The Best One Yet - 🤩 “Dopamine-driven compliment factory” — Gas app is #1. Airbnb’s crazy house fund. P&G’s celeb-flation.

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

The #1 app in the App Store over the weekend? It’s Gas, an app to give you constant compliments. Airbnb’s newest investment fund is for building insane houses shaped like potatoes, the Flintstones, and Pink Floyd albums. And we’ve identified a new variant of Inflation: Celeb-flation… when Tide hires rapper Vanilla Ice to make you pay more for laundry detergent.$ABNB $PG $METAFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn 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 Wednesday, October 19th, and today's pod is the best one yet. T-B-O-I, the best one yet. Except, Jack, we got to issue a correction. Let's just get it out of the way. Yeah, that Taylor Swift album, her 10th album, it drops this coming Friday, not last Friday. It's coming out this weekend, not last weekend.

It was a mistake. Yeah. Let's just shake it off. Okay. Shake it on. Don't say it again. Shag it. Jack, what's our first story?

The number one app across high schools and... And the app store is gas. Gas. It is at the top of the app store because you look amazing. Can I just say? You really do. You look fantastic. For our second story, Airbnb just awarded 100 crazy homes, 100 grand each, to just go insane.

Yeah, because invest in spectacle. And our third and final story, we've identified a new variant of inflation. We did. Celebflation. Selebflation, because P&G is paying vanilla ice to sell you shampoo. But Yeties, before we hit that fantastic mix. Just the perfect mix, man. I love this mix.

If you're pouring some 2% milk into a nutritious bowl of morning cereal right now. Spit it out. Spit it out. Because we have an emergency news bulletin coming from the FDA. Yeah, the Food and Drug Administration would like a word about your breakfast. Get this. The federal government just revised its official list of which cereals are considered healthy cereals. Like some cereals we thought were healthy, turns out they're not that healthy.

Oh, hey, Tricks Bunny, worn two can't say I'm right now. The FDA is always after me lucky charms. Now, Tony the Tiger, count Chocula, they're safe. They got nothing to worry about. No one thought those saturated fats were healthy to begin with. You're doing great. Yeah, they've never been on the west. Keep doing what they're doing, count.

But some of what we thought were healthy go-toes are off the list. And yeties, we're not talking about Captain Crunch over here. No, we're not. We are talking about. Raisin brand. Raisin brand. Raisin brand is no longer a healthy breakfast. It's official.

Jack, aren't the raisins of fruit? Pretty sure that's a fruit. Yes, but the sugar coating on the flakes isn't. And Basties, it's not just raisin brand. Corn flakes no longer considered healthy. Again, the sugar coating on the flakes, that's the issue. But isn't the corn a veggie? We should point that out.

The corn is a veggie. Yes, but sugar's a plant too and it ain't healthy. Honeynut Cheerios also no longer considered healthy. Not healthy. Even frosted mini wheat cereal, that's no longer considered healthy. Well, that one makes perfect sense. Frosted is in the name. Yeah, actually, it did always taste like a cupcake.

I put Frosty Mini Wakes on my ice cream. And then I put that on my Frosted Mini Wheats. Yeah, me too. But Jack, there is one cereal conspicuously absent from this list. Did we miss one? There is one cereal. The FDA seems to have missed. What are you talking about?

And that cereal is... Goh-hoogie, Chris. No, that snap-craggle and pop our three stories, baby. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. 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, the hottest app, across. the United States. Right now, it is gas. Gas. Gas is taking over high schools by telling you, honestly, you're the absolute best. You look great. You're just the best. What are you doing with your hair

right now? Everything you're doing, keep doing it because you're doing it right. Do more of whatever that formula. Yet he's over the weekend. We noticed there was a new number one in the app store. It wasn't TikTok. It wasn't be real. No, no, no, no, no. The number one most downloaded app last week was an app called gas. Not gas lighting, gas. The gas app still in the top 10 in the app store, also number one in social media apps. 500,000 people have downloaded this app in just six weeks. Yeah, this is the coolest thing in high school since Stacey's mom.

This gas is on fire. And the idea behind gas, pretty straightforward. Ruthless positivity. You can only say nice things on this app. Yeah, it's like a dopamine-driven compliment factor. You can't troll people. You can only estall people? Is that a word?

