The Best One Yet - 🪩 “Thriller” — Michael Jackson’s record sale. Dunkin’s #1 commercial. Waymo’s burned taxi.

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Sony just made the biggest purchase in music history, Michael Jackson’s music collection for $1.2B — Because they separated the art from the artist.The Super Bowl winner wasn’t Kansas City, it was Dunkin’ Donuts — Because Super Bowl commercials aren’t 30 seconds long, they’re 30 days.And over the weekend, one of Google’s self-driving Waymo robotaxis was set on fire — And that reminds us of the same incident… in England… 200 years ago (spoiler: It’s the Luddites).$SONY $PARA $GOOGSubscribe 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. It's Tuesday, Teen Boy, Tuesday, February 13th. Then today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But first, happy Galentine's Day to all those celebrating out there. What's Galentine's Day?

Oh, it's only the best day of the year every February 13th. You'll leave your husbands and your boyfriends at home and you kick it breakfast style. Ladies celebrating ladies. Yes. Let's hear our three stories on this Galantines Day, Nick. Jack, what are our friends? three stories for today's show. For our first story, the winner of the 58th Super Bowl wasn't the Kansas City Chiefs, it was Dunkin' Donuts. So Jack and I are breaking down the numbers on the number

one rated Super Bowl commercial. For our second story, it's Sony. Sony is making the biggest purchase of music in history. Sony is buying Michael Jackson's music for a record-breaking price. And our third and final story, over the weekend, a Google self-driving robotaxie was set on fire in San Francisco. And that reminds us of one incident in England 200 years ago. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories, Jack. We are 24 hours away from Valentine's Day. Love is in the air, you can feel, you can smell, you can taste it, Jack. Nick and I cannot contain ourselves today, okay? Oh, Jack and I decided to write some poetry. Nick and I each wrote a poem for a publicly traded company. Is this publicly traded poetry, Jack? Is that a new hashtag? Jack and I wrote a

Barads for the brands that we've just, we've fallen for. Who's going first? No, what, you go first. I want to hear your phone. What do you got, Jack? Whip it up for us. All right, everyone, quiet, quiet, Jay. I wasn't prepared.

The floor is yours. Right, here we go. Before I met you, my soul was naked. But then I felt your quark. You hugged my foot curves and touched my toes. You did things to me that Nike, Adidas, and Reebok never would. I used to think that wearing you meant that you're a hippie. But that dumb joke should now be.

sent down the Mississippi. With your footbeds as my shoes, no matter what, I cannot lose. How did I do? Jack goes full of Maya Angelou on us over there. Love the IAMIC panther. You nailed it. That was beautiful. Fast follow. Let's go. Okay, okay. Open your heart to me, please. Okay, here we go. You ready? Jack, here we go. Here we go. In I walk to stand in line, a midday rush to casually dine. The spicy smells waft to my nose, Adobe fumes shall cure my woes.

My turn to order, the vibes you fork, lunchtime indulgence, so caloric. Your foil tin, your napkins tan, just wrap it tight, burrito man. They try to upsell, want some queso, what the heck, straight to my face-o. But all I crave is barbacoa,

yet this line just moves, oh, so, so slow-a. Yes. You ask me daily, bowl or rap, a true trick question, because both do slap. Carnitas, so free to, chicken or steak, a protein quandary, a decision to make. Brown rice, white rice, no rice, whoa, rice.

I'd lick your salsa from the floor. And yes, I know the guac costs more. So plop on that guac. I'll happily pay for an 18-buck burrito at Chipotle. My goodness gracious. I didn't realize my callus was Robert Frost. Just pour it out of me. I mean, you broke the rule that we shouldn't say lick on the pot, but that's okay.

Yeties for Teaboy Tuesday, we want to know what is the poem that you would write for a business. We want you to send us your publicly traded poem like Nick and I just presided on this pod. Send in your brand ballot and we'll read it on tomorrow's Valentine's Day podcast. And if you're feeling vulnerable and open, comment publicly on our latest T-boy pod post from this morning. If you're feeling extra vulnerable, send us a voicemail. We want your poem. We're picking one publicly traded poem from one of you to read on tomorrow's Valentine's In the meantime, Jack, let's hit our three stories.

Nick, that was amazing. Jack, you're an artist. It's before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one. 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. For our first story, the number one Super Bowl at everyone is still talking about, it's Duncan. Because Super Bowl commercials aren't measured in minutes.

