DO YOU LIKE FITNESS?

25:57The campaign is called Eat What Loves You Back. Sure. And I'm just going to say this. All of this looks cool. This guy looks very, you know, he looks cool in his green sweater and his sweet green hat. The Sweetgreen hat's pretty good. I mean, listen, Sweetgreen's a great brand. It looks like one of those Ebbets Fields hats. Did you know that brand? Yeah, I do. Of course. And I'm just going to say this. It looks like they've created a menu that's designed to love you back that is essentially a Sweetgreen menu of just random salads that look like there are things that you typically can get at Sweetgreen.

26:32Whoa. So you're telling me that this is just a campaign? They're not changing anything? It's just they're just saying things and making things look different? They have five bowls, the Omega Bowl, the Nutrient Power Plate, the Spicy Reset Bowl, the Iron Boost Bowl, and the Steady Energy Bowl. And I'm just going to say something. I'm looking at these ingredients. You've got salmon, avocado, carrots, chickpeas, spinach, chopped romaine. I may be too in the know here, but I believe these are all things that were already on the menu. Yeah, but they haven't been combined like this before, Alex. It's all about the combinations.

27:08Yeah, yeah. It's like a puzzle. You know, just figuring out what your body loves. Your body's a puzzle, and you've got to find the right pieces to build it up with. It's funny that you say that because Dr. Mark Hyman actually has a quote here. He said, food is a powerful signal we send to our bodies. It's information. Every ingredient on this menu is thoughtfully selected based on nutrient principles and decades of medical insight with a deep respect for real ingredients. The result is food people genuinely crave but also supports how the body functions. So you're telling me you spent decades of insight to pick 12 ingredients?

27:39It's all about the pairings, though. That go into these salads that you can already go into a sweet green and get? You weren't designing your own spicy reset bowl? I was. I was, actually. You weren't omega-maxing? The nutrient power plate is very similar to the salad that I typically get, although the difference is blackened chicken is now called antibiotic-free blackened chicken. So spicy broccoli, chickpeas, onions, almonds, white rice. I mean, literally, this is just what I typically get. I guess, you know what? I have noticed here, not a lot of dressings. So is the secret to health not plain dressings?

28:16You eat a lot of calories with the dressings. I know. And a lot of maybe not so good things. This one only has olive oil and lemon squeeze. That's good. This other one has olive oil, hot sauce, and lemon squeeze. So yeah, their only dressing is lime, cilantro, jalapeno sauce. Oh, this last one has Green Goddess Ranch. Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. I don't know. I'm all for fast food restaurants trying to be better. Yeah. So I salute them in their endeavor of making food that loves you back. It's fair. And I think this is probably the first time that any type of fast food establishment has a doctor or chief medical officer of a food and wellness startup as a partnership.

28:57Do you think he's a medical doctor? No, but he's a doctor of the body, Kevin, and what we put into it. Kevin, I don't know if you heard about this is food people genuinely will crave and support how the body functions. I mean, I'm open to it. I think these sound like nice combos. Kevin, what? I'm genuinely, I would eat some of these. Wow. I would eat all these, actually. Bold, hot take. Yeah, hot take. They sound good. Yeah. Kevin, what does eat what loves you back mean? What do you think that means? It's the food that makes you feel good. Okay. I mean, listen, I'm not against this, but I'm reading between the lines here.

29:34And not just feel good in the moment, but feel good after you eat it. I think on this program - It's going to fuel your body. We do have to fuel the body. The body needs fuel. Food is fuel. We have on this program in the past talked about how fast food establishments create the Cardi B meal, the BTS meal, and essentially those are just the same five things they had in the back. Yeah. We made with a sort of different name on that. It's giving a little bit of that for me. Sure. The Mark Hyman meal. Yeah, exactly. This is what it is. But it's the menu. He's got a full menu. He's got six or so bowls, you know.

