The Best One Yet - 🐸 “Find Your Muppet” — Sesame Street’s Cocomelon threat. Saratoga’s viral facial water. Signal’s user error.

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

A gym-fluencer did a 3:52am sparkling ice facial… and Saratoga Water’s stock jumped 6%.Sesame Street is facing 3 major threats… Bluey, Cocomelon, and Ms. Rachel.The Atlantic’s journalist shared more screenshots… but we got curious about the chat app, Signal.Plus, one movie Director spent $11M of Netflix’s budget on Ferraris, mattresses, & crypto…$PRMB $WBD $NFLXWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Goldfish Crackers 🧀 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. It's Thursday, the new Friday, March 27th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is it T-boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Stocks are down, but T-Boys up, and we whipped up, honestly, three best stories we've ever done. Jack, what's on today's show? For our first story, Saratoga Water has more attention than forever right now after it went accidentally viral. Here's the playbook on what a brand should do if it goes viral by mistake. Speaking of mistakes, for our second story, it's Signalgate. That was the story of the day again yesterday, as the scandal escalated with more screenshots. So Jack and I looked at Signal itself, and we were reminded of a wise thing our IT director once told us. And our third and final story is Sesame Street. Sesame Street is in trouble. The day after Elmo got grilled by Congress.

But the bigger issue here is that Cookie Monster is getting competition from Cocoa Mellon. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of. stories. I like three stories, Nick and Jack. I love three stories today. The biggest drama of the year, what is it, Nick? Jack, it is ironically happening over at Netflix. Here's the tea. Yep. Seven years ago, Netflix Green Lake Carl Rinch to direct a new TV series. Carl Rinch said he needed $11 million bucks to finish that TV series. So Carl invited Netflix executives over to his home to tell them that he was over budget. So Netflix wired this director $11 million to finish the filming on that film. But seven years later, he didn't finish the filming, did he, Nick? No, he didn't, Jack,

and why is that? That Netflix sci-fi series still isn't streaming either, is it, Nick? No, it is not, and why is that, Jack? Because the director spent all $11 million personally on gambling, crypto, and five Rolls Royces. Oh, we got the receipts. Literally, we have the receipts. Because Netflix has pressed charges. Get this, besties. This director spent $652,000 of Netflix's money on wristwatches. He allegedly spent $180,000 on kitchen appliances and $300,000 on luxury bed linens. Actually, he spent $700 grand on two luxury mattresses. One of which was filled with horse main hair, real thing. I didn't know a mattress could get that expensive. If you got to ask, you can't sleep on it. He spent $5.4 million on designer art deco furniture, plus $400,000

at the Four Seasons Hotel. But our personal favorite? Yes, Jack? He spent $1.1 million. He spent $1.1 million dollars to pay lawyers to preemptively sue Netflix. Netflix, we couldn't spend that much money if we tried and we promise we'll never sue you. And with the leftover money, he bought a Ferrari five Rolls Royces and a house in Portugal. Not too shabby, but the wilder part. He invested in Dogecoin, apparently, and his crypto portfolio hit $24 million at one point. Yeah, he doubled the amount of money he took from Netflix. But then the crypto bet tanked by 90%, so he was in the red big time.

It's all up, Yetis, and this story is so wild. Netflix should make a movie about it. Scratch that. It's so wild. Hulu should make a movie about it. We couldn't have scripted it any better than that. Jack, let's hit our first stories. 15 years before this song,

two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but 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 rare 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, an influencer just revealed his 3am ice facial routine. True thing. And it caused a water stock to jump 6% this week. Saratoga Water is a case study on how to handle accidental influence. Accidental influence. But yeties, let us introduce you to.

to a man, a big man named Ashton Hall. And he's not just an influencer. He's a gym fluencer. His biceps are the content. Because Ashton Hall played football at Alcorn State University down in Mississippi. And now he posts videos of his workouts in the gym. He is a gym fluercer. He has 5 million followers and 5 million abs. Yeah, but his latest video, Jack, is a little more personal than his typical workout routines, wasn't it, man? He showed the world his morning routine, step by step, minute by minute, and it begins at 352 a.m. in the morning. That's right.

