The Best One Yet - 💅 “A Positive Sum Game” — Barbenheimer’s precedent. Twitter’s X-out. Deodorant’s surge.

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Barbie & Oppenheimer enjoyed the 4th best Box Office weekend ever — Because “Barbenheimer” reveals the power of the Positive Sum Game. Elon just erased Twitter from Twitter, it’s now called “X” — Because when you make a mistake, you X it out… literally. And the hottest-selling personal care product right now? It’s deodorant (because it’s hot) — Deodorant is taking more body share (anyone else swiping their thighs?).$MAT $HAS $UL Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, July 25th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy, Jack. I got to hit you with three things. Can I hate you with three things, my friend? Go ahead.

Okay, first, stocks are close to record highs. Wow. Second, Jack, you just saw Oppenheimer this weekend. Yes, I did. And third, where are you recording right now? That is some slam and salmon, my friend. The new East Coast HQ in Burlington, Vermont. 4K camera.

4K. What do you think of that? Christopher Nolan. I got a little acne situation. I almost wish it was like 3K. Adam can work on that. We'll brush it right out. First story, Jack, what do we got for this show?

Over the weekend, Elon killed the bird. He rebranded Twitter with a new name, X. X. Because when something's not going well, you X it out, literally. For our second story, Barbenheimer, massively outperformed at the box office. Fourth Best Weekend in U.S. movie history. Yeties, Barbenheimer reveals the power of the power. positive sum game. And our third and final story, the fastest growing self-care product right now is deodorant. Deodorant, Yeti's, deodorant increased its market share of your body.

But Yeties, before we hit that fantastic mix from this new studio. Just a shocking and wonderful mix of stories, Jack. All right, I'm keeping track here. You got Taco Tuesdays. You got Cevice Wednesdays. Jack, Thursday's a new Friday, and Friday is the real Friday. But, Nick, what if Tuesday was the new news? Real Friday. I like where you're going with this. What's the news, Jack?

According to the New York Post, Tuesday is the real Friday. We repeat, Tuesday is the real Friday and the new Friday. That's right, Yetis, because hard-hitting journalists at the New York Post noticed that New York City's restaurants are more packed on Tuesday than any day of the week right now. Tuesday nights are beaten Saturday nights. Tuesday is the peak night at restaurants in Manhattan, which are getting 50% more business than last year's Tuesdays. What's going on?

It used to be dead on Tuesdays. Jack, Tuesday was the worst day. Now we sip champagne when we thirsty. Yet these Midtown Manhattan restaurants are booking out their reservation weeks in advance on Tuesday nights. Get this. The Gonsford Hotel down to meat packing, they've seen customers triple on Tuesdays. Now, there's a few reasons Nick and I are finding for this Tuesday turnaround. There are a few factors in this new Tuesday boo's day.

First, the number of folks back to the office just hit a record high since the pandemic. Jack, when you're coming into the office, you might be coming in for a little app, after work, too. Second, people are still in post-pandemic party mode. Drink every time someone says Zoom happy hour. I'll have what Carol from accounting's having. But Yeti's finally, we feel that Tuesday is living up to its natural potential. You should go out on Tuesdays too. That's where the two and the Tuesdays comes from. That's why they call it Tuesday. So Yeti's Tuesday is the real Friday. Heck and I are adding up the numbers here. Tuesday, it's having the best day of the year.

Taco Tuesday is now free for any restaurant to use. Via Tuesdays is back on track. And Tuesday boo's day is socially acceptable. Not sure what that means for Wednesday, do we, Jack? More savichak? We can't have too much, Savichai. Yeah, you can. Yes, you can.

A little raw shrimp never killed anyone, Jack. It's pronounced sashimi now. Daddy's, let's in our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet. 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. Start the show. For our first story, Twitter is no longer Twitter.

No, it's not. Elon has officially renamed and rebranded Twitter to X. Because when your plan is failing, you X out that plan and try something else. Xing it out is actually the oldest trick in the book. Speaking of old, X.com. It's one of the oldest websites in the book. Yeah, going back since 9.

In 1999, that website, X.com, has been associated with Elon Musk. Yeah, from back when he was a PayPal co-founder. Yeties, let's go back 25 years ago. Elon told his co-founders of their exciting new fintech startup that that new startup should be called X.com. Elon loved the letter X. Back then, he thought that X symbolized perfectly the revolution of the finance industry that the company was about to unleash.

