ALLAN GOOD FUN

19:10Kevin:It was a good time. I enjoyed it. Surfing is one of those things that I always wish that I had done when I was like a really young kid. No, you can do it now. And I think finally in my lifetime, I probably have the upper body strength to maybe to get up and be able to sort of do it. But I haven't been able to. And again, I just grew up on the East Coast and just wasn't part of my life. You grew up in Oceanside. Yeah. You're by the side of the ocean. You had no excuses. Bring up a decent point. But yeah, surfing is never around the cards for me. Never too late. Yeah. I'll just say before I move off the voucher party, which is the photo that you posted on our Slack channel.

19:44I don't know if it's a sort of social media ready, but it is a beautiful photo. I've thought about it quite a bit. It is literally just like just dudes in desert, just like getting after it and something really visceral about it. You could see it hanging in a museum, genuinely. It's a piece of art.

20:07Kevin:Yeah. And shout out to Sean. He's a photographer. He was snapping some pics when the party really started to get going. There was a moment where we started a little mosh pit in the desert. Yes. And let's just say there was a lot of contact being made. Yes. And there was a point where I made some heavy contact with another guy who's making heavy contact. Okay. And I was like, oh, man, I hope I didn't just destroy this guy's shoulder. Oh, no. Oklahoma drills and yeah with uh 350 beers is recipe for disaster yeah so i mean it got it brought me down to earth and i was like all right okay we'll chill out a little bit you know yeah well glad to hear it i'm glad that you survived i'm glad he survived i'm glad everybody survived yeah we all survived that's good that's beautiful that was my first question when i when he got back i said is did everyone make it out everyone okay and he said everyone's good thumbs he gave a thumbs up yeah we're good but i've developed two new hobbies from it i'm i'm gonna I learned to surf and, uh, damn, I really riding motorcycle.

21:04Okay. Motorbike. Oh my God.

21:06Kevin:Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I need more, you know, like I need more dangerous hobbies. So you've always been a bikes man. So I mean, listen, there was, there's nothing like ripping a fricking dirt bike through the desert. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. It was beautiful. Yeah. It's tough to do that in Brooklyn, but you know what? Uh, you, it's a beautiful thing. And, uh, yeah, sounds like a really good time. Uh, we, uh, talk about, we got to get back to reality here, Kevin. Back here in reality, we're launching new products, including the Coke Zero of Candy. I don't know if you saw this. The Coke Zero of Candy?

21:38Kevin:Yeah, the Coke Zero of Candy. You probably missed it, but this is a relatively new story. But Peter Rahal, the man behind RX Bar, and then more recently, David Bar, is back. This is the third brand that I guess he's launching. and it seems well set up for success considering all of the David's success and again, just his credibility in the space. August 29th, Hall Pass, a very low calorie EPG-based candy company is hitting the world. And you know what? People got pretty excited. I mean, David, I haven't had the ice cream yet, but I think it just hit target. I guess that's out there. people said mixed things, I think.

22:23I'm curious about that.

22:24Kevin:I mean, I feel like with any sort of David or EPG product, there is going to be mixed reviews. Yes. He's a bit of a lightning rod. Yeah, definitely. Definitely a bit of a lightning rod. Say what you will about the EPG or whatever the products. I mean, the macros are freaking insane. And that's what people are looking for, right? I mean, I think there's like this product isn't a protein-based product. So I think that's why it is not part of the David family. And it makes sense to kind of do this as a separate company. Obviously, there's a lot of low-cal, better-for-you candy on the market. So he's certainly not the first one in the game.

23:02But I do believe that this, because of EPG, is going to have the best macros, 70 calories per bag, one gram of sugar. and the three products that they're launching with peanut butter cups. So Reese's, of course, those look to me like the most appealing. Chocolatey candy pieces, which just basically look like M &Ms. Sure. And then some peanut butter crispy wafer, which I don't know, looks like some sort of generic version.

