The Best One Yet - 😘“A Christmas RomCom(merce)” — Walmart’s original TV. Grand Theft Auto vs The Beatles. Millennials’ $500K desire.

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

Walmart has produced a 23-episode TV show for the holidays — But this Rom-Com is really Rom-Commerce, because every product on the set is for sale.Grand Theft Auto finally published the trailer for GTA 6 — But modern video games don’t make money, they collect taxes.And how much money do you need to be happy? Millennials say $500K/year… which is 3x more than any other generation — So we jumped in TBOY-style to find out why.$WMT $TTWOSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Safiche Wednesday, December 6th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. Jack, I thought we were both wearing beanies today, man. Nope, but I am wearing my T-boy sweatshirt. Honestly, it is hard to have the headphones on while we're recording the podcast under the beanie.

I know. You're overcompensating with a louder voice today, I noticed. I can actually barely hear what you're saying right now. First story for today's show, Jack, what do we got? For our first story, it's Walmart. Walmart just produced its first. original TV series starring 330 shoppable items. But Yeties, this movie isn't really a rom-com.

This Walmart movie is Rom Commerce. For our second story, we finally got the trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, the biggest video game of the decade. But video games, they don't really sell a product. Video games collect taxes. And our third and final story, we finally got the answer. How much money do you need to be happy? Jack, how much money do Millennial?

need to play happy these days? $500,000 a year. Yetis, millennials, we need more money than any other generation to be happy and Jack and I have the reason why. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. That is a wild mix of stories today, Jack. Yesterday

we launched our T-Boy holiday merch collection. Yeties, you may have noticed that the theme of our merch drop this year was soft. Everything is super soft. We made all of our merch soft, because soft is the theme of the year. Yeah, it is, get this.

The top-selling toys this year aren't just any toys. It's the softest toys. The softer and squishier the toy, the greater and bigger the sales. Yeah, the more you can rub that toy up against your cheeks, the more likely that toy is to sell. Here's the numbers from the Wall Street Journal. Overall toy sales are down by 8% this holiday season. But plush toy sales are up by 4% this holiday season.

If plush doesn't speak to you, call it the teddy bear effect. We want toys that we can hug. You're not buying Hot Wheels. You're buying huggable hamsters this year. Forget the Barbie dolls. You want Barbie's cashmere duvet. Even Beanie Babies are stuffing their babies with more cotton than usual. Yadies, the next time you buy a beanie baby, ask for the thread count.

It's like a nice linen sheet that Beanie Baby. And guess who's buying all these extra stuffed super soft toys? Jack, who's buying all these super soft toys right now? Adults. Yeah, it's the adults. Specifically, it's the kiddults. Kidults. Adults who play with toys.

Because 25% of plush toys are being bought by kiddaltz. You bought a Paddington Bear doll for your next Zoom call. So for the toy makers, we're seeing an arms race out there. For the softest toy. And we're seeing ruthless competition up there. For the squishest gift. And Hasbro is going hardcore this holiday season. For soft, squishy love.

See, Eddie, if you're at Duncan's toy chest this weekend, remember, just ask them to escort you to the softest aisle. If you're at FEO shorts, you want the fuzziest doll. If you're checking out and that thing can't be stuffed on your chest and make it feel nice warm and cuddly. And don't even buy it. If it can't snuggle with it, I don't want it. Because nothing sells like soft. Nothing sells like soft. Jack, let's hit our three soft stars.

Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know you know because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. For our first story, Walmart just launched an entire TV series just to sell you stuff.

Walmart is getting into TV. Walmart's doing TV. It's not a rom-com. It's rom-com. And it marks a new era of entertainment. Yeties, we have all seen the Hallmark Channel TV rom-com, haven't we, Jack? The girl moves from the big city back to her small town and bumps into the boy from her childhood at that lumberjack Christmas tree farm. But the local bakery is about to go out of business, so what do they do, Jack?

They make a cake, they win the pie competition together, they save the local bakery and start a relationship. One week later, they're married and he doesn't even know her middle name. You've seen this movie a dozen times. I don't even care what it called. But Walmart doesn't care because Walmart just launched their own version of a Hallmark movie. It's a Walmart romantic TV series. We're talking a 23-episode TV show. It's holiday-themed. Jess and Hobby, they reunite in their hometown.