30:10But listen, co-creating this menu with function and Dr. Hyman allowed them to bring together intention and enjoyment, making eating for your health feel intuitive, satisfying and something guests can return to again and again. I'm all for it. Yeah. Listen, I'm here for it too. I just, you know, I see what they're doing here. This is their New Year's, New You kind of thing. And it's smart, I guess, in a way. The knockoff sweet green by our office, Eden's, they got to get on this shit right now. They don't have any doctors over there. They're just like some person in the back of a bar making salads that taste and sort of have the same ingredients as sweet green.

30:49They need to start knocking these ones off. That's a sweet green. They need to step their game up, too. Yeah, not to out Eden's, but they are making some sweet green dupe salads. I'd out them. Oh, wow, Kevin. This is bold. This is bold green point beef. Hopefully they don't hear this on the show. But, you know, this is cool. And I think this is like, I just don't think it's that bold. Like, I kind of want sweet green to do something a little bit more bold. Speaking of bold, Equinox. Question everything but yourself campaign. This is a bold and wild idea. Equinox has become a sort of New Year, New You sort of like, I don't call them legends, but like they are definitely.

31:28They're always they have something pretty frequently for the new year. They kind of are owning the mental space, I guess, in that in that time of year. They want to get you locked into one of those memberships. And this is obviously the time to join gyms. I know the numbers. It's all the rage. It's all the rage. And I will say, like, it's nice to own a moment. I think all brands like Coca-Cola has their moment in Christmas and like being the brand. And it's just by doing the most bold and outrageous and most interesting stuff at this time. Like, I think it's cool that Equinox has sort of like planted that flag there.

32:04And so if you remember back in the maybe two or three years ago, they like shut down on New Year's Day or something like that. Right. They didn't welcome people that were trying to sign up for new memberships. And so that was very bold because that's like the biggest membership signup day of the year. And so they're not strangers to doing things that grab people's attention. Yeah, this is just another one of those. So it's a good campaign. So the idea is essentially question everything but yourself. And it's a series of at home and TV or video ads where there's a the only way to describe it is AI slop.

32:42There's just a lot of crazy AI type visuals, both video and still, that are made and clearly generated. And on one side, and then on the other side is a human being that looks like they went to the gym a ton and is also maybe a male model or just a model in general. And that person is yourself. So the left side says question everything. The right says but yourself. And they're assuming that I or the people that go to Equinox. That is me. Look or can relate to that person on the right side who is shredded and oiled up and incredibly hot. Yeah, but it's nothing like nothing crazy. No, I know. I mean, they are like attractive and fit, but like, yeah, it's attainable.

33:38I guess so. It's on the unattainable side of attainable, but you know. It's fair. And Equinox, they've always been an aspirational fitness brand. They can't show regular people. I want to look like that. I want to be oiled up. So I don't hate this idea. We're obviously in this moment where we're questioning everything. That is the truth. We don't know what is real and what's fake. And I like that they're playing with that idea. And I like that they are pushing the boundaries a bit. The commercial is quite crazy. someone like takes a bite of a rabbit in the beginning, right? It's pretty jarring.

34:14It's freaking crazy. I had no idea it was fake. Yeah. It can be described as AI slop, but it's definitely, yeah, it's provocative and it gets the people going. Definitely. And I like that Equinox, like I said, is a brand that's down to take some swings and try some weird shit. I think that's cool. I don't know that this is totally effective. Like, I don't know that this is like, you know, I'll question everything but myself. And then I'm like, oh, I got this or I don't know. It just feels like the difference, the sort of difference in some of these ads between the AI and the left and the sort of like real people on the right is kind of like those people kind of look fake a little bit to me or they look like they look like they could be AI generated as well.

34:56So I don't think that's the point. I think you're supposed to see that one is like the real, but maybe that's, I don't know. Maybe the point is that you're not sure what's real and what's not. The three images on the left that we're looking at is a woman with three breasts. Maybe real. Who knows? A man who looks like SpongeBob with the inflatable arms. That's true. And then Pope Francis in a dripped out long puffer coat. Yeah. How'd they bring the Pope into this? Well, it's AI, Alex. That side's AI. I see that. But also, how'd they get the Pope deal? He's dead, so I think it's fair use. You're allowed to just use people as soon as they die?