23:32Kevin:There's like a Reese's product like that. Yeah. I can't remember what it's called, like maybe Reese's sticks. Yeah, something like that. Yes. A stick type product. Yeah. You know, maybe it would be intrigued by that. But I'm certainly intrigued by the peanut butter cups. Yes. You know, I've got a weakness for them. Yes. They're calling my name. I'm with you. I mean, I think, again, I've had this thought for many years, which is when are we going to get to the future when we can have our cake and eat it too? And we can have the same type. Literally, I think when I was working at Coke, I remember drinking Coke Zero because I would drink Coke Zero all the time and still really like it.

24:08They did change the formula a couple of years ago, and I have not appreciated it as much since. I just want to be on the record about that. But back in the day, Coke Zero was my jam. And I remember drinking it, feeling guilt-free, feeling very happy about it, and being like, when are they going to do this for candy and ice cream? Because someone's got to figure this shit out. And they're on their way. It's not zero calories, but it's one gram sugar.

24:36Kevin:It's pretty much zero calories. 70 cows in an hour. That's like zero calories. That's really low. Anything under 100 is like zero. I agree. In my mind. Yeah, because you could just go for a nice long walk outside and you could burn that off in these temps. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah. I mean, I think there's a story here and I think there will be an audience for it. And I think with all the David's success, there's people that are going to be very interested in this. Also, the name is a 15 out of 10. Yeah. Paul Pass. Sick name. Incredible. Incredible name. The work done by Dayjob, people behind David Barr, shout out to Ryan and his team.

25:10They have done so many brands at this point that we have talked about. So they get their flowers here. Incredible name. Good looking design. But they did. And I don't know if this is Dayjob's sort of issue or it's a sort of, you know, hall pass issue. But the main image that did launch the brand into the world yesterday had a couple typos. and those typos appear to be made with artificial intelligence, Kevin.

25:36Kevin:I don't know if you've heard about this. AI can make images and also help you rewrite your emails. Yeah, they're certainly not good with type yet. Yes, exactly. They may be coming for our jobs, but they're still spelling package P-A-C-A-A-G-E. So this is a little tricky because this is basically the launch of the brand. And they're coming into Walmart August 29th. It's, you know, pretty soon. So and Peter obviously has become a bit of an Internet celebrity in his own right, because he is the face of these companies and the face of David and he's quite outspoken. So for this main image to launch this company with, to have that kind of AI mistake on it is a bit of a blunder.

26:23I don't think anyone is really going to care, but it's just where we're at in this world. I don't think he's going to be on sort of a donkey of the day with Charlemagne.

26:33Kevin:Yeah, Charlemagne going to weigh in on this one? I don't think he is, but we are. And I think that's, I mean, the thing that makes me sort of question it is like, nobody caught that? Like, this is the one image to launch this brand in this case. You know, it's not like it's one image of like a 20 image case study. It's one image that you're posting for everyone to find out about this company. you would think you would just like look at it twice or enough to like sort of make sure that there was no spelling mistakes or just like triple check it and their defense i did see i saw it shared um you know drew their design director i saw him share the same asset and it wasn't fucked up oh interesting yeah so i don't know what happened there so okay yeah something got fucked up something something got something went wrong but you know and you know what that's what happens yeah these things happen you know we just talked about uh you know weighing in on mistakes and with Alan Peters and like, I don't know, these things happen.

27:26Yeah. Mistakes get made and certainly they're probably moving fast here. So, but I don't think that takes away from what people are excited about, which is the product, which I'm intrigued by and the branding, which again is the name alone. Like I, and I felt the same thing with David when David came out, I was like, that is a 15 out of 10 name. And so naming is hard. We do a lot of it around here. Kevin, definitely sort of on the front lines of that. And so all pass. Whew. That's a fire. That's a fire. That's as good of a name. Again, tip of my hat to them. Yeah. Because that's to get the trademark for that.

