The Best One Yet - 🥤 “Diet Bros” – Diet Coke’s political rebrand. Tennis’ collusion case. BYD’s 5-minute EV.

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

Diet Coke always targeted women… but now it’s the drink of Hustle Bros & the White House.The top tennis players sued the grand slam tournaments… but pro sports is a monopoly.BYD just announced the Holy Grail of Electric Cars… Zero to fully-charged in 5-minutes.Plus, the Oregon Ducks basketball team just set a record… a 26,700-mile road trip.$BYD $KO Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… MTV 📺Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Susper Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And that is Jackalander. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh my God, Jack. I just got more wild information.

You ready for this? Oh, boy. Your Audi thinks Quibi was a good idea. Your Audi bought Dogecoin in his 401k. I've since learned that yesterday I was the perfect version of an iny. Because I had no idea what an Audi was. Jack, your Audi shorts to the office. That is the end of our any session.

Jack, three stories for today's tea boy. What do we got on the pot? For our first story, Diet Coke sales are surging right now for a totally surprised reason. Diet Coke has jumped from wellness women to crypto bros. For our second story, one Chinese company, BYD, just achieved the holy grail of EVs. Charge an electric car in five frickin' minutes.

And our third and final story, the world's top tennis stars just sued the four tennis tournaments. Because tennis players and football players actually have different rights. Wild story. But, Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack. It's Thursday. So your bracket is set.

March madness begins today at 12 Eastern Time. But besties, there is one number no one is talking about that we want to talk about. 26,700, as in 26,700 miles. 26,700 miles is the total distance traveled by the University of Oregon Ducks basketball teams. This season, the Oregon Ducks spent more time on airplanes than on the court. They spent more time on the tarmac than in the classroom. It's the longest road trip for a team in the 132-year history of college sports. And, Jack, the reason for this epically long record-set and road trip?

The University of Oregon switched conferences. Yeah, Oregon. They're situated on the Pacific Coast, so historically they were a member of the PAC 12 conference. But last year, they switched to the Big Ten, a conference way over in the Midwest. And I can't believe I'm asking this, but why did they do it, Jack? Money! Classic! But the side effect of this conference switcheroo is way more travel. The distance traveled by the Oregon Ducks jumped 222% this season. Because instead of flying a neighboring Washington, they're flying two time zones over to Wisconsin. Instead of flying to their away games, the ducks migrate each week. Washington,

USC, UCLA, all of them also switched from the Pact 12 to the Big Ten conference. And Stanford and Cal, two other Pacific-based teams, they joined a conference with Atlantic in the name. So add it all up, Yetis, and these basketball teams flew over 20,000 miles in a single college season. It's the best economic stimulus for the U.S. Airlines since wings. Yeah, we don't know what these players are going to get on their final exams. But we do know that they got Delta Sky Miles elite status. 26,700 miles? Yeah, I better get the upgrade. If I don't have complimentary guest access to the lounge, we're through.

Representative Jack, 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, but the best is an norm. Jack, yeah, that's it. 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Diet Coke is making a comeback, but with

the opposite drinker than you'd expect. Because Diet Coke markets to healthy women, but it's actually selling to crypto bros. Oh, the soda industry. Soda, it's just not a growth industry by any means when we look at the numbers. We've been saying it for years. Millennials killed cereal, sugar, and soda. It all just rolls off the tongue. But there is one ancient soda exception to this rule, and that old soda is Diet Coke.

One out of ten Americans drink Diet Cola daily, according to the financial times. And 10 out of 10 of those are probably urine loss. Actually, dude, my brother, my little brother, Teddy. Oh, yeah. I once counted, he had 29 diet Pepsi's in one. single day. He had like three in the morning, three in the car on the way to the restaurant, four at the restaurant, two on the way home from the restaurant. It was wild. But who's counting? Diet Coke, invented in 1982, it was actually Coca-Cola's first new brand in a century.

It was the first soda to replace sugar with aspartame, which no one really knows what that is. And for 30 years, Diet Coke marketed itself two women. They'd say, hey, Diet Coke, it pairs well with a nice Pilates class. Say no to carbs, say yes to Diet Coke. Diet Coke sponsor Taylor Swift, Kate Moss, and even the fictional character Bridget Jones was crushing Diet Coke's. In the 2000s, there was a Diet Coke ad campaign featuring a bunch of topless sweaty men with six-pack abs, a total thirst trap for women to drink Diet Coke. The result? Financially, Diet Coke has been flown for years, especially lately. On their latest earnings call, the Coca-Cola CEO said that Diet Coke was a growth highlight. And Jack, why exactly is Diet Coke suddenly popping off?

