operation at this point.
Starting point is 00:06:56 He's paying so much money in tariffs. And then you got Wall Street coming to him. saying, yeah, I'll pay you a couple million dollars here to cushion the blow. And if you're looking at the, you know, the court landscape and how long these legal challenges might take to wind through or you'll actually receive your refund payments, it's just a huge if. And you're seeing a check in front of you right now. So it's very understandable why these importers would take this deal. Now, is this going to happen? Is the Supreme Court going to strike down some of these tariffs? There is certainly a possibility. Scott Bassett, this Treasury Secretary said that he's confident in Trump's tariff, but said that if the court says it will have to do it, that's in
Starting point is 00:07:34 reference to paying half the tariff revenue they've collected back to importer. So he's definitely saying that it would cause a massive disruption. It wouldn't be good for America, but there is a very real risk that if the Supreme Court rules one way, especially on these a little bit more legally tenuous tariffs that were applied reciprocally to basically the entire world. There are some a lot more legally sound tariffs. Section 230, for instance, requires a lengthy reverse. view process into certain industries like steel that will be able to stand up to court. But some of the ones that Trump kind of passed down through executive emergency action, that's where you're seeing a little bit less stable footing.
Starting point is 00:08:13 And that's why you're seeing a real fund, a real risk of a refund. Oral arguments for this begin on November 5th. Both sides, both the government and the company's challenges in court want an expedited ruling. So there's just clarity. If you've ever received an email from a colleague that can tell you. a few too many m-dashes and far too many uses of the word delve. You might have been on the receiving end of Workslop. Coined in the Harvard Business Review by researchers from Stanford and Better Up Labs,
Starting point is 00:08:41 Workslop is the new term for AI-generated content that looks polished but lacks substance and usually ends up creating more work for others. Consider this example. I send Neil a message about what I think we should cover on the show, but I use an LLM with suggest stories that are a week out of date. Neil is left with a few options, all of them bad. He can call me out, which is awkward because we're a co-hosts. He can ask someone else to look for stories like producer Ray, but then that's just more work
Starting point is 00:09:08 for Ray, or he can do it himself, which is more work for Neil. When I toss a little work slop out there, what I'm really doing is transferring effort downstream from the sender me to the receiver, Neil. And that has real costs on a business. The researchers took a survey of over 1,000 U.S. employees, and 40% said they had it in encountered work slop in the last month. Respondents also said they were wasting nearly two hours on correcting, debugging, or redoing each instance of work slop they encountered.
Starting point is 00:09:38 And based on a self-reported salaries, that comes out to about $186 a month in wasted effort, which, when you scale it to an organization of $10,000, totals $9 million wasted dollars a year. Neil, AI is supposed to be making people more productive, not less. What is going on here? Well, these researchers are trying to square a circle. here because they're looking at a couple of stats and trying to figure out what's going on here. So according to Gallup, AI use has doubled at work since 2023 from 21% to 40%. So a lot more people are using AI at work.
Starting point is 00:10:11 However, an MIT Media Lab report found that 95% of organizations don't see a measurable return on their investment in AI, despite $30 to $40 billion in enterprise investment into generative AI. So they're seeing so many people are using AI at work and it seems helpful on the surface. But then 95 out of 100 organizations aren't seeing any return. So what is going on here? And they think they've identified at least one of the primary factors. And that is the proliferation of workshop that imposes a lot of cost. It's not beneficial. It imposes a lot of costs. And the cost does have a dollar amount because it is just wasted time. If I'm giving you work that you have to go then do yourself, that is time that you could be spent doing other stuff and that's wasted time for you.
Starting point is 00:10:55 then maybe a more insidious cost is the fact that it just arose trust and reputation of people within a business. 50% of senders see people who send them workshop as less creative, capable, and 37% see them as less intelligent. And one third say they're less likely to work with that colleague again. So if someone sends you something that is clearly AI generated, over time, you're just not going to respect that person, which creates all sorts of issues in an organization. you need to be able to collaborate. You need to be able to trust your fellow employees. So that is probably even a bigger cost in the actual dollar amount assigned to that wasted work.
