The Best One Yet - “Zuck Zucks Facebook” — American Eagle vs. Aerie. Phase 3 COVID vaccines. Facebook’s newest social network.

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

American Eagle’s stock jumped 4% because it’s less ath, more leisure. AstraZeneca and the other pharma companies are entering a key moment: Phase 3 trials for the COVID vaccine. And Facebook’s newest social network is the exact same as its first ever social network… college only (we’re calling it “TheFacebook”).$AEO $AZN $FBWant a shoutout on the pod? We got the form for Snackers to fill out right here:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. Welcome back. It is Monday, September 14th. Nick, one second. I'm aggressively TikToking because it gets banned tomorrow. D-Mont is 24 hours still someone buys TikTok. Jack, did you submit our paperwork, by the way? No, but I am watching a bunny playing the piano right now. It's hysterical. Our counteroffer, we buy it. We call it Nick Jack. Jack, is this the best one yet, though. This is a definite T-boy. For our first story, getting to a vaccine for COVID-19 is a top wish for humanity, the economy, and the economy, and

the stockmark. Perfect. Welcome to Phase 3 trial snackers. AstraZeneca is in the business of Phase 3. For our second story, American Eagle thinks your aft leisure wear should be less Athmore leisure. Actually, just leisure. No app. I'm doing a lot of deleting here. American Eagle Outfitters is basically become two different companies. That's what we noticed. For our third and final story, Facebook just launched the Facebook. Yeah, call up JT. It's a college-only version of Facebook in 2020, that's basically Facebook 2006. Just in different, like, like, add the the, add it back. Bring it back. I was wrong a decade ago. But Snackers, before we get to that, are you bored with the company you're working out right now? Yeah, maybe you're just tired. So Jack and I, we care about our Snackers.

Here's what we think you got to do. Find a company led by a CEO who has a unique first name. And the reason Jack and I figure that out is because there's a new study from Rice University that surveyed 1,200 U.S. companies over the last 19 years. Here was a key finding. Successful professionals who have uncommon names like Ulysses tend to view themselves as a more special, unique, and interesting and creative executive officer. Also some strange parents. But having an uncommon name was the early takeaway here means you've got a shot of corporate confidence built into your bloodstream.

Right. So that could mean uncommon names like Ulysses just mean that you're like cocky and arrogant, but they actually find that those executives pursue strategies that deviate from their peer firms and result to like creative outcomes. That's right. Uncommon names lead to bold corporate strategies. So if you got a CEO John or a CFO Jim or C.O. Jane, you're probably going to keep the R&D budget conventional and just do what everyone else is doing. But Jack, what if you got yourself like a chief Elon or like a president sophris or like a leader Haywards? I'm like, nice last name that you got for a first name there. True. Also, I expect that you're probably going to throw money behind like a CBD infused artificial intelligence drone to

delivery kit. And bonus we can turn that into some kind of a virtual reality cryptocurrency. Now Nick, Alex and I named our puppy river instead of like Lucy because we wanted her to win the Yucanuba dog show. Just want to point out, first ever mixed breed who would win that Yucaniba dog show. Yucanuba, let mixed breed dogs in. Mixed breed dogs are great. We got a bold takeaway and plan for this, though. LinkedIn, listen up. We want to see a new filter. So you can search for CEOs with the fewest number of fellow CEOs with that same first name. Is that too much to ask for? Let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily.

We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security.

Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robahood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. our first story. Welcome to Phase 3 trial season. The whole world is watching, no pressure. Nick, the stock prices of nine pharmaceutical companies and the entire economy depend on this vaccine. Jack, feels like rocky six-round Ivan Drago. You know what I'm thinking on this one. Ba, ba, ba, bah, bah.

I'm my face. Alamo, let me back in. I want to get them. I want to get them. I got them. If you can change, everybody can change. If you're a bird, I'm a bird. Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca are all in phase three trials for a COVID-19 vaccine. Oh, yeah, you got to picture packed rooms full of scientist goggles and a whole bunch of bunsen burners trying to just cook up a vaccine. If they can cook up the vaccine right, then they're going to send that recipe to a bunch of factories built by Bill Gates for mass production for the entire world. Snackers, we are in a high-stakes moment right now. Phase three is critical. And once a vaccine passes phase three trials, That's when the FDA approves it for use by all of us.

