Pivot - IBM leadership shuffle, Amazon earnings, plus "Friend of Pivot” Jon Lovett pops in from Iowa to talk Trump’s inevitable ad operation

Episode Date: February 4, 2020

Kara and Scott talk about IBM's new CEO as the company struggles to keep up with cloud computing. They also discuss Zuckerberg's "new approach to social media", and breakdown Amazon's major earnings. In "Friends of Pivot" Jon Lovett, host of the Crooked Media podcast "Lovett or Leave It" says we should be prepared for the Trump campaign's major ad push. In wins and fails, Kara remembers Leila Janah an entrepreneur who focused on creating jobs in the world's poorest communities; she passed away this week at the age of 37. Scott's win is the halftime show at the Superbowl (although his kids would say his dancing is a FAIL). We end the show by questioning Jeff Bezos' dating choices after his girlfriend's brother sues him for defamation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for Pivot comes from Virgin Atlantic. Too many of us are so focused on getting to our destination that we forgot to embrace the journey. Well, when you fly Virgin Atlantic, that memorable trip begins right from the moment you check in. On board, you'll find everything you need to relax, recharge, or carry on working. Buy flat, private suites, fast Wi-Fi, hours of entertainment, delicious dining, and warm, welcoming service that's designed around you. delicious dining and warm, welcoming service that's designed around you. Check out virginatlantic.com for your next trip to London and beyond and see for yourself how traveling for takes forever to build a campaign. Well, that's why we built HubSpot. It's an AI-powered customer platform that builds campaigns for you,

tells you which leads are worth knowing, and makes writing blogs, creating videos, and posting on social a breeze. So now, it's easier than ever to be a marketer. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. I went to sleep during the Super Bowl, and then I woke up, and they were winning when I went to sleep, and then they lost when I woke up. Something tells me it means more to Kansas City than it does to San Francisco. I understand that. It was fine.

I just like when San Francisco wins, even though I don't even understand any of the sports. We apparently have some very good sports ball teams there. But in any case, congratulations to the great state of Missouri. Yes. As you know, Trump congratulated Kansas, and they are on the border there. So to be fair, they're on the border. Otherwise, as Claire McCaskell said, he's a stone-cold idiot to think a different state from when the Super Bowl was won. But nonetheless, congratulations, and now we move on to another sport apparently. Anyway, so let's get to tech.

So I was reading some of your things. You sold your Facebook stock. The rest of us, tell us more. I sold most of it last year. I think, first off, and I usually don't announce it because I every other big tech company and to the benefit of Facebook, been lumped into one massive group. Yes. And we have a tendency to kind of paint or broad brush paint their behavior as all a big tech. is Facebook has pulled away from everyone else in terms of an absolute disregard for the mental health of teenagers and inability to, I mean, the fact that they've decided in a very brazen way to

say, no, we're going to continue to, anyone who wants influence on our platform, regardless of how they use that influence, as long as there's a check or a dollar bill at the end of it, we're down with that. And I think coming out of a $5 billion fine that was 11 weeks of cash flow has not only not chastened them, I think it's emboldened them. And the $5.50 fine, the $5.50 fine to the state of Illinois over facial recognition. I just don't think they care. I think they're the kind of guy you pull over in a Ferrari and he says to the police officer, fuck you, and throws $100 at him and speeds off. I just don't think they care. I think they've done the math and figured out, look, it's easier to pay the government

and overrun them than it is to comply or pretend to have any regard for the Commonwealth or the health of the world. So you have a conscience, Scott? This is amazing because you always say— Occasionally it props up. Occasionally. You say that you may insult things, but then you have this capitalist side that just is like I'm still buying the stock. So it's like the cigarette companies to you. It's like maybe not.

I don't want to make money that way. Well, I thought that – I've always argued that net-net, distinctive of my criticism, big tech is a net gainer for America. Right, right. And the problem is with the word net because because we tend to make this baseline zero one decision. And if we decide they're a net gainer, then we should just leave hands off of them. And I've said this, pesticides we're net gainers from, but we have an FDA. And I don't think that doesn't mean Amazon, which I also own, Apple, which I also own. I think we are net gainers from those companies. I think they should be broken up. I think they should deserve tremendous scrutiny.

But I've actually come to the point as of, I would argue, since—I'm trying to think. The pivotal moment for me, quite frankly, and it was something people didn't talk a lot about— Which is? —is when Facebook decided who should be our chief legal counsel, and they decided to pick the person who was able to convince Congress to torture enemy combatants. Oh, that was a while ago, yeah. And I thought, okay, that is the gestalt of the inside of this company.

