The Best One Yet - 🧑‍🚀 “Ryan Reynolds did the Astronomer Ad” — His secret ad agency. Ty Haney’s Outdoor Voices boomerang. Huuuuge Trade Deal Week.

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

How did Gwyneth Paltrow appear in an Astronomer ad?... Ryan Reynolds’ secret ad agency and its new concept: “Fastervertising.”As a trade war deadline nears, Japan and Europe cave to Trump… we discovered a template to the deals.Outdoor Voices just rehired its founder, Ty Haney… but to bring back old glory, it’s bringing something new.Plus, the untold origin story of… the Skateboard.$SPYWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… “The Skateboard 🛹 Defying Physics & Freaking Out Parents for 60 Years”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's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, July 29th. And today's part is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. I mean, Jack, today's stories are so good. What do you say? We jump right into it. You ready for the first story? Hit me, Jack. What do we got on today's T-boy? How did Astronomer, whose CEO was outed at that Coldplay concert, already rebound by hiring Gwyneth Paltrow as its spokesperson? Now that is a headline, Jack. The answer? because Ryan Reynolds has a secret, mysterious ad agency. That's how, and we'll tell you about it. For our second story, the trade war is beginning the most important week of the year. And we just signed a deal with the European Union. So what is Trump's new negotiating strategy? It's two words, pain tolerance. And our third and final story.

Outdoor Voices, the disruptive athleisure brand, has been struggling for a few years now. But Outdoor Voices just deleted all their social media posts, and they did it because they're brain. and back their founder. Ty Haney. Yep, the OGOV. Uh-huh. Is back. Back, baby.

But yet, he's, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa, what a mix of stories for a T-Boy Tuesday. Love the mix, Jack. Yesterday, we asked you a trivia question. What kids product has been banned and then unband more than any other product? It was banned in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and the entire nation of Norway. And yet now it is seen all over those places. The answer isn't the trampoline or the slingshot.

Although great guesses, yet it's great guesses. Love those. Those were good guesses. The answer is the skateboard. The skateboard, the skateboard. It is the most countercultural product ever created. The whole skateboarding industry was banned by police departments seemingly everywhere. Yet 70 years later, here we are. Skateboarding is now an Olympic sport.

The skateboard is our latest episode of our weekly show, the best idea yet. Because the skateboard transcends trademarks. It actually went viral thanks to a dozen different innovators. From the Santa Monica Lifeguard, who invented it during his off time, to the woman who made it mainstream on the cover of Time magazine. All the way to Tony Hawk, who actually made the most money in skateboarding, thanks to that video game, Tony Hawk Skateboarder. Tony Hawk making more money on the video games than the actual boards.

And Nick and I realized that getting banned is actually the best thing that ever happened to the skateboard. Which feels like a life lesson your parents don't want us to tell you about. So check out the latest episode of The Best Idea Yet. We got a link in the episode description. But in the meantime, Jack, today's T-Boys fantastic. What do you say we hit these three stories? Check out my allie. I'm allying right now.

Kick flip. You're just going to have to trust me. You know, you're not wearing a helmet, Jack. They're kids listening right now. Come on. Hey, Siri, order me some elbow pads and wrist cards. The wrist cards, the numbs chunky wrist cards. 15 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 an norm. 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, the Coldplay Affair, just hit another level as astronomer, hired Gwyneth Paltrow to be their spokesperson. But the real story here is who's behind it all. Ryan Reynolds and his mysterious ad agency. All right, all of those are terms we never thought we'd say in the same sentence, but

well, here we are, Jack, here we are. But first, what happened a couple weeks ago, it's officially got a name. Coldplay gate, yeah. The CEO. The CEO and head of HR who had an affair and got outed by Chris Martin at a concert. Now, having those two executives canoodling turned out to be fantastic brand awareness for the company they worked for. Astronomer is the meme of the year.