3.52 a.m. Eastern. Let's go here. 3.54 a.m. he's doing push-ups. By 402 a.m. he's doing meditation. And at 4.28 a.m. he's writing in his diary. Standard trendy wellness stuff. Okay, but then, Jack, at 5.02 a.m., he's reading a book. At 5.58 a.m. he's running on the treadmill. And by 6.39 a.m. he is swimming in a pool.

Rise and grind, baby. Did you notice at 8.45 a.m. he rubs a banana on his face. No joke. I missed that part. I haven't read the deal. I haven't read the deal. details on that, but it took him apparently a minute. The biggest surprise, though, for the internet was what this man did at 9.09 a.m. First of all, he's been up for over five hours at 9.09. Yeah, it's a full day,

pretty much. This is the moment when Ashton dunks his face into a bowl of iced sparkling water. Specifically, he stuck his face into a Saratoga blue bottle sparkling water bowl. And that ice bath facial, That premium ice bath facial was viewed by 741 million people just on X. Jack, let's call this the Saratoga Splash. And what was the wildest part about this gym influencer doing the Saratoga Splash? That three second cameo from Saratoga Waters

boosted the company's stock by 6%. Besties, the parent company here is Primo Water. That's who stock jumps 6%. It's a little known company, but we actually covered it last year on the pot. We covered it because it happens to be the biggest water company in America. It's got a $6 billion valuation.

It's bigger than Lyft. They own a bunch of bottled water brands, including Arrowwood, Mountain Valley, Deer Park, and they have five-gallon jugs that you can refill like every grocery store. Saratoga's like the crown jewel of their water offering. Like if LaCroix has got a beach body, then like Saratoga's a ballerina, Jack.

Upstate New York. Yeah. I mean, where's there better water than that? Founded in 1872, Saratoga is basically America's Perrier. It's pronounced Perrier. But the 6% stock jump, I mean, Jack, that added $360 million in market value just from one viral post. But that viral post wasn't a paid ad with Saratoga. No, it wasn't.

Saratoga Water had no prior knowledge that this post was going to happen. The way Jack and I like to think of this is, this was accidental influence. But it doesn't matter. This one gym influencer accidentally influenced 740 million pairs of eyeballs to look at a blue bottle of Saratoga water. Like we said, advertising, that's what you pay for. But publicity, that's what you pray for. Although, let's be honest, nobody was looking at the bottle of water. They were looking at his abs.

All five million of them. But the bigger drama, Yetis, is that Saratoga hasn't said a word about it since. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our water buddies over at Saratoga? Don't enter the chat. Yeties, this was Saratoga and Primo's biggest marketing moment in 100,000. 53 years of tap and water. They got so many new mentions, they probably thought their socials got hacked. And Jack, how did Saratoga respond to all this sudden viral attention?

Chill. Yeah, they were chill about it, and we think that was really powerful. Saratoga water is basically winked to Ashton by posting a bottle of Saratoga beside a bowl of ice, and then they said, this is the pairing we never knew we needed. Basically, they didn't text the chain, they hearted the message. It was subtle. And that move reminds us of a story we did last week on brand nickname. Yes, it does.

Consumers hate it when brands start using their nicknames themselves. Yeah, studies show that when Target tweets the nickname, Tarjeet, it actually leads to less engagement. And it's the same concept, we think, with an unexpected viral moment. If the brand engages, the moment loses its authenticity. Yeah, Saratoga did say something. It would be almost absurd if they stayed totally silent, but they really barely said anything. Because as soon as a brand enters an internet conversation about it, it's over. The conversation's over.