Like, who would best represent what we have done and what we are planning to do legally? And it's the individual who has figured out a way to somehow legitimize our inhumanity as a nation. They've just done that with a newsfeed person, too, who's quite controversial. That's when I sold the majority of my stock. So I would argue that Facebook, unlike the rest of big tech, is actually a net negative. And if Facebook were to go away, if we were to legislate them out of business, if we were to put one or more of their executives in prison and the firm were to crash, that as a society, distinct of all the great job growth, distinct

of all the innovation, distinct of all the shareholder value, and all of those things are amazing things that the world would be better off. All right. Scott plants a flag on the Mount Everest of conscience. I really appreciate this. Hardly. Hardly. But anyways, it's-

Well done. But you still think the stock's going to go up, right? Oh, yeah. All right. Okay. In any case. All right. This isn't an economic decision.

No. This is me trying to have some semblance of like, okay, I'm a hypocrite, but I'm not a fucking raging hypocrite. The sleep at night move. So, Scott, apropos of your wokeness, your new wokeness, just so you know, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday the social media company is going to stand for principles. This is according to CNBC. It believes in whether people like it or not.

This is a new approach. I think we're going to piss a lot of people off, he said at some event he was at. Frankly, the old approach was pissing off a lot of people too, so let's try something different. And he said they're going to really double down on free speech and strong encryption. We're going to stand up for free expression. It's unfortunate. This is such a controversial thing.

And then he ended with, my goal for the next decade isn't to be liked. It's to be understood because in order to be trusted, people need to know what you stand for. I think this is so much bullshit. I can't even – I don't know where to start. But you go ahead now that you're woke, Scott. Well, Facebook's principles are clear. you go ahead now that you're woke, Scott? Well, Facebook's principles are clear. Delay and obfuscation, cash any check regardless of the damage to the Commonwealth and to our children, and the notion that, you know, it just, I think it's, I find it arrogant that the CEO of a company

has decided and publicly states that we're going to start pissing people off. You know what we need to do? We're already pissed. We're already pissed. We need to start pissing him off. And that is, the arrogance they have, here are the principles, they've overrun Washington, delay an obfuscation, they deploy these weapons of mass destruction and avoidance in the form of very likable number twos. And there is a standing summons for Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg in Canada. I say we do the same thing. Anyways, that's my rant. What do you think, Karen? Yeah, I agree with you. I think this speech is just amazing. Remember I keep telling you they

feel like victims, they feel persecuted, and no one believes me. They're like, oh, how can they think that? They literally feel wrapping themselves in this free expression cloak is immediately saying we don't believe it. Of course we believe in free expression. We don't believe in unfettered, damaging expression that you don't take responsibility for. And that they're conflating the two, just like he did with his speech at Georgetown, between paid speech and free speech. It's really abhorrent. It's just, this is just, this is not what a responsible CEO does. And it's really, it's, I just, just when you think it is so Trumpian in that way, just when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse. So I'm not very happy. And you brought up last week the unholy

alliance where basically Trump said, we're not going to go after the Zuck because we figured out that the ability to weaponize this thing and covertly send messages from people you trust that confuse you and suppress the vote, which lends itself well to Trump's reelection chances. Basically, they formed an unholy alliance. And that was essentially the gist of the Soros article. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Anyway, moving on. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty will step down in April. Rometty was the first woman to be CEO of IBM. She's been there since 2012, but the company really has not made the significant headways into cloud computing and artificial intelligence that is needed and has fallen behind other competitors like Amazon and Microsoft. The new head of the

company will be the head of cloud computing, Arvind Krishna, and he's taking over. Just so you're clear, Ginny will step down, and she's one of only 33 women who hold chief executive positions at Fortune 500 companies. What do you make of this? Well, just to disavow any notion that I'm woke, she would have been fired two years ago if she wasn't a woman. I wouldn't say she's been a disaster, but IBM, 350,000 people, relationships with the biggest companies in the world, and they have, their stock is flat to down over the last, over her tenure. Meanwhile, the S&P is up, you know, twofold. Every other tech company, any company with the term tech anywhere near it has skyrocketed. And despite

the fact that the company's underperformed, she leaves with about $130 million in compensation. And we're stuck in this very awkward phase of because there's only 33 female S&P 500 CEOs, we wring our hands and wait too long to terminate them when they underperform. And at the same time, on the flip side, and I'm on some of these committees, the compensation and nominating committees that pick the new CEO, generally there's always a CEO, you have these succession plans we review every year. And when it comes to picking a CEO, I'll summarize the 477 companies that pick the dude. There's always a talented woman who's in the running. And then it's as if somebody crashes in the room and says, I know.

Let's pick someone with a dick. And what do you know? It's every – Heidi O'Neill should be CEO of Nike. Sukinder Kassidy-Singh should be CEO of eBay. But instead, they went with the white guy. What a shocker, right? This guy is not a white guy, but all right. Okay.