28:05Kevin:All pass. I don't care about the AI mistake. That is, that's how you do it, people. Absolutely. So happy to see it. And so good for them. And we'll be keeping an eye on it. We might have to get some in the studio. Maybe we'll do live taste test. Yeah. Yeah. Kevin, we've got some big news in the basketball world. There are two projects that people have been sending me, and I love that people know what we like to talk about around here. The first one is the new WNBA team in Cleveland, the Cleveland Sirens. This is a new franchise that did not exist before, so it needed a full identity. And so people can't get up in arms about a rebrand here because this is a new to world brand.

28:48The Sirens begin play in 2028, and they'll be the WNBA's 16th team, a major step in the league's continued growth and natural expansion. According to the franchise, the Sirens name draws from Cleveland's connection to Lake Erie and is intended to represent the energy, resilience, and the passion of the region. And so my first take on this was quite positive. I thought it looked pretty good. I don't know what the difference is between a mermaid and a siren, but I assume they're somewhat similar. Sure.

29:22Kevin:Actually, I don't know. I looked into it a little bit. Actually, I opened up the Wikipedia. Oh, you did? I opened up the Wikipedia and I was like, I don't care. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, oh, you ever, yeah, you do some research and you're like, wait a minute, I don't give a fuck. Should I look it up right now between a siren and a mermaid? Yeah. Go ahead and ask chat. Mermaids are half human and half fish. Sirens were originally dangerous half bird women. Okay, so one is a half fish, one's a half bird. I don't know. Yeah, I guess sirens have wings, feathers, or talons in Greek texts like Homer's Odyssey.

30:03So, you know, Odyssey's hot right now.

30:06Kevin:I didn't see the movie, but a lot of people did. I don't know. Has the definition of siren expanded in the cultural lexicon? Yeah, in the cultural lexicon. I have no idea. In my brief research expedition on Wikipedia, I did see some bird-looking, half-bird, half-women-looking things. And then I did see some half-fish, half-woman-looking things. So I'm not sure. There were some carvings, some old carvings, some old statues that I was looking at. Yeah, I'm not a siren expert. Me neither. I will say the visual depiction of a siren, according to this identity, is much more mermaid than sort of bird in that it does have a tail, but no wings here.

30:50So we're going to let that we're going to drop. We're going to put that one to the side for a second because I don't really have the answers nor the time to figure it out. But my initial take on this was I thought the typography was nice. I thought the reduced color palette was interesting. I thought the identity overall felt more sort of modern and fresh and sort of like fashion forward than sort of traditional sort of brand design for sporting teams.

31:17Kevin:People in the comments were like, it doesn't look like a basketball team. It's like, oh, well, you know. Yeah, that's why it's cool. That's okay. Yeah, that's why I like it. But it does look like a basketball team. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, I think it looks like a modern team. And so the agency that did it is called Supper Supper. I wasn't familiar with their game, but nicely done. I know that friend of the show, Maximato, was a part of this. He had done some work at Double Day and Cartwright on the sort of Miami football clubs. and he had done some things for, I believe, the Bucks.

31:48He's done a lot of sport work in his work. He actually worked at Nike for a minute. Great designer. Shout out to Max. So, yeah, I pretty much was just like, that looks pretty good. I think we'll talk about it on the show, give it its flowers. But interestingly enough, Armin did not agree from brand new. And so when I was looking at sort of his breakdown, he was quite critical.

32:11Kevin:He was very critical. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, and I think it's interesting. We had Armin on the show, and he's much more positive these days than he is negative. I feel like he used to tear things to shreds back in the day, but these days he's a much more complimentary kind of review. Turns out he's still got his fastball. He's still got it. And his beef was sort of the creature looks a bit haunted, which I could see that. You look a little closely at that face, and you're like, oh, it's a little haunting. I think sirens are supposed to be haunting. I think they're a little ominous. Yeah, I think is.

32:47I don't know.