35:31That can't be real. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, they are using him. So they got maybe I'm not a I'm not a lawyer. Neither am I. I'm not a lawyer, but I'll speculate. That's good. That's the whole point of this podcast. I mean, it's it's cool. I will say this kind of reminds me of the call sheet ad that they did a couple of months ago that ran on TV. I hate that ad where like it was also a bunch of A.I. slop and then it was like the world's gone mad. Trade it. Yeah. Bet on everything. Bet on anything and everything. So I don't know. No, it definitely grabs your attention. And I like that AI has this like, we're in this moment, that we're using the tool to make a statement about the tool of which we make things.

36:15So something interesting and meta there. Yeah. Which I think both of these ads, I would say the Kalshi one in my mind, it's a little bit simpler of an idea. Just kind of like everything's crazy. You can bet on it. Yeah. This is more like question everything. It's kind of, it feels like they're trying to use AI or they're trying to do something that's, I think people are so up in arms when people use AI now that if you're trying to use it in, apparently if you use it in this way, which is like purposely going crazy. Yeah. It's okay. But if you're trying to use it in a way that feels like normal, then it's like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.

36:54Yeah. If you're trying to get one over on people, they don't like it. Yeah. But if you use it to create like outrageous and absurd images or videos. We were out of this trend, like when they were putting Stephen Hawking in the X games, you know, that was fire. That was crazy. Yeah. I mean, listen, it's interesting. It's like clearly where we're at as a culture, like we're using these tools, but then also we don't know what's real and what's fake. So that's not like that's part of this conversation that we're having. So let's just throw ourselves into the conversation as, you know, as marketers, that's always the best way to do things.

37:26is like just if people are talking about something, throw your name in the ring. And so shout out to Equinox. They're doing it. Also, David, David, did we talk about the bronze bar? We did. We did talk about the bronze bar, but we did not talk about the campaign. OK, so this is, again, part of our New Year, New You show, apparently, that we're doing here. It's a New Year, New You month. Oh, yeah, the whole month. I mean, but this episode is the season. It seems like every story is about health and wellness and products and things like that. Absolutely. Yeah, David Barr, They came out with the bronze bar.

37:57It's sort of a built Bear Bells competitor. Little less protein, probably much better taste. And yeah, I think we talked about this a little bit. They said it was sort of femme-coded. They said that publicly. So the sort of follow-up on the launch is a campaign with Julia Fox. And it says men disappoint, David satisfies, which, of course, gets the people going. Banger line. Bang, bang, or line alert. And then if that wasn't enough, they're now partnering with a sex toy company, I believe it's Mod, and sending out sex toys with David Barrs that say pick your pleasure. Wow. Have your cake and eat it too.

38:45And I'm just going to say on the record, it feels a little icky to me. I don't know. It just feels like... What are you, not sex positive, Alex? I don't know. It just feels like... That's so regressive. I guess you're right. stuck in the past old man i know and i'm supposed to i like when brands get horny but it just feels a little bro horny bro adjacent horniness and that just makes me yeah i mean i know it just makes me a little uncomfortable maybe it's i don't know me personally i probably wouldn't send a sex toy with uh a protein bar yeah you wouldn't do i would not yeah wow that's bold and but i'm not that bold david's bold like i guess david's bold kevin's not that bold that's right exactly so and Bold, you know, good on them.

39:24You know what? LinkedIn, numbies. I bet, yeah. Yeah, that's for sure. Do it for the LinkedIn. And I also just gave credit to Equinox for being brave and bold and doing weird things. And so I got to also give this that same love because it's provocative. Yeah, good for them. Honestly, fire. Gets the people going. Prime launches a protein shake. Thank God, finally. Finally. 32 grams of protein, 3 grams of sugar, 150 calories, lactose-free. Comes in three flavors, cookies and cream, chocolate, vanilla. And this feels like such a natural line extension. I'm almost surprised they didn't have this already.