Starting point is 00:11:33 And the researchers say this is a direct result of AI being mandated by employers to use for everything. I know I've talked to friends who say that their bosses or even higher up in the organization, say for every single email you sent, you need to put it through AI first. Before any time you do a personal reflection or any sort of mid-year report or full-year report on something, thing, you need to put it into AI. It feels like there's this top-down mandate to use AI, but instead, and that's leading to a lot of works out because employees are just being told to do this by their bosses. So they're just following orders, but instead it should be maybe more piecemeal, more targeted. These researchers say, be more specific about when AI use is appropriate.
Starting point is 00:12:15 Treat AI output as that of an untrained intern that makes factual and stylistic errors. Just always be skeptical of and don't send it along unless. you've checked it for first, and then finally, use AI to polish work, not to create it. Moving on, the soybean harvest has gotten underway in the Midwest, but there's just one problem. The biggest customer is MIA. China has not placed any orders this fall for American soybeans, none. And that's extremely concerning because in a typical year, more than half of the soybeans grown in the U.S. are sent to China, its largest buyer.
Starting point is 00:12:50 Without any Chinese purchases, farmers in states like North Carolina, North Dakota and Iowa fear of a financial wipeout that echoes the widespread bankruptcies of the 1980s that gutted rural America. One North Dakota farmer told the New York Times that this is the first time in the farm's 76-year-old operation that China has stopped buying soybeans, which will cause it to lose $400,000 this year. China's snub of U.S. soybeans is directly related to the trade war. After President Trump slapped tariffs on China back in February, China raised tariffs on American soybeans to 34 percent, making them pricey. than other producers like Brazil. Beyond the tariff, American farmers believe that China has stopped ordering U.S. soybeans altogether as a negotiating tactic to win concessions from the White House. Toby, for decades, the U.S. has grown its soybean infrastructure in order to directly supply
Starting point is 00:13:39 China, the world's biggest buyer of the crop. Now the rug has been pulled from under them, and there are no good solutions. I really want to call out Iowa here, too, because the hot guys are getting wrecked by this. Iowa soybean market is almost $6 billion a year. And the knock-on effects from China not buying soybeans from Iowa are huge because you have all the manufacturers that supply industrial ag equipment to soybean farmers, John Deere, Vermeer. Then you have crop insurance as a huge business in Iowa as well. They are going to start losing business and then just the logistics that make the entire operation work, the processors, the rail, the storage facilities. These all depend on consistent revenue coming in from China. And Iowa State economist Chad Hart said, we've built our entire production.
Starting point is 00:14:23 system around China's demand. If that disappears, it's hard to replace. They're seeing just how frail that decision was because, yeah, if your buyer goes missing, what are you supposed to do? Yeah. So where's China buying soybeans from, if not the United States? Because you know they're buying soybeans. There's a lot of mouths to feed over there. Well, they're buying from Brazil. So let's take a quick history lesson for many decades. The U.S. was the leading exporter of soybeans, but Brazil came on very strong. And in 2013, Brazil over took. the U.S. in soybean shipments for the first time and then have just expanded their market share till now. And with China drawing down its purchases of the United States, it's really ramping up
Starting point is 00:15:05 its purchases from Brazil. And from January through August, Brazil set a record for shipments to China. So that's where China is turning toward, it's not just Brazil, but also Argentina. So it's really boosting the South American agriculture economy at the expense of American farmers. So what is going to be the knock on effects from this even further? I did mention storage. Farmers are going to have to sit on a lot of these unsold beans. It's going to put a lot of stress on there because there's only so much space you can have for, you know, storing soybeans. And then also there's, again, chatter about a potential farm bailout being floated.
Starting point is 00:15:40 A similar thing happened back in the 2018 trade war. So you might be seeing some more push for that because, again, this is a very large industry within the U.S. If you lose your biggest buyer, then you've got to find out a way to, you know, help these farmers. survive. So this is just a geopolitical story, though. China's cozying up to, you know, those bricks nations, Brazil and Argentina. It does feel like this is about to be, you know, ground zero for debate around trade policy is now Iowa soybean fields. We're going to take a quick break and come back with some news numbers. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way big.
