The Best One Yet - 🛞 “Restaurants sell Tires” — Michelin’s Guide’s wild history. Meta’s AI celebs. ExxonMobil’s OPEC-killer.

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

The Michelin Guide is expanding from restaurants to hotels — This tire company (Michilin) getting into travel guides is one of the great stories of marketing history. To make AI happen, Meta launched 26 celebrity-based chatbots who look and interact like real people — Zuck paid the celebs millions, proving that AI fortunes favor the huge.And ExxonMobil is reportedly planning its biggest acquisition since… Exxon acquired Mobil — The $60B deal would make ExxonMobil the 4th biggest oil-producing (country) on Earth. $MGDDY $XOM $METASubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, October 9th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It is a tea boy, Jack. Yetis will get right to it. Over the weekend, war shockingly and suddenly broke out in Israel.

Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, attacked Israel by land, by air, and by sea. Those armed militants took hostages as they invaded southern Israel, and they killed hundreds of Israelis, too. Besties, just to give you a sense of how scary this was, Hostages were even taken from a music festival. Israel's prime minister is planning a retaliation, and the U.S. has pledged support, and we'll keep following the story as it unrolls.

Yeties, in the meantime, we're thinking of our Israeli listeners and we're making today's pod the best one yet. It's a tea boy. Jack, what's the first story for the show? For our first story, the Michelin Restaurant Guide is expanding to reviewing hotels, too. Yeties, did you know that that's the tire company, Michelin? We have to share the wild story of Michelin, restaurants, tires, and marketing. It's wild.

For our second story, we're looking at Exxon Mobile. They're about to make their biggest acquisition since Exxon acquired mobile. Festies of Exxon were a country, it would be the fourth biggest oil country in the world. And our third and final story is Instagram. They're now letting you chat with an AI assistant that looks and sounds exactly like Snoop Dog. Because Mark Zuckerberg paid Snoop a million dollars to do it. But Yetis, before we hit that fantastic mix of stories to kick off the week. I mean, no one is beginning the week with this kind of mix of stories, Jack.

I love the mix. I'm flipping open the pages to Horder's Almanac Week 186. Things were running out of in the economy. Jack and I been keeping track for you. This week, we may have a shortage of sugar. Yeties, a shortage of the sweet stuff. In August, we got the warning. Yeah, we did.

Sugar just couldn't keep up with all our demands for sugar. A summer sugar shortage was causing sugarflation. and it still is today. Get this. Last month, sugar prices popped another 9%. According to the Federal Reserve, sugar prices globally have doubled since 2020. It's a sugar high, say it with me now, Jack. Literally. Because the United States didn't produce enough sugar cane this year.

And apparently the Department of Agriculture limits how much sugar we can import. Do less Department of Agriculture. So, candy costs have been killing us. We are too cuckoo for cocoa puffs. But here's the real problem. Yeah, Jack, could you sprinkle on the context? Winter is coming. Yeties, the fourth quarter is the candy quarter.

Q4 is all about candy sales. In October, it's trick-or-treating and candy corn. In November, it's apple pies and pumpkin pies. And in December, it's the four main food groups. Candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup. Oh, that PSL? It's got 50 grams of sugar in eggs. Starbucks, that's 50 grams of added sugar. Yeties, gummy bears are the real endangered species.

right now. Ammon Joyce are anything but don't you lay a finger on my butterfinger? Seriously, because we only have one butter finger. Yeah, don't take it. It's the only one I have. Yeties, hold on to your sugar, Jack. Let's hit our three stars. Go! 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. You 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 to go. So just start the show.

Start the show. For our first story, Michelin, the famous restaurant guide, is now reviewing hotels too. But this is the same Michelin that makes tires. Yeties, the history of the Michelin Guide is one of the greatest marketing tales of the last century.