40:01Yeah. Do you remember that story that came out in the middle or end of last year about all that protein powder having lead in it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. This has got to be like a fucking pencil's worth of lead in there. It's got to be insane the amount of lead in there. You don't believe that Logan Paul is doing a product and... Logan Paul and KSI. Oh, I forgot about KSI. Actually, yeah, you forgot about KSI. Don't forget about KSI. I always forget about KSI. Yeah, no, or that brand that put out protein powder, which is Cake Mix. Well, I mean, that's better than, I guess that's better than lead, maybe.

40:34Significantly better than lead. You'd bulk the hell up if you were drinking protein shakes with that every day. Yeah, this feels like it makes sense. I mean, like the fact that Jake Paul, Logan Paul didn't have a protein product that he was hawking while being a WWE superstar. It's like, what are we doing here? You know, this is long overdue. Yeah, natural line extension, that makes sense. But do we need this? Absolutely not. Oh, we certainly don't need this whatsoever. But I'm just saying, as far as like the Prime. Listen, this is the war on protein. This is it. This is what they were talking about.

41:07You know, remember when Prime was so hot that like people were like stealing it from stores or like kids were like lining up and schools had to ban it? Like, what? Remember that? Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. This is life post-War on Protein. That's right. Now we're free to have protein. That's right. Do you think that's why I love it, Paul? I'm free to drink my Prime protein drinks. Yeah. I guess, can I bring this to school? Like, is Prime off the banned list? You better be able to bring it to school. It's America, damn it. The War on Protein's over, Alex. You bring up a good point. I'm just going to say it.

41:41I think it's the cookies and cream that got me. I was like, I'll try this. You know, I'm not going to, but I would. it's the fact that they led with the cookies and cream right in the middle. And I'm just like 32 grams protein. I'm intrigued. Not enough to purchase, but it just makes so much sense. Like it makes me forget like prime was a sports drink, right? Like that's the original thing that, that started all of this. And then they were an energy drink. So sports energy protein. I mean, come on, this is too easy. This is a line extension energy for before sports drink during. protein drink after.

42:18This is what Gatorade tried to do with the G series. This is the promise of a before, during, and after drink. This is a P series. Yeah, this is it. This makes perfect sense. Prime has done it. Line extensions are coming out from everywhere. Beyond Meat has a protein drink this week. It's not Beyond Meat, Alex. It's just Beyond. Oh, they removed the meat? They removed the meat. Well, I guess they never had the meat. They removed the meat twice over. Wow. So this is a alternative meat brand that is launching a line extension for a protein drink. No, Alex, you're not hearing what I'm saying. They went beyond meat.

42:57Oh, wow. They doubled down. Now they're just a food company. It's basic strategy. Oh my God. This is a good idea. I mean, to be honest. I think Leland just talked about this last week. It's like, what did he say? Cultural markets. No, yeah, the value market fit where you find what you're good at and then you expand. Beyond expanded. They went beyond. Their cultural capital was going beyond and then here they are, boom, beyond again. Yeah, shout out Andrea again. She posted this and then to the side of it had the beyond stock price. Oh, God, yeah. Just looks like a damn rollercoaster hill going down.

43:37Was Beyond the company where the founder or one of the main executives punched a guy in the face in a parking lot? I think it was. I think it might have been. Yeah, that was a rough story. They should have kept him on. That's fire. They fired him. Yeah. Yeah. They lost the edge. Yeah. I believe that was a playoff game. I mean, listen, if you don't punch someone in the face in a parking lot in an Eagles game, come on. Yeah, they should have kept that guy on. He was hungry. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Beyond Meat is known for plant-based burgers and chicken-style products. but now they got another protein that you do not have to chew on.

44:10It's a drink. Protein drink. Two options. 10 grams. Is that it? 10 or 20. What do you mean 10 or 20? There's a 10 and there's a 20. Why would they have a 10 and there's a 20? It's protein light. I don't know. Okay. Some people just want 10 grams of protein. I don't know. Okay. So they're entering the drink scheme. It looks like Celsius is what it looks like. The design is it's all white can. It's got these giant fruits exploding out of water, which I always love. That's one of my favorite stock images is like an explosive hydrating. It's refreshing. That's right. It's wet. Yeah. If you pick up a can, you need to know that it's going to be refreshing.