32:47Kevin:I guess it goes back to me not knowing really what a siren is. Exactly. I don't think so. And I think that he did call that out that, you know, sort of the mermaid sort of siren thing and sort of there was a little bit of confusion there. He didn't really like some of the secondary marks, which sure, I can kind of agree. But I kind of like the C and the S. Like, I think that's kind of cool. The hand is a little creepy with the basketball. ball but and then yeah the intro video was a bit like avatar-y kind of thing which exactly that's totally what i would expect is like some ai cgi kind of the sort of underwater situation thing yeah i'm on board with the intro video i didn't love it it was a little corny but i don't know it's it's it's hard to do like a i feel like that's a really you know like any sort of sports identity launch video, like, it's going to be a little corny.

33:43Kevin:Like, I don't know. It reminded me of the Kraken one, which I think is probably a bit stronger from the sort of hockey world, which I think, again, had a similar sort of like underwater, dark, stormy kind of vibe to it. It also kind of reminded me of like the Clippers sort of rebrand that they did a couple of years when we talked about it, where it was like their now boating franchise and the choppy waters and things like that. A lot of people embracing the water. They are. Just like me for real. Exactly, Kevin. They're out there under the water. So I don't know. This one gets a thumbs up for me.

34:22Kevin:Yeah. I'm excited to see what they do with the uniforms. Yeah, that's true. No uniforms here. You bring up a good point. Yeah, it did feel like the identity was light in its sort of execution. Like you get the main mark, you get some secondary marks and some merchandise. They got a whole like two years to finish this or I guess probably a year and a half to get this rolled out. You're right. You probably could have a couple moments here. You could sell some sweatshirts now. Then you sell some jerseys a little later. And I kind of fucked with like what you said, like the lighter approach, like the more fashion forward approach to the sports branding.

34:55Kevin:Like I'm kind of I'm excited to see what they do. I like the blues. You know, I think that like looking at that sort of collection of merchandise is really probably what's old for me. like looking at that and be like oh if i'm a wmba fan living in cleveland i'm excited about my new team like i'd be pretty pumped to get one of these sweatshirts like genuinely and so i think that's that's the that's the metric i think of success for me it's do i want to wear it and i do so shout out to cleveland and shout out to supper supper great name too supper supper i just like saying that uh we didn't talk about on the real quick on the hall pass thing uh linkedin added an AI slop button.

35:32Oh, yeah. So I guess someone should have hit that on the wall pass thing.

35:35Kevin:It's funny that you can report things as AI slop. As appears to be AI slop. Yeah. That's a funny thing. That is a very funny thing. It feels very sort of off brand for LinkedIn because I feel like LinkedIn is the professional social media site. But I think it's just so swamped with slop. Yeah. It's just a slop epidemic. Listen, I'm going to look to camera right now. LinkedIn. I appreciate the AI slop button, but we really need to figure out the slop messages in my DMs or the sort of like inbox. Yeah. That part is fucking insane. I get 10 to 15 fake messages a day. Yeah. We got to figure that out.

36:13We got to be able to identify what is spam and move that to a different folder.

36:17Kevin:Somebody reached out to me the other, like maybe last week and was like, I specialize in ghostwriting books. I'm like, yeah, that's the easiest fucking job ever right now. Yeah. Like you could write an AI book in like 10 minutes. And also, I haven't done shit. I'm going to write a book? What the fuck? Who's going to buy that book? Nobody's going to buy that fucking book. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think on this point, I think that all LinkedIn messages are fake. So if you send me a message, it has to be incredibly real looking for me to believe that it's real. And one thing that's actually funny before we move on is I added SVA professor to my profile and whatever.

36:54I didn't really think about it. And I guess that's sitting at the top of my profile. So now all of my AI messengers are like, we can get SVA in the news.

