The Best One Yet - 🍿🍿 “In Defense of Sequels” — Pixar’s Inside Out 2 win. McDonald’s failed AI drive-thru. Surgeon General’s new warning label.

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Inside Out 2 just had the best opening weekend since Barbie… Because sequels have virtue.McDonald’s just ended its AI drive-thru experiment… Because it thought you ordered 900 iced teas.And the Surgeon General wants to add warning labels to social media… Because TikTok is the new tobacco.Plus, stock markets are closed tomorrow for Juneteenth, so this pod will be back Thursday.$DIS $MCD $METASubscribe to our Saturday Newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletter  Watch us on YouTubeGet the Saturday Newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletter  Submit Facts & Shoutouts Socials: Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn (Nick) & LinkedIn (Jack)About Us: From the creators of Robinhood Snacks Daily, The Best One Yet (TBOY) is the daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. 20 minutes on the 3 business, economics, and finance stories you need, with fresh takes you can pretend you came up with — Pairs perfectly with your morning oatmeal ritual. Hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, June 18th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is T-boy. It's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, it is peak intern season in New York City. And I just heard the most internee intern quote I have ever heard before, man. What did you hear?

All right, we're all in line getting salads. And one woman turns to another woman and says this. In New York City, you're always looking for one or three things. What are you looking for? A job? A boyfriend? or an apartment. It's got to be one of the three. True. No one has all three.

True words were never spoken in Midtown Manhattan, Jack. Let me guess. You were all chowling down a sweet green or a chopped salad, too. I was channeling my inner Carrie Bradshaw. In the meantime, three fantastic stories for today's show. What do we got, Jack? For our first story, Inside Out 2, the Pixar sequel just had the best movie opening since Barbie last year. Now, Bessies, everyone hates sequels, but Jack and I have whipped up a defense of the sequel. For our second story, the Surgeon General has a new warning for all Americans.

He wants to add warning labels to social media apps. Because TikTok is the new tobacco. And our third and final story, two years after McDonald's added AI to its drive-thrus, McDonald's is ending the experiment. Because McDonald's AI drive-thrus think you ordered 900 iced teas. And you did not order 900 iced teas. Pretty sure you didn't. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

I said one Big Mac, that's all I said, is strive through. 1863, that's when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and declared that all enslaved people in America were free. 1865, it took two years for that emancipation news to reach every last American. Two years for the final enslaved people in America to find out that they were now free. That date, June 19, 1865, is why we all have the Juneteenth Federal Holiday tomorrow. That is why we got June 10th, Tobolitan. But that Juneteenth liberation 159 years ago, it didn't fix everything.

No, it didn't because it wasn't until 1964, 1964, 1965 that we got the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act, making it illegal to discriminate based on race, religion, and gender in this country. And it wasn't until a few years after that when redlining was ended. Making it illegal to prevent home ownership based on your race. And it wasn't until 2021 that Juneteenth became a national holiday. It's been celebrated for decades by Black Americans, but now Juneteen's, since three years ago is our 11th federal holiday. Now, Yetis, we know what you're thinking.

159 years of progress. That feels kind of slow. And it also feels anything but perfect. But besties never forget the very first line of our American Constitution. We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union. A more perfect union.

Not a perfect union. A more perfect union. Because we don't think perfect is a state. We think perfect is actually a different. direction. So Yetis enjoy tomorrow's holiday. The stock market and government are all closed. And this podcast is off too. Nick and I are going to be celebrating June team. And we'll be hoping our country continues to bend in the right direction. But first, let's hit our three fantastic stories. 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 a norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat. That's a fat. 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, Inside Out 2, just had the best box office opening weekend since Barbenheimer.

Some people complain about too many sequels in Hollywood. Yes, they do. But this story is in defense of the sequel. Yes, it is. What do we got, Jack? Daddy's, a lot of us struggle to talk about emotions. Yeah, we know what you're thinking. This is going to be another therapy ad, but it's actually not another therapy ad, is it, Jack?

Nick and I started talking about emotions after we saw Disney's Inside Out in 2015. Inside Out, it was Pixar's animated movie about emotions. Every feeling you have is a character in the movie. There was joy, there was fear, there was anger, there was jealousy. Oh! And they were all inside the head of a little child from San Francisco. Now, Jack and I both watched Inside Out a few times, and we loved it, we enjoyed it. It's like a gateway movie to therapy.

That is exactly what it is. But here's the news, Yetis. Nearly 10 years after Inside Out One, Inside Out 2, just brought an $155 million at the domestic box office, baby. Yep, that's the best weekend at the box office since Barbie last summer. Sorry, Ken, you were not enough in this situation. And this context is important. Hollywood makes 40% of their revenue over the summer. So these next three months, they make or break the Hollywood year, baby.

