The Best One Yet - 👻 “Halloween Canceled” — Spirit’s trade war-ning. Fortune 500’s founder fun. Pizza Hut’s reading app.

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

Spirit Halloween cancelled their summer costume preview… because the trade war has a tail.A record 55 women lead Fortune 500 companies… and a record 24 founders do too.Pizza Hut’s “Book It” app … it’s an original example of gamification.Plus, Ikea did a commercial in 1994 that changed the country… The 1st ad with a gay couple.(FYI, here’s that Ikea ‘94 commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCGv1hN6S9E)$AAPL $YUM $METAWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Tommy Bahama’s Beach Chair 🏖️Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.TBOY Live Show Tickets to Chicago on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsAbout Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Thursday, the new Friday, June 5th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yadis, you're listening to one of the top 50 podcasts in the world. We just got the numbers from last week.

Yeah, we started spiking on the Apple charts. It's all thanks to your listening. So thank you. Besties, thanks for being a part of it. Top 50 shows in the world. In the overall category. Overall. Not like Pop.

business news pods hosted by former college roommates. Top 50 overall. So thank you, besties, Jack. Three stories for today's team boy. What have we got in this show? For our first story, Spirit Halloween just canceled their Halloween preview party. Because the scariest part of the economy right now

isn't the tear of teeth. It's the trade war tale. For our second story, the Fortune 500 list for 2025 just dropped this week. And we found the two most interesting numbers. We hope the number of women CEOs keeps rising, But we know the number of founder CEOs will. And our third and final story is Pizza Hut.

Their most powerful product isn't pepperoni pizza. It's a book club. That's right. Book it. The popular summer reading challenge for kids is Pizza Hut's soft power. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa, what a mix of stories. No one else is doing that mix.

Love the mix, Jack. 1994 was a wild year for the world. I mean, Jack, you had the O.J. Simpson car chase. he had Michael Jordan Quinn basketball, and he had Jeff Bezos founding Amazon. In 1994, you also had IKEA run a commercial on television. So, Jack, let's pause the pod for a sec, and talk about that IKEA commercial. In the commercial, a couple of guys are buying furniture. Very nice.

Steve is more country. He likes a farmhouse furniture vibe. Dana's more modern. He prefers sleek, dark rugs and some heavy curtains. Here's the thing. Steve and Dana are not roommates. That's right, Jack, because Steve and Dana are a gay couple. And in 1994, this was the first.

time a commercial on American television showed that. We repeat, IKEA was the first brand in America to explicitly show a gay couple in a commercial. The network was so worried about this commercial. They wouldn't air it during prime time. They actually waited until 9.30 p.m. when kids were asleep before they showed it. They treated it like R-rated content. That's right. It was a couple of dudes shopping for sconces in an IKEA. Now, today, every pharmaceutical ad has like six different and different.

diverse couples that appear in it. I mean, odds are that that thytastrosol commercial stars a lesbian couple in wheelchairs. That's the reality. But big change always starts with the first one. And in 1994, IKEA was that one. So happy Pride Month, Yetis. And besties, if you've got the best pride fact yet,

hit us up, we want to get it on the pod. We dropped the link in our episode description to that IKEA commercial. In the meantime, Jack, let's hit on 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 a 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

For our first story, Spirit Halloween's annual Halloween preview show has been cancelled. And it serves as a warning about the tailwhip of the trade war. We got the perfect analogy for you here. It involves a monster. But Yeti's first, Halloween 2025. If you're not keeping a list of costume ideas in your Apple notes, then you're already behind. All right, here's what I got. White robe, yes? White socks hat. Check. Tincture of oil. Oh, are you going to ask? I'm the new Pope. I thought you were going to do a bloody Birkenstock again. What? I will save that for the following Halloween. But the greatest Halloween party of the year, Jack. Where is it? And when

is it? It's in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, and it's actually this summer. But besties, this is not a block party. This is a business party, because it's hosted by Spirit Halloween. Every summer, Spirit Halloween does what's basically a fashion show, showing off the new costumes that are coming to Spirit Halloween this Halloween season. It's kind of like the Victoria's Secret Runway show, but it's fewer songs and more fake hair. you might have a possessed AI chatbot who's taking over your computer.