They're measured in months. Getty's here's the reality of media. Super Bowl ads, they get more attention than the Academy Awards. That's the real deal. Nick and I watched the whole game. We watched all the commercials, except for our bathroom runs. The theme this year was to play it safe with Super Bowl commercials by using humor and nostalgia and uncontroversy.

And pay more attention to women because Taylor is watching. We got Nerds' first ever Super Bowl commercial. Not too shabby. Christopher Walken was impersonated by like eight people in a BMW app. Yeah, it was really good, Jack. And E-Trade brought back their hilarious little babies to play pickleball like old people. As one does, as one does, Jack. T-Mood, the Chinese e-commerce app, they had the most Super Bowl commercials,

with three during the game and two after the game. But Jack and I jumped into the numbers, T-boy style, and we discovered that the most Googled Super Bowl commercial of Super Bowl Day was Dunkin' Donuts. New England's coffee is the hottest YouTube. channel right now because people are watching that commercial again. Jack, and you and Mock set the scene for us over there, please. All right, in this Duncan commercial, Ben Affleck was ensconced in a pink and brown Dunkin Donuts track suit that had little Boston sports logos, like ironed on all over the place. You could smell the Bruins on him. And basically, he was

creating a boy band. That was the theme of the commercial, the Dunkings boy brand. Who was in this thing, Jack? Tom Brady was the DJ. Matt Damon was part of the boy brand, although he's kind of embarrassed to be part of the boy band. Tom Brady, by the way, like in 12 commercials. But Ben Affleck had to convince his wife, Jalo, who was like the producer, to publish the record. And she thought the whole thing was an embarrassing mistake. She thought the backstreet boys of Boston weren't worth doing. The commercial ends. It was a lot of fun. It was a great commercial. It was the biggest thing for Boston since Nomah ate an egg chowder at the flower back bay location. Just outside Boston. How was that, Dahlene? Was that okay, my Boston attempt there?

I thought Dahlin's going to approve, Jack. But Jack, could we sprinkle on some context to the numbers from this commercial, please. CBS made a record $650 million just in Super Bowl commercials on Sunday night. Because CBS was selling 30-second spots for a record $7 million a pop. But Duncan's commercial was 60 seconds. So they paid CBS $14 million. Okay, but then Jack and I realized that's just what they paid CBS for the right to have the advertisement during the game.

That's not how much the commercial actually cost. Ben Affleck, a nice guy, a Boston proud guy. He's no UNICEF. Reportedly, Ben Affleck charged Duncan $10 million just to appear in these commercials. And that supporting cast, that's not cheap either. J-Law, Matt Damon, Tom Brady, they all have to get paid to. If they're all getting paid millions of bucks, at that point, Ben Affleck could just buy Williams College Jack. I don't know about Williams, maybe Endicott.

So, yeah, it is, add it all up. And this wasn't a $7 million commercial. The cost of this commercial was probably like $30 million. The cheapest part of the commercial was the brown and pink Duncan tracksuits that said, Dun Kings on it. And I ran a lodge regulars for the fellas. But we think it was worth it for Duncan because of our takeaway. How you like them, donuts.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Duncan? Super Bowl commercials aren't 30 seconds long. They're 30 days long. 120 million people watch the Super Bowl on TV on Sunday. But the number who watched the Duncan ad was way higher than that. Recently with Super Bowl ads, the brands have dropped teasers two weeks prior to the game. So they get talked about for two. two full weeks. And then there are the countless articles on who had the best ad for another two

weeks after the game. On YouTube, that Dunkin' Donuts ad has been re-watched three million times in under 24 hours since the game. Plus, we notice there are six more videos of behind-the-scenes filming footage of that commercial that has another one million views on YouTube. And the teaser from two weeks, we told you about, 500,000 more views. So yet, it's the way we see it. The Super Bowl has changed the math on advertising. It is a whole new calculation. A Super Bowl ad is no longer just 30 seconds. The brand has talked about for 30 days. Super Bowl ads, they shouldn't be measured in minutes. They should be measured in months. For our second story, the estate of Michael Jackson just sold his songs for the biggest price tag in music history. Sony is buying Michael

Jackson's music because the world has separated the art from the artist. Yet he's interesting trend, Jack and I have been following the last couple years. Big money has been buying up the rights to music like it's real estate out there. Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Katie Perry, dozens of other musicians have all sold their music for over $100 million each. Oh, Jack, the biggest music sale of all? Who we got, man? The boss. Bruce Springsteen sold his entire back catalog for a record $550 million. Thunder Road? That's like a few million bucks right there, not too shabby. But now, Michael Jackson is number one. Yet he's here's the news. Sony Music has bought 50% of Michael Jackson's music collection valuing that collection at $1.2 billion.