And a spark is ignited. You can watch on TikTok, on Roku, and on YouTube. There's the big question. Will Jess and Jass and Javi find true love in one weekend? And will they win that pie competition? The name of the series, which is produced by Walmart, is Add to Heart. Add to Heart is the name of the series. That sounds like...

Add to Cart? It does sound like it. Ad to Cart, doesn't it? The sequel is Confirm Purchase. Yiddies, this show is called Add to Heart, and there's a funny reason why. Here's how Walmart describes it. We're bringing together two of your favorite

holiday traditions this holiday season, watching rom-coms and shopping. Because this isn't just a TV show. It's one giant 23-episode-long product placement. Yeties, this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. The star of this Walmart

TV show is Walmart products. Add to Heart features over 330 different shoppable products that are all sold at Walmart. Ladies, this isn't a rom-com. This is rom-com. This is rom-commerce. Like, the supporting role isn't an actor. It's a sweater. The supporting actress is that cute candle over there. Because here's the key. You can buy the Walmart items that you see in every single scene with the remote control that you're using to watch the show. So as Jess is getting ready for that first date, she's applying some elf beauty eyeliner. you can click to buy that elf beauty eyeliner from Walmart. And as Harvey preps for that pie competition by seasoning his cast iron pan.

You can click to buy that pan from Walmart. Or when Harvey proposes in the final episode. If he proposes. Spoiler alert. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everybody. We honestly, we don't know. You knew how this was going to end.

Yeah, we don't know how it was going to. You can buy that ring on Walmart. Yet is added all up. And Walmart has twisted vans. the dimensions of the media industry as we know it. Is this show a 23 episode series? Or is this show a 23-part commercial? The lines have been blurred.

So stay tuned for our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Walmart? We've entered the era of product productions. All right, yeties, a question from Jack and me here. Is the Barbie movie an ad? Because, like, the title is Barbie. The Barbie logo is in the title, and it's produced by Mattel, the maker of Barbie.

Now, there's no reminder at the end of the movie to go to your local toy store and buy a Barbie doll. Good point, Jeff. But the movie did boost Barbie sales by 25%, didn't it? Well, now Walmart has made an entire TV show. That's also one long product placement. Technically, it is a show. The plot and, you know, twist, probably.

Twist. He doesn't propose to her. But it's simultaneously a seamless shopping experience. So the way Jack and I see it, 2023 is the year that we fully blended commercials with content into a brand new thing. Call it a shoppable series, call it a show advertisement, or call it rom-commerce. Either way, it is a new form of entertainment, and we're calling it a product production. And based on all the T-boy merch that Nick and I are wearing right now, this pods are product production. Isn't it, Nick?

Oh, this beanie. It sells itself, Jack. For our second story, after a 10-year break, Grand Theft Auto 6 was finally unveiled this week. This video game is so powerful, it doesn't make revenue, it collects taxes. Hey, Yetis, Jack and I got to share with you a funny thing about video games. Actually, this is like the dirty secret about video games, isn't it, Jack? They're more valuable than any other type of media. Don't believe us? Jack, can we whip up the numbers on video games, please? In May, Nick and I covered the hot new video game of the...

summer. Zelda. Zelda. And Jack, what was our takeaway when we covered Zelda over the summer? The latest Zelda video game would make more money than the last three Star Wars movies combined. Yeti's Nintendo's top video game makes more money than Disney's top movie franchise. Which brings us to this news. The buzzy new video game right now is Grand Theft Auto, GTA for short. And Grand Theft Auto dwarfs Zelda. Those video games of GTA have sold 410 million units.

And at 45 bucks a pop, that is more revenue that GTA has brought in than the Beatles' all-time record sales. Sit down, stand up, and call me when we're 64. Yeti's Grand Theft Auto has made more money than the Beatles. Hey, Eleanor Rigby, apparently people play video games eight days a week. Ringo is not going to be happy. Ringo's not thrilled. But here's the thing, Yeties. Grand Theft Auto 5 was released last.

Like 10 years ago, back in 2013. Like, what's happening? This video game makes so much money, but we haven't had one in a decade. Finally, this week, after 10 years, we saw the trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6. And here's the storyline. Jack, here, I'll give you the controller. The first person main character of this video game is a woman living in Miami. And the gamer gets to act like that woman wreaking havoc in Vice City with no regard for the law in the new Grand Theft Auto.