Yeah, it's impossible to troll. It's like the algorithm rewards good vibes only. Now, this app isn't about posting pictures or DMing people. It's just about sending superlatives. Yeah, like you can only think, the only thing you can do is tell your friend, you know what? You're the most beautiful one in school, Mary. Honestly, I think you're the best athlete I've ever met. Jesse, most quality lab partner in the entire chemistry class.

That's it. You just pick a superlative, a positive superlative, and then tag someone on your contact. You just picture a high school yearbook. But like without any of the drama. This is the opposite of the Burnbuck. Carol, you did my accounting homework. And for this, I thank you. Now, yet he's Jack and I found this app to be fascinating.

So we jumped in T-boy style except... Well, we tried to jump in T-boy style. We did. We could not jump in T-boy style. Because the app is gated in more than one way. Literally, we could not get into the gas app. Like, it's gated by your location and it's gated by your age. Yeah, we showed our ID.

We were too old. Uh-huh. You must be in high school and you must be living in a certain state in order to use this app. Gas, like Facebook many moons ago, is rolling out school district by school district. So it's geo-fenced. They're trying to improve as students use it before they go nationwide. So Nick and I couldn't get into gas because we're too old and we're in California and Vermont where gas isn't. Full disclosure, this is Nick. This is Jack and neither of us are high school sophomores. But if we were in the gas app, if we were. We would notice that everyone is anonymous unless

you pay. Because if you drop five bucks a month, you can learn who selected you as the most likely to president someday. If you drop five bucks a month, you can learn it was Timmy, who thinks that you're the world's best bank sales sales. Yeties in 2022, Jack and I have learned that there are three things that teens want in a social media app these days. I want something that's real, positive, and simple. That's it. And gas is all those things. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the gas app? This is the first ever righteous zucking. A morally acceptable copycats. Okay, besties, does gas sound familiar to you? Like the concept?

It should be. It should. Because it's a copycat, it's actually a zucking. Here's the key, though. The creator of gas copied his own idea. He sucked himself because five years ago, a brand new app took off. And that app was called T-B-H, to be honest. The idea of that app was to give teens a positive-only app.

You could only share compliments about your contacts. And that app, five years ago, grew so quickly that Facebook thought it was threat and Facebook acquired it. But funny thing, Facebook got sick of that app. It did. So it shut down TBA. Okay, so then Jack, what did the founder of the TBAH app that was acquired by Facebook end up doing? He rested and vested.

He did. He chilled while his acquisition paid out. Collected his paycheck from Facebook for selling them a company and he waited until his non-compete ended. That ended this year. He quit Facebook and launched gas. New name, but same product he used to have. And that is why we're calling gas, not just.

the most popular app right now, but the first ever, Righteous Zucking. For our second story, Airbnb is giving 100 crazy homeowners $100,000 each. It's called the OMG fund. The OMG. And it's an investment in spectacle. All right, yeah, these. Jack and I got your back. Maybe you're planning that winter vacation right now.

You know how the Germans do it. The day after vacation, they plan next year's vacation. Well, Jack and I decided we'd whip up a few casual hotel stay options. for you. All right. How about this place we found? In the United Kingdom, there is a prism-shaped home with a rainbow ramp to enter. Literally, this house is the Pink Floyd album. That Pink Floyd album. Yeah, that one, dark side of the moon. In Costa Rica, there is a five-room house where each room is shaped like a hexagon. Because it's not really a house. It's actually a human-sized beehive. Okay, how about this place we found in Mexico? This is good. This is good. Ten elevated rooms

shaped exactly like Orion. Hey, Galileo, you can sleep in a constellation. condo. All right. Finally, let's head to the Heartland. In Idaho, the most important hotel there. Love this one. It's also the most relevant attraction. It's a potato-shaped house. We're not going a duplex. We're like you mashed potatoes in the mashed potato's in the mashed potato. Its name is

Spud, we think. Now, yeah, here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. It's not that you could spend your winter vacation staying in a root vegetable. No, it's not that, Sacrities. It's that all of those homes we just listed were recently awarded Airbnb funding. All right.