That's why we like to say, don't enter the chat. For our second story, the Signalgate scandal escalated yesterday as full attack plans on a terrorist group were revealed publicly from a group chat. So we have to tell you about Signal and the dude behind it. Yeties, on Monday, this was the headline of Atlantic Magazine. And Jack, I got to imagine, this got more clicks than anything in Atlantic Central. century old history. Here's the headline. The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans. That is something you're probably going to click on right there. The reporter of that article

was accidentally added to a group chat that had the vice president, the defense secretary, the national security advisors, the whole cabinet basically. Yeah, and in that group chat, just like, you know, the group chats we got with like our buddy Timmy, he saw plans to attack a terrorist group before it actually happened. So on Monday, he revealed screenshots, proving that he was accidentally included in this group chat. And this looks like, again, one of your typical friend group chats, they included an emoji of a USA flag and a fist after the bombing mission was successfully completed.

So kind of like the group chats here in. Same emoji, different contexts. Now, Trump and his cabinet criticized the journalists and basically said this wasn't a big deal. Although the National Security Advisor Mike Waltz took full responsibility for the mistake. But Trump's team said that the texts didn't include anything confidential, and they specifically said

nobody was texting war plans. So, on Wednesday morning, the journalist did what any teenager would do if they were accused of lying by their parents. He showed more screenshots. He just showed more. Look at this one, Mom. He published the rest of the text that he had previously withheld,

the ones that included the detailed war plans. Turns out the information in that group chat was actually very confidential. Probably the most confidential information we've ever read in our lives. And here's is why we're saying that. The Secretary of Defense texted extremely detailed plans about an attack on Yemen's Houthi rebels. At 1,400 hours, the first bombs drop. At 1,500 hours, F-18 fighter jets

launch a second strike. Basically, this was a play-by-play of the military strike. Those are the screenshots. Those are the facts of the scandal. But we're not getting into the political implications of it. If you want those, those are a story for a different podcast. What we were curious about is the platform that was used. It wasn't IMessage and it wasn't telegram and it wasn't WhatsApp. It was actually a platform called Signal. Signal is an encrypted messaging platform

run by a guy with a rat tail and his name is Marley Moxie Spike. He actually changed his name to that at a younger age, but he's a hacker and he runs Signal in an interesting way. As a nonprofit. Yeah. There's no ads. There's nothing you have to pay.

There's no subscription. There's no business model. Signal makes money based on donations, kind of like Wikipedia. It's used by a lot of journalists because it's such a secure messaging platform. And Marley Moxie Spike saw this opportunity

and turned the group chat drama into a marketing moment. He said Signal is the gold standard if it's used by the U.S. military. And you know what? Signal surge to one of the top 10 apps in America after all of this Signalgate drama.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Signal? A system is only as secure as the person using it. Yeties, 20 years ago, this chat would have happened on a secure conference call. It would have happened in the situation room. But today, we text. And with end-to-end encryption, the platforms we text on generally are pretty darn secure.

WhatsApp, I message, telegram, signal. They're all end-to-end encrypted so only the sender and the receiver can view the message. It's so secure that the police can't access the messages, even with a warrant. Yeah. The tech companies behind them can't see what's being messaged. But the reason this story leaked wasn't because of an encryption issue. a hacking or a signal error. The reason a leaked was a human error. The tech industry calls this user error. Yeah.

The finance industry calls it a fat-fingered mistake. Yeah, we do. You and I call it, oh my God, I texted the wrong person. Oh, delete, delete, delete. The situation room is more mistake-proof. Yeah, it is. It would have been harder to add the wrong person to the situation room. Because someone would tackle them.

