The Best One Yet - 🌽 “Disgusting… and delicious” — Candy Corn’s monopoly. Chevy’s final tagline. The White House’s AI.

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

The most controversial topic this Halloween is… Candy Corn — So we found the company that sells 90% of the stuff.Chevrolet just unveiled their 7th advertising slogan in 70 years — But this could be Chevy’s final tagline.And The White House just signed an Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence — But Marc Andreessen disagrees with every word of it.$HSY $GMSubscribe 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 Tuesday, Teen Boy, Tuesday, Halloween Day, October 31st. And today's pod, it just looks like the best one yet, Jack. I'm sorry, my jaw just dropped and hearts are coming out of my eyeballs. Jack, that's not a costume. That's a Ken's tomb you got over there. Yet he's, Nick is dressed up as a Barbie doll right now,

showing off more chest hair than I've seen since freshman year. Jack, I went full leotard. I haven't crossed dressed in years. The tube tops, man. It's been a while. Long overdue. I love what you're doing with the top. Sublime!

Yeties, don't wear the Barbie outfit. Let the Barbie outfit wear you. Jack, let's end the patriarchy and tell us our first story. For our first story, the White House just signed an executive order to slow down artificial intelligence. And the nation's biggest AI investor disagrees with every word of it. For our second story, Chevrolet just changed their tagline for the first time in a decade. But Jack and I think it's their last tagline. And our third and final story is the most controversial product of this Halloween.

What is it, Jack? Candy corn. Candy corn. So Jack and I found the 100-year-old company with a candy corn monopoly. You look at the back of candy corn. The main ingredient is candy corn. It's an acquired taste. But yet is, before we had that wonderful mix of stories.

A wild mix of stories for a T-Boy Tuesday. Very special T-Boy Tuesday. You've waited in line hours at Spirit Halloween. You've tried on six different wigs, and you've loaded it. the coffers with Kit Katz. Yeties, it's not just Halloween. It's our annual T-Boy costume contest. Jack and I got to pick out which besties

have the best business-themed costume ideas, and you get the final choice. For example, are you going this year as the ghost of Twitter? Because Elon killed tweeting. Or you going as a possessed Peloton instructor? Because Cody Rigsby loves himself some freaky. We got a lot of outstanding submissions for business-themed costumes ideas.

We did, but besties, before we announced the finalist, Jack, should we do the honorable mentions? Yeah, sure. Mandy is going as a junk bond. She's tying herself up with a whole bunch of garbage to be a junk bond. Oh, look over at Amanda. She's going as an interest rate hike this year.

She's wearing hiking boots, got a walking stick, and a bottle of inflation. And Alex T, he's going as a UPS millionaire, baby. Classic. Brown Deliver a Uniform Brown package box and a pile of cash. Don't forget the brown socks. With more cash. But the top four finalists, this year's business-themed costume contest. The top four options for you to vote on for best

T-boy pop biz costume. What are they, Jack? No Filter Nicolette is going this year as a very San Francisco couple. All right, this one made us laugh out loud. She's going as a cruise self-driving car. Her boyfriend is going as a traffic cone. And she's just bumping into him. All night. Classic. Just over and over. Seeing it right over here over here over a day. All right. How about Amanda Whitman? She's going this year as the fee fairy. The fee fairy. She's dressing up like a ticket master concert ticket, and then she's taking 30% of everybody's candy. But she's waiting until the very end of the night to take that 30% candy fee fee fee fairy. They get us every time.

And Kay Singer, she's going this year as a Birkenstock IPO stock. Birkenstock stock, we're talking a 249-year-old grandma dressed up in sandals. Grandmama, niche-ed. And finally, Amanda is going as the queen of Costco. The queen of Costco. She's wearing a Kirkland hoodie, golden bars, and a $1.5.000. 50 cent hot dog and soda combo. Yetis, the polls are open.

Vote right now. Today, at T-BoyPod. Go to Instagram and X at T-BoyPod. We want your votes. We're counting them right now. Which Yeti had the best business-themed costume this year. Which bestie has the best costume yet? Is it the very San Francisco couple?

Is it the fee fairy? The Birkenstock stock. Or the queen of Costco. Vote now at T-Boy pod. Thanks for playing. Jack, hold on to my leotard. And let's hit our three stories. for this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm.

It's the best. Even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. T-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, President Biden just signed the first ever government rules about artificial intelligence. With an executive order. But here's the problem. AI's biggest investor thinks that's a huge mistake. Yeties, tomorrow is November. Do you remember last November? It was a different world, Jack.