Or like a haunted LinkedIn influencer. Or a sexy Dyerwolf, because Dyerwolf's are back. Whatever you're into, Jack. But Vesties, here's the news. Spirit just canceled it. That's right. Their annual Halloween costume show is officially off. So, Jack, how about we sprinkle on a little context to what's going on with Spirit Halloween?

Well, Spirit brings in $400 million every year, even though they're only open three months of the year. That's right. They have those pop-up temporary stores where Ames department store used to be. And that's how Spirit sells one out of every five Halloween costumes in America. And their cancellation of their show raises a big question. Is the trade war going to kill the holidays? Because back in April, we noticed that the Halloween Costume Association... An independent organization.

This is a real, real official thing, by the way. They warned that tariffs could, quote-unquote, wipe out Halloween and severely disrupt Christmas. Because every Halloween costume, and every string of Christmas lights is made in China. I mean, Jack, the sewing, the stitch, and the printing of that Catwoman costume, it needs five months of lead time in order to make it to you by October 31st.

And guess what? We're less than five months away from Halloween. Yeah. So even if we secure a trade deal, Halloween could get messed with. Jack can't go his Catwoman again. You know, Target. They're not ordering Christmas tinsel yet

because tariffs are too volatile. And Spirit hasn't received their shipment of sexy zombie costumes yet because the sexy zombie costume is switching factories. Now we should point out, besties, that Spirit isn't canceling Halloween, right, Jack? They just can't to the annual prep party. And tariff levels on China have come down from 145% to 50%. But Spirit didn't blame tariffs at all. They didn't even mention tariffs or the trade war in their press release announcing the cancellation. Instead, interestingly, Spirit

canceled the event because of international disruptions and supply chain challenges. Related to the trade war, but not exactly the same. Kind of code for the trade war. We're still kind of scared. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Spirit? First, we got bitten by the trade war head. Next, we get smacked by the trade war tail. Yet he's one way Jack and I like to think about the trade war. It's like a monster. It's got sharp teeth and it's got a heavy tail. Picture where the wild things are. Yeah. Because the price of the tariffs that we have to pay, that's the teeth. And that gets all the attention from us consumers. But even though tariff levels have come down, we're still facing the next issue of the trade war. We get hit by the tail. The tail is the chain reaction of shocks that

ripple through the supply chain. Because for a month, orders weren't placed. Factories were on hold. Ships were stuck in their ports. And companies were moving production, mostly from China to non-Chinese Asian countries. And Jack, what was the result of all that? The supply chain of getting stuff to us is backed up and delayed. Honestly, it's a lot. Honestly, kind of like during the pandemic. Supply chain issues caused years of disruptions. Remember, months and years after the lockdowns were over, we still had supply chain issues from the pandemic. So at all up, besties and spirit is a warning. Consumers are all worried about the trade war head the tariffs. But businesses are just as concerned about the tale, the supply chain.

For our second story, the Fortune 500 list for 2025 dropped this week. But two numbers out of the 500 stood out to us. 24 Fortune 500 companies are run by their founders, and 55 are run by women. More on those two numbers in a second. But in the meantime, a little bit of a secret here, Yeties. The Fortune 500 eats way simpler than you think. It is simply a list of the biggest companies in America by revenue. Shocker, number one is Walmart for the 13th year in a row.