37:02Kevin:Oh, wow. I'm like, yeah. I don't think SVA needs you, this fake AI bot, to get in the news. It's just so stupid. Oh, dude. I got to talk about AI inbounds. Somebody sent me an email maybe two weeks ago. It was when I was on the bachelor party, so I didn't see it. And it was like, hey, we specialize in celebrity partnerships. like you know would love to get some time on your counter to talk whatever i just like ignored it because it's like who cares like celebrity partnerships it's so 2010 dude and then um this is for the kevin brand the front center brand for center oh for just for center yeah so they reached out to me on like to try to get a meeting for center and then they were like they sent me a follow-up email that was like it's all good if this is above your pay grade Like maybe if you could just forward this to Alex, you know, or something like that.

37:56Kevin:And I was like, okay. Dude, you got AI hating on you. I know. I got AI haters. That's hilarious. That's so funny. I mean, listen. And it was rude. And I was thinking about clapping back, but then I was like, who cares? I don't have the time for this. I can't be fighting with computers. You know, I got things to do. I can't be fighting against the machine. Yeah. But yeah, the other basketball story that we got to talk about was Wemby. So Victor Wembyama unveiled a new logo and a new Nike Wemby One sneakers coming, which makes a ton of sense. Nike only gives signature shoes to signature dudes. And yeah, Wemby is one of them.

38:36And so Wemby's had a logo. And when he first came into the league, I guess that was only two years ago. Remember the crop circle logo, which is what he's been using. Loved it. It's a alien head inside of a basketball with two Nike swooshes inside of it. I remember when it first came out, I was like, this is sick. But I think over the years, I think it's fair to look at it and think, maybe this could be a little bit stronger, maybe a little more ownable because it's sort of just a bit of a somewhat generic looking alien emoji looking shape. which I think is okay. Yeah. But I do think it's a bit of a complex mark.

39:21I know they've used it on his current sneakers. I know he doesn't have like the official shoes. I've seen it being used in merchandise. They do sell things with that logo on it. They're not waiting. That's been his logo, right? But for now, this signature shoe, they're back with a new mark.

39:40Kevin:And it's a much, much, much simpler version. it's basically like the inverse of the other mark yeah they stripped it away and it's just a v and a w and uh my first uh my first reaction was not strong i'll be honest i didn't love it at first glance felt like it was just kind of giving like mustache and chin beard vibes a bit of a v for vendetta kind of thing that was like my first thing that i saw when i was looking at it looks a bit like the anonymous mask. Anonymous, yeah, exactly. That's kind of what I saw at first, which is strange because he does kind of have that facial hair at times, or I feel like I've seen him wear that facial hair.

40:21And then also his name starts with a V, so weird coincidence there, but just kind of, this is how my brain, again, looks at these logos these days. Like, you know, sort of, what's the 10 different meanings in this logo? But the logo is just supposed to be in deconstructed alien head, which is what I now see because I kind of see it through that lens. Yeah. And it's kind of growing on me because I do think the last logo was quite complicated. And this logo is certainly a lot simpler. It's just two shapes. Yeah. A V and a W. And it does make the alien. So I think it's going to be probably easier to use on sneakers.

41:00Yeah. It'll probably look a lot better on like merch or hats or things like that. But I think I'm going to want to see what those things look like.

41:07Kevin:I agree with you. It is growing on me a bit more, but I do just prefer the simple alien head shape from the previous logo. Like, I don't know. I just, you know, keep it simple. Yeah. Like, I feel like he's big enough to where he could own that mark, you know? Yeah, he is. Maybe just strip the basketball components away. Like, probably good to go. Just simplify that mark and just own the alien. Yeah, that's right. That's what I would advocate for. Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, he is the alien. Like it's not like someone else is like known for that moniker. He is an alien. And it's funny. I always think about my mom because she, she always thinks that calling him an alien is kind of mean, like granted he's what six, seven foot seven and like, you know, sort of has the arms of an alien, but she feels bad for him because it's like, it's a, it's, it's a nickname.