And how is it so valuable? Because the late King of Pop still brings in $75 million a year in royalties from all the streaming of his music. Now, half of all that will go to Sony Music in a deal worth twice as much as Bruce Springsteen's record. Now, Yeties, you might be asking, how has Michael's music been affected by the allegations of child abuse? You might be surprised that after all you've heard about Michael Jackson's, you might be surprised that after all you've heard about Michael Jackson for years, he becomes the first musician to sell his library for over a billion dollars.

The story around Michael Jackson changed in 2019 when HBO put out a documentary called Leaving Neverland. It chronicled alleged child sex abuse by Michael Jackson. And the heart of the documentary was first person accounts from two alleged victims. And now, it should point out it wasn't proven in court, but the documentary was powerful. It was heartbreaking. It was impactful. And after watching it, it was hard to enjoy Michael's hits in the same way after that. But four years after that documentary aired, Sony is making this big move because they don't

think Michael's music has been tainted. In fact, Sony knows Michael's music has been tainted, financially speaking. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Sony music? The world is separating art from the artist. Yeties, Michael Jackson isn't the only popular musician whose legacy has been darkened by personal exploits. Kanye West won 24 Grammys, and then in late 2022, he made multiple appalling anti-Semitic rants. And then, Jack, what happened to the very next year in 2023? Last year, Kanye was still, despite all that, the number nine most streamed musician on Spotify. Jack and I

jumped in T-Bor style to the numbers, and the numbers, they show it's the same situation with Michael. In the three years after that documentary came out, according to Billboard, Michael Jackson's album sales rose by 37%. And there's the Michael, Jackson musical on Broadway that's still selling out and there's a biopic that's coming to theaters next year on Michael Jackson. Some people decide to hold musicians accountable to their past actions by not consuming or listening to their content. That doesn't appear to be happening on a wide scale. In the music industry, it looks like cancel culture is not happening. The world is separating the art from the artist. For our third and final story, over the weekend, a crowd of

People set fire to a Waymo Robotaxie. But Nick and I jumped into our history books and get this, we found that the same exact incident happened 200 years ago. Jack, it was a wild and fun weekend in San Francisco. They lost the Super Bowl, but it was a lot of fun otherwise. On Saturday, Chinatown was celebrating the Lunar New Year, which was a huge celebration. And then, Jack, I went to the Warriors game on Saturday and ended up on TV somehow

because Draven Green walked into the stands. It was like right next to us. That was really cool. Yeti's, Draymond Green, the basketball player, walked right past Nick to greet his daughter who was sitting behind him. I thought he was a Yeti, but he was just trying to see his daughter. In the meantime, Yetis, anyway, anyway, anyway. Another thing happened on Saturday night on 9 p.m.

that we thought we should cover. A self-driving car was set on fire. Waymo, the Robotaxy Company that is owned by Google, fell victim to the crime. Now, Waymo calls itself the world's most experienced driver. Because Waymo's self-driving cars have been. driven tens of millions of miles without a human driver at the wheel. So that's the most experienced driver in the world, a robot. Waymo's robot taxis.

They're now 24-7 in San Francisco. Actually, I drove a Waymo taxi without a driver to the studio today. It's like how I commute most days now. I know. You've done it often. How does the price of a Waymo ride compare to an Uber ride? Okay, so it's usually like a little less than an Uber. And it's like fully electric.

It's a Jaguar SUV. No driver. It's like magic. It's like having a personal chauffeur jack. The only downside is it's a little slow. right? Like they're more cautious drivers. If you're in a rush, you don't use a Waymo Robotaxie. If you got time, get in the Robotaxie, enjoy the ride. And of course, there's no pressure for small talk with the driver.

It's like a really quiet chauffeur. You've arrived at your destination. That's exactly what she said. But yet is, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Over the weekend, a Waymo self-driving Robotaxie was set on fire. There were no passengers in the car, and there was no driver because it was Waymo. So nobody got hurt, but the car got destroyed. Here's the scene. Saturday night, big party in San Francisco's Chinatown, Lunar New Year, and this car is like trying to make its way through the crowded streets with no human inside. There's a video of this. Someone broke the window with a skateboard and then multiple people started attacking this Waymo car and hitting it and pushing it while others looked on completely shocked not knowing what to do.