These three are the biggest of trials and the hardest to pass. They're aiming for 30,000 volunteers on this one spread across 80 different sites in the U.S. Maybe you know someone who has raised their hand and volunteered to take the COVID-19 vaccine because they need a good, healthy cross-section of America. It's like the meat and potatoes of the United States. It's a really fun thing. Here's how the experiment's going to work. Half of those 30,000 volunteers get the actual vaccine, which the scientists aren't even

100% sure works. Yeah, they get to be called team treatment group, although they don't know this. This is all happening behind the scenes. And then the other half randomly is going to get a placebo. Right. Which is just like a syringe of sugar water. Totally harmless. Seems like they don't have to put the sugar in there, but they just kind of do that to mix things in. They're not getting the actual vaccine. They're just called the control group, and they're kind of just like the benchmark of what's normal. So then all the participants go out and they say, hey, just lead your normal lives, try to avoid getting COVID-19, and we'll speak with the N60. A month or two later, the scientists check in with all 30,000 participants and basically say,

how you doing? Yeah, if the vaccine works, you should see zero COVID infections in the 15,000 people who got the vaccine. And then you'll see like a normal number of infections from the 15,000 people who got the placebo, but not the actual vaccine. And if the vaccine doesn't work, you'd expect to see COVID infections from everyone, whether they got the vaccine or they just got the placebo. So we really want to see zero with the treatment group and like a normal amount with a control room. That's what we want to say. And then we can all have a nice reunion a year later, and we appreciate everyone who joined the study, because this is critical. I think everyone actually gets like a cool tattoo on their lower back. There should be a gift bag. So Jack, what's the takeaway

for our buddies who are the entire economy? Our economic recovery doesn't just depend on the vaccine being successful. It depends on us trusting the vaccine. Snackers, wild stat here, 35% of Americans said last month, they would not take the COVID vaccine even if it were free. Now, if you haven't seen a false headline about vaccines on Facebook, then you must be on Snapchat because there's swimming in that on Facebook. Standard opinion, though, otherwise, once we get a vaccine, this will all be over, we'll all get back to life. Right. So we have to pass the phase three trials, which we're in right now, and then we need to mass produce this thing, and then we all have to take the vaccine. But in reality, you actually got to convince a third of Americans to take the vaccine.

It's a new challenge. And unfortunately, since there's this distrust for the vaccine, The nine drug companies working on phase three trials pledged last week in an unusual thing. They pledged to stand with science. They feel like they have to earn trust right now, and they're making this unusual move by pledging a rigorous scientific process to ensure safety of the vaccine. Because if a majority of Americans don't take the vaccine, then it won't be as effective. And we can't then return to restaurants, go to the gym, buy that $15 bag of popcorn that keeps AMC theaters running.

Until people trust that the vaccine works. Phase five is trust. For our second story, Jackie, don't pop the collar if the collar pops you. American Eagle has a jackal and hide situation going on. American Eagle has basically become two completely different companies that might have to split up. Yeah, we're talking about Abercrombie's younger sibling based in Pittsburgh American Eagle outfitters. Yeah, did you notice, Nick, that high school and college clothing companies are all based in the Midwest of the United States? Yeah, it's interesting.

You got New Albany, who's based in New Albany? Abercrombie and Fitch. and then you got urban outfitters based in Philadelphia, and then you got American Eagle based in Pittsburgh. The brand scream ocean, the corporate headquarters scream landlocked. No, sales at American Eagle Corporation fell by 15% last quarter for unsurprising reasons. But that was overall, if you break it down, Jack and I noticed that sales at American Eagle Outfitters brand fell 26%.