42:01And she wants that. I assume someone gave to him and she wonders if it makes him sad. That's such a mom take, but I do always think about that. That is a good take. Shout out to my mom because it's like, would you want to be called an alien if you were that tall and freakishly long?

42:17Kevin:I think so, maybe. I mean, at the end of the day, it is a compliment. It's complimentary to him because he's out of this world. We've never seen anything like him before. He's so good and talented and skilled and big. He's not of this world. I think it's cool. I agree with you, but I could see her point, which is like, is it a little mean spirited to like build a brand? I think if he was like sad about it, this, they would not, you know, this wouldn't be, they wouldn't be moving forward with this. Like, I think, I think he would have raised his hand and been like, oh, you know, I do not like this.

42:52Yeah. I think you got to own it and you got to run with it because again, it is, it's an other worldly skill set that he has. And it is a uniquely alien like build that he has. and I think you run with it, you own it, and you brand it, and that's your thing. Sometimes you can't determine what your brand is. I think you can try to influence it, but I think the alien is out of the cage at this point.

43:14Kevin:I'm kind of surprised you're not taking this opportunity to remind people that the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs. That's a good point, Kevin. I'm really glad that you bring it up. I mean, where's the Jalen Brunson signature shoe? Because Jalen Brunson is the NBA Finals MVP because the New York Knicks have won the NBA championship for the 2025-2026 season. I'm surprised you didn't lead with that. I mean, it's worth remembering because it did just happen only a few short weeks ago. I guess it's probably been like, what, two months or something? But we are still champions. They did announce that we are going to get our rings opening night and the Sixers are going to come to town with the new look LeBron James-led Sixers.

43:56Kevin:That will be fun. I will be very excited about this. But I mean, listen, I'm a branding guy. Wemby is arguably the biggest brand and the future face of the league and probably the future face of Nike. And I kind of understand why. He is a once-in-a-generation type talent. Again, Jalen Brunson, better basketball player. But sometimes the best basketball players don't make for the best brands. It's not just about ability on the court. It is also about being unique and being different and changing the game and your personality. and I think his combination of things. Yeah, he's still so young too.

44:33Kevin:And he's a child. He's 22 years old, right? Yeah. That's insane. So I'm excited to see what they do with this mark. I thought the teaser was cool. Clearly Nike is putting a lot into it. For sure. I loved the teaser. I like how they treated it in the release. Yeah. But again, I do prefer the simpler Alien mark. alien head mark from the first uh for the first go round yeah it is a bit of the inverse and i think once i started to see it more i like and again i didn't see it as a v and a w or top and a bottom you know sort of uh facial hair like i i kind of like it more but i will be interesting to see how they use it and i guess that will be the ultimate test and i uh i trust i trust nike and i think i think simpler is probably better than yeah like i don't think they needed nike swooshes in the last one.

45:25That feels like you don't need a signature logo with your Nike two Nike swooshes inside. That was too complicated. I think this was the right move to simplify. The question is, did they simplify too much? I'm starting to come around to it. I like it. I'm excited to see what they do with it. Before we get out of here, Coca-Cola had a huge, giant rebound. We already talked about it, right? Did we talk about it?

45:48Kevin:I don't think so. Shout out to JKR. They made the again, it's like the impossible task of rebranding Coca-Cola. It's like, what do you do? You don't rebrand it. You just kind of update it, modernize it, and make it more iconic. That's exactly what they did. Hammer down on the systems. Hammer down. The system is great. It uses the Arden Square as the sort of centerpiece of the whole identity. The square is really iconic. It's been used for decades, but now it's really known. It's front and center in the identity. Wow. And I think it's a great job. I think it really looks iconic. Obviously, I worked there for 10 years and bias, but I think it really works well.