All right. Well, we need – oh, no. Give us an Indian. That's what everyone says now. Send in the Indian. Slow down. Send in Slow down. He is the head of cloud computing, which is the area they need to be in. He obviously did the red hat. He was involved with the red hat thing. Look, it's Indians to the rescue. No. Sandeep Matarani at WeWork. He is the natural, he is the one who is in line. He was the one. Anyways, we need a lot more female CEOs so we

don't wring our hands and have this existential crisis every time we try to fire one. Yeah. All right. Well, getting back to our actual business, and it has not kept up. IBM has not kept up in terms of – they've tried a lot of things. They bought a whole bunch of stuff. And they did Big Blue. They did some weather stuff.

They tried all kinds of – Watson. Watson. Does anyone know what Watson is other than someone getting Bob Dylan tens of millions of dollars to do commercials in the Super Bowl? What is Watson? Do you know what Watson is? I don't know what Watson is.

It's an artificial intelligence. Listen, they have not kept up even as Amazon and others in their natural area, in the area they were supposed to be focused in, which was cloud computing. So they're putting the cloud computing guy in place. But it's now a really competitive market. You've got Amazon, you've got Google, you've got Microsoft, which is sort of hitting all cylinders under Satya Nadella, his area of expertise, by the way. That's right. So they're going to really face a lot of... And so what's their significant

difference is, I think, is what you have to ask yourself, is what is IBM's significant difference? They're going to lay off 50,000 people and double down on the cloud, if not 100,000 people. They'll go through a crazy restructuring. They'll lay off literally 50,000 to 100,000 people, and they'll go double down on cloud. Speaking of other new CEOs, they brought in a new CEO for WeWork, a guy named Sandeep Matrani, who ran General Growth Properties, probably one of the biggest brains in real estate, a very talented guy. You think this is a good move? Oh, no.

This is Marcelo Clare. I think this is literally a guy who comes home from his first tour of duty in Vietnam and is an American long enough. Sandeep's been out of the game. I think he retired a couple years ago. Long enough to forget how just fucking awful it is and to sign up to go back to Vietnam.

I think this is terrible. So why did he do it? Why did he do it? You know, it's such a high-profile company. There's probably— Is it a terrible choice for him, or is it a terrible— Oh, for him. No, no. You think he's qualified, though? No, Sandeep's a gangster. Sandeep is super smart, big brain, great at real estate.

So he could do something here, or you think there's nothing to be done? Yeah, this is a bastard child with terrible DNA. This thing is just—there's nothing—I think there's very little to be—if they took it down to 200 locations from 500, I think it'd be a nice profitable company. But I think that so many leases are probably so bad, and they've created so many long-term commitments that have terrible underlying economics. I think it's going to be very difficult to pull the nose up. Do you know the rumor I heard that Adam Newman wants to tell his side of the story? He's dying to tell it. Well, I think he should tell it to the jungle cat.

I know that. That would be really good. We're calling. Adam, He's dying to tell it. Well, I think he should tell it to the jungle cat. I know that. That would be really good. We're calling. You are invited to tell us what's going on. I mean, it would be a very tough

interview for Adam. I'll be honest with you, Adam. I think you screwed up. But nonetheless, I think it would be interesting what happens to him. You're right. It's going to get cut, cut, cut

and become normalized, I guess, of what it should be and set it apart. It's interesting if these workspaces, if people, of what it should be and set it apart. It's interesting if these workspaces, if people, if this was just a trend or if people really are going to, I think it's a small industry, and people like using them. I don't know how much more a localized industry can be city per city.

That's my feeling, that it's not a national footprint kind of business. But that's just me. I don't know. What do you think? I think there are some advantages. This is a company that lends itself, I think, to a global presence because for people who travel to London. Brand name. Right.

You're right. You can go, okay, I'm going to go to the Wii and I can get a national presence. But what we fail to do is we like to think that every company, if it has an app, is a tech company that will ultimately trade in a multiple of revenues. They're not justifying capital. And this isn't. It's a real estate business that trades at a lower multiple and is built over decades of discipline acquisition of properties and discipline management of them. And they're great long-term businesses, but they're not things you can ramp up and get venture-like returns on. Yeah, you're right.

The brand. You're right. Correct. The brand. I mean, in fact, it's like the YMCA. I just joined the YMCA here in D.C., by the way. The Y. The Y.

I was a member of the Y. The Y is great here. The Y is great everywhere. Let me just tell you, they were great, and it was. I can use them all over the country. It was one of the people's. Young Men's Christians Association. Yes.

I'm neither. None of those things. Anyway, in any case, let's get lastly to Amazon. We're going to be very businessy today. You're Association. You're the A in that, in that acronym. I'm an Association. No, it's great.

I mean, there's a rock climbing. I'll do it with the family, though. There's a baby swimming time. It's going to be great. I highly recommend. And it's also really good for the community. I went to two parks, public parks this weekend with my son, who's all of a sudden showing an interest in basketball. He went to a public park. Two public parks. I use them all the time. I'm so down with the people. Public parks. You're not in your private park?