But Signalgate is a reminder that the system is only as secure as the person you. using it. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Elmo is seeing red, literally. Sesame Street is facing a perfect storm of problems as their deal with HBO ends. Because Cookie Monster is facing competition from Cocoa Mellon. I'm sorry, Jack, one second. I'm just a little lost here. Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? For the last 10 years, Nick, you've had to take the HBO tunnel. right, and why is that, Jack? In 2015, HBO began paying Sesame Street 30 to $35 million a year for the

rights to the show. Jack, I think it was $30 million, 31 million, 32 million. Well, unfortunately, that lucrative deal with HBO is ending. And Hollywood is completely different in 2025 than it was in 2015. Back then, profits at streamers didn't matter. Profit schmoppets. Subscriber growth is all that streamers wanted. But today, profits are all that matters in the streaming industry. That's why Sesame Street's new deal won't be nearly as lucrative as the HBO one was. Plus, President Trump is basically pulling the plug on Big Bird. His administration has killed grants that Sesame Street and its long-term distributor PBS used to enjoy. Just this Wednesday, Congress grilled the head of PBS, accusing the channel of bias. So, Sesame Street laid off 20% of its staff last month. They're even

tapping Oscar the Grouch's savings just to survive. But yet, there's actually a bigger problem here facing Sesame Street, and it's brought to us by the letter C for competition. Nick, can I go full cars one with an analogy here? Okay, I like this, Jack. We're using a kid show as an analogy to explain Sesame Street's competitive landscape. I love it. Roll with it, roll with it.

Sesame Street is like Lightning McQueen. It's the most successful race car of all time by far. Okay, I'm following you. But now, Sesame Street is facing next generation competition. And the Jackson Storm is Cocoa Mellon. And Miss Rachel is Cruz. And Bly, I don't know who Bly is, but Bly is competitive too. Okay, so basically what you're saying is Sesame Street is facing new competition from

Cocoa Mellon, Miss Rachel, Bluey, even Baby Shark, is taking a bite out of bird and Ernie. These new age kids' shows have cracked the code on engagement better than Sesame Street ever has. For example, Cocoa Mellon mesmerizes kids with endless songs and nursery rhymes that are optimized for the algorithm. You just can't change the channel. Meanwhile, Bluey was the most streamed show or movie of 2024 on Disney Plus. By far, it was the most dreamed. In fact, Sesame Street has done research, showing that kids laugh while watching Bluey in a way they just don't while watching Sesame Street. Now, the CEO of Sesame Street has tried to assure everyone, this is not the rejection of Sesame Street, and Sesame Street is not going away.

But she did acknowledge that Elmo must adapt to survive. So the 56th season is adapting by changing the format. Jack, what's the new Sesame Street going to look like next season? It's going to be two 11-minute chunks with a tiny chunk in between, which is different than the historical magazine format that Sesame Street had. You're going to get more comedic elements, more music, more animation in Sesame Street now. But distribution is destined. And the 56th season doesn't know where it will be distributed.

It doesn't know where it will be streamed. There's Sesame Street. They're in talks with Netflix, with YouTube, with Amazon Prime video, but no one is committed yet. also in talks with Tobe, Roku, and PBS. But again, we don't know where it will end up. So, Jack, I got to ask you the question from the beginning of this story. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street next season, man? I can't. We can't. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over on Avenue C at Sesame Street? To engage or to educate? With the Muppets, Sesame Street got both. Yeties, Jack and I did a whole deep dive episode on the best idea yet about Sesame Street, about this issue.

From the start, Sesame Street's mission was to use TV to educate kids, especially kids from low-income families. But they knew there was a tension with that mission because kids want fun on TV. They don't want phonics. Yeah, your six-year-old learns in school because they can't leave. But when they're not in school, they can just change the channel on the TV. Their solution to this tension was the Muppets. The Muppets. Muppets were the candy that made the teaching still feel like fun. That was Sesame Street's solution. But today, kids have higher expectations for engagement than just Muppets.

Now, if Sesame Street leans too much into laughing and music, they'll abandon their mission to educate kids. Okay, but Jack, if the education purists at Sesame Street have too much sway, then nobody will watch the show. We hope Sesame Street finds the right balance to continue to thrive in the YouTube and Netflix era. What Sesame Street needs is to find its next time. Muppet solution. You need to find your Muppet. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday?