There's very little movement in the top 10 from year to year. Yeah, like California has the most companies. on the list with 58, and yeah, they're mostly tech companies. Texas has 54. They're mostly energy companies. Of course. New York has 53. They're mostly finance companies. Naturally. And 14 states, including sadly Vermont, have zero companies on the Fortune 500. South Dakota, no offense. We still respect you. Health care actually had eight of the top 25 companies in America by revenue this year. Because we spend so much money on health care. But again, Jack, we should point out, this list was basically a foregone company.

conclusion, right? It's all publicly available information. We could have looked this up before the list was published. Jack and I actually could have published a pre-Fortune 500 list, like the day before they did with the same information on the internet right now. I know. There's no secret sauce whatsoever. It's like the New York Times announced the list of 50 most populated states. Like, you could have just Googled it, you know. But Jack and I do want to respect our buddies over at Fortune and point out that by publishing this list every year, it's the changes in the list that are an opportunity to reflect on bigger changes in the economy. And the biggest change in the list this year

is the number of founder CEOs and the number of women CEOs within the Fortune 500. Jack, let's go back to 1995 right as bleached hair and the spice girls were hitting the scene. Back then, not a single company in the Fortune 500 had a female CEO.

That's right. Today, 55 do. And that's a record. To sprinkle on more context, 55 CEOs is up more than double from 2018. For comparison, 55,000, women CEOs beats the 50 CE Bros named John, James, or David. Those James, they're always gunning for the top over there. By the way, we included John spelled both J-O-H-N and J-O-N. We're thinking ahead.

And if you use a silent G, we have to have other discussions. Side note, the first woman CEO on the list was Mary Barr, CEO of General Motors, which is number 18 on the Fortune 500. But Jack, let's now turn our heads to the founder CEOs on the list. There are 24 Fortune 500 companies still run by their founder. That's right. And that includes meta. With Mark Zuckerberg. NVIDIA. With with Jensen Huang. Tesla. With Elon Musk. Airbnb. With Brian Chesky. In fact, that number of 24 founders' CEOs, it's actually up 50% from 2020, back when just 16 companies were still founder-led. To sum it all up, the number of women's CEOs in the Fortune 500 has doubled since 2018, and the number of founder CEOs has grown 50% in the past five years. But Jack and I want to look

head on this, and we hope the number of women's CEOs keeps rising, but we know the number of founders' CEOs definitely will. The reason is our takeaway. Yes, it is. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone looking at the Fortune 500? As tech continues to boom, founder CEOs will too. Yet is, for a long time, Wall Street wanted founders out. You need to install a trained MBA in a suit with a tie at the top. Because coming up with a great idea to start a company is very than running a huge organization. Yeah, that's why when Facebook went public, investor wanted Jack Donegie to replace the hoodie wearing Zuckerberg.

But that didn't happen. No, it didn't. And Zuckerberg's success shows why founder CEOs are on the rise. Because tech is booming, and the trend is that tech founders give themselves something called Super Shares. Mark Zuckerberg only owns 14% of meta, but he has 51% of the voting stock. That's key. Which makes him the emperor of the company.

He will always be the CEO. There's nothing Wall Street can do about it. And honestly, tech founders have become great operating emperors, if you think about it. Like they know how to run businesses right now. And Zuck is the example. Zuck isn't an awkward pimpled college dropout anymore. He's a ruthless manager CEO. Zuck and Elon, they have proved the founder to CEO funnel.

They will fire, hire, acquire, and conspire to ensure success that a builder can still be a boss. As tech continues to boom, which we're pretty sure it will. Their founder's CEO's will too. You can go from coding to the corner office. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Pizza Hut's top product right now ain't pizza. It's actually an app that gets kids to read books.

We're talking about Pizza Hut's Book It Literacy Initiative, and it's one of the original examples of gamification. Oh, Jack, the greatest threat to summer vacation for a kid. kid, what is it, man? It's a summer reading list. Oh, eighth grade. How many did you have on your list, man? Like, 18 bucks. And I tried to start reading on like three weeks left. I read like one. Are you kidding me? Jack, they assigned us Anna Karina once. You know what that's like?