I know what you're going to say. Last November, chat GPT launched. Before that, like no one was talking chat GPT, no one was really talking to AI. But last November, the race to AI fortunes began with a frenzy. And it took one whole year until yesterday that the White House got involved. Yesterday, we got our first executive order on artificial intelligence. It's basically like the 10 commandments of AI.

But there's actually 26 commandments of AI. And it came from the president. It didn't come from Moses. Nick and I jumped in T-boy style. Here's what's in the executive order. It commands tech companies to share internal reports on safety of their AI models with the government. For example, if Facebook finds that their AI could wreak havoc with misinformation, they must share that with the White House. Like literally, it is commanded.

You must share that with the White House. So the White House created a new website, AI.gov, as a destination for all things, artificial intelligence. They're going to tell government agencies how to use AI, for example, tell police departments not to discriminate with artificial intelligence. And they're doing a bunch of other things in this executive order, too. Now, yet he's Jack and I should sprinkle on a little more context here, shouldn't we, Jack? An executive order is not a permanent law. It can be overturned by a future administration. Laws, they last.

Executive order is not necessarily true. Which is why Biden is calling on Congress to pass laws. But in a nutshell, this is the idea of the executive order. We the people should decide AI's future, not they. tech companies alone. Now, Nick, you know who completely disagrees with all of that? Well, Ken, who completely disagrees with all of that? The biggest investor in all of these big tech companies. Yeties, we're talking about Mark Andresen, the self-proclaimed techno-optimist. Mark Andreessen, the rider of unicorns. Mark Andresen, the Gandalf of tech.

Mark Andreessen, the tinkerbell of term sheets. He's going to sprinkle a little pixie dust on that valuation. Mark Andreessen is the founding partner of Andresen Horowitz, a venture capital firm. And last month, Mark Andresen published a paper he called the techno-optimist manifesto. In that manifesto, he said that AI will save lives, full stop. Okay, then he went very much further than that, didn't he, Jack? He said any policy or any effort that slows AI is akin to murder. That is aggressive. That's the transitive property that he calculated in his head. Mark Andreessen just went aggressive with the transitive property. It's a pretty extremist take that any AI regulation is akin to murder because it slows down the saving of future lives.

Now, we should point out yet he's Mark Andreessen also happens to be on the board of Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. Yeah. And when startups were moving fast and breaking things in tech, Mark Andreessen was fueling that. And now he wants the tech startups he's invested in to move fast and break things again, this time with AI. So Nick, the White House says we have to regulate AI. Andresen Horowitz says regulation is like murder.

So Jack and I whipped up a take. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in artificial intelligence? AI is going too fast. We need to pump the brakes. Here's what Jack and I are thinking. Remember early on in the AI hype cycle, like nine months ago, a bunch of tech leaders and PhDs begged for an AI pause. 33 experts, including Elon Musk, signed an open letter citing AI's potentially catastrophic effects on society. Catastrophic effects of AI. Yet he's well. that six-month AI pause that they called for, it never happened.

So Mark Andreessen is thinking about future abstract lives and how AI can save them. But we also have real-life lives today at risk of damage from artificial intelligence. Yeties, the war in the Middle East could be one deep fake video away from spiraling into an even bigger conflict. So besties, 33,000 experts said last spring that AI posed existential risks to mankind. And it's still true today. That's why we think AI is going too fast. We need to pump the brakes. For our second story, Chevrolet just changed its tagline for the first time in a decade.

From Find New Roads to Together Let's Drive. So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and we got to ask, could this be Chevy's final tagline? Yeah, these Nick and I had a lot of fun looking at the history of Chevrolet's taglines over the years. Jack, we basically went full Encyclopedia Britannica on this. thing. We were deep. And here's what we noticed. Each of Chevy's taglines reflects the zeitgeist of America at that time. That's right. Zykegeist. We dropped an SAT word in the beginning of the story. Let's start in the mid-1950s. That was the first time that GM asked the advertising industry for a slogan. And the slogan that Chevy went with at first was see the USA in your Chevrolet.

The theme? We won the war. Go enjoy the spoils of war America by driving on our new interstate highway. The industry was still early, so Chevy wasn't just selling itself, it was selling a new American pastime. Then in 1976, Chevy turned to this tagline. Baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie. Actually, yes, that was their tagline over at Chevrolet. The theme, don't buy a Japanese car. Buy American.

Chevy was now expressing the new threat at the time of foreign competition to American-made cars. Now we're at the point of the story where you're going to start recognizing the taglines. In 1986, Chevy debuted the new tagline for trucks and S. What was that memorable Jim? Like a rock. Like a rock. The theme, it was male toughness.