I like public parks. Oh, my gosh. Public parks. The place I'm living in Washington has a beautiful public park behind the house, which is just lovely. It's a playground. Well, that's because we make the money here in New York, and you spend it up there in D.C. Oh, stop me. Oh, my God. Speaking of money, Amazon's earnings. Please pontificate very briefly. Oh, my gosh. They were supposed to do $3. They did $6, blew away everything.

And the thing you just got to love about Amazon, it's the really boring shit. What? I'm telling you, it's the boring stuff that moves shareholder value. All right, go pontificate here. What's the big gangster move here? They go to two-day shipping to one-day shipping. Yeah, they do. It gets everybody excited. More people sign up, more people on Prime, more vendors and retailers on the third-party marketplace, which means more high-margin revenue for Amazon Media Group and Overlook Business. I mean, this is just-

Yeah, they're inevitable. this company is just on fire. Yeah, they're inevitable. Amanda just signed up for Prime, and she literally wanted to commit Harry Carey. She hates Amazon, but she did it. No, there's no, to resist is futile. Do you realize 76% of U.S. households have Amazon? More households have Amazon Prime than decorate a Christmas tree, have a pet, or voted in the 16 elections. I mean, this is just- It's kind of an astonishing thing. Remember it was pilloried when they did it? Pillaried.

Why would anybody do that? Yeah, why would anybody spend $90? I signed up right away. I got it. I got the whole thing. What's interesting about this company is you were talking about monopolies can innovate. You know, you were talking about the AirPods last week,

about Apple, which also did rather well. They really do innovate. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think they innovate just because they're large. They took a lot of, like, big steps out when they were small. And so it is in this culture to try. They are calculated risks obviously, but they really do fresh things. They do fresh things all the time.

And that's not just – now they can do them even better because they have this incredible market power. But they do often introduce stuff. You're like, hmm, well done. I agree. But the suffix to that statement or the adjunct or whatever is that they would continue to do that stuff if they were three companies. Only other companies could do more stuff because they wouldn't be put out of business because one company can go in and lose money for 10 years. Or one company can say, hi, FedEx, we're going to embarrass you before the holidays and basically, you know, crush your business and your stock price. Or, hey, every company in healthcare, when we just sort of hint that we're going in it, you lose $12 billion in market cap the next day.

But anyways, I agree with you. They are innovative. And also, they're sweeping up all the talent. Amazon is the largest recruiter out of my class. Yeah. You know, I just met someone who just joined there and they were like, is it as culty as it seems? And I was like, yes, that was interesting. It was someone who wasn't part of the cult. And what was interesting about it was the questions about being, even this person was like, is this too big? Should it be spun off? So it's going to be interesting to see the next class of worker there is not going to be quite as culty as the previous one. And then secondly, there's one area that I think is in the Whole Foods area. I don't know if you shop at Whole Foods, but I tend to go buy my food myself because I like to look at things.

I don't like people picking out things for me. You're a germa weirdo. You're a total germa food. Yeah, you are. I like to pick my avocado. Fine. Like I usually use smaller stores actually. But I was noticing the experience in Whole Foods is so strange now with everybody else shopping for other people.

It's insane. It's insane now. It feels dystopic. It feels weird. It's not just dystopic. It's like a bad consumer experience if you're actually shopping. And it's now become fully a pick and pack kind of store the big stores, at least, the popular stores. I live in, obviously, Washington, San Francisco, but it's a really different experience than

Whole Foods used to be. And I wonder, I was like, I'm not coming back in here, except on off hours. And it was a really interesting, I just noticed it's becoming kind of wacky and mean, too, because everyone's carrying those cards. And I think that's, you know, it's a very noble thing to do any job. And so I'm sort of like, okay, this is a good job. But at the same time, it's this sort of serfs and lords kind of thing that you just like. It's consumption for you.

You enjoy it. Yeah. Anyway, it's interesting. You know what I love? Have you been to a Super Target? No. Oh, they're awesome. Are they?

They're big and they have stuff in there. Shopping for me, I shop like once every six months. But I haven't turned a flame on in my apartment. I think I've turned it on twice and I think both times it was to light a joint. I just don't cook. Yeah. Literally. But Super Target is magic.

It's so much fun. I know the CEO pretty well. I should have him. No, they do a good job. And Target's actually getting their act together. He's an interesting CEO. It'll so much fun. I know the CEO pretty well. I should have him to – No, they do a good job, and Target's actually getting their act together. He's an interesting CEO. It'll just be interesting to see what will happen around breakup. We will have some of that discussion. I have someone I just signed up to code who will be discussing big tech breakups going forward.

I'm not going to say who. Well, come on. I'm not telling you. You tease. I can't announce it yet. I can't announce it. Someone discussing breakups? We just announced Bob Iger.