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Starting point is 00:16:46 That's why Ali's science back support is made with a blend of melatonin and L. theanine for both kiddos and grownups. So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help. You're racing thoughts and restless nights. won't stand a chance. Find Ollie sleep solutions for the whole family at Ollie.com. That's OLLLY.com. Welcome to Neal's numbers, the segment where I share three stats from the week's news that will make you the friend who says, well, actually, my first number is $3 billion, which is how many monthly users Instagram now has. So if you're not getting any
Starting point is 00:17:23 so if you're not getting any engagement on your reels, it's not because there aren't people out there to like them. For META, which announced the milestone yesterday, Instagram becomes the third app in its pantheon to reach 3 billion users joining Facebook and WhatsApp. But Instagram's rise in particular will go down in the business history books. Back in 2012, Facebook bought the startup photo sharing app for $1 billion in a deal many criticized as way overpriced. These days, it's considered one of the savviest acquisitions ever as Instagram's become one of the most popular consumer apps of all time. To stay relevant and keep growing, Instagram has evolved from a feed of square personal photos in the face of competition from TikTok and to a lesser extent Snapchat. More than 50%
Starting point is 00:18:06 of the time people spend on Instagram now involves watching videos, most of which are made by people you don't even follow. And private messages have largely replaced sharing to the public feed. Instagram says DMs are the most popular way people share on the app, followed by stories in second place. Toby, whether you want to call it adapting to changing trends or blatantly ripping off competitors. Instagram has defied the critics time and time again to become Meta's crown jewel. It's an absolute wagon, but it has absolutely evolved over time as well. Adam Aseri, the head of Instagram said at MetaConnect, people think of us. They think of a feed of square photos, but that's just not how people use Instagram and hasn't been for a long time.
Starting point is 00:18:45 To reflect those changes, Instagram is trying to tweak its app a little bit. They're moving messaging and reels more front and center. And they were also doing some of these tests in India, when you open Instagram and automatically opens two reels, basically trying to take on TikTok directly, rather than seeing your friend's baby photos anymore. It is trying to say, like, hey, short-firm video is the future. Let's just make it the whole app at this point. There's been a lot of backlash to that
Starting point is 00:19:11 because it is not the Instagram of old, but when you look at the actual data, that's what you're spending time on Instagram doing. So they're going to test this in India and South Korea. And then another way they're trying to tweak their product a little bit to change with the times is that you're going to be able to type in directly keywords or topics that you want to see in your algorithm. And this is kind of what TikTok also pioneers is the concept that this is my algorithm.
Starting point is 00:19:37 This is the kind of stuff that I want to see in Instagram is following in that footsteps. So the very explicit way to get the content you see right in your face when you open up the app. For my next number, the Broadway musical impressive as a third date, less impressive from a financial perspective. According to the New York Times, none of the 18 commercial musicals that opened on Broadway last season have made any money, revealing a deep slump at the epicenter of American musical theater. Unprofitability is afflicting new shows and revivals alike. New musicals like Tammy Faye, Boop and Smash have flamed out, but old classics cabaret, gypsy, and sunset boulevard have also failed to break even. There are 500, 25,600 reasons to be worried. Andrew Lloyd Weber, who is doing his part by writing Phantom and Cats,
Starting point is 00:20:24 said, Broadway is not a business anymore. The statistics are terrible. I'm very worried. I look at the economics of this, and I just don't see how it can sustain. Broadway has a deep bench of musicals that continue to play to pack theaters. Hamilton is enjoying a resurgence as audiences embrace the cringe. Wicked got a boost from a two-partner movie, and Disney stalwarts, Lion King, and Aladdin continue to chug along. But finding the next Hamilton or Wicked is proving to be a daunting challenge of the 46 new musicals that have opened on Broadway since the pandemic, just three are profitable. Tobias, Sir Andrews said the economics of Broadway just aren't adding up.