Which is why the emotions felt by Pixar executives over at Disney, they were like over-the-top emotionally, like, positive. What kind of emotions do you think of, Jack? Happy, euphoric woo-hoo. We kind of ran out of synonyms yet. He's whip out the the thesaurus. What we're trying to say is that Inside Out 2 just kind of saved Pixar. And the reason we find that so fascinating is,

is because Pixar is going through a midlife crisis. Yeties. Back in 1995, Pixar invented the computer animated movie. Buzz Lightyear disrupted Snow White. But Pixar just turned 30 years old. And at 30, Pixar appears to have lost its mojo. Because get this, Pixar hasn't produced a $1 billion film in six years. I mean, three recent Pixar movies had zero box office revenue

because they went straight to streaming. And the CEO of Pixar called that embarrassing. Awkward. What we're trying to say is that Pixar needs to spice things up, like ratatooy. Yeah, Pixar has been looking more lost than Nemo, Jack. Pixar looks more past their prime than Wally, the rusty robot. What Jack and I are trying to say here is that Pixar is suffering a midlife crisis. But Pixar has a plan.

And here's the plan. Sequels. Yeah. More of the same. More sequels. And then sequels to those sequels. Inside Out 2. Incredibles 3.

Toy Story 5. Yeah, they're all coming. Jack, do you hear with the plot of Toy Story 6es? What is it, dude? Andy is so old, he lives in Boca Raton, Florida, and he plays shuffleboard with Woody. I would totally watch that. Now, you know what you're thinking over there. Everyone hates sequels and everyone hates prequels.

Many Rue sequels as the death of originality in Hollywood and in film. But Jack and I want to pause the pod for a second, because we want to defend the sequel. We do. And we came up with the whole theory-wise. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Disney? Sequels are economically efficient because of the orange juice theory. Ah, the orange juice theory. Yeti's content, it is like a fruit. It takes time to grow and nourish that fruit before it's consumed. Movies, shows, any creative product is the juice of that fruit.

And the way we see it, sequels are the extra juice in that fruit. You got to squeeze all the juice out of that orange. What we're saying is if you don't create sequels, then you're wasting the fruit that you worked so hard on to create that first movie. Jack, it's just like tossing out a half-squeezed orange. Not making a sequel is a creative waste. And clearly we consumers want sequels. All anyone is talking about right now is two big sequels. House of Dragon season two on HBO and Inside Out number two in the theaters.

Now, of course, sequels can be dragged out too far. Like over-squeezing a fruit, it starts to just taste like a rhyme. And at a certain point, too many sequels. many sequels and you're like, it's kind of bitter. I don't like the taste of that. But the success of Disney's Inside Out 2 shows the virtue in producing sequels. The value in fully squeezing the whole orange, not wasting the fruit. For our second story, America's top doctor thinks social media is so bad for you, they should add a warning label like cigarettes and alcohol. This story holds the lesson. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. Jack, let's kick off this story

by talking newspapers, can you whip up the definition of an op-ed page, please, man? Well, I think it stands for opposite the editorial page. It gets all the confusing. But an op-ed is a way for opinionated people to publish their opinions for the public. Perfect timing, because a uniformed officer and surgeon general of the United States just wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times, and it was the most shared article of the day. Here was the title, Why I'm Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platform. Sit down, stand up, and Zuck is freaking out right now, Jack.

What Dr. Vivek H. Murthy is calling for is dramatic. It is dramatic, because what our surgeon general is describing is that every time you open up Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, or Facebook, you would see a warning pop up like a big scary bubble. And the warning would say something like this. Social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. Interesting explanation. And where have we seen that before exactly, man?

Alcohol and cigarettes. Not mental health harms for adolescence, but health harms. Yeah. Just like we remind people every time they pick up a pack of cigarettes or head over to the bar and grab a big bottle off the shelf. Our Surgeon General wants to remind people of the negative downsides every time we use social media. The digital equivalent of a smoking causes cancer sticker but slapped onto your Instagram app. Now, that'd be really annoying. If we had to click out of that bubble every 38 times we open these apps every day. I'm pretty sure all like, yeah, I know this is bad for me, but I'm on my way to the bathroom, and what else am I going to do, Jack? But our Surgeon General says, we still must do this. With kids, it's just different, isn't it, Jack?