From 1986 to 2004, native Detroiter Bob Seeger and his bourbon-toned voice were saying Chevy was like a rock. Because few things sell better than identity. Or a gravely low-octave voice. But then in 2010, GM had a different problem on their hands. So they went with this tagline, Chevy runs deep. Chevy runs deep. The theme, General Motors was in apology mode.

They just gotten bailed out by the United States government just the previous year. So Chevy was flexing their ties to American communities, the same communities that bailed them out. Awkward. Which brings us closer to today. For the last 10 years, from 2013 to 2023, Chevy's tagline has been Find New Roads. The theme was ingenuity. After all, Chevy and the whole car industry was about to dramatically change. Just 10 years ago, Chevy was about to unveil its first ever electric car, the Chevy Bowl.

And they were about to buy Cruz, a self-driving car startup. Which brings us to the news after 70 years and seven different tagline Chevrolet just unveiled their latest. Together, let's drive. The theme, unity in a divided America. Or is it together, let's drive? I'm not sure where the emphasis is, but GM is trying to say that they are the car company for all Americans. Or is it together, let's drive. It's together, let's drive.

Exactly. But yet he used, that Chevy tagline, it actually tells us less about Chevy and more about taglines. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the advertising industry? This may be Chevy's final tagline. Tagline, slogans, jingles, they all came of age like the car industry in the last century. Nike's just do it. Apples think different. And Chevy's like a rock, they all appear at the end of a commercial.

But here's what Jack and I are wondering. are taglines still relevant? Like, marketing has evolved, so do we still need taglines? Because increasingly, brands are engaging with us outside of traditional TV commercials. They're interacting with you on social media, in the real world, with other brand collapse. And also increasingly, consumers on social media want to see brands speak organically and authentically. While a company's slogan feels like it's telling you how to feel. So after 70 years and seven different slogans, could this be shared?

Lerley's last one. Jack and I love a good tagline, but is there still room in the world for the tagline? Or is it, together let's drive? Yeties for our third and final story. The most controversial product this Halloween, it's not a costume, it's candy corn. We jumped in T-boy style to discover the one company with a monopoly on all the candy corn. Yeties, you probably didn't see it coming, but we could smell it a mile away. Candy corn is a cultural wedge issue.

There's two things you shouldn't bring up at a Thanksgiving dinner table. One of them is politics and the other is candy corn. A strong candy corn opinion in the wrong place can get you canceled. Keep that thought to yourself, besties. It's a polarizing business topic too. Yeah, Jack, what was the analogy you used? What is some other polarizing products out there? It's like Hawaiian pizza or anchovies.

Or worse, Hawaiian pizza with anchovies. Yeah, it is candy corn. The three-colored triangular sugar cube that looks like a radio The texture, how would you describe it, Jack? A mix of wax and plastic? It's kind of like eating a candle dipped in sugar. Now, for the record, Travis Kelsey, he loves candy corn. But also for the record, Taylor Swift, she hates candy corn.

This could be the wedge. Never mind. I'm not even going to mention it. I'm not even going to mention it. But yet he's here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Candy corn isn't just some innocent treat, is it, Jack? Candy corn is a monopoly run by one powerful, candy corn company. Get this, Yeties. Let's go back to 1888. Candy corn happens to be invented in the

lovely city of Philadelphia. And its original name, chicken feed. Because it looks like corn, which is what chickens eat. Yeah, and back then, 1800s, the United States was an agrarian society. So farm-themed foods, they were kind of trendy at the time. A few years later, 1904, MLJ Brock put $1,000 of his life savings to open his own candy corn company. And this man, Emel J. Brock happened to be obsessed with candy corn. So he bought a whole bunch of new candy corn machines and was the only guy who could keep up with rising demand for this sweet treat. Well, fast forward 119 years later, and Brock's candies now makes 30 million pounds of candy corn every single year. Jack, could you sprinkle on some geometric context for us over there?

That's enough candy corn that if you put them end to end, it would circle the world five times. That's a lot of kernels. Yeties, Jack and I have some even more shocking information about the candy corn monopoly. This Halloween, $88 million of candy corn will be bought. And Brox is going to sell 90% of it. Nine out of 10 candy corn kernels came from a Brox factory. This is the candy coin king. Sit down, stand up, and brush your teeth three more times again, Jack.

Just the tip. I like to nibble, just the tip, you know? I feel like the orange part tastes different than the white part, Jack. Yeah, that yellow six tastes weird, doesn't it? So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the Candy Cornopoly? Candy corn isn't just selling a product. You're selling a conversation. Yeties, most companies hate to be hated.