Partially, because Elon's Doge army of 20-something workaholics are pounding cans of diet. Here's the update yeties. Diet Coke has become the unofficial drink of dudes. That's right, its top buyer is now Crypto Bros. Now, we should clarify. We should. Diet Coke still markets primarily to the wellness female crowd. But the bromentum with conservative dudes is palpable. Oh, yes, it is. For example, President Trump drinks 12 cans of Diet Coke every single day. He actually installed a red button in the Oval Office to summon a new can of Diet Coke. True story. And Elon Musk, he said he fuels his 120-hour workweek with one substance, Diet Coke. His first move when he acquired Twitter was Add Fridges of Diet Coke.

Now, Jack and I jumped in T-Boy style, and we noticed that this Diet Coke crypto bro surge isn't just a political story. Coke's been embraced by a broader community of male business people, according to the financial times. Get this. The CEO of Barclay's Bank has his own personal fridge completely filled at the office with Diet Coke. Bill Gates once said that if you took Diet Coke away from him, he would have withdrawal symptoms. Add it all up. And from the West Wing to the boardroom, D.C. to Silicon Valley, it's the official drink of Hustle dudes. And that drink is Diet Coke. If you hate the idea of work-life balance, then you probably love Diet Coke. Yeah, Jack. I heard Diet Coke just bought Bitcoin.

So then Jack and I were wondering, what does it mean when Diet Coke markets to one group but gets the opposite group actually buying it? The answer is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Diet Coke? Sometimes you can't pick your cult. You just got to be happy that you've got one. Yeah, Jack and I actually discovered

there are a lot of examples of unintended adoption. Basically, brands that catch fire with an accidental crowd. Carhart was designed for construction workers, but it's embraced today as a streetwear brand. Rolex was marketed as a serious dive watch, but today it's embraced as a status symbol for people who don't dive. And the Stanley Mug was designed for blue-collar workers, but it's beloved by TikTokers. Even Mountain Dew was never, ever intended for gamers, but now their top buyer is video game players. So far, Diet Coke isn't totally embracing the bromentum, but it's not fighting it either. Because besties, you can't pick your cult. Honestly,

Just be happy that you have one. For our second story, one Chinese company just achieved the holy grail for electric cars. Charge your EV in just five freaking minutes. But we'll explain something much bigger, how China is beating the United States in electric cars. B-Y-D, they make cheap electric vehicles in China for as low as $10,000. Jack, that's cheaper than a trip to Disney World these days. It's like the price of a souped up scooter. I think that's the price of eggs right now.

But we got to say, based on this news, BYD is no longer Tesla's rival for the world's best electric car company. No, no, no, it is not Tesla's rival anymore. It's now number one. Because BYD just announced their next-gen electric car that seemingly defies the laws of physics. In fact, to build this brand new type of car, BYD is constructing a whole factory town, the size. of the city of San Francisco. But here's the highlight of this new car. Batteries that can fully recharge

in just five minutes. Five minutes. We're talking 300 miles of range faster than you can cook a hot pocket. To sprinkle on some context, that is four times faster than a Tesla gets charged at a Tesla supercharge.

Five minutes to charge a car that's the same time as it takes your buddy to fill up his car at the gas station. If true, huge. Huge. This would be a deep sea. moment for EVs, basically a Chinese company more innovative than American technology. And BYD is

building 4,000 of these five-minute charging stations across China. It is a holy grail moment for the industry. But Nick and I said, if true. We did. And we had to say if true, because we've heard a bunch of announcements just like this that haven't turned out to be true. All right, let's whip out the whiteboard Jack. Back in 2020, Elon Musk announced a lower-priced battery, would enable $25,000 Tesla cars. But just a couple of years later, he had completely abandoned that goal. All right, a couple years after that,

Toyota said they'd have a battery that would charge 400 miles in just 10 fast minutes. But Toyota has already pushed back their timetable for that magic battery to 2027. Oh, and then of course, Jack, we have QuantumScape.