You were thrilled on that one, I know. It'll be great. No, that's – I think – telling you. You tease. I can't announce it yet. I can't announce it. Someone discussing breakups. We just announced Bob Iger. You were thrilled on that one, I know. It'll be great. I think, so by the way, I'll pimp code a little bit. Code is so epic. Bob Iger is coming. I think that's the biggest get in corporate America right now. I'm more interested. We got Sacha.

We got. I'm more interested in what Bob has to say. We got Sundar. There's so much going on there. I got more to come, my friend. I got more to come. Sundar won't say shit. Oh, that's not true. Like me. I'm likable. No. I'm likable. There's so much going on there. I got more to come, my friend. I got more to come. Sundar won't say shit. Oh, that's not true.

Like me. I'm likable. No. I'm likable. Like me. I want to know about those ads that were on the Super Bowl. They were great. Anyway.

By the way, can we talk about ads just for a second? Yes, we will, but we have to take a break, and then when we get back, we can talk about I'm caffeinated. I know you are. Hose him down. Okay. Hose him down. We're going to get back.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back with a friend of Pivot, and then wins and fails, and then you can say anything you want, Professor Galloway. Fox Creative. This is advertiser content from Zelle. When you picture an online scammer, what do you see? For the longest time, we have these images of somebody sitting crouched over their computer with a hoodie on, just kind of typing away in the middle of the night. And honestly, that's not what it is anymore. That's Ian Mitchell, a banker turned fraud fighter.

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Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Published by Capital Client Group, Inc. at your podcasts. Published by Capital Client Group, Inc. Okay, we're back with a friend of Pivot. He's my friend, John Lovett. He's one of the co-hosts of Pod Save America and the host of his own brilliant show, Love It or Leave It. I was just on it in Los Angeles. And before that, he was a speechwriter for the Obama White House. Election season is really in race, so we wanted to talk to him about how things are playing out specifically between Trump and Bloomberg. Hey, Karen Scott. Hi from Des Moines. When I think of Trump's ad spending,

I think of Palpatine saying this. Oh, I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive. You know, we're all having fun in Iowa trying to pick the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, that Trump Death Star is waiting. It's going to have unlimited resources to deploy not only a positive economic message, unlimited resources to deploy not only a positive economic message, but also through an incredibly sophisticated data operation, target swing voters, not only the kind of voters Trump thinks he can bring home, but also to target potential Democratic voters

that they can try to demobilize by painting the Democrat in the worst light possible. And they'll have help from right-wing media that's going to do their best to delegitimize whoever the Democrats ultimately nominate. So I think it's just worth being clear-eyed about what we're ultimately going to face. As for Bloomberg, honestly, I don't know how far you can get with just money, right? Just building a campaign with your resources, not in any kind of organic way. But here's how I can get out of it.

It is Sunday night. The Iowa caucuses are tomorrow. And I say we just see how everything looks on the other side of the first votes of 2020. So that's going to be my excuse for dodging that one. And that's all I've got to say. Goodbye from a Marriott in Des Moines. Wow. Well, thank you, John.

That was really interesting. That guy is so your boyfriend. What? That guy is so your boyfriend. I have a pen in my mouth. I'm jealous of him. That guy's a fucking genius. He is a genius.

Here's the deal. I think he is lying in wait. I think Palpatine is a very good way to put it. But I do think that there is chinks in this armor. I think people are tired of the Trump show, as you did, as I got when I was watching The Apprentice after 900 seasons. I think people are tired of the back and forth. I don't think it's working as well. I think people have gotten good at response.

I think Bloomberg in particular with his short Instagram ads and everything, you can see his numbers coming up. I think he's got a very sophisticated – I know a couple people who have just joined him or have a great deal of respect for. And so I think he's coming back very hard with the response to tweets around him being mini Mike or whatever. He just said the president is lying. He's a pathological liar who lies about everything, his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray on tan. They're not. They've come to play.

And so I do think it's a little different, but it's absolutely true in terms of using Facebook, as you were just talking earlier, and these ads. Bloomberg had an $11 million ad. So did Trump. I don't think Trump's was very good. But I do think it does add chinks to it. That he's doing not as well given this economy and Bloomberg is coming up, I think it might work.

But what do you think? You've been a Bloomberg supporter. So I like John's comments, the only thing I would, the term is disagree or add to it, is he says, well, right-wing media will be a force to be contended with. There are about 3 million people that watch the popular Fox program. There are, I think, 220 million people on Facebook. And when there's an ad that's a blatant lie on Fox, immediately you have everyone from Stephen Colbert to CNN calling them out. When bad actors buy ads on Facebook, and we don't even know who they are, to try and lie about political candidates, what happens is it's not even that they go after Democratic

candidates. They just confuse voters so much in swing districts that it just suppresses the vote. And that's kind of their objective is if we can suppress the vote in swing districts that are leaning towards a Democratic candidate, we can effectively win the election. Because it wasn't that so many people voted for Trump that got him elected. It was that so many of the traditional base of Hillary, you know, got discouraged or confused or, quite frankly, she just didn't inspire them and didn't turn out. So, and you're talking about, you're talking about a dumpster fire of damage versus a mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb when you're talking about Facebook. And this speaks to my, I don't know what I'll call it, my loss. I don't know if we're doing winners and losers yet, but the banality of evil. And that is that people have a tendency to look back on really horrible periods in our history and think that the primary force of that period was sheer evil from a small group of people.