46:30And the case study is really well done. So shout out to the people there. The reason why we are talking about it is not because of the rebrand and how much we like it, but because Pepsi came in from left field. and I guess this is on TikTok or Instagram trying to make fun of it because they did the thing where they're like look at our new logo looks like our old logo bit but that's kind of funny but what made it funny was when Kind Bar did it for themselves right weren't they making fun of themselves I think it's far less funny when you're making fun of your competitor yeah also like what

47:06Kevin:What is there to make fun of? Coca-Cola is one of the biggest, most iconic brands of all time with a logo that has literally stood the test of time. It's enduring. What can you even make fun of there? I don't know. It's a tough look. I'll be honest for them. It's, sorry, Pepsi, you played yourself. Donkey of the day. Yeah. Also coming from the brand that released the gravitational pull, which is a fire thing to do. I stand by the gravitational pull of the Pepsi logo. Yeah. But like, come on now. Yeah. Come on now. It's also bring it back. Yeah. They also did just introduce a new logo. And again, it's kind of working.

47:47It is working. So it's just like, guys, just stay out of this. And like, this is why Pepsi will never be a bigger brand than Coke. It's like Coke is always in their head and Coke never thinks about them ever. It's like the classic like little brother, big brother thing. And so, yeah, I get the temptation to try to make a bit about it online, but congratulations to play it yourself.

48:08Kevin:Yeah, not a funny video. I don't know. Yeah, it didn't do anything to me. Just don't do that. And so, yeah, just no need. Last thing, Kevin, before we get out of here, another thing don't do, I think, is Buc-ee's. So the famous sort of gas station chain, which people love. People fucking love Buc-ee's. I've never totally understood it. I've been to one. It's cool, but I just don't have that appreciation and enthusiasm for it. Kevin, do you want to give me a quick sell on why Buc-ee's is so cool? So on my road trip, my famous New York to California road trip of 2021. Who could forget? I went there in Texas.

48:49Kevin:And I'll say the first time I went there, I was pretty blown away. like uh there's a lot of stuff in there you know the logos fire like the the beaver great i love i love the beaver um and they have a lot of like tchotchkes and merch and you know food the food is all right i don't know i don't know if i would particularly say it's good um in fact i had it more recently um when i went to georgia last year for family wedding and i did not like the food i I regretted getting the brisket sandwich very much. I wish I did not get it. But anyway, I think when it was a Texas thing or like it was more of a niche market thing, it was like, you know, unique and cool.

49:32Kevin:And it was like, whoa, this is insane. Like, this is the biggest like gas station rest area I've ever been to. Sure. You know, it was novel. It was unique. But as time goes on and they expand and they get more corporate and they start suing everybody. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like, all right. I'm not as big of a Buc-ee's guy anymore.

49:54Kevin:It's just lost its luster and doesn't seem like it's that cool anymore. And especially since they're expanding, I don't think they should be expanding to Ohio. That's my take. And that's where a lot of the story is going down in Ohio. They're opening one in - Your home territory. Your home turf. So I think they're opening one somewhere north of Cincinnati. They're going after people. So that's the big story is that they are being very litigious and they are suing the shit out of any mini mart that is using a beaver in their logo, which I think. They're suing Beavers Mini Mart. Okay. So Beavers Mini Mart is in the city of Beaver Creek in Ohio.

50:38Got it.

50:38Kevin:So it makes sense. So they're expanding and they're clearing out the beavers from their path. Yes. They don't want any other beaver brands. Yikes. Yeah. So, I mean, listen, I get that why they want to do that. But I feel like at this point, Bucky's is a big enough brand, right, where they they shouldn't be worried about these other beavers. And unfortunately, they got in the crosshairs of John Oliver, which I have not seen this sort of segment, but I do want to watch it. But so I think he's he's talking about the sort of yeah, this whole sort of situation with the legal matters where they're sort of fighting over the beaver.

51:14and in my head I was like leave it to beaver and I looked at the brand new thing and armin yeah quick he's it's just like again the man does not miss and uh yeah so leave it to be still got it still got it yeah 100 i want to watch the uh the john oliver thing and yeah i think trademark bullying is is is a dangerous game because obviously you're trying to prevent you're trying to sort of own the the market, but then sometimes it kind of looks nasty and it looks like you're sort of trying to stomp out your competitors, especially if you're the bigger brand. Like when Taco Bell did this, remember they were trying to like - Taco Tuesday.