Yeah, full disclosure. This is Jack. I still own stock of QuantumScape because, like, five years ago, they made an announcement just like this, and I believed them. And what's happened? since then, Jack. They have earned zero revenue, despite what they called at the time, a breakthrough

in EV batteries. Yeah, full, full disclosure. I also bought chairs of quantum escape because Jack told me to, and now I'm in the red on this investment as well. That's why you should never get in the business of recommending stocks. You promised me profits, buddy. So if true, this would be a huge holy grail moment because the number one key to replacing gas burning cars with clean electric vehicles is batteries. Range anxiety and charging the car is the top consumer pain point that's holding back EVs. So maybe, just maybe, this BYD charging news is a solution for that. Or maybe it'll be another disappointment. Either way, Wall Street thinks it's legit. They do. BYD stock is at an all-time high right now. It's now the third most valuable car company in the world. In fact, Warren Buffett, he's in on

BYD. His Berkshire Hathaway owns 5% of the company. Warren Buffett is the biggest non-Chinese. of the biggest electric car company in the world. That's true and huge. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone following the tech race? What's China's secret advantage for EVs? They have no status quo bias. Yeties, China has adopted electric cars way faster than Americans or Europeans have. One reason is their authoritarian government.

Good point, Judge. They act faster and with more conviction on policy than democracies do. But Jack and I think a bigger reason for their fast moves on EVs is that China's electric vehicle owners have only owned an electric vehicle. Nick, let me sprinkle on some context. I would love that, Jack. Ten years ago, China had just one and a half cars for every 10 people. Today, car ownership rates have doubled over there.

Which means most Chinese car buyers are buying their very first car, and that very first car is an electric one. That's very different than Americans and Europeans, who've probably driven five to ten gas. gas-powered cars in the span of their life. Hey, your in-laws and Uncle Eddie are probably EV skeptics. Because they're so used to gas cars, change is hard. But the Chinese, they're EV-enthusiastic, because this is their first car.

There you go. It's all upside. It's all positive. They're not yearning for a gas-powered car. They're just excited they have a car. And that is China's secret advantage for electric vehicles. When it comes to cars, they have no bias for the gas-powered status quo. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, the union of tennis players is suing the four Grand Slam

tournaments for collusion. We'll explain why tennis players are independent contractors and football players are employees. Yeties, let's open up the rulebook to page 34 section C. If your foot is on the line, that is a foot fault. If the ball touches the net, it's a let. And if you don't wear white shoes on the court, you're getting kicked out of the tournament, baby. Well, on Tuesday, the union of pro tennis players added one more rule to the rulebook. If you file a lawsuit, you file three lawsuits at the same time.

Boom, tennis players filed a lawsuit in New York, one in Brussels, and another one in London. It's the grand slam of litigation. Here's what's going down yet. These tennis players are suing the four major tennis tournaments as an illegal cartel. John McEnroe, you may have a lot. approach the bench. Just don't bite anyone, John. And here's the issue that they are accusing. Here's the complaint. The tournaments collude with each other to cap the pay for tennis players. Yeah, the main issue, the French Open, the U.S. Open, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon make up the bulk

of the money in professional tennis. And even though those four tournaments are legally separate from each other, the pay that they give all the players in their tournaments are the same. That's right. 15 to 20 percent of tennis revenues actually end up in the pockets of the players. The other 75 to 80% of tournament revenue stays with the tournament owner. So the players are upset about that math and they also don't like that pickleball is getting all the attention these days. No, they don't. But Novak Djokovic, the head of the Tennis Players Association, blew a whistle this week. He literally blew a whistle. He actually says he's got the receipts to show what's happening to tennis players and how it is unjust. Here's the receipts. The NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, and the NHL, they all send a much higher cut of revenues to the players. 50%. Yeah, those four big sports leagues send 50% of revenues to their players.

But tennis players get just 15 to 20% of the revenue? What's going on over there? Djokovic says this is injustice and it's only possible because of collusion. But Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and here's the interesting detail. Tennis actually has a different business model than like the NFL. The NFL. has two sides, the owners and the players. And those two sides agreed to split revenues 50-50. But tennis doesn't have just the owners or just the players, does it, Jack? There are two pro-tennis leagues, and then there's four Grand Slam tournaments, and then there's the players. And get this detail. Tennis players, they aren't technically employees.

But football players are employees. They can limit how often they have to play and maximize their rest. But the independent contractors playing pro-tennis, they don't get those right. They complain that they're overworked and they're overplayed. Yeah, that last U.S. Open tennis match, you played at 10 p.m. and then you got another one the next morning at 8 a.m. LeBron James gets the whole summer off to play golf. Andre Agassiz, he didn't even have an off-season. He's got to play right now.