The data shows we're letting kids harm themselves with like buttons on social media. In fact, Dr. Murthy, our Surgeon General, jumped in T-boy style, and cited three sets of painful facts when it comes to social media. Here's the first one. Adolescence between 10 and 19 years old in the United States spend 4.8 hours on average on social. social media apps. That's a lot of time. And those who spend more than three hours a day, they double their risk of depression and anxiety. That's a lot of stress. And nearly half of the adolescents that they surveyed say that social media makes them feel worse about their bodies. That's a whole lot of issues when he had it all up. So closing a box would be annoying if we had to do

it every time. That's friction and we hate friction like that. We all hate friction, but the surgeon general says that that friction could change entire lives. He's showed data that those warning symbols, they really do stop you from buying harmful products. Yeah, like the ones on cigarettes and alcohol, they actually do make people pause for a second. And the ones on social media might make teens and parents pause as well. So, Jack, can you put down the TikTok for a second? Tell us, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are anyone trying to change something? Don't let Perfect be the enemy of the good. Yet he's the surgeon general. He actually doesn't think a warning label is far enough. He's

actually advocated for other changes to social media too. He says that we should ban addictive features, shield young people from abusive content, and protect their digital privacy online. Here's the thing. Congress hasn't done that perfect outcome yet. So instead, the surgeon general is offering something easier to pass. Here's his words on why. One of the most important lessons I learned in medical school was that in an emergency, you don't have the luxury to wait for perfect information. They assess the available facts, you use your best judgment, and then you act quickly. So Yeties, some people say this label's not enough. We need comprehensive legislation to protect kids. But our top doctor's response, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. We think

it's true in business if you're launching a product or wherever you work probably. And the surgeon general thinks it's true when it comes to regulating social media. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, two years ago, McDonald's was the first fast food chain and to introduce the AI drive-thru. But two years later, McDonald's is ripping it out. We look at the first failed AI product and what that means. But yet, it is a funny thing. The way Jack and I see it,

we basically speak two languages in America, don't we, Jack? English and fast food drive-thru English. Ah, fast-food drive-thru English. Are you fluent in that one, by the way? How is your fast-food drive-thru-English, Jack? I'll take two large number twos but sub the fries for tots and a junior bacon sheet. I think what you meant to say was,

Would you like a leader of cola with that, Jack? Oh, the leader of cola with a double and I have a little of extra bottle-up fries? What's leader of cola? Yeties, you see what I'm talking about? Jack understood exactly what I was saying, because we're both fluent in fast food drive-thru. Well, Yeti's two years ago, we got one of the biggest corporate hookups ever from two blue chip companies.

McDonald's and IBM got together. They got a little French fry grease on those keyboards, didn't they, Jack? Because remember, IBM was an early adopter of artificial intelligence. Yes, they were. IBM created an artificial intelligence division called Watson way back in 2010, 14 years ago. So when Ronald McDonald partnered with IBM to take fast food into the AI era, it was an early mover. A drive-thru with an AI voice bot taken your leader of cola orders. Together, IBM and McDonald's had one goal,

the ultimate AI drive-thru with no human needed so you could order a Big Mac like George Jetson. But here's the news, yeties. Two years after that test in 100 different McDonald's restaurants, McDonald's is ending it. AI over. Ba-da-ba. I am not loving it very much at all, actually. And the reason they're shutting down this AI drive-thru is their 85-15 problem. Ah, the 85-15 problem.

Jack, can you enlighten us on that problem, please, man? 85% of the time McDonald's AI drive-thru works perfectly. But 15% of the time, it didn't. And here's the funny thing. That 15% of the time that AI got your... your drive-through order wrong. It was so wrong, it went viral. You ordered one large cup of sweet tea,

and they gave you nine cups of iced sweet tea. One woman ordered a vanilla ice cream, but she ended up getting four ketchup packets and a side of butter jack. I can't believe a person would hand a customer four ketchup packets and a side of butter. Okay, pause the pod for a sec. You can get butter at McDonald's?

I actually didn't even realize that, Jack. True. I didn't know that was an ingredient. Good to know. We can now get that on the side. side and on the happy meal. Yeties, according to a psychological study from Stanford University, there is a reason for this 85-15 problem over at McDonald's. It's such a big problem because we consumers are more likely to remember negative experiences than we do positive ones. Yeah,

what Jack saying is like, no one cares if they got you the right nugget order 600 times in a row. The issue is that one time when they gave you 600 nuggets by accident? Yeah. That dominates your memory of that restaurant. Why is there butter on the nuggets, man? But yeties, this isn't the end of AI drive-thru at McDonald's. No, it isn't, Jack. Good point. McDonald's said they're going to look for another vendor after this IBM deal's over.