Jack, let's sprinkle on a little context here. Last year, we were telling the Yetis about Airbnb's big app redesign. Part of that redesign was creating a new category you could search for called OMG. Like, I only want places that are OMG. Like, OMG as in, oh my God, this is an insane collection of crazy homes. Deborah, we're staying in a potato. Now, we're not talking OMG, like just crazy expensive, like MTV Cribs. No offense exhibit.

We're talking OMG, like, these are out of a science fiction novel. I can't believe they exist. Like it's a duplex, but it's also a pirate ship. It's a beachside house, but it's Flintstone's bedrock. So the first thing Airbnb did was create a new product category called OMG. But now it's turning those homes into financial investments. That's right. In June, Airbnb launched the OMG fund, where they find insane homes, fund them so they can become even wild.

So like tens of thousands of hosts submitted applications to turn their place into a crazier place. Yeah, they wanted that 100,000. thousand dollars to make their place even wilder. And then Airbnb assembled like a panel of judges, selected 100 winners. And boom, Mr. Wonderful, those winners are the homes we mentioned above. Yeah, those four. Those were four of the 100 winners that all got 100 grand each. It's like Shark Tank meets Fixer Upper except publicly traded as a stock. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Airbnb? Airbnb just invested in spectacle. Yeties, sometimes a company recognizes that their core product,

can also become a spectacle. The first thing we thought of was Bacardi's 151. Yes, the rum. That product exists because it's incredible. Something can be so alcoholic. The other thing we thought of was Google, which has that I'm feeling lucky button because it teases our imagination

when we're searching for something online. And Airbnb has the OMG category because there are some architectural marvels on that platform. In each case, the spectacle represents only a tiny percentage of the sales of that business. But the spectacle, captures an outsized percentage of our attention, our fascination, and our admiration.

And that positive attention, it rains down on the rest of the brand. That's why Airbnb made a $10 million investment in spectacle. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of Yetis don't realize how much prep work goes into this pot. We spend hours every morning jumping in T-boy style to earnings reports, CEO tweets, breaking news headlines. Yeah, Jack and I are toggling tabs like you toggled IM Convo's in 2004. Having eight tabs open can be stressful. You don't need that, especially when invested.

Robin Hood offers it all in one app. Whether you want to trade options, ETF for stocks through Robin Hood Financial, or you want to buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto. You can do it all on the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's robinood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply.

Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robbenhood. We are not employees of Rabinud. For our third and final story, Procter & Gamble's newest strategy to make you pay more? What is it, Jack? Stone cold Steve Austin, as in Austin 316. They hired a pro wrestler and a bunch of rappers. Because the newest variant of inflation is celebflation.

Jack, I just dropped $10.95 for an oat milk, turmeric golden latte. When are the prices coming down, man? To be honest, to drink that fancy. deserves that price today. Well, the organic cardamom was worth every penny of it, Jack. So Procter & Gamble may have an answer to this price problem. We're all facing. They may.

They may. Procter and Gamble, the $300 billion consumer goods giant. It powers your entire pantry. Yeties, if it's in Isle 6, P&G makes it. This conglomerate owns Gillette, Fabriz, Tam packs, Downing, Old Spice, Pampers. Procter and Gamble, Jack, they're doing soaps to toothpaste, a fabric softener, to toilet paper. And for three years, Procter and Gamble has been raised. Raising prices like everyone else.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, the executives of P&G, they're getting worried. The executives of P&G are wondering, in a recession, are you going to pay premium for their pantine shampoo? They're wondering, hey, should we be worried you're going to downgrade to the suave shampoo? When your pocketbook gets pinched, yeah, Jack. You'll pass on the Pantine. That's their concern. So Jack and I noticed something funny here.

P&G is testing out a new idea. And their new idea is starting with time. Yeah, Tide detergent, like the orange bottle and the blue liquid. Laundry detergent. Right now, a tub of Tide laundry detergent costs up to $12. It's a premium product. What's the typical detergent costing these days, man? Less.

Okay, yeah. Like a lot less. Less. So here's what Tide did. They decided to hire some rappers. They decided to hire rappers to convince you it's worth it. To begin, they hired iced tea. Ice tea.