And then here's where things get crazy. Someone throws a firework into the broken window and then the car burns down all the way to its metal chassis. The car was vandalized and completely destroyed and there was flames everywhere. Now, there's a lot we don't know about the story. Like, was it a mob? Was it pre-planned? Did the car accidentally hit anyone? But this story does highlight an irony about the city of San Francisco. San Francisco is the home of the technology industry, but it's also the home of protesting. San Francisco, the Bay Area, it's the birthplace of the computer. It's also the birthplace of counterculture. Some in San Francisco, like us, are excited about the novelty of self-driving taxis. Others feel like the city's getting treated like a guinea pig.

Here's the wildest part. We've seen the same incident happen before. 200 years ago in England. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are interested about technology? Luddite could be the word of the year for 2024. Yeah, it's a funny thing. The term Luddite is used today for someone who opposes or is just bad. and modern technology.

But the Luddites were an actual group of people who fought technology back in the day. Let's go back 200 years ago to the United Kingdom. Textiles like clothing and rugs were being hand-woven by people. That's how you made stuff. It was a huge industry employing a ton of people. But in the early 1800s with the Industrial Revolution, knitting machines were invented. So, Jack, how did those hand-weaving workers in England respond to those new automatic machines?

A bunch of them started breaking the machines. And a man named Ned Lud led that resistance in northern England, hence the name Luddites. Lud and his followers, the Luddites, would break into factories and burn the machines as a protest and to protect their own jobs. It's literally the same as what just happened with a self-driving car. Today, at the dawn of self-driving cars, of robots, and of artificial intelligence, we could see rhymes of that history from the Luddites. The exact same theme. major technology innovation could bring major human resistance. Luddite was the word of the year 200 years ago, and in 2024, it could be again.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Galentine's Day? The Dunkin' Donuts commercial starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Tom Brady, and Jennifer Lopez was a highlight of the Super Bowl. Super Bowl commercials, they aren't 30 seconds long, they're 30 days long of talking about them. For our second story, Sony Music has purchased half the music rights to Mike Michael Jackson at a $1.2 billion valuation. And that's proof that the world has separated the art from the artist. And our third and final story is a Waymo self-driving car that got destroyed in San Francisco

over the weekend by violent protesters. And it reminded us of the same incidents that happened 200 years ago with the Luddites. So a Luddite could be the word of the year for 2024. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the Dow just closed at a record high. almost 40,000 points, not too shabby, Jay. When we graduated from college in the year 2011, the Dow was 12,000 points.

Today, it's 40,000 points. The Dow, grown up so fast. For our second story, it's JetBlue's new CEO. She takes over today trying to turn around the once-beloved Disruptor airline. And the famous investor Carl Icahn is rooting for her. He just took a big stake in JetBlue. The stock jumped 15% yesterday. And finally, Bitcoin just passed 50,000 bucks.

for the first time in two years. Not clear why, but Ben the Bitcoin is feeling bouncy. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one from Jack and me, because all we want is your poetry. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. We want your love letter to your favorite brand. What we want is your publicly traded poems. The two poems that Nick and I recited, we posted them on our Instagram at T-BoyPod.

We want you to comment with your poem. Or DM us with your poem. We also have a link in this. this episode description if you want to read your poem and get it in tomorrow's intro. If you want to do a physical acting representation of your poem, you can send it in the video. We will watch that too, won't we, Jack? It's a publicly traded poem, and we want to hear yours. We want to make you the poet laureate of the best one yet.

So hit us up at T-boy Pod. Happy Galentine's Day. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. Great. Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti's Mani and Connie, a couple of T-boys who are besties together,

24-year anniversary down in Orlando, Florida. Congratulations to DePaul Patel, who just got certified as an ethical hacker at Deloitte in New York City. Not too shabby, and Danielle Gilfoyle's got a new job also in New York City. Have fun on the commutes, guys. Happy 40th birthday to Sean Sharf, over in Ohio with Alex and the comment. You guys are going to have a blast together and Jesse O'Connor is celebrating the birthday in Concord, New Hampshire, with a great round of disc golf. And to all our New Yorker Yetis, enjoy the snow day.

And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Spotify and we both own one Bitcoin. And we both own shares of Chipotle. That was wonderful, Nick. Yeah, and the performance? Both incredible. What did you say about the rice white rice brown rice no rice yes yes that's supposed to be the slam poetry part brown rice white rice no rice whoa rice