And that evil can't take purchase unless there's a certain apathy. Yeah, true. And that periods of true evil, there's sort of a banality of it. And that is right now we would argue that the banality of evil that we are experiencing is that we have just said no to the notion that the largest communications platform ever in the history of man has decided that they will let influence go to the highest bidder regardless of the veracity of those statements. That to me is just so unacceptable and the fact that we have decided that we'll accept that because we just kind of shrug our shoulders and we're apathetic and like,

Facebook's going to do what it's going to do. No, I don't think so. I think people, I think the jig is up on a lot of this stuff. I think it does get tiresome. Well, where's the jigging? How's it going to end? Well, I think Bloomberg's being very effective.

These ads that he's doing, he did one on gun control last night that was great. It was awful, Cara. No, it wasn't awful. That's my loss. You're wrong. No?

Okay, we're going to talk about it. I think they're quite good. I think his ads are quite good. I think he's got a very sharp team, and I think he is behind the scenes. He knows from data. You are officially in the echo chamber. I am not in the echo chamber. I know he knows from data.

Speaking to other wokesters in D.C. and New York. Listen, aren't you Bloomberg's best friend? Aren't you? I love the guy,. I know he knows. Speaking to other wokesters in D.C. and New York. Listen, aren't you Bloomberg's best friend? Aren't you like, I don't know. I love the guy. And I hope Howard. I think he's got a crack digital team and I think they are going to use him. 100%. And let me just say, I'm going to quote Joan Didion, which is a quote that just popped up on my WeCroak, which was,

This was the year, my 28th, when I discovered that not all promises would be kept, that some things are in fact irrevocable, and it counted after all every evasion, every procrastination, every mistake, every word of it. Let me just say all of it. I just think that this is – people get tired. I think they're not going to be apathetic this election. I do not. I do not feel apathetic. There are two cohorts who need to turn out to beat Trump.

The first is the base. He's turning out our base for us. That is not who we need to turn out to beat Trump. The first is the base. He's turning out our base for us. That is not who we need to turn out. And this goes to that ad. When I first saw that ad, you're talking about gun control. I was very moved by it. It was a well-produced ad. But here's the thing.

The second base, and that's moderate voters, they don't care about black people or gun control. And when I say they don't care about them, that's not the issue they're worried about. The opportunity at the Super Bowl would have been to talk about income inequality. the fact that the tariffs are hurting the economy, the fact that the guy has absolutely no business being in the business and running the country, given he's the worst businessman in the world. Those ads are all there. Michael Bloomberg. Those ads are all there. But that was the opportunity. And that ad, as much as I loved it and it makes you and me feel good, it only reinforces what we already believe.

He already has us. He already— I don He already, that was a terrible brand strategy ad. And by the way, the Trump ad. Okay, that's your loss. He missed an opportunity. The Trump ad, by the way, was fucking brilliant. Fucking brilliant. Safer, more prosperous, lowest unemployment of Latinos, lowest unemployment of blacks, wages growing faster than they have in the last 30 years. I mean, and then a bunch of F-15s flying across the sky. I hate the man. I'm going to do everything I can to get him out of office.

He schooled Michael Bloomberg in that one ad. I think the rest of Bloomberg ads are fantastic. I think I agree with it. They're great. Last night was an Aaron Brand strategy. You would like him to do income inequality or something. He used one of the ones he's been doing, which are quite good too, that he should- Like Carvel said, it's the economy, stupid. We got to get the swing voters. They're all about the economy. Do you like the Mike can do it thing? Do you think that's a good-

I think I agree with you. I think he's got very talented people. I like his ads. I think it's hilarious that a guy's showing up with a much bigger stick. I've always, my thesis has always been that Trump is effectively, if you look at his debt, is broke and saw the presidency as a chance to get out of bankruptcy or an impending bankruptcy. I think he's doing this all for money. He's done a nice job. He's going to be rich for the rest of his life. Yeah, I think, but I think that's why he's doing it. I think the guy's broke.

That is your fail. Well, yeah, just my fail was I thought from an execution standpoint, it was a brilliant ad, but from a brand strategy standpoint, they didn't look at their target market. It was a missed opportunity in terms of who we need to turn out. Okay. All right. What is your win then? My win is that the halftime show was not Maroon 5.