That's what Elon thought. But his colleagues at this new fintech startup, they respectfully disagree. They preferred the name PayPal. Yeah, they liked PayPal. And guess what? They ended up going with PayPal. Yeah, they all thought that X evoked like criminality or like sex or like multiplication. Which is why they committed to PayPal.

Well, Elon went on to found Tesla. Which created the Model X. And he went on to launch a space company. And called it SpaceX. And he had nine kids. And he called one of them X. And yet he's, it's not 1990. anymore. No, it is not, Jack. It is 2023 and Elon doesn't have to listen to anybody except himself.

And guess what? Elon still happens to own X.com. And he still happens to be obsessed with the letter X. So yet, he's whip out your phone. If you enter X.com in a web browser right now, it's going to redirect you to Twitter's website. That's right. Because over the weekend, Elon killed the bluebird. Yeah, if you go to Twitter, the bird is gone. The whole history. Anything involved. tweeting, birding, anything like that, it's gone. The name is gone. Everything is called X now. Even the logo on the top left, it's just the letter X.

A little bit of seraph on that thing, but hey, it's still an X. Twitter has been erased from Twitter. It's all been Xed out. Yadis, what Jack and I are saying here? Elon named one of his children X, but he just named his favorite child X. Now, X's CEO, Linda Yaccarino, was unsurprisingly gung-ho about this big move. X is going to be the platform that'll deliver everything. That's right. She called it the everything app. And these are her words. She said it's going to be an app for audio, video, messaging, payments, and banking, all in one app built on your ex bro.

Well, Jack, I'm in Twitter right now. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I'm in X right now. And I'm not, what is in X right now? What's that? It doesn't do everything. It just does Twitter stuff with checkmarks for sale for $8.00. Frankly, Jack, it seems like Elon brainstormed this idea with Kendall Roy. Living plus X. Logan's going to love it. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Twitter? We mean X. When something doesn't work, you exit out. Look, Yetis, Elon is spinning this rebrand as part of a master plan. He was going to do it all the long. He's been talking about X for a while.

He says it's part of a master plan. But Yeties, this is not Elon's Twitter master plan. Sure, Elon's been obsessed with the letter X, and he can name Twitter that if he wants to. He's even killing the verb tweet. You don't tweet anymore. you X. The letter X is now a verb. But you know what else you X? You X out mistakes. You X out a plan that's just not working at all. So yeties, we're looking at the situation and the reality is Elon's Twitter has been a disaster.

So he's exing it out. Literally. For our second story, we just got the numbers on Barbenheimer. And Barbenheimer was the fourth biggest weekend for movie theaters ever. Barbenheimer's success reveals the power of the positive sum game. Yeti, speaking of sums, let's add this up. Barbenheimer, Barbie plus Oppenheimer, the movie combo. What are we talking about here, Jack? It wasn't a movie combo. This was a movie festival that happened last weekend. It was a cultural moment where you had to pick sides.

If you're not wearing pink, you can't sit with us. Sorry, buddy. Are you a Barbie guy or are you an Oppenheimer girl? Hey, you an Einstein? Are you a Ken? A shocking number of Americans showed their allegiance to one of those two movies. by buying a ticket this past weekend. And sometimes, Yetis, the numbers tell the stories.

So Jack and I, we're just gonna whip up the numbers for you on this one. Barbie scored $155 million in box office sales in the US and Canada. Oppenheimer hit $81 million in box office sales in the United States and Canada. And those two movies powered 300 million in total box office sales in the US and Canada. It's only the fourth weekend ever we've hit the 300 million mark. Not impressed yet, Yeties. Listen to this stat. This is the first $300 million box office weekend without a Star Wars movie or a Marvel movie. Jack, can we sprinkle on just a little more context to this one?

We are still in a movie theater recession. 2023 movie sales so far are still down 21% from their pre-pendemic normal. And yet Barbie and Oppenheimer just made theaters their fourth most filled ever. We actually have more context yet. We do have more context. Barbie is the best weekend opener ever by a female direct. And Oppenheimer is a whopping three hours long and rated R, which means families and kids could not go. And yet.

It's still got 81 million in box office sales. $12 of which came from my pocket. Yes, it did. But Nick, it was three hours long. It did feel like two movies. The only thing longer was the line of people wearing pink. Barbie fans overwhelmed Oppenheimer fans. Like we said, if you're not wearing pink, you can't sit with us.