It took me three summers to finish it. I'm a very slow reader. You know that. I just finished the Brooklyn Bridge book. Which was written when they started the bridge. But Besties, few know that one corporation had a bigger impact on reading than any other. And that company is Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut's book it program just turned 40 years old. Basically, you read a book, you're in a free pizza. It was invented by Pizza Hut after President Reagan in the 80s called on American business to get involved in the country's education. And they came up with an idea that was both simple yet incentivized. And crucially, the idea got schools involved. So here's how Pizza Hut's book

it goes down. First, teachers get a stack of paper certificates. And after a child finishes a book, they got a sticker. And when that certificate has five stickers on it, it is valid for one free pizza at your local pizza huts. Oh, ching, ching, ching, you finished pride and prejudice, boom, that's a pepperoni. To kill a mockingbird, boom, meat lover's pie. Catcher in the ride? That's a sausage pie, little Johnny. Come on down. And when the child got that certificate and filled it up with stickers, it was like a million-dollar bill to them. Yeah, they would look up and hand it to the waiter with enormous pride.

Finish the books, got the calories. It's a huge achievement. It is. Actually, in one year, the bucket program reached 14 million kids through 600,000, thousand participating classrooms K through six. Honestly, we could not find another education source for kids that is reaching that scale. Besides maybe Sesame Street and the public school system. And here's the news. After 40 years, Pizza Hut is transitioning and launching the Book It program as an app. Although we hope they keep those paper certificates because kids love paper certificates. Everyone loves

Elisa Frank. But Jack, pause the pod for a second. Um, Pizza Hut trading books for pizza. From a parenting perspective, that's called a bribe. But from a tech perspective, that's called gamification. Before Duolingo gamified language learning, Pizza Hut, gamified book reading. That's right. Pizza Hut is basically one of the earliest examples we can find of true tech gamification. And Jack, my favorite professor from business school wrote a whole book on exactly this issue. Professor Warbach. You've told me about it. I love Professor Warbach down of Warden. Well, he had this great quote about gamification. He said a well-designed, The bad game is a guided missile to the motivational heart of the human psyche.

Gameifying isn't adding bells and whistles that don't mean anything. Like confetti every time you execute a trade. No, it needs to be intrinsic. Gamification is about manipulating what you find to be fun for a real-world objective. And there's nothing more fun and motivational at the heart of a 10-year-old than pizza. Also, Jack, there are no bells and whistles in this Pizza Hut app. Like we looked at it, and it's a very simple reward structure. That's it.

looks, one pizza. Actually, you can change the ratio of rewards. We should point out. And honestly, the way we see it, this separates Pizza Hut's Bookit program from other child-focused food products like McDonald's Happy Meal. Because when it comes to the pizza, you've earned this pizza. It also shows the kid the value of hard work. Although we should point out, Jack, there's also an interesting benefit for Pizza Hut, isn't there? When the kid brings in that certificate to redeem their pizza, they don't come to the restaurant alone, do their neck? That's right, Jack. Pizza Guts gives out the free pizza to the kiddo, but then they sell two more pies to the rest of the family for dinner. Plus sodas, plus cheesy bread and the salad bar.

One sec, Jack, I just got to finish the giver so I can get a four cheese pie. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Pizza Hut? In business, there's power in soft power. Yeties, a big topic in politics right now is the concept of hard power versus soft power. Hard power is use of force. A classic example of this is the military. Soft power is the use of influence. An example of that is the Peace Corps, doing volunteer work abroad.

And a similar concept exists in business. Advertising your product is like a form of hard power. But Pizza Hut's book app is the perfect example of soft power. Overall, the book app is a force for social good. It promotes child education. But it's also a benefit for Pizza Hut's bottom line. It indirectly earns love and family spending. So it's a strategy from politics that's working in business.

There's power in soft power. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Spirit Halloween canceled their summer event to show off all their new Halloween costumes. Why? It wasn't the tariffs. It's the supply chain. It's not the head of the trade war. Watch out for the tale. For our second story, the Fortune 500 has a record number of women's CEOs and a record number of founder's CEOs. The reason founders' CEOs are booming? Because tech founders have super shares. and they learned how to manage.