But its Aries brand experienced a sales jump of 32%. Jack and I got curious. We jumped in Snacks style, went deeper, and we looked at the number of times. the brands were mentioned in the earnings report. Because that's a signal of priority. So we busted out the Control F feature. And we found that American Eagle was mentioned 16 times and Ari was mentioned 21 times. A little bit of favorite child situation going on over here. A little bit of favoritism. Not just those two brands though. Jack and I are thinking these are basically becoming two

different companies. Check out ARI's website. Please. You're going to see six images on the landing page. Everyone's decked out in sweatshirts and sweatpants. It's aggressive. They're like two inches of fabric away from just being snuggies. It's a snuggle zone only. Blankets with the arms built in. That's what these are. But at American Eagle, you're seeing a distressed blue sea of denim and denim only. They're aggressively focused on jeans to the point that they're telling you, you should be wearing jeans for virtual classes this fall, even though no one sees you from the belly bottom down. Ari's website is like, we don't sell jeans. American Eagles like, we sell jeans, but our jeans aren't like jeans at all. They're not even jeans. They're in column jeans. They're blue khakis.

So American Eagles financials and its brand have been struggling. They feel like the gap these days. Right. But ARI's financials and brand, they look more like a chilled out version of Lulu Lemon that took a CBD gummy. Except less ath than Lulu Lemon, it's just leisure at Aries. Comfort only. It's basically comfort plus. The impressive part of the earnings report, though, was that digital sales doubled at the ARI brand. What shocked us, though, is that these were not driven by website shopping. Those were sales driven by app shopping. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at American Eagle? Fashion apps are way behind food apps. Snackers, you got dominoes, McDonald, Chipotle. They're all thriving off of app orders for pickup.

But in the fashion world, we don't see companies focused on driving sales through their apps. But just like food, fashion app users order greater amounts of stuff and buy a whole lot of stuff more often. We saw in American Eagles' earnings that users purchasing things through the app had twice as high sales per purchase. than people on the website. So just like Taco Bell's app, American Eagles app, is a powerful direct relationship with some super engaged buyers. You can send a push notification instead of having to notify a customer through like an expensive Instagram app. American Eagles should be prioritizing app downloads right now because those are the strengthening and strongest of customer bonds. We're thinking they should give special deals for tank tops only if you buy through the app.

No app, no crop top. For our third and final story, Facebook just launched a new social network. It's called Facebook campus, but we're calling it the Facebook. Literally is like 2006 Ivy League only Facebook, minus the pokey. Full disclosure, I met Nick Martel on Facebook. My profile picture was me and my prom tuxedo. We were going to be freshman year roommates. I checked it out. Jack had a white tuxedo in some of his pictures, which is ironically a red flag. That's a red flag for any incoming freshman in the roommate. Also, this means that Facebook is copying a previous Facebook product, which means for the first time in history, Jack and I get to say this term. Zuck to Zuck, Zuck. Zuck just sucked, Zuck. Now, it's not a Facebook press release about a new product,

unless they mention connecting people in every paragraph. Jack and I Apple left this thing. Jack, how many times did we see connect people in this press release? I'd control after it four times, four times. Four times. And Snackers, this is what this product actually looks like. First, you got to have the campus-only exclusive.edu email ad. Once you do that, you can indicate to everybody your graduation year, your major, your minor, your double major, perhaps? Can you say you're pre-med? Ambitious.

My buddy Z-man wants to know. A little valedictorian action going on here, pre-valedictorian. Now, if you do that, that gives you access to a campus-only newsfeed. Right. So you're going to see things like virtual reading of Thucydides, Fons Hall, 6.30 p.m. Tuesday. Pizza will be served. I was never one for Greek philosophy. That's how you get the numbers.

But then you're also going to get access to campus-only Facebook groups, only for people on campus. You know, by Hall, Psych 101 study group, was it Chapter 2.3 or Chapter 3.2, Megan, that we're studying this week. It's always those sub-chactors. Textbooks love those things. Now, an interesting choice was made by Mark Zuckerberg's buddies over in Menlo, Park, California. They decided to not create a separate app for Facebook campus. Instead, it's in the more section of the Facebook app. It's going to be stacked there on the left side of your screen along with Facebook dating, Facebook Marketplace, Gaming, News, Watch, and like seven other things I can't remember.