Maybe AI wasn't the problem after all. Maybe it was IBM's AI that was the problem for Ronald. The next time you complain to a bot that the McFlory machine is busted, you're probably talking to chat, GPT. Hey, Sam Aldman, why'd you put butter on my ketchup? I feel like there's a story here around the butterjack that we're just. just dancing around right now. I don't think we actually went right into the bottom, man.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at McDonald's? The most important ingredient in our economy is actually productivity. Yet is, for every technological breakthrough in history, there has been an increase in productivity. Productivity, an economic term for the amount of stuff that we can make per one human worker. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style from the print and press to the personal computer. Every innovation has helped us do more. with the same number of people.

Until 20 years ago, a surprise for the past 20 years is that productivity has stagnated across our economy. Okay, what Jack and I are saying is that despite the post-2000 breakthroughs in tech, like the iPhone and gig apps, American productivity has barely even budged. But now we have AI, and things like drive-through AI should finally budge productivity higher.

In fact, according to McKinsey, it's higher productivity that will help us tackle our biggest economic challenges. like confronting workforce shortages or our debt or inflation or the energy transition. It all comes down to productivity to solve those issues, Jack just said. The most important ingredient in our economy right now is actually productivity. And AI will help us get more productive with butter on the side. Jack, and you'll whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday.

Inside Out 2 just had the best opening movie weekend at the box office since Barbie. And it shows the virtue of sequels, squeezing out all. the juice and not wasting any of that creative fruit. For our second story, it's the Surgeon General. He wants a public health warning label on social media apps. Because when it comes to change, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. And our third and final story was McDonald's. They're looking for a new AI vendor after ending their drive-through test with IBM.

It's all about productivity because the most important ingredient in our economy is productivity. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. Jack, you want the top bunk or the bottom bunk? Top. Okay, because first, sales of RVs are up for the first time in years, and that is a positive sign for out economy. Winnebago, a publicly traded company is enjoying booming sales for the first time

since the start of the pandemic when you were visiting Yellowstone. Now, after the pandemic, sales slowed down a little bit, because everyone already bought, like, two Winnebago's. But sales growth has returned to normal, which is a good sign for consumer confidence. And that's why Jack's getting to top bunk. And second, New York's Transportation Department has a new strategy for fundraising, selling street signs. After the congestion pricing scheme that they were going to launch got canceled last week.

New York City needs new funds for public transportation. So, if you happen to live on 3rd Avenue and 93rd Street, you can buy a 3rd Avenue or a 93rd Street sign. And the proceeds go to the New York City Transportation Department. Christopher Street, home of Stonewall Inn, that was the first one. On sale now. And finally, Miles Astray just won a major photography contest for his photo of a flamingo. But here's the wild part, Yeti's. That contest was for AI images, and his photo was a real image.

That's right. A human intelligence snuck into a contest for artificial intelligence. Yeah, Miles was disqualified after his realness was revealed, but he did it on purpose to prove a point. The point is that humans are still superior to computers. And apparently a little bit clever than those judges, Jack. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Davida Vito from Lovely New Jersey. First, Nick and I are huge fans of inanimate objects having names.

We do like names and we like inanimate objects. That's true, Jack. Like boats are always named. I've named both of my cars. They're named Rosie and Yeti. And Jack, rocks even have names. Like Plymouth Rock. That's a rock.

They got a name. Not too shabby. That's a good comment. But did you know that the former bird logo of Twitter, that little blue bird, it had a name. Yeah. The former blue bird logo of Twitter was actually named Larry. And it's named after legendary basketball player Larry Bird. Larry the bird.

If you know, well, now you know. Well, now you know. Yeties, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. And if you haven't yet, click to follow us so that you get T-Boy every single day. Except for tomorrow, because it's June 2th. Nick and I will see you back here on Thursday. Yeah, have a fantastic Wednesday off with Juneteenth Yeties and Jack and I. see you for the new Friday.

And before we go, a warm welcome to Yeti, Ricardo Bacidas, who just enjoyed his first ever T-boy show this week, so he's officially a bestie with us, Jack. And happy birthday to Ethan Ramirez in Tampa, Florida, who is the most in-the-no, five-year-old at daycare by far. He loves listening to T-Boy every morning, so much so that he gets bummed out on weekends. We've got to do a Saturday episode for Rameh.

And happy three-year anniversary to Kat and Brendan McAvoy at Berkeley, California. Three-year wedding anniversary, seven-year-teach. T-boy fans, absolutely unreal. We're sitting down, standing up, and sitting back down again. I think that's all the way back to our first episode. That's episode one. And Rachel Erickson, enjoy your last day of the school year as a teacher and enjoy the trip to Glacier National Park. We heard your son's coming too.

Have a blast. And bundle love. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack, I own stock of Disney.