51:53Trying to own Taco Tuesday. And I thought it was a bad look trying to like sort of sue every sort of local Mexican place or trying to like get litigious and so that they could use Taco Tuesday. I don't know. It's just a bad look.

52:05Kevin:It's just lame ass narc behavior. Nobody wants it. And like, to be honest, I've got a Bucky's shirt. And it makes me not want to wear it. I don't want to rock this brand who's going around suing everybody. It's fucking lame. That is the problem is like when you have cult status like Bucky's does, you just kind of got to just don't rock the boat. Dude, nobody's getting confused. Nobody's getting the Beaver Mini Mart confused with Bucky's. Just relax. Take it easy. Yeah. That's the main lesson today from the podcast. Chill the buck out, dude. Fill the buck out. It's just, it's not that serious, but also the negative implications and potential sort of blowback to the brand could be real because they think it had a cult-like following.

52:51Like you said, you go to the mini mart and you want to get a Bucky's hat or you want to get a Bucky's sweatshirt. And who's repping mini marts at the end? So you had something. Your job is to just not buck it up and you can't.

53:05Kevin:For real, I'm retiring the t-shirt. I'm not going to wear it. Pour one out. Pour one out for Kevin's Bucky's sweatshirt. So that's what happened. Congratulations. You played yourself. Yeah. Donkey of the day. You're no longer in my t-shirt rotation. You hate to see it. But it is cool. There's a response from local businesses in the Southwest Ohio region. There's like 20 businesses that came out and threw beavers in their logos. And what a time to be alive with AI. It's easy as hell to just throw a beaver in your logo. Sorry for those designers or illustrators who maybe missed out on an opportunity for paid work.

53:43Kevin:That sucks. But it is cool to see solidarity and standing with this small Beaver Mini Mart. Shout out to Ohio. Honestly, they need to start selling t-shirts. Oh, the other Beaver Marts. Yeah, the Beaver Mini Mart. Start selling those t-shirts and let's get you a bag. Support the small guys. Fuck Buc-ee's. That sucks. Whoa. Kevin said, fuck, Bucky. Support the small guys. Yeah. Shout out. Before we go, I want to shout out another Ohio man, Mullet Review on TikTok. Did he get sick yet? No, he hasn't gotten sick. So this guy has just captivated me and a lot of America. He is an Ohio UPS guy, I believe, who is eating at Chinese buffets all over the Midwest until he gets food poisoning.

54:33and he goes by Mullet Review on TikTok and I believe on Instagram and this is a hot blonde as he describes himself and this man is my new hero. Yeah. Just so, I love this content. God bless him. God bless this guy.

54:50Kevin:I would love to have him on the show. He is a national treasure. Yeah. Turns out the buffets are a lot cleaner than you would think. They got it locked down. I have to admit something, Kevin. I got crab rangoon the other night. I had to. I just have watched 60 videos of this guy. And the main hook of these videos is that he gets crab rangoon in every establishment. And he's goon. And I could only watch so many videos without saying, I need crab rangoon in my life. And you know what? Delicious. Yeah. Once a year, you got to do it. I love to goon. I love to goon. I got general toes. I got the goons.

55:26And to be honest, I was a happy man. Nice. Very good. Good. Fully influenced by Millet Review. Go check that guy out if you are not familiar.

55:34Kevin:Yeah, he's a gem. An Ohio man doing great things. Absolutely. That is the show this week. Kevin, thank you. All righty. Good to be back. And we have more awesome interviews coming. Oh, yeah. We got a lot of awesome shit in the bank. Yeah. Shout out to all the new listeners. Shout out to the people that have been enjoying our interviews with Design Luminaries. More to go.