The rapper behind the song, Cop Killer, who then became a cop on TV in the show Law & Order. And then Tide hired Vanilla. Ice of Ice Ice Ice Baby. Vanilla Ice, the first white rapper to top the pop charts, according to his Wikipedia. He probably wrote that in there. But, Jack, they're not just satisfied with the rappers because they also hired a pro wrestler. Stone Cold Steve Austin, who pounds Coors lights from the ring after every match. Well, now Stone Cold Steve Austin, vanilla ice and iced tea are all pitching a new cold water version of Tide laundry detergent.

Yeah, I guess it's to laundry or laundry in cold water. Yeah, so basically P&G found all the celebrities with fake. names that happen to reference ice. If you're famous and have a pseudonym related to low temperatures, you're hired. So just to clarify here, Jack, Tide is spending money on celebrity endorsements. Yeah. And then they're going to pass on that extra cost to us. We're going to have to pay more for this. This feels like an annoying takeaway moment. So Jack wants to take away for our buddies over at P&G. The newest variant of inflation is celebflation. Yeties, Jack and I have talked to you about shrinkflation. When companies keep the price,

the same, but make the package smaller. And we talk to you about thinflation. When restaurants thin down their menus to get rid of the less profitable dishes. And we've talked to you about suckflation. When hotels cut back on services but still charge more, so your trip just sucks. Well, these, they're all forms of sneakflation. Sneaky ways to raise prices on you. But the newest variant of inflation is maybe the most annoying kind,

Celebflation. When brands spend big money to hire celebrities to endorse a brand so you'll think the high price is still worth it. P&J, how about you don't pay vanilla ice and you use those savings to reduce the price of the product? We're way cooler with that, celeflation, when we have to pay more because Hollywood told us it's worth it. Ice ice, maybe. Jack, can you come out of that potato house over there and whip up the takeaways for us, please? Gas hit number one in the app store because Sam, your slam and salmon sweaters are the best ones yet. It's the first ever righteous sucking.

For our second story, Airbnb is dishing out 100,000. $1,000 grants to 100 crazy homes. It's an investment in spectacle. And our third and final story is Proctor and Gamble. They're paying celebrities with cold-related stage names. It's the most annoying type of inflation. Celebration. I guess though it's a business.

Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Mary Allerton in lovely Hudson, Ohio. It's about the origin of the middle finger. Yeah. Let's listen on. When the outnumbered English faced the French at the battle. of Aging Court, they were armed with a relatively new weapon, the longbow. The French were so amused that they vowed to cut off the middle finger of each British archer. When the longbows won

the day, the English jeered, the retreating French by raising the middle finger and a gesture that still means, among other things, in your face. Wow. Those are the juicy pages of history books that we want to learn more about. Yeah, you got another one of those. Send those our way. Any fingers. I thought it was called flipping the bird, though. Jack another origin story for another pod. Fair enough. Yetis, you look absolutely the most fantastic you have ever looked today.

Yetis, you are the best audience ever. And if you're eating a raisin brand of cornflakes or a honeynut chiro cereal right now, spit it out. Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, happy birthday to Yeti, Mario Gutier in Le Mans, France.

And happy birthday to Julie Keller in Ripon, California. And Jack, Beth Licti's got a birthday over in Denver. Happy birthday to Lucas Squidmaster Cow, celebrating in Italy right now. And Brandon Koffer enjoy that birthday down in D.C. Happy birthday to Ricky the Realtor and his dog Yoda over in Concord, California. And a happy joint birthday to Mo Moeuther and Ed Gaffori down in Virginia. Good luck to Mark Debtree, who has taken his F.E. exam in Philadelphia. And Izzy Napa and her boyfriend have an anniversary over in lovely Hoboken, New Jersey.

And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack, Nick, and I both own stock of Airbnb and Robin Hood. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of you listen to our show while you're driving. Two hands on the wheel. Keep it 10 and 2. You might be cruising, Chris, no rush.

Stay in the right lane. Or you might be doll lane from Duncan, dotting from lane to lane. And there are different drivers on the road. They're different investors too. Maybe you're cruising down the long-term lane with stock investing. or maybe you're a more advanced full speed trader. Well, the Robin Hood app helps put you in the driver seat wherever you're at in your investing journey.

If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story.

for our third and final story, Procter & Gamble's new strategy for our third and final story. You really need a breath over there, for our third and final story. You have no idea what turns are out of you. I know. I'm like, oh boy.