Yeah. And after 22,000 articles written about it, Astronomer is now the best-known data startup on Earth. Name me another data startup, Nick. Advertising's what you pay for, publicity's what you pray for. Well, now the embroiled company behind the scandal has moved from defense to offense.

Get this. Last weekend, Astronomer hired Gwyneth Paltrow as their spokesperson on a very limited, quote-unquote, basis. On a very temporary basis, is what Quentin said. She put out a video that totally ignores the scandal. Instead, in a really funny way, it just talks about what Astronomer actually does, like the company. And we see the punchline here, right? Jack, like maybe we should sprinkle on some context. Yeah, Gwyneth was married to Chris Martin from Coldplay.

Right, right. So the partnership with Gwyneth is a clever wink at the whole affair situation. Well, yeah, it is after just 48 hours. Now Gwyneth Paltrow's video for Astronomer has gone viral as well. Which refocuses all the attention onto Astronomer, the company, not their ex-CEO. But besties, here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. It's a wild layer that no one else is talking about. Actually, Jack, it's a person no one is talking about.

And who is that? Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds. Because this new astronomer ad with Gwyneth Poutreau was actually produced by Ryan Reynolds's ad agency. That's right. The actor that you know as Deadpool also owns a soccer club, an F1 racing team, Mint Wireless Mobile, Aviation Gin, and an advertising agency. An ad agency called Maximum Effort.

They only work with 11 different clients, and the website is so stealthy, it feels like it's out of the CIA. We weren't even sure it was real. But despite their short client list and the limited work that they take on, you've definitely seen one of their commercials. For example, remember the Peloton wife from a few years ago? She was really nervous about doing her first Peloton and, like, selfie the whole experience in it. Yeah, it was like a traditional way of showing women that, like, just didn't work.

It got pandas outdated. Yeah. Well, Ryan Reynolds's ad agency got her in an ad for aviation gin mocking Peloton just one week later. And that video went viral because it was so perfectly timed and ripped on Peloton so perfectly. Okay, here's another way you've seen Ryan Reynolds's ad agency before. Remember when Mr. Big died on sex in the city while riding a Peloton? He got a heart attack. Well, Peloton hired Ryan Reynolds' ad agency maximum effort to respond in the moment. And just 48 hours after that sex in the city episode, Peloton put out their own commercial featuring Mr. Big, who declared proudly, I am alive, that show was fictional, I love my Peloton. Ryan Reynolds' ad agency is just jumping into the cultural zeitgeist at a speed that would

dust David Ogilvie. Nick, by the time Don Draper lights a cigarette, Ryan Reynolds' agency has already made three TV commercials. They're that fast. Sachi and Sachi lost their third Sachi before Ryan Reynolds could pull this off. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in advertising? A new industry has emerged. Fast advertising. Yeties, right now, the advertising industry is split on a spectrum of two extremes. On the one side is agency marketing, which takes longer but looks really polished and legit. Right. On the other side is influencer marketing, which moves is much faster, but can look too raw for a big brand. Well, Ryan Reynolds's feet is creating a third option.

That's the key value proposition of both those, speed, but also quality. The TV-ready polish of an ad agency, but the edge and timeliness of influencers. It's a new marketing concept called fast-vertingizing. The speed of social media, but with the look of a Super Bowl spot. How does he do it? Well, Ryan has industry connections to get top talent ASAP. But Jackie also has the cred to say to the client, Hey, ditch the client review. Just trust us. We can post this thing in just 24 hours.

And 24 hours is important because just like in sports, in the attention economy, speed kills. You need to act now. In fact, Jack and I estimate that every day after an event, it becomes 10% less relevant. We don't have data to back that up, but just trust us. It's a gut feeling. And yes, it's compounding interest. Now the result when you add all this up is a new concept, vast advertising. And it's Ryan Reynolds's latest creation. For our second story, this Friday, August 1st, is President Trump's super big, absolutely final, no exceptions trade deal deadline. Well, the U.S. just snagged the trade deal with Europe, and it reveals Trump's Trump card.