Primo Waters, Saratoga brand is the star of a viral morning routine, and the stock jumped 6% because of it. How did Saratoga respond to their accidental influence by not entering the chat? For our second story, it's Signalgate. That scandal escalated on Wednesday, as the reporter Shoddy was telling the truth with screenshots. Signal is a reminder that the system is only as secure as the person using it. And our third and final story, Sesame Street is in trouble. Yep.

It's about to become homeless as its deal with HBO expires. To engage or to educate. With the Muppets, Sesame Street got both. Find your Muppet, Jack. Alma wants you to find your Muppet Jack. That is really strong. Alma would like to know what else I need to know today, Jack. First, Major League Baseball's Open.

opening day is today. Twenty-eight teams play in 14 games. Now, the two other teams started their season last week over in Japan, where the Dodgers won both games, and Japan has basically become the second biggest market for baseball. But there's no major rule changes in the MLB this year. True. Although they tested robo umpires to call balls and strikes during spring training. Interesting. And second, President Trump announced new 25% tariffs on all cars coming into the United States. As we said last month, these tariffs will raise the price of a Chevy Silverado by as much as $10,000. Europe, Japan, Canada, and Mexico, Korea, they are bound to retaliate in a tit-for-tat of

trade war two. Car stocks fell across the board Wednesday as new car prices are bound to go up. And finally, that's the sound of the bubble tea bubble only growing bigger, because NASDAQA is getting its first bubble tea stock in America. China's boba brand, Chegey, just filed for an IPO on American soil. But the 6,000 locations are in China. they'll be opening their first one in Los Angeles this year. Because big balls of tapioca for $5 a cup, that's a profit puppy.

That's a profit puppy. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Peter from Fort Lee, New Jersey. This week was Greece's Independence Day. Greece, great country, fantastic food, epic history. Give us a second on that Spanacopoda. But we think the Greek national anthem may be the greatest part of Greece. culture and the economy. Because Greece's national anthem is the longest in the world. It has 158 stanzas.

Yeah, although at soccer games, they sing a shorter version and like at the Olympics, but the full version is 50, 158 stanzas. Do you know how long it takes to sing the full national anthem? Yeah, how long does this take you? Fifty-four minutes. What is this, The Odyssey? And it's all Greek to us. I mean, we could barely understand this thing. The Iliad. The Greek national anthem. Longer than any. Anything written by Homer. Yeties, you look fantastic today. Jack, you look fantastic. Okay.

I think that's enough, Nick. It wasn't me, Jack. Give us a count fun count as we walk off the episode. Yaddies, Jack and I would love you to give us five stars for review. Five star review. I feel pressure that I should do one now. Is there a character I can do? Cookie Monster.

Cookie gonger. Cookie. Cookie. All right, Yetis, and on that note, we would love your five-star reviews. We can't wait to see you tomorrow. You'll look fantastic. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Nick Kramer, turning 41 years old in lovely Brattleboro, Vermont. Known as The Other Nick?

This is my big brother, father of three, proud to be in his family. Jack, I believe Nick Kramer worked on a nuclear submarine. Am I right? Close, close, a nuclear power plant. Yeah, he basically was the plot of Hunt for Red October. based on Nick Kramer, Jack's eldest brother. And a happy 49th birthday to legendary vesty Robert Hill celebrating in Nina Wisconsin.

Happy birthday to Devin Potasic in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, who's celebrating in Charlotte and getting married this year. And Bridget Martin from lovely Long Island is a publishing badass and a published author with a birthday. And a big shout out to Lindsay Higgins, who got a new job at Richard Fleischman and Associates in Sales and Business Development. She's crushing that tech infrastructure behind the financials.

financial firms. And thanks to everybody who entered the chat on our T-Boy community question yesterday. Apparently none of you like Slack. Jamalina, Nicole Vallejo, Ahmed, Adam Wallet. Whole bunch of others. Drop the comment. We see you. We see you. And if you want to get a shout-out on this show, we got a link in the episode description or go to T-boypod.com slash shout-outs.