That's my win. Come on. That was such a good. That was so. I thought Shakira and J-Lo. That shit was money. The big dog was busting a move. I don't know about you, when I dance, my kids literally act as if they're being tortured.

They're like, make it stop, we'll do our thing. They are being tortured. You didn't dance to J-Lo, did you? Oh my God, I busted a move. No. I busted a move. I had a few white claws, which I'm really warming up to. And all of a sudden the white claw said, Daddy, it's time to bust a move.

Oh, no. She just let her dance. Let them dance. They were— Shakira. Let me just say, these are not young women. This was everything about it. Latina, older women.

It's all relative. They look pretty young to me. Sexy as hell. Just smart. A lot of subtweeting going on in the dance. But I was not expecting the feathered boa that was an American flag that became a Puerto Rican flag, which was like the most fantastic subtweet of all time. And then the cages with the kids. There was so much going on there, and yet it was also happy and entertaining.

I don't know how they pulled that off. They were totally subtweeting everybody, but then they managed to make it fantastic. And Fox, clearly, it's really— Fox doesn't care. Fox just is like, fine. Fox literally has to try and appeal to everyone. It's their one shot. They're pimping all these terrible—

Fox Nation. Fox Nation. Oh, yeah, they're pimping all these terrible shows on Fox. And then their commentators are— It's Fox Nation. Okay, the commentators are Jimmy Johnson, the former coach of the Cowboys, who's 77. Terry Bradshaw, legendary Hall of Famer. Hold on, 71.

Howie Long, who looks like the kid, is 60. It literally looks like early onset dementia trial group. And these guys, and then they're like, okay, somebody, some producer watching it goes, look at all these old white guys. We got to go for the future. And they put like hottie Latinas during halftime. So they're trying to appeal. There's something for everybody at the Super Bowl. They're just trying to appeal to- I think J-Lo should run for president. That's my feeling. I just think she's

fantastic. She's incredibly talented. She's incredible. Shakira. Everything. Shakira's not only like- Shakira's so great. She's got like crazy talent, super sexy. And doesn't she look nice? She looks nice. Doesn't she look like the kind of person you invite over for tea? The whole thing. I literally was like, it felt good for our country. I'm like, you know what? Yeah, they did a nice job. And no Maroon 5. That's the key.

No Maroon 5. It was the best one since Beyonce. Beyonce was also good, a little bit more militant. But this was fun and subtweeting at the same time. What ad did you like the most? Oh, I haven't seen them all. I like the Groundhog Day one, the cheap one. I thought that was cute.

I haven't seen the woman from Game of Thrones singing yet. I've got to see that one. The Audi one. That was pretty good. There were a couple good ones. I didn't like the weird little peanut thing. That was odd. I found that odd.

Yeah, that's gotten a lot of criticism. I was like, you can't be Baby Yoda. All right, so my win and fail, I'm going to do one this week, is Lila Janna, who was an entrepreneur I knew not very well, but pretty well. She had a company called Samasource. She passed away from cancer at 37. And she founded a bunch of organizations, but one of them was to help employ people, poorer people in Kenya, Uganda, India, other places. Uganda, India, other places. Just a really interesting, not just a female entrepreneur in general,

sort of a, I wouldn't say a social justice warrior, but very focused on social issues. And got this odd and terrible cancer and died. And she was just terrific. I've interviewed her a number of times. And I tweeted about it. I was like, she had a Harvard education, everything. And she could have done anything, and she did this.

And so I really felt it was a huge loss. And often she didn't get as much attention as she deserved, including from me and others. I mean, I've written about her when they got funding and stuff like that. But she just was, it was just a really, just someone who had true impact on the world. And so that, to me, was, her life was a win, her death was a fail. Obviously, we all die, but this was just tragic at this age of this. Anyway, just a terrific woman, a terrific entrepreneur, and a real loss for our world in terms of people that are trying to do creative and interesting things. So that would be my win and fail. Yeah, it's very sad.

Yeah. She was great. Did you ever meet her? She was great. No. You've been in places she's been at. She's definitely been. But anyway, she was great.

She's very funny. And just not a – it was sad. It was sad. Anyway, all right, Scott. I think that's it for today. We're not going to do predictions today. Yeah, no, it's a – I'm sorry.

I'm a bummer. I know. That's very sad. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you passed around the article and I did not know her. And so I appreciate you passing around the article. Let's get back to J-Lo then. Let's talk J-Lo.

Iowa caucuses. Iowa caucuses. We'll talk about that after they're over. We'll talk about it later this week. You don't want to make any predictions? All right. Let's make JLO. Iowa caucuses. Iowa caucuses. We'll talk about that after they're over. We'll talk about it later this week. You don't want to make any predictions? All right, let's make one right now before we go. All right, we're going to make a quick one. All right, what is yours?