So in the four major sports, you have powerful players unions that can go on strike every few years. But the tennis players union formed just five years ago. And instead of striking, they're doing a lawsuit. They're basically saying the umpire read it wrong and they want to review. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over playing tennis? The dirty secret about U.S. pro sports, the sports leagues are legal monopolies. Yet he's interesting detail about American pro sports that people don't actually realize. The four major pro sports leagues are monopolies.

True. And the government is okay with it. For whatever reason, our country has decided that we like having just one pro sports league per sport. Really early on, Major League Baseball got broad antitrust exemption, and then the other three major sports got limited versions. What Jack's saying is that the 32 NFL football teams are a cartel, but they are a legal cartel because Congress regulates them. That's why when steroids came to baseball, the U.S. Senate got involved to investigate.

So Besties, initially, Jack and I found it really interesting that tennis players were suing on antitrust grounds. We think the better route might have been to go on. on strike, like the players do in the other leagues. Because the sports leagues are monopolies. They're legal monopolies. And our government is okay with it. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Diet Coke has always been popular among workaholic men. But right now, it's the unofficial drink of the White House. You can't pick your coat yeties. You should honestly just be happy that you have one. For our second story, BYD says their batteries can go from zero to fully charged

in just five minutes. That's the holy graze. of electric cars. So what's China's secret advantage for EVs? No status quo bias. And our third and final story, the pro tennis players union sued the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments and the two tennis leagues. But the dirty secret of U.S. pro sports, the four major leagues are four legal monopolies. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Jerry Powell had the Fed meeting. Our central bank decided to keep interest rates unchanged. With all this economic turbulence, here's what Jerry Powell said. We think it's a good time for us to await further clarity. Although they did cut their economic growth outlook for this year to just 1.7%.

Second, Ben and Jerry's sued their parent company Unilever for firing their CEO for political reasons. Now, the reason Ben and Jerry's brands are so politically outspoken, Ben and Jerry negotiated that, didn't they, Jack? They negotiated independence when it comes to speech, even though they sold their company. Yeah, honestly, we've never seen a subsidiary sue its owner, but now we're seeing it with Ben and Jerry. Ben and Jerry's is suing Unilever, the company that owns it. Somehow, feels like that's going to turn into a flavor. And finally, Warren Buffett is giving away $1 million if you ace the first round of March Madness. Every year, the world's greatest investor hosts a tournament pool at his fund, Berkshire Hathaway.

Now, this year, he's letting all 396,000 employees of all the companies Berkshire owns play in his tournament. If you get all the first round games correct, you get a million dollars. If you get all 48 games correct, which is up through the Sweet 16, you get a million dollars per year for life. But you know what Jack and I got to say, don't pick Duke. Don't pick Duke. Not because we're UNC fans. It's just smart investing. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Carson Daly and sent our way.

What do we got, Jack? Did you know that MTV was once a finance company? Yeah, that's right. Music television, MTV, was once in the banking industry. In the 1990s, MTV was so big they launched a credit card. Yeah, the MTV Visa Credit Card. Sounds kind of cool, actually. In terms of points, you could redeem them for things like concert tickets and, I don't know, fan swag.

But, Jack, what's the funny reason MTV eventually shut down their Visa credit card? The card holders were way too young. They weren't that valuable as customers. Yeah, MTV viewers actually are a little too young sometimes to get a credit card. Fun fact, my very first credit card was the MTV U card. Oh! I had like a thousand dollar credit limit. Unfortunately, they declined Jack's purchases because he was listening to Chumbabwamba.

Your credit score has gone down based on your music preferences. Yadis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you're in he looks fantastic today. I thought you were talking belly buttons. And then when you said Audi, I thought you were talking about my car, which is not an outty. The session is over now, Jack. The session is over now. Besties, if you haven't yet, check out the best idea yet.

To hear more about MTV, we got a whole episode. We linked to it in this description. It's a 45-minute deep dive. It's a wild story. And then remember to tell your buddies, H-Y-H-T-B-O-I, because that helps us grow the show. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, a happy birthday to Legendary Yeti, Armando.

So over in Puerto Rico. And happy birthday to Tega, who's turning 27 over in New York City. And a special shout out to Martin, who's in the Spotify comments and is looking for closure on this whole any-outy situation. I'm not alone, apparently. And we've got one meeting with Mr. Milchek, and then all will be revealed in Friday's pod. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy.

Kira is great. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Unilever and Berkshire Hathaway. Nick owned stock of Delta, and we both own some Bitcoin. Name Ben.