If you're playing GTA 6, you can drive a Ferrari off a parking. garage and aim to collide mid-air with the helicopter and then run away from the police when you somehow survive the crash. Yeah, it kind of sounds a lot like GTA 1 to be honest with you. By the way, Grand Theft Donald, it's a felony. Punishable in jail. You want to do GTA the video game, not GTA real life. To be clear. Now, Yiddies, we should point out that this new GTA video game is not coming out until 2025. With the trailer, which was published on Monday, has already been watched 60 million times. This video game trailer has 60 million views on YouTube. And our buddy used Van Drunin, an NYU professor, he said it best. Yeah, he said that video games, they aren't

video games anymore. Video games are now playgrounds. But you don't play in the playground world of GTA. No. You live there. You live there. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are living in video games right now? Modern video games don't make revenues. They collect taxes. Yiddies, to play this new GTA video game, you have to buy the game for $40. Let's call that the cost of citizenship. But it doesn't stop there. Since you live in GTA's world, you have to pay taxes too. And that tax is the subscription, because a GTA plus subscription for six bucks a month is what you need to unlock the features. Oh, and you pay those taxes in a virtual currency that Grand Theft Auto controls. Right. GTA bucks. Oh, and if you don't pay,

GTA still makes money because you end up watching GTA in that video game world. According to Bloomberg, at any given moment, 141,000 people are watching someone else play GTA on Twitch. So Yeti's video games, they aren't really video games anymore. They're online worlds where you can live part of your life. That's why modern video games don't make revenues. They collect taxes. For our third and final story, according to a recent survey, Millennials need three times the income of any other generation just to be happy. Looks bad for millennials, but we think it has nothing to do with being a millennial.

Jack, to quote our buddy Jerry McGuire, show me the money. Yet he's in August, the Harris Bowl, asked 2,000 Americans whether money brings them happiness. And we thought we knew the answer, didn't we, Jack? We thought the answer was yes. We got some more specifics than that answer, didn't we, didn't we? In 2010, a Nobel Prize-winning economist found the magic number that brings happiness. And the magic happiness number is $75,000 a year. So more money will bring you happiness up to a certain point once you hit $75,000 a year income.

But after that magic number, any more money doesn't make you any happier. Well, that's wrong. It turns out that number we got to throw that number away. Yeah, that number's outdated. And we know that from this new survey. According to the new survey on happiness, the average American thinks you need $284,000 a year just to be happy. So the financial number for happiness has grown from $75,000 a year to $284,000 a year. That is a really big jump jack.

Because $75,000 a year, that's nice, but I want a self-plunge and cold plunge, okay, Nick? I want to be dipping my avocado toast in a double-digit latte while I'm doing that. Cold plunge, Jack. So, Yeties, the money needed to be happy has quadrupled in just over 10 years. Which made Jack and I have to ask the question, what is driving that demand for more happy money? And Jack seems to like that term I just said, happy money. The cause is us. It's millennials.

Yeties, the reason why is millennials. The Harris Bull showed that millennials had their mind on their money and their money on their mind more than any other generation. Get this, Yetis. Millennials required triple the income demanded by any other generation just to be happy. So how much income does a 35-year-old like Nick or me need to be happy in America? What's the number, Jack? $525,000 a year, according to this survey. 525 grand a year. Yates, we repeat, Millennial Millie needs three times the income, a boomer Bob, just to be happy. Yeah, this survey shows that younger Gen Ziers, they don't need nearly as much money. to slay as millennials do.

And older Gen X and boomers, their children in Del Boca Vista, they also don't need as much income as millennials do. So we got to ask, why are millennials so money-focused compared to everyone else? We got to ask, why do we want three times more money

than any other generation? Are we insecure? Are we materialistic? Or are we just thirsty for our own espresso machine in our own kitchen? Alex asked for an espresso machine on a Christmas list this year.

Again, yes. Joppy, shoppy, until you dropy, dropy, dropy. Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are millennials out there? This isn't a generational thing. It's an age thing. Yeti's, funny thing. Millennials happen to be in their 30s right now.

These are what Jack's dad, Big Ted, calls the busy years. Yeah, they're busy years because many of us are getting married right now and having kids and buying a home and raising kids. All those happen to be life changes that are expensive. But other ages don't face the. those same expenses. Yeah, like Jen Ziers, many of them are still relying on their parents. And baby boomers, many of them are on fixed expenses.