Yeties, Trump's second presidency has been about picking fights. And we've noticed, and this isn't a political observation, this is just the reality, a template has emerged to end those flights. For CEOs, the template is to donate to Trump's inauguration. For news agencies, the template is to donate to the presidential library. For law firms to end their fight with Trump, the template is to offer millions of dollars in free work for conservative causes. For universities, the template is to pay a big headline settlement and end DEI policies. And for countries, a template is emerging in the past week to end trade fights.

And here it is. Accept unequal trade terms and give Trump money. Exhibits A and B are Japan and the European Union, which both just announced similar trade deals with the U.S. in just the past five days. Here's the summary of the two trade deals. Most things Americans buy from Japan and the EU will be taxed 15%. But the stuff that the Japanese and Europeans buy from us Americans will not be taxed. So Japan's sushi and Italy's olive oil, a 15% tariff. But our beef and our bourbon, well, that is not facing a tariff in Europe.

So in that sense, Trump won this trade deal. He got the U.S. better terms than the Europeans or the Japanese. But Jack, as our English teacher taught us, we should point out that the word winner is relative here. Because those 15% taxes on Italy's olive oil and Japan sushi, we pay those taxes, and the prices of those things will rise because of them. And the tax revenues that America generates from these tariffs won't actually make up for the cost of the tariffs.

Tariffs are just economically inefficient. like taxes in general are. So Jack, we should point out there were some other details here in the trade deal. What else did Europe and Japan agree to this week? Each of them agreed to spend nearly half a trillion dollars on American things. Japan is giving Trump a $600 billion fund to invest in America as he pleases with no timeline and like no strings attached. And the European Union is pledging to buy U.S. natural gas instead of Russian natural gas,

but we should point out that transition was already happening. So those are the deals. But besties, if we just pause the pod for a second and look at our calendars right now, I mean, wild situation, Jack. 15% tariffs on Europe and 15% tariffs on Japan? I mean, if that had been announced back in April when the trade war kicked off, we'd all be panicking right now. These are giant tariffs.

But compared to the huge tariffs actually announced a Liberation Day back in April, 15% feels kind of timid. That's right. Wall Street's been re-anchored and now become comfortable with tariffs, at least for now, they're just glad the trade war isn't escalating. So Friday, August 1st is T-Day. The deadline to reach deals with two dozen other countries, where else Trump is going to triple or double the tariffs. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone watching the trade war? As one EU diplomat put it, Trump worked out exactly where our pain threshold is. Yet he's interesting thing. The front pages of the European newspapers yesterday were livid.

They were accusing leaders of caving to Trump's bullying. Germany and France's prime ministers called yesterday a dark day that will bring considerable damage to both Europe, the United States, and the whole world. By accepting inferior trade terms, both Europe and Japan are giving Trump the trade war victory that he seeks. And why are they doing it? Well, their economies are weaker than ours. That's why. Japan and the EU are more vulnerable to trade war pain than the United States is.

Deals come down to that simplicity. Those countries, they need access to the U.S. market more than we need access to theirs. So they were willing to accept inferior terms. Or as one European diplomat put it, Trump worked out exactly where our pain threshold is. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, outdoor voices, the fallen athlete, leisure icon. Just brought back its founder after five years. Ty Haney has returned. But the new outdoor voices won't look like the old. No one. And that's precisely the point. All right, Eddie's,

fun fact and full disclosure here. Our first ever advertiser of our company, who was it, Jack? Outdoor voices. It was Outdoor voices. We accepted a few items of merch as compensation. Yeah, we gave it away for free. And dude, that merch, I still have it. When we went on the run in Chicago before the show, which by the way, by the way, Yeties, Jack, Jack, Jack, stopped us every mile to like, look at the architecture because he needed a break. But yet he's back to our story. The first athleisure company to put a brand before biceps was Outdoor Voices. Founded in 2013 by a 23-year-old woman named Ty Haney, a graduate of the Parsons School of Design.