But Yeties Jack and I, we have. sprinkle on a lot of context here. Jack, we should point to our key observation about these two movies. Barbenheimer's success this past weekend shows that we have a case of superhero fatigue. Superhero fatigue. Apparently all of us, Yeties, we got a little superhero fatigue. For the last decade, the box office has been dominated by the two big s's. Superheroes and sequels, that's all that Hollywood did. There are so many superhero sequels at this point that the studios producing them are embarrassed. They won't put numbers on the titles anymore because it's embarrassing.

So Jack and I got curious and we checked out the current top 10 movies of 2023. And it's just, it's all superheroes or sequels. If you look at the top 10 box office movies so far for this year, every single one of them is a superhero movie, a sequel, or both. Don't believe us? Check this out. John Wick 4, Indiana Jones 5, Transformers 7. Even The Little Mermaid is really the Little Mermaid too, because it's a remake from the original. Or unlike Fast and the Furious 42. There are only so many things that can be avenged by the,

Avengers, Jack. But this past weekend, we had Barbie and Oppenheimer winning the box office. Neither is a sequel and neither is a superhero. So, Yeti's, clearly, we had a craving for original movies with fresh stories. But there's something more to this story. There's something more, and that more is our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are watching Barbenheimer? Barbenheimer is the rare positive sum game.

Yeties, you may have heard of the zero-sum game. A zero-sum game often happens in politics or in business. The idea that what's good for one party comes at the expense of the other party. For example, sharing a pizza, it's a zero-sum game. If I get more of the pie, you get less of the pie. In the movie industry, it was thought to be the same. If you buy a ticket to one film, that means you're not buying a ticket to the other film. But here's what Jack and I are thinking.

Barbenheimer is the rare example of a positive sum game because both parties benefit. Nick, these two movies were so different that pitting them against each other. on the same premiere weekend. It was fun for everybody to experience. It drove excitement for the whole movie industry, and it drove people to theaters. It drove people to theaters who, if they came out separately, probably wouldn't have gone to either.

Yeties, the existence of both Barbie and Oppenheimer made the pizza bigger. Barbenheimer's positive sum game will stand out as an enduring precedent. It may unlock collaboration and coordination among the movie producers. Because what's good for one can be good for the country. competition too. A positive sum game. For our third and final story, the new fastest growing category in self-care, get this, it's deodorant. Because in this economy, we don't buy less deodorant. We buy more deodorant. Jack, can you talk to us about the temperatures the heat wave, baby? It's hot everywhere. Your pits are probably drenched right now. Yet, you were doubling down on

any perspurn ASAP, if we know what you're doing. I have a buddy whose pits are so drenched, the pit stains met in the middle and just created like a long stripe of sweat on his shirt. Jack, this is a family-friendly pod. In the meantime, Yeti's, it's not just the heat that's jacking up deodorant sales right now. Deodorant sales have surged for the past two years, and you can smell it. You can smell it. Yeties, historically, deodorant was amongst the slowest selling of the consumer packaged goods. No one bought deodorant. Yeah, we all smelled like a middle school gym. But today, deodorant is among the fastest growing products in all of self-care. And if you look at Unilever, which owns Dove, Axe and Degree,

they're experiencing double-digit growth in their deodorant sales. In this economy? Yeah, Yeties. In this economy, it's actually the perfect economy for deodorant. Because deodorant has become an affordable alternative to perfume. Theodorant has become the low-cost cologne. You can buy Ode-Gouche-Diore for $150. Or you could buy five sticks old spice for $50. $15. Give me the five pack, please. But yet he's here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story.

There has been a surprise behavioral shift when it comes to deodorant. And deodorant companies are loving every minute of it. Yeah, because deodorant has gone from a single purchase product to a multi-purchase product. According to Unilever, people want multiple types of deodorant to use for different occasions. Get this, there's like a new trend. And Unilever says that the average U.S. consumer now has two different deodorants in their bathroom. Two different types. Yeah, one scent for weekdays, one more exotic scent for the weekends. Okay, Jack, full disclosure. I didn't even realize I was doing

this, but I kind of got two deodorants going on. You're part of that data. I've been a one-stick guy since I was 18. You remember when I told you I use Ursa Major as like my main deodorant? A Vermont-based company. I love that. I love the eucalyptus. It kind of comes alive in me. But I also on the weekends, I'm using corpus deodorant because I like the way it looks. You like the way your deodorant looks? I think the bottle just looks cool to have out, Jack. Like you said, the weekends are a little exotic. Yeah, it is. Speaking of scent, there's now flavors that look like your deodorant came out of a bakery oven. It's not just about being fresh or smelling clean anymore like an ocean.