What is yours? So I think it's going to play. I think Bloomberg's going to be the winner in the sense that no dominant victor is going to come out. The people who are supposed to do well aren't going to do as well as they'd hoped. And I think all of a sudden everyone's going to start talking about Bloomberg as a viable candidate. And I'm biased, but there's, I think Mayor Pete is going to do well.

Although what's just so crazy about all of this, I don't know if I can't remember if I gave Mayor Pete money or I signed up for something. I get three emails a day from either Mayor Pete or his husband, basically at this point, begging for money. I mean, like every eight hours, like this this point, begging for money. Yeah. Like every eight hours, like, this is it. Send money now.

It's so clear that money has just become. Yeah, it's got to have money. It is the mother's milk of campaigning. And these guys are just so desperate to stay in the race. And you can see why they get to this point. But my prediction is that in a weird way, Michael Bloomberg comes out of Iowa. It's going to be 15% for everybody. Yeah. And then that's going to go into Super Tuesday. Although I do think Biden's shown a little bit of spark, a little bit more spark than before.

Spark? Where's that spark? No, you know, his wife was great today on MSNBC. I have to say, they should drag her out a lot more, like put her up because she's quite a live wire and so intelligent and so smart and just really such a contrast to Melania Trump, obviously. Yeah, and she's young and good looking. She makes him look 80. She brings down his age 10 or 15 years. I think he's got a tiny bit more spark than you think.

I know what you mean. But I think he's got – but I agree with you. I think this is going to be like 15 percent for everybody and then what? And then what? Although you never know. Bernie might surge forward. Bernie's got momentum. Yeah, it's crazy.

I know. He's very Trump-like in that regard in terms of his base. They're not like Trump people, but he's got a— What happened to Andrew Yang? Where's he going? Oh, he's doing good. He's still in there. He's doing well?

He's still hanging around the basket. Yeah. I think so, yeah. I'm convinced that's your next co-host to pivot is Andrew Yang. Oh, it's true. It would be that Lovett guy, but he's got his own rock star. You know what? I've got a list. Let's just say I have a list.

You've got a list. You've got a list. That's comforting. Anyone working with Scott Galloway needs to have a list, needs to have a backup plan. Who knows what's going to happen with that white claw. I need to stop burying bones. Wait, Scott, before I go, I cannot resist Jeff Bezos being sued by his... Oh, my God.

It's not really his brother-in-law. It's his girlfriend's brother. Hold the phone. Okay, let me get this. All right, so granted the dog wasn't exactly lighting the single scene on fire when I got divorced, but, okay, think about this guy. This guy, so remember that woman

who was eaten by a giant python while she was growing pineapples? That immediately, unfortunately, it's tragic, but it immediately outs her as a bad gardener. Oh, no. Jeff Bezos is the worst dater in the world. Let me get this. His first girlfriend, first off, she's 50, a guy worth $150 billion. She'd go younger, but that's an entirely different conversation. All right, don't even. Don't even. Okay. And hold on. Hold on. His new girlfriend's brother is suing him for defamation because he's accused him of sending his dick pics,

which he sent to his girlfriend, which she then forwarded to her brother, which he then forwarded to the National Enquirer. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Mr. Bezos is terrible at dating. He needs to roll with the dog. There are just some basics here. No dick pics. Don't piss off the brother. And by the way, don't just jump into a relationship. He should be going on Tinder and saying,

who wants to go to the Academy Awards with the biggest dog, the one-day prime dog in the world? This guy is literally, he's the best in the world at a lot of things. He is the worst dater in the world. All right. Says Scott, the best dater in the world. Anyway, bad situation for Jeff Bezos. And honestly, I feel sorry for him.

This brother seems like just such a sketchy character and just awful. And, you know, when you go out with someone, you do marry their family in a lot of ways. And here you go. And you go out with someone, you do marry their family in a lot of ways. And here you go. And this is what he's got. Do you think that's a negative forward-looking indicator when the family of your lover is suing you for defamation? Is that a red flag? It's not good. Is that a red flag?

It's not good. That's like finding out, oh, I have a new boyfriend and he's a club promoter. Red flag. Red flag. All right, Scott. We're out. And that is Relation to Advice with Scott Galloway. Anyway, Scott, it's a club promoter. Red flag. Red flag. All right, Scott. We're out. And that is relationship advice with Scott Galloway. Anyway, Scott, it's a pleasure.

We have a lot of things to talk about later this week. There's a lot going on. There is a lot going on, Kara. And I'm looking forward to it. There's a lot going on. Remember, we love your questions. If you have a question about a story you're hearing in the news, email us at pivot at voxmedia.com to be featured on the show. What a thrill. I was on Pivot featured on the show. What a thrill!

I was on Pivot. People love it. What are you talking about? I know. Back to my favorite part of the show, how awesome we are. Today's show was produced by Rebecca Sinanis. Erica Anderson is Pivot's executive producer. Thanks also to Rebecca Castro and Drew Burrows.

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