Michelin. It's a $21 billion, publicly traded French rubber and tire company. Yeah, Vesties. They're famous for their scary ghost logo. guy. You know what we're talking about? He's not that scary, actually. The Michelin Man, he kind of looks like the marshmallow villain from the first Ghostbusters move. He's actually a stack of tires that looks like it's been bleached. No, he was inspired by a stack of tires. That's scary if a stack of tires had a face jack.

But yet he's the Michelin Tire Company is the same company behind the famous Michelin Restaurant Guide. The Michelin Restaurant Guide, you may know, with the fancy restaurant rating system, that is the definitive rating restaurant system. If you're curious, there's only a hundred forty restaurants in the world that have the coveted three-star rating from Michelin. And Jack, what's the average price at one of those three-star restaurants? 357 bucks per person. Yeti's three-star restaurants. We're talking 12-course moose, bouche, caviar-infused meals with foam and a dress code.

If you have to ask, you can't afford it. Is it pronounced flageolet? Get out of here. But Yeties, here's the news. Michelin, the Tire Company, is expanding Michelin, the restaurant guide. into hotels. Instead of offering three stars to the best restaurants, they're going to offer three keys to the best hotels. Now, yeties, this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. We jumped in T-boy style and the 140-year history of how Michelin tires got into hospitality, it is wild. Michigan invented the detachable tire back in 1891. That's how they made their mark on the world.

For bikes, for horse-drawn carriages, they invented the tire. Like, they reinvented the wheel, basically is what we're saying. They're dead. They're dead. And then when the car came along, the tire business started booming. The Michelin brothers had a realization. More people are driving so they could sell more tires. And the more that people drive, the more tires they would sell.

But here's the problem. People didn't know where to drive. Road trips were like a dangerous and scary adventure. Get this yet. He's back when Michelin launched. There were only 3,000 cars in all of France. So the Michelin brothers took the wheel to guide these new cars. car drivers on where to go. They created a small red guidebook for car trips to get you on the road.

It was called the Michelin Guide for the Open Road, but in French. There was a map, some addresses of road trip staples. They basically told you where to go and how far it was. For instance, stop here if you want a one-star crock monsieur. Or, for instance, stop here if you want a two-star station of gasoline. But eventually, they went all in on restaurant reviews for that guy. Because the Michelin brothers, they really went all in, didn't they, Jack? They hired a team of undercover reviewers because they don't want the restaurant to prepare extra fancy for Michelin. Yeah, to this day, those undercover reviewers are reviewing 600 restaurants per year under a false identity.

It's like the CIA spies, but they're way better fat. Way better than that cafeteria, Jack. And here's a key. They didn't give away their restaurant guide for free because they didn't want it to seem like a tire promotional pamphlet or something. It was a strategic move by the brothers of Michelin. They knew that if it seemed like a promotion, you wouldn't buy into the eye. idea. So the brothers, Michelin, who had a tire company, began charging seven francs for a restaurant guide to subtly get you to buy a car that has their tires on them. It all comes full

circle, Jack. By the way, Michelin, Purple's pleasure, the sandwich at Noonies, the deli, off of Route 7 in northern Vermont. Go check it out. It deserves a star too. If you're listening, Michelin, the Pizza Place A-16 in the marina, let's give them a star too. My guest suite in the basement deserves at least a half a key. Loring place in the West Village, let's give him one too. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Michelin? After 100 years, the Michelin Guide is still one of the great marketing stories of business history. Yetis, get this.

The Michelin Guidebook is one of the best-selling books of all time. They are still selling a million Michelin guides every year. In fact, Thailand's Tourism Board recently paid Michelin $4 million to come over to Thailand and review some of our restaurants. Now, Yetis, we should point out, Michelin doesn't disclose all of its numbers, but sources indicate it loses money on the Michelin Guide. Michelin spends an estimated $18 million just to pay for the meal tabs of their reviewers.