And here was her differentiator from Nike, Lulu Lemon, and Under Armour. Outdoor Voices would be the only athletic company that didn't focus on performance. Instead, they focused on community. They organized run clubs early and pledged empathy over aspiration. Outdoor Voices moved to Austin before moving to Austin was cool. Yeah, and they're doing things hat? You've seen it because it became a lifestyle statement. The result, cool kids rocked OV instead of Lulu or Nike.

So at Outdoor Voices peak around 2019, they had nine stores, 38 million bucks in revenue and a $110 million valuation. Everything was fantastic except... Yeah, Jack. The company was very unprofitable. So then, like several millennial girl bosses, Ty got taken down from inside her own company. It was the 2010's girl boss breakdown. Glossier, the wing, away. Media companies were writing takedowns of female founders. We saw it happen. Here was the pattern. Nick and I read a bunch of these.

A reporter would speak to former employees of the company, then publish a hit piece on the company that was critical of the female founders management style. But we should point out, there was real tension inside of outdoor voices. It wasn't just a gender thing. There was actually a generational tension at the company. Here's the breakdown. On one side, you had the old school board led by baby boomer Mickey Drexler famous for J.Crew and Gap. He was frustrated that sales were doubling at the company, and yet they were losing tons of money. Meanwhile, Ty, the founder, found all this legacy experience to be crowding the company.

But by raising outside money, Ty lost control of her company, so she got fired by the board in 2020. And since then, Outdoor Voices has stopped doing things. They shut all their stores, they lost their style, and they sold the company to private equity. Now, besties, Jack and I, while working out in our Outdoor Voices hoodies, thought the brand was dead. The company was gone until this week. The PE firm invited Ty Haney to come back to the company. We need you, Ty.

You're our only hope. Which is kind of a shocking move for a private equity company to do. So the news is that OV is literally, going founder mode again. Ty Haney is back as founder, partner and co-owner to breathe second life back into her athleisure brand. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Outdoor Voices? In order to go backward, you must go forward. Yeties, Ty is the latest boomerang CEO to return to a company. Whitney Wolf heard she's doing the same thing to save Bumble the dating app right now. But Ty isn't going back to the old OV from five years ago, business as usual.

All right. She's going to do things different. Here's what we found fascinating. Outdoor Voices is still going to be rooted in the same ethos of doing things, but the product and brand are going to look different. She described it as more bold, confident, and sexy. She doesn't want to do what already exists. Yes, some of their cult classic products are going to stay, like the cloud knit leggings, but the rest, it's going to change.

The font, the logo, the color palette, they'll all look different. They even wiped clean the entire Outdoor Voices Instagram to eliminate the past. hard to acknowledge, but they realize they can't go back to the old. The old OV failed. To go back, there must be something new with it. Tai Haney's boomerang to returning to outdoor voices. It could bring it back to glory, but only by going forward. Going backwards, by going forward to go forward. Jack, could you? I'm sorry, do you need a break from our run? Are you good to go? I don't run much these days. I noticed. Yeah. So that four miles. run before a live show. You're asking me a lot, man.

Just kidding. I picked the route. I picked the route. So, Jack, what's the takeaways? Actually, I'm sorry. What's the takeaways for T-Boy Tuesday? Astronomer lost its CEO in the Coldplay affair, but has retaken the narrative with Glyneth Paltrow. It's all thanks to Ryan Reynolds ad agency and their new concept, fast advertising. For our second story, Europe and Japan and out similar trade deals with the U.S. 15% tariffs, and they're also paying America a bunch of money. It's a template. With Trump's T-Day coming this Friday,

he's searching for country's pain points. And our third and final story, Ty Haney has returned to revive her beloved recreation brand, Outdoor Voices. But she can't go back to the old without bringing something new. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, a huge week of econ news.