And our third and final story is Pizza Hut's Bookit Campaign. It's 40 years old and 70 million kids have participated. And now it's got an app. And that is an example of soft power in business. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, we've got a payday for the 401K, baby. Americans are saving a record amount of their income in 401K retirement accounts.

Financial advisors say you should say 15% of your... your income to prepare for retirement. Full disclosure, I have never saved that higher percentage. According to Fidelity, we're actually closer than we've ever been. The average saver puts 14.3% in, which is really impressive. That's up nearly a full percentage point from 2020. If you're saving 14% of your income, you get an A plus in our book. 70 year old you, it's going to be making it rain. 70 year old loves you. And second, Elon has continued his divorce with President Trump with more public trolling. On Wednesday, he began to campaign to try to tank the Republican budget bill because it adds so much debt and spending.

The latest, Elon has urged Americans to call their congresspeople to oppose the big beautiful spending bill. And he's amplifying it all on X, the platform he controls. All of this, according to Speaker Johnson, has, quote, unquote, pissed off the president. And finally, Open AI's board drama from a couple years ago, spoiler, it's going to become a movie, according to the Hollywood reporter. Yeah, like, remember when Sam Alvin was pushed out and then rehired like four days. later. It all happened over my paternity leave, I think. It was insane. Well, since art imitates life, that drama is becoming a real life movie. The movie is going to be called artificial, and it's being done by Amazon MGM. Michael Sarah is going to play Sam Allman, just calling it right now.

Written and directed by ChatGPT. That's not true, though. That was a hallucination. Now time for the best fact yet, which is a correction from our buddy, Alec B, who wrote into the pod. We told you how Costco pioneered the big box. gas station. They now have 719 of them. Well, one thing we didn't mention is that Costco also has electric vehicle charging, not just gas stations, with more of them to come. By our count, 27 locations are now electrified. Call them Kirkland Kilawatts. Which leads to a trivia question I just spontaneously wanted to drop on Jack. Jack, which big box store actually has the most electric chargers in America? My head says, Trey, can we play a little Jeopardy music please? There we go, thank you.

Good time. My head is telling me Walmart. Because that's actually where I charge my rivian off. Jack, what does your heart tell you? My heart tells me RIEI. Is it RIEI? Trey, can we get a buzzer and noise? Has it neither of them? The correct answer was already mentioned on this show.

Jack, that's the hint. Spirit Halloween. Can we get another... Ack noise? A correct answer for the most number of electric chargers at a big box store in America is IKEA. Wow. Yeah, they got over 300 of them.

Fantastic. Not too shabby. IKEA's like winning the hearts and minds of things. the Yetis and besties right now. Yetis, you look fantastic. That's soft power, by the way. That is soft power. Yetis, you look fantastic right now.

Thanks for helping us become one of the 50 biggest pods in America. And remember, if you haven't yet, tap to follow us so you get T-Boy every day. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Giuliana Aguirre over in Munich, Germany, donka Giuliana. And happy birthday. Happy birthday to a stink, Darwin Martinez.

By stink, we mean single, triple income, no kids. He's a developer and a small business owner in the Dominican Republic, although I think there's a third income source he hasn't told us about yet. Sounds like he's got a lot of side hustles. And Travis Wilde read 30 books for pizzas in Pizza Hut's bucket program. Congratulations, Travis. And a big shout out to Trevor Taylor in Orange, New Jersey, who launched an online store, top-down apparel.

And Andres Ricardo, an inventor and listener of the best idea yet and the best one yet, Andres, fantastic to have you with us for both. And finally, we just got the results of our poll on Spotify about whether you xexed with your spouse. Yeah, are you sexting? Are you sending Zillow listings to your spouse? Well, here are the answers. 78% of us sext often. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, and Nick and I both on stock of Airbnb and Apple.