Starting point is 00:21:01 Yeah, this is a business at the end of the day, and every single input cost has gotten more expensive over time. Labor is more expensive. Materials are more expensive. Rent, vendors, everything just costs more money these days. You can open a musical now. You used to be able to open it for around like $15, $20 million. Now it's costing $30 million plus.
Starting point is 00:21:21 And then at the same time that costs are rising, ticket prices aren't rising. The average Broadway musical ticket was $127 last season. That's only up 3.25% since pre-pandemic era. So that is not rising in line with inflation because people are very price-endatives to the top musicals, like you mentioned, Hamilton, Wicked Lion King. They can't charge whatever they want. But Tammy Fay can't raise prices above $130 before people just stop wanting to go. So it is a power law where the rich are getting richer. The best musicals are still charging whatever they want, but everyone else can't.
Starting point is 00:21:56 Sure doesn't feel like the tickets are saying the same, but I suppose the data show something different. There is a sector of Broadway that's doing really well, and that is plays. Seven plays that opened last Broadway season were profitable, ones that have a ton of star power. Good night and good luck, which had George Clooney, Othello, which had Denzo Washington, and Jake Jillon Hall. They all broke box office reference records, but the problem with plays is that, first of all, they're just not as good as musicals. And second of all, they just don't last as long. There's only so long you can keep Denzel Washington going on stage night after night after night. So it doesn't turn into one of these years-long or decades-long blockbusters like a wicked Aladdin or Lion King.
Starting point is 00:22:38 So, yeah, times are tough on Broadway. There's going to be two new musicals opening in the fall. And I would be doing my part to keep musical theater alive in America. My final number is $30,000, which is how much some Long Island homeowners are charging on Airbnb and VRBO for four nights this weekend. It's because of the Ryder Cup. The U.S. versus Europe golfing slugfest, which begins tomorrow, is transforming the economy of Farmingdale, the small town of 8,500 people where the tournament will be played. More than 50,000 attendees will stream into the Bethpage Black golf courts each day of the event, and many of them need places to stay. enter local homeowners who say renting out their properties is a rare financial windfall they just can't pass up.
Starting point is 00:23:22 One resident told the New York Post that his daughter has an upcoming bat mitzvah and his son just started at college, so quote, the extra cash is nice. And golf fans for whom the Ryder Cup is a once in a lifetime experience seem happy to pay up. All told, booked revenue for short-term rentals this week in Farmingdale and surrounding towns totals $2.1 million, a $345% increase compared to the same week last year. And that's not counting driveways, which some homeowners are renting out for as much as $100 a day because parking is going to be a nightmare. Toby is the biggest to do on Long Island since Gatsby's party. This is just the Augusta playbook being played out on Long Island. Augusta is where the Masters happens every year. And that is just a massive boon time for Airbnb hosts.
Starting point is 00:24:06 There's $8.5 million of booked rental revenue across the seven days surrounding the tournament. In total, the month of August Springs in $20 million. That is a massive increase from a normal day in Augusta, Georgia. And we are seeing this in every mega event when the Olympics came to Rio hosts earnings average $4,000 a month. And I was just perusing the Airbnb host subreddit and looking ahead to the World Cup, which is coming to America. And one person owns a house near MetLife where the finals are going to be. And they were like, do you think I can get away with charging $650 a night? Or can I get all the way up to $1,000?
Starting point is 00:24:42 in his home is like a thousand a night, dude. You could get up to $3,000. And he said that I know folks in Augusta who cover their mortgage for six months, plus the Springback Beach vacation with Masters Week rent. So these, you know, mega events that to send on small towns are just boon times for Airbnb hosts.