Those souffles, they ain't Chief Jack. But the data shows that when Michelin reviews a country's restaurants, tire sales in that country jump. When Michelin's guide enters the country, Michelin tires see a 3% sales rise. So the guide is marketing to sell the tires. Jack, the field of dreams had it all wrong. If you review it, they will come.

If you review it, they will come. Besties, 100 years later, that Michelin Guide is just as relevant as ever. It's arguably better known than Michelin Tires are. 100 years later, Michelin's Guide is still one of the great marketing stories of all time. For our second story, Exxon Mobile is about to make its biggest acquisition since Exxon acquired Mobile. Yeah, because despite what Big Oil is saying publicly, Big Oil will always be Big Oil. Now, Jack, we don't always do this. Actually, we never do this.

But can we kick off the story by sprinkling a little context, please? Apple wasn't always the most valuable company in the world. Yeah, in the millennial era, it's been the most valuable company in the world, hasn't it, Jack? But it wasn't until 2011, just before Steve Jobs passed away, that Apple became number one. And Jack, who was number one in America before Apple in 2011? Before Apple, it was ExxonMobil. Yeties, for seven years, 2004 to 2011, oil icon ExxonMobil reigned. It was the most valuable company in America.

That's right. Houston, Texas was home to ExxonMobil, which was the descending company of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Classic. And here's the new. Today, big oil is apparently about to get like a lot bigger, not just bigger, a lot bigger. Multiple sources reported on Friday that ExxonMobil was making a move to acquire its rival Pioneer. Now, Jack and I want to make this visual come to life.

So we'll get to that in a second. In the meantime, Pioneer sucks 700,000 barrels of oil out of West Texas land every single day. It sucks up 700,000 barrels of milkshake. It drinks up that milkshake, Jack. And if Exxon goes through with this. acquisition, then this oil giant will produce four and a half million barrels of oil every day. Now, Bessie, like we just said, four and a half million barrels, what does that really mean?

Jack, let's drop some visuals on this story. Exxon would become a bigger oil producer than every single OPEC country except Saudi Arabia. Gethies, get this. This would make Exxon Mobil bigger than Iraq, bigger than Iran, bigger than the United Arab Emirates when it comes to oil outputs. If this acquisition goes through, it would make ExxonMobil the fourth biggest country in terms of oil production. ExxonMobil would be after the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. That's a whole lot of milkshake. Oh, yeah.

Now, Jack, we should point out that this would be pretty costly for ExxonMobil. It would cost $60 billion to acquire Pioneer. And $60 billion, Yetis is 15 lifts. That's a lot of lifts. You could buy one pioneer or 15 lifts. So what we're saying, Yetis, is that this $60 billion acquisition would be the biggest for ExxonMobil since Exxon BonMobil in 1998. Since the milk got shaped. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at ExxonMobil?

Big oil is going bigger on oil. It is doubling down on the drill. Yeti's, funny thing Jack and I did. We jumped in T-Boy style to the front website page of ExxonMobil.com, and we noticed they brag that they're accelerating society's path to net zero. How are they doing that, Nick? That's a good question, Jack. How are they doing that?

They say by investing in cleaner energies. Well, they are doing that. Last year, ExxonMobil pledged to invest $17 billion over five years in low carbon and carbon capture. Good things for the Earth. But if this oil acquisition goes through, that would be four times a bigger investment than that green commitment, Nick just mentioned. Yeah, it is. The need for humankind to decarbonize is more clear than ever after that whole summer of natural disasters and hot heat we just had. I think the thermometers are literally breaking, Nick.

Instead, ExxonMobil is dropping $60 billion suddenly to double down on what got us here. Exxon loves marketing green to us, but it's also betting big on black. For our third and final story, Meta just rolled out a cast of AI bots based on celebrities like Snoop Dog. Because when it comes to AI, fortune favors the huge. Jack, you know that scene in the movie Richie Richie Richie, when we were growing up, when he invites all the kids over and he has a McDonald's in his house. And they all enjoy the McDonald's. Yeah.