Their goal is 100% customer satisfaction. But for Brox, its goal to Candy Corn is just 50% satisfaction. Yeah, because the goal of marketing, it's really to be relevant. That's the goal. Even though half of the country hates candy corn, Brox isn't going to change it at all. Because 100% of the country likes talking about this. Because candy corn fans buy it to eat it. But candy corn haters, they buy it too to serve it and talk about how much they hate it.

So it appears that candy corn strategy is to stay relevant by staying polarizing. Brock knows that when you buy candy corn, you're not just buying candy. You're buying a conversation. You're buying a conversation of controversy. Ken, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Tea Boy Tuesday? President Biden just signed an executive order with 26 command. for artificial intelligence. Because AI, it's going too fast, so we need to pump the brakes.

For our second story, GM Chevrolet just unveiled their seventh tagline in 70 years. Together, let's drive. But we think it may be their final tagline because marketing is changing. And our third and final story is Candycorn. It's either loved or hated, but it's controlled by one company, Brax. Candy corn, isn't just a product, it's a conversation. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to note it.

First, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly ruled out a ceasefire in the conflict yesterday, saying that that would be the same thing as surrendering to Hamas. Which is why President Joe Biden's focus in conversations with Netanyahu has been to avoid civilian casualties, which have reached 8,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. And second, Stalantis, the owner of Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler just reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers Union. General Motors did too yesterday, which means. means the auto worker strike is coming to an end after securing a 25% pay raise for all the workers. And finally, for the first time ever, Facebook is planning to offer ad-free subscriptions to Facebook in Europe. For $9.99 euros a month, you can use Facebook and never see ads. You never see another Facebook ad.

Which means you'll probably do less online shopping. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Savannah Westwood from lovely Orlando, Florida. Savannah found a list of the most popular trick-or-treat candies in each state. Yeah, from candy store.com, they're tracking all this stuff. The most popular trick-or-treat candy of all, what are we got, Jack? It's Reesie's peanut butter cups. No surprise there. Peanut butter and chocolate. It's just made to happen, right?

In Vermont, number one is M&Ms with 37,000 pounds sold. Down in Missouri, the number one trick-or-treat candy is the almond joy with 46,000 pounds. In Wisconsin, it's butterfingers. Makes sense. Dairy, right? That's their thing. And in New York, it's Sour Patch Kids. With 171,000 pounds of Sour Patch Kids stuck in molars across the state. Oh, and before we go, Yetis, one quick correction we got to make to Monday's podcast. On Monday, we said Jamie Diamond was selling a billion dollars worth of his stock in J.P. Morgan Chase, the company he runs.

Jamie is actually selling $140 million of that stock. Not a billion dollars. Yeties, you look fantastic for Halloween morning. Your commutes are looking lovely in those wigs. Jack, you're glowing over there in full rainbow. I'm doing my first trick-or-treating with Wilder this afternoon. I'm very excited. Well, Jack, you didn't even share with all the people out there.

You're wearing roller skates right now and while you're trick-or-treating a Walder. No, but Wilder is dressing up as Lightning McQueen from cars. Alex and I are his pit crew. The Pod Sun was made for Pixar. Yiddies, if you sent us in a picture of your Halloween costume, that was fantastic. We posted some of our favorites on our social channels. And to vote on the four best business-themed Halloween costumes, head over to T-Boy Pod on Instagram and X.

We got them set up right there. Your four finalists, the very San Francisco couple. The Fee Ferry. The Birkenstock Stock. Or the queen of Costco. Check it out at T-Boy pod. And Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Someone is definitely bringing candy corn.

We're looking at you, Mark Andreessen. And before we go, happy 26th birthday to Keswick Chu celebrating over in Toronto, Canada. And happy birthday to Brandon Eng. in Melrose, Massachusetts. And Nathan Fisher is moving to Dallas for a new job. Nathan, you got this. And congratulations to Pete DeCandia,

who just left his job at Under Armour to run his startup, teacher props, helping teachers find homes. Not too shabby. Thanks for whipping it up, Pete. And to anyone else celebrating. Celebrating something today, go do some trick-or-treating. Jack and I will hoard the wins. This is Jack, Nick and I both on stock of Apple and Peloton.

Okay, so I, with the first of... reason I took an extra sec is I don't have my wallet in this outfit so I couldn't get back into the room so I had to ask someone here to basically be like I'm locked out of the podcast room I'm trying to get into oh you're locked out of the podcast and then the best part is she was like so you're can I was like I'm Barbie obviously obviously are you can