A.k.a. all the cheap knockoffs coming from the knockoff factory. This is where Facebook stashes all of the features from other companies that it has sucked. Jack, close look here. Is this a Gucci or a poochie? But Nick, this also means Facebook will require students to have a normal Facebook account to participate in campuses. So this isn't just going to be a four-year thing. They're going to get you for life. No, no, no, no. Now, Snackers, we know what you're thinking. Is Facebook doing this because it's 2020? And the school year is,

100% digital. And our medical students going to be using Facebook campuses for seven years? The answer to both is no, which leads to our takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for our friends over at Facebook? Facebook completely missed Gen Z. Snackers, Facebook was so focused on getting your parents on Facebook. They totally forgot about your parents' grandkids. You know, Nick, I'm pretty sure your Aunt Berth's friend request has been sitting there for three years. Yeah. And there's a reason it's been sitting there. Now, Facebook is the preferred social media app of just 3%

of American teens. Let that sink in. Not 30%, just 3%, 3 out of 100. More 15-year-old American teens prefer Pinterest than they do Facebook. Their Pinterest boarding their like bedroom ottomans these days. They'd rather do that than friend requests. But those stats, Nick, were just for favorite social media apps, which is very much like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram. True. Interesting. Other fact that Jack and I found 2015, 71% of American teens were on Facebook. But Jack, what's the situation today. Only 51% of U.S. teens have Facebook at all. Zuck says he's launched at campus because classes are online, they want to make connections. But let's be honest, this is really because TikTok is about to get banned and Facebook

wants to scoop up all those American teens. Jack, can you and your lovely t-shirt, please move up the takeaways for us to start the week? It's phase three trial season. Half of you get the real thing. Half of you get a placebo. Actually, it's a crew neck. But even if the real thing works, we need people to trust it, not a V-neck. Second story. American Eagle is a tale of two crew and ex. Ari and the flagship brand A.E. One's going up, one's going down. For a third and final story, it is 2006 again.

Facebook just launched a version for college students only. Can you host a phone party on the quad, or do you just do it on Facebook? Trick question. No one wants to go to a phone party. They are highly infectious disease territory. Super spreaders. Now, time for a snack fact of the day. This one's submitted by Jack and I, because we need you to tweet your snack facts

to at Robin Hood Snacks. Yeah, Nick and I found this one. Facebook is giving its employees paid time off to vote this year. Not bad. And a whole day off if you want to work as a poll worker this election. Yeah, but fun subsnack fact here. Poll workers get paid already. So Snackers, you should sign up if you want to get paid and support our American democracy this election. Or if you're a Facebooker, get paid twice as much for your labor. Zuck would be proud. Something someone else should Zuck. Now, before we go, Snackers, congrats to Snackers, Robbie and Anna. First days of work for

them in Evanston, Illinois. And Cleveland, Tennessee is the home of a newly wedded couple, Whitley and Sheldon. Threw us off on the name there. Adam Goldblum starting his master's program not too shabby. Congrats on getting engaged, Blair and Gerald from the city that never sleeps. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Josie are celebrating their first anniversary in South Bend, Indiana. Happy first birthday to a young snacker, Ezra Lee. He whips up the takeaways. And happy birthday to Avi Van Zenton in Apex, North Carolina. And Eleanor Webster in Blacksburg, Virginia. and Camden Cross in Scottsdale, Arizona. And Jenny Chen in the home of urban outfitters, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

And Andrew Taggart in Evanston, Illinois, too. Evanston, Illinois issues their own birth certificates, not the state of Illinois. Hannah Wardlow didn't know that, but she's an evergreen Colorado where they don't do that. Happy birthday, Sandy Dye from New York City. And Ryan Cummings turning 30 in Smithtown, Long Island. And Jacob Parrott in Houston, Texas. And congratulations to a great day on the Great South Bay to Ian and Jenna, who just got married in Massapequa, New York.

Now, Snackers, we are halfway through September, but don't forget, this is suicide prevention month. Tell your friends that you love them, that they matter, send them a text, take them for a ride, give them a phone call. And Jack and I love you guys. We'll definitely see you tomorrow. This is Jack, I own stock of Lul Lemon. So does Nick. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision.

Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.