But millennials, they're not. Millennials are in their 30s and we need a higher salary to pay for these big life things than other generations. But here's what Jack and I noticed. It's not just today's millennials who would want more income. When any other past generation hit their late 20s or their early 30s, those busy years became expensive. Historically, the same expenses millennials face right now.

happened when any generation turned 30. Your baby boomer, Uncle Bob, had this similar income desires as you when he hit 30 back in 1980. So millennials, we think we need more money to be happy. But it's not a generational thing. It's an age thing. It's something that happens to every generation when they hit 30. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Sevichay Wednesday?

Walmart just produced their first original TV series, and it stars 330 shoppable items. Rum Commerce. It's a new form. of Hollywood entertainment, we call it a product production. For our second story, after 10 years, we finally have the trailer for the next

Grand Theft Auto. Because Yetis in modern video gaming, they don't make revenue, they collect taxes. And our third and final story. According to the Harris Poll, the average millennial thinks a $500,000 salary is needed for happiness. Don't blame us. Do not blame us. It is not

a millennial thing. This is an age thing. You did the same thing. But Yeties, this pod's not over. yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, gold prices just hit an all-time high above $2,100. We're talking $2,000 for an ounce of gold. Yesterday, we told you Bitcoin had surged. Gold is surging too. And second, speaking of surging Apple's stock just closed at a record high. The value of Apple is now at $3 trillion. It's all thanks to GoVember. The stock market rose 9% in November, and they're starting off December real nice too.

And finally, the Oxford Word of the Year for 2023 is Riz. It comes from charisma. And according to our intern, that roughly translates to style, charm, or attractiveness. Riz is the ability to attract a romantic partner, Jack. Can you use it in a sentence for us, please? No. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Warren Claiborne from Loeburn from Loeufels.

San Francisco right down the street. Trivia. Where was surfing first introduced to the United States? Get this yet. He's the first surfers in America were in California, but... It was thanks to three Hawaiian princes. Yeah, back in 1885, three brothers of Hawaiian royalty came to study in the Bay Area because there was a great school year they wanted to visit. It was an exchange program because Hawaii wasn't part of the United States yet. Well, one weekend, they decided to cut down a redwood tree,

and those three Hawaiian princes turned it into a surfboard. All year long, they surfed on the waves of Santa Cruz, California. And those three Hawaiian princes introduced surfing to America. The original beach boys. Nice.

Yiddies, you look fantastic over there. Jack, you're looking... How do I look? Yeties. How do I look? You're looking great. You are looking fantastic. Tomorrow are you going to wear the beanie.

Yeties. If you haven't yet, you've got to... check out the merch on our website. We just dropped the holiday edition. It's fantastic. Yeah, we're really proud of this stuff. I'm wearing it my third day in a row. Full disclosure. Jack, I'm wearing the one you left at my house. Smells like me, doesn't it?

It does smell you. It's kind of like I'm podcasting with you. Yetis, the merch looks beautiful. The crewnecks are stunning. The beanies are wonderful. We got new hats, new shirts. It's a great holiday gift for any Bestie or Yetty. So Besties, shoppy, shoppy, till you dropy, dropy, at T-Boypod.com. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow.

Can't wait. we go. Congratulations to Yeti Ryan Everhart, who just passed the 1,000 mile mark for running this year. And he's celebrating his 200th run of the year just outside Dallas. Just outside Dallas. And Brandon and Grace, congratulations. They just got engaged in the smoky mountains at Tennessee. Let's see some ring picks. Beautiful. And congratulations to Don and Tammy Rice, celebrating 15 years together in Friendsville, Tennessee. And Alexander Easterly is turning 13 years old, dancing to our jingle right now. Alexander, celebrate that win in Knoxville, Tennessee.

What's with the Tennessee theme? That's three Tennessees in a row. Don't too shabby. Let's go to Nashville. We got a bachelorette party to plan, Jack. Happy birthday to Polkitt Agarwal, who's celebrating in his pajamas in Seattle, Washington. Pull kit, you're looking fantastic.

And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Roku. Nick and I both own stock of Apple. and we both own one Bitcoin whose name is Ben. And he's been paying the tabs recently.

I think the highlighted is, can you use it in a sentence? No. I think what Jack's trying to say is, if you wear our T-boy merch, you will look, Riz. No, I think you'll be Riz. I think you're getting the part of speech, right? That's a past partisan, isn't it?