Deodorant scents include candy cane or mint cookie surprise. You're not going to smell that deodorant. You kind of want to eat it. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in deodorant? Deodorant increased its market share of your body. Okay, yeah, he's the real driver of deodorant. it's that it's being applied to more parts of your body. Yeties, deodorant has always had the power to unstink you, but that power was limited to under your arms.

Well, now consumers have started increasing the surface area of use of deodorant to whole new body parts. You ready for this, Yiddies? The Wall Street Journal says, after the armpit, the second and third biggest places to apply deodorant are your thighs and your feet. Besties, raise your hand if you've ever applied deodorant to your chest or to your neck.

Guilty. Yates, what Jack and I are saying here is head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. Head, shoulders, knees and toes. That should be the speed stick marketing campaign right now. Because the deodorant industry has managed to increase its entire market by increasing its share of your body. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? RIP Twitter, RIP Twitter Bird.

Elon killed one of the most iconic internet brand. Because when you make a mistake, you exit out. Our second story, Barbenheimer was the fourth best movie weekend ever because we have superhero fatigue. Barbenheimer is the rare positive sum game. And our third and final story, Unilever, is enjoying a boost in deodorant sales. Theodorant is boosting its market share of your body parts. I should apply some on the back of my knees.

That's a no-brainer. It's the same thing as the armpit, but for legs. Justice for leg pits, Jack. But yeties, we're not done yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the Dow just rose for its 11th straight day in a row. That is the longest stock market streak in six years, and we are this close to our record high. And second, Israel's parliament just passed a controversial law that would weaken its judiciary.

Checks and balances are key for democracy. Israel now has one last check and a little less balance. And finally, speaking of your balance, Spotify is raising the price of its music subscription by $1. It's the first time they've risen their prices ever. We've had the same price for 12 years. Honestly, Jack and I were kind of surprised they didn't do it earlier. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Mariana, a Mexican Yeti living in Aventura, Florida.

It was also sent in by Eric Mora because it's kind of a correction, best fact, yeah. Yesterday, Yeties, Jack and I mentioned you could get tequila in Oaxaca, Mexico, because it's lovely down there, but technically you can't actually do that. Yeah, you can't because tequila's like champagne. It's very specific where it has to come from. If it's not produced in the right place, then it's just not tequila. You can't call it tequila unless it's made in one of five specific Mexican states. And most tequila happens to be made in one of those states, the state of Halisco.

Holisco. There's literally a city in Halisco called tequila. And if you're in tequila, enjoying tequila, and it's a Tuesday, then Tuesday is absolutely the new Friday. Tuesdays. Because you can too. Yetis, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. And if you want to help grow the show, honestly, the best thing you can do right now is drop into your work Slack channel and just say, hey, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y.

Drop a link to the show and tell your colleagues why they got to listen to the best one yet. Have you heard the best one yet? Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, a happy birthday to our buddy Timmy. It's Timmy's birthday. He's 35 in Earth Years, which is... 24 in Montauk years.

He has like 65 in Montauk years. Oh, and happy birthday to our buddy Bob. Yeah, him too. This is his birthday and he's from Woodstock, Vermont. And also a happy birthday to our other buddy, Mary Walsh Tunney, living in Greenwich from New Jersey. Are we paying for these birthday shoutouts? Too many buddies in July, Jack.

Happy birthday to Michael Barber in Las Vegas, Nevada. And a happy birthday to Yeti Q turning 30 in Madison, Wisconsin. Oh, and weighing it at 7 pounds. in 12 ounces. Melissa and Jordan's baby girl Mill of Rosenbaum just turned one month old in Atlanta, Georgia.

This is Jack. I own stock of Unilever and Nick and I both on stock of Spotify. You stuck the landing on this. The Rosenbaum? How did you have breathed in the tank for that? Dude, I watched Creed this weekend,

a movie about boxing, and I felt like I was the boxing announcer. Weighing it at 7 pounds and 12 ounces from the streets of Los Angeles. That's perfect. Yeah, I was like Michael Dunfer.