It's behind like the Mount Richmore, right? Like it's the Mount Rushmore, but with his face on it. Basically what just happened to Mark Zuckerberg and the whole meta team, right? Meta paid a whole bunch of celebrities and influencers to come over to the headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Yeah, both to physically come in and to virtually come in. More on that in a second. In the meantime, Eddie Zuck announced that. he's still working on that metaverse.

He's just cranking away of that thing every single day, you know? On September 27th at this event, Zuck unveiled a new set of VR goggles to enter the virtual world. He's also working on an in-between world, second-generation raybans sunglasses that are like augmented reality. Both of these new tech eyewear that Zuck just unveiled focused on one big new feature. And here's that one new feature.

Hang out like a buddy with an AI assistant. When you're wearing these pieces of headwear, you have an AI buddy right there with you. But yet, here's the problem. You don't really have buddy-like feelings for an AI assistant, right? I'm not buddies with Siri. Alexa, she's great, but like, we're not hanging out that much. She's a utility.

Chatchip-T? That's not even a real human name. But Nick, what if those AI assistants looked, talked, and sounded all like real people? Jack, what if they had a physical form? What if they were familiar? That's what meta just unveiled. Their new artificial intelligence can take 20, 26 different human forms that you can choose from.

And they're based on celebrities straight out of TMZ. And it's not just text or voice that these AIs will take the form of. Meta's AI has a physical form that you can digitally look at and see its mouth moving and its ears wagging. You can set your meta AI buddy to look like Tom Brady or Snoop Dog or Mr. Beast or Charlie Demilio. It's basically a Bravo reality show and Zuckerberg gets to be Andy Cohen. There's 26 avatars you can choose to make your AI. It's like having A-lister's on your speed dial and you can actually interact and talk to them and they will continue the conversation. Now, back to Nick's Richie Rich Point, Zuck paid big to get these celebrities to participate in this deal.

Yeah, how much did he pay again, Jack? According to the information, he paid up to $5 million per celebrity to come in and get film for six hours to create a virtual version of themselves. Jack, Snoop doesn't show up in person and license his likeness. to train an AI model without getting paid cash. Right, Nick. Zuck's still paying to get friend requests. Yetis, here's what this is going to look like. When you're typing on Meda's apps, this is what you're going to see.

You can ask your Charlie Demilio AI a question and you'll see her type a response back to you. Or if you're wearing Meda's ray bands, you'll get a little more. There's a speaker built in. So you can ask Snoop AI a question and you'll hear Snoop answer. Or if you want the ultimate experience, here's what you get if you wear Meta's virtual reality. There's a video screen in front of your eyeballs so you can ask your Tom Brady AI a question and it's like he's in the room answering your question for you. Estes meta is turning AI into human-like companions that you see and you hear and could

love. You could love them because you're already a fan of them. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Menlo Park headquarters? When it comes to AI, fortune favors the huge. Yeties, historically, new technologies have been won by. startups, the disruptors. The ability to disrupt an existing industry requires no attachment to that status quo. For example, Netflix won streaming, not Disney.

And Venmo won peer-to-peer mobile payments, not JP Morgan Chase. And Tesla won electric cars, not general motors. But for AI, it's been way harder for startups to compete. Because to scale artificial intelligence, you need enormous amounts of money for computing and for hiring and for marketing. And Meta's massive AI event last week was a flex of exactly that. And it's not just meta. Three of the biggest spenders on AI right now are three of the largest companies in America. Microsoft, Google, and Meta.

Because unlike past emerging technologies, AI fortunes favor the huge. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Michelin, the tire company, is adding hotels to its restaurant reviews. Yeah, it is the Michelin Guide is still one of the great marketing stories of all time. For our second story, ExxonMobil is planning to make its biggest acquisition since Exxon bought mobile. Its marketing has gone green, but its dollars have stayed black. And our third and final story is meta. It just had its big AI event, and its assistants can take the form of 26 real-life celebrities.