You're going to want to mark your calendars with a big fat Sharpie that also smells like your Jamie Diamond. First, we have earnings this week from Starbucks, Meta, Microsoft, Robin Hood, Spotify, and one quarter of the SMP 500. Then on Wednesday, federal reserve officials will announce a new interest rate policy. The big question, will Powell buckle to Trump's pressure to lower rates? And then on Friday, we get a jobs report, plus Trump's global trade war deadline.

Like we said, huge week. And second, one of the biggest Bitcoin. Wales just made a splash selling $9 billion of Bitcoin all over the weekend. Someone, some anonymous holder, held 80,000 Bitcoins for over a decade. Wow. That is 0.4% of the entire supply. And that's a lot of discipline. Plus, they just sold that $9 billion all at once.

That whale made a splash. It was such a big sell order. It caused Bitcoin to fall 5% in just minutes. And finally, Mercedes-Benz has added... One second, I'm double-checking my note. here. A strange feature, Microsoft Teams. The newest Mercedes-Benz lets you interact with Microsoft Teams' AI co-pilot. That's right. You can now take a conference call while speeding 120 miles per hour down the Autobahn and also be slacking through Teams. We don't use Teams, so I don't know how it works.

It's not Siri. It's not Alexa. What's the voice command? Is it co-pilot? I think it's high boss. Mercedes has just ruined the work-life balance of community. meters everywhere. Very corporate moved by Mercedes. Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and I because we saw it over the weekend and we just had to tell you about it. You can now Venmo

the U.S. government to help pay down our national debt. That's right. The Treasury Department now accepts Venmo to pay down the deficit. It's a program on the Treasury's website called Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt. Yeah, we jumped in T-Boy style. hilarious website. It's pay.gov.

It's actually been hiding there for like a year. So if you're feeling charitable and want to pay more than your fair share of taxes, you can Venmo the government 50 bucks to help chip away at our $37 trillion of debt. I mean, Jack, the only question here is like, what emoji you're going with after you Venmo the Treasury Department? Bald Eagle to reflect patriotism. Maybe the scared face, 37 trillion bucks? Actually, Jack, just do a pizza and it messes with everybody. Can you Venmo request the Treasury?

Yeties, you look fantastic today. Jack, you are glown over there, and what should the Yetis check out next now that they're done the T-boy? The origin story of the skateboard. It's wild. It's entertaining. It got banned. That was the best thing that happened to the skateboard.

Also, who doesn't remember where they were when Tony Hawk landed his first 900? Your mom doesn't want you to listen to this episode. That won't stop you. Link an episode description, and Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Jack and I will see you there. Bring your helmet. Bring your helmet. And before we go, a shout.

out to Sports World, specifically Tony at Sports World, who helped customize the White Sox and Chicago Cubs jerseys that Jack and I wore on stage at our live show in Chicago. Tony, I freaking love this jersey. Thank you for the logistics. And Daniel Wilkinson and Casey Longstreath are officially engaged in New Zealand. Guys, congrats. Let's see some ring picks. Happy one year anniversary to Abdul and Hefia in upstate New York.

And Daniel Briscoe, happy birthday down and lovely Louisville, Kentucky. Happy 24th birthday to Joe Hauer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the youngest and strongest of all the Howers. It's true, and Katie Borders, happy 22nd birthday celebrating and enjoying life down in Key Largo, Florida. And happy birthday to Raj Gupta in Clarksville, Maryland. Also, Jack, some belated birthdays we missed last week during our live show. Willa Poochie, happy second birthday down in Canton, Ohio, congratulations. And happy birthday to Kaylee Fish in Wheeling, Illinois. And Clay Davidson from Huntsville, Alabama is a newborn, and their first.

first podcast, boom, it's T-Boy. It makes sense. And happy birthday to Jamarion Brantley in Pensacola, Florida. Retired and loving every mid-gay. This is Jack. I own stock of Bumble, Nick on stock of Lulu and Nike, and Nick and I both own stock of Peloton, Robin Hood, Spotify, and we own some Bitcoin, and we own ETFs of the S&P 500. A Bitcoin named Ben.