Starting point is 00:25:00 If you are a homeowner in suburban New Jersey, anywhere near East Rutherford, definitely think about Airbnb your house because you're going to make so much money, especially if there's a big matchup in the semifinals or finals next summer. but right now they're running the playbook over in Farmingdale, Long Island. They're probably not even getting as much as they could and other parts of the country
Starting point is 00:25:19 because there will be trains running from New York City to out there 35 miles, but it's going to be, you know, it's going to be a zoo. Okay, let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. In health care news, not related to Tylenol, Huntington's disease was treated successfully for the first time in a gene therapy trial, the lead scientist called Absolutely Huge and a treatment for one of the world's most terrible. diseases. Huntington's disease is indeed terrible, an illness that kills brain cells and leads to declining cognitive function, muscle control, and eventually death. So far, there is no cure, but this gene therapy slowed the progress of the disease by 75% in patients after three years, allowing people with Huntington's to live significantly longer independent lives. Unicure,
Starting point is 00:26:03 the biotech behind the treatment, plans to submit it for FDA approval in the first quarter of next year. This is also a proof of concept for other genetic disease. Huntington's is caused by a single faulty gene. They're just targeting this one Huntington's gene, and that raises hope for other single gene disorders like sickle cell anemia, like certain forms of ALS. So that's one aspect of it too. And then also it kind of changes to the calculus of medical economics a little bit too, because a one-time treatment like this cure that Unicure came up with or treatment that Unicure came up with could totally shift the way healthcare costs are assigned. Usually it is this long-term like lifetime
Starting point is 00:26:42 cost. But if you have single treatments, then how does that change pricing? How does that change insurance coverage and access? But it's also just a big news for all these families who have had someone affected by Huntington's because now they are going to look at this and say, hey, maybe genetic testing and genetic cures are an option for us. So it just changes a lot of calculus, a lot and a lot of things around this disease. It was also great for unicure shareholders because this stock shot up 250 percent yesterday. And that's what happens when a really small biotech has a really big breakthrough in a trial. Ben Stiller has played a Dodgeball Pro, a museum night security guard, a supermodel,
Starting point is 00:27:20 and now you can add CPG founder to his list, as he just announced he's launching a line of sodas called Stiller's Soda. While Stiller's Audi appears to be a famous comedy actor, Stillers Iney really likes the beverage market, marketing the brand as a classic soda for a new world. To Stiller, that means leaning into nostalgic branding with a vintage design with three classic flavors to start root beer, lemon lime, and Shirley Temple. What's the unique innovation Stillers is bringing to the market? Not much. It's low sugar and low cow and also comes with some extra vitamins added, but it's not trying to reinvent the wheel here. According to Stiller, we kept it simple,
Starting point is 00:27:58 great taste, nothing weird, just added vitamins to make it a little better for you. Neil, on a scale of dethroning Coca-Cola to lighting millions of dollars on fire, where do you think Stillers is going to end up? Well, I will say it's refreshing to see a soda brand that's just soda and not supposed to heal your gut or save the world, which is maybe surprising for the head of Globo Jim. But look, this guy got defeated by the average Joe's once. I think he's learned some things and he won't let it happen again. I think the nostalgia play is big here. I don't know how many people are actually going to buy this soda, but you can see, thanks to the branding,
Starting point is 00:28:31 it might be sort of a status play to have one in your fridge when people open it because it is kind of a beautiful can that evokes, you know, sodas of decades past. And maybe if you're going to a party and people aren't bringing drinkers there, if you bring a six pack of these things, it looks kind of cool. And people will probably ask about it. And it'll be a conversation starter. I'm just going to speculate and dive into the mind of Ben Stiller. But he probably heard his last name Stillers and goes,
Starting point is 00:28:54 that sounds like a classic Coca-Cola brand. It really does. It just rolls off the tongue. You're like, hey, pass me the Steelers over here. And I want to imagine that he thought, I sound like a soda. Let me make a soda. And he's going for it.
Starting point is 00:29:06 So I'm rooting for you, Stiller. And I will happily try some spoilers. I think he thought through the SEO implications, though, because I typed in Steelers, and the first thing it gave me was the Pittsburgh Steelers schedule. And that's kind of how people in Pittsburgh pronounce the Steelers. So that is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a wonderful Thursday.
Starting point is 00:29:26 If you have any feedback on today's show, send a note to Morning Brew Daily at Morningbrew. com. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. Raymond Lou is our producer. Our associate producers are Olivia Graham and Olivia Lake. Hair and makeup, the musical, is one I'd invest in. Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew.
Starting point is 00:29:44 Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow. Aw. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly, Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29. Don't pass go and own it all only at Yamava celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win?
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