When it comes to AI, fortune favors the huge. But yeties, this pod's not over. Yet, here's what else you need to know today. First, Israel suffered a surprise attack from Hamas, Millar, In the Gaza Strip. Over 1,100 Israelis and Palestinians are believed to have been killed as of Sunday night. And second, the jobs report came out Friday for September, shockingly, way bigger than expected. 336,000 new jobs were added to the economy, and the unemployment rate dipped down to 3.7%.

And finally, Crocs just entered an entirely new footwear category, Crox Cowboy Boots. Yeah, the CEO calls this category of fashion. some fashion. He literally calls it that. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me because we found some wild stats when we did the research on Michelin. It was great. The Michelin Guide doesn't just have a financial impact on the company, Michelin. Michelin's guides also have an impact on entire economies. If a restaurant is granted a one-star review by Michelin, that's a huge deal. And it results in sales at that restaurant jumping by 20% on average. If the restaurant gets two stars, they see sales jump 40%. And if a restaurant gets the

coveted three-star Michelin Review? We? What do we get, Jack? Sales on average double for that restaurant. A hundred percent, but that's not all yeties. That's not even the cool part. Other restaurants located near the restaurants that get stars, they see their sales rise too. Because more tourists are going to those Michelin star restaurants and they got to eat somewhere else because those meals are really expensive. And there's no reservation. at the places with the stars. No. Good luck on that one.

So a lot of disappointed tourists go and boost sales at the other restaurant. We'll take you in. It's like the Statue of Liberty, Jack. Oh, Pizza Rea Sabaro. Boosted sales, great. Cha-ching, cha-ching. Now, Yetis, Jack and I

should also point out one correction before we leave you today. Last week, we were talking about the World Cup, and we included Qatar in a group of countries that have dictatorships. Qatar is not a dictatorship. It's actually a constitutional monarchy. We grouped it with the

dictatorships, we should have said non-democracy. That was a mistake. But Yeties, we're still pumped to be with you this week. Jack, you're looking fantastic. Yetis, you look fantastic. And if you haven't yet, you have got to go to our Instagram page at T-BoyPod. It is so much fun right now, Jack. Rachel of the T-boy team is crushing the posts.

And Adam of the T-boy team is whipping up insane videos. If Slam and Sam were a sentient human being or even an AI companion, he would double-tap every post on our feed. Yeties, you're going to love at T-Boy pod. and I. We'll see on Instagram and we'll see tomorrow. Before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti, Angela Kaye, who's celebrating with a pet corgi Katsu down in lovely Seattle. Happy 24th birthday to Luis Flores in Los Angeles, California.

Oshka Patel, enjoy that birthday with some barbecue down in Austin, Texas. Happy 60th birthday to beautiful Colleen Ferry Jones celebrating in beautiful Sedona. And a happy birthday to Izzy Rudolph, celebrating down the street with a fun party in San Francisco. And happy birthday to Megan Bates, a long time bestie over in Wadsworth, Ohio. Wadsworth would be in Ohio, Jack. And Holly and Lauren Brinkman and all the Yetis who finished the Chicago Marathon this weekend. Congratulations, you're doing great. Eat whatever you want. Get some cake. And congratulations to Marina and Adam, who are living it up, became official members of

cake bread winery. And Jesus Rubin, congratulations on being done with midterm exams down in Mexico. and Alondra Selena Maria, who are getting married in Aurora, Illinois. And Susie Ousostowski just launched her website, TheJettsweater.com, for you to find workouts while you're on vacation. I might do it this weekend.

Jack, the best spin class I ever did was in Bogota, Columbia. I'm sick and tired of crunches on the hotel floor. I didn't even understand a single thing the instructor was saying. Cat cow, cat cow, cat cow. I need more than that. Cow cat.

This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Netflix. You know, the more people drive, the more podcast they listen to, too.