44:52And so it's got this refreshing explosion on the front. This is insane product launch. But listen, I guess good for them. My hot take on this is if it was designed better, maybe people would be more into it. I think the Beyond. I mean, I think if it didn't say Beyond, I think people would be into it. Yeah, but if they had gone with a kind of cool, I don't know, like a techie kind of vibe, the Beyond brand needs a rebrand, right? Wasn't that like, did they do that recently? Yeah, I think they've done it. Yeah, I just think this packaging is really rough. It just looks really cheap and really dated and not.

45:28I will give them the flowers here. I mean, these numbers look pretty good. Like 10 or 20 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber. We all know fiber's up next. I mean, fiber is good. I'm a believer. It works. Okay. I'm going to leave it at that. It works. Wow. Antioxidants and electrolytes. I don't know. I mean, that's all good stuff. I'm not going to drink this because I'm going to get my nutrients and protein and fiber from other sources. Like the government wants me to. I'm going to be a good little boy and listen to the government. Yeah. I mean, if you pull up to the establishment or the function with a Beyond protein drink.

46:05What function are you pulling up to? The gym? I guess the gym. Is that what this is for? To each their own. If you want to drink Beyond, go off. Yeah, I guess so. Get that fiber. Seven grams of fiber. That's pretty good. I guess so. It's hard to do a line extension on a brand that's not hot in these streets. That's all I'm saying. And that's what I think they have working against them. But it's crazy enough that it definitely gets people's attention, right? Definitely. like an alternative meat brand doing a protein drink. I'm sure there's still a lot of Beyond Meat riders out there. You think so?

46:33Yeah. People, I mean. There was a moment, remember? They were like on the menus of Burger King. Yeah. And they were just like out there. People love riding that Beyond Meat. I feel like it calmed down though. Yeah. I feel like it's sort of, yeah, we're living in a post-alternative meat world. But I'm sure there's a lot of people out there. I think people probably still enjoy alternative meats. Well, you know, speaking of brands. A lot of alternative meat riders out there. And line extensions, Graza has launched Mayo. So this is the opposite situation, right? Where Beyond is a cold brand trying to do a line extension.

47:06Graza's flaming hot out here. This is what Leland was talking about. This is literally what Leland was talking about, which is you create something great that people love. And then you just build and build and build around it. Yeah, it turns out you have to have a great product. You have to have one great product. That's right. At first to get people to love. And then you line extend the fuck out of it. And that's what Graza's done. Kevin, in 2025, they launched what looks like 20 different products. Jeez Louise. Ice cream, hummus, wine, popcorn, chips. A lot of these brands or a lot of these products are made in collaboration with other brands.

47:39Which I think is the best case scenario. They're getting experts in the field. Yeah, but the Graza chips and popcorn, which I've never had either of those. I think those look like just straightaway Graza products. And then, of course, they have their full line of olive oils, which is what they're known for. So this is a big swing, though. This is hot off the press here. Graza launches mayo. And they're coming for that Mali Bas throne. I'm just going to say it. That's the truth here. Three flavors, fancy, original, and garlic. I think the design is good. I don't know if our friends at Gander are the ones behind this, but it does look like maybe they are.

48:16I'm just saying that. I kind of see potentially that they may have done this. Obviously, they built the original brand. I feel like we always do this. or like who did dang i wonder if gander did that and we could easily just like ask them yeah well that would require we could we could easily we could literally just slide into a dm hopefully you know note note note for us for uh future episodes and future just you know anything we'll just we'll we'll uh we'll be sure to uh dm one of you guys i think what you're talking about is producing uh we may be oh yeah true doing some research and saying hey i reached out to the It's a note for me.

48:51Note for me. It's a new year, Kevin. You know, start off. We can't be expected. I mean, imagine if I looked into this doc and it was like, I reached out to Gander to see if they had a comment on the Graza Mayo and if they had done it. That would be breaking ground here. Well, to my credit, I did just find out about this today. That's fair. Hours ago. Let's not pretend like if we had - Like two hours ago. Had this in the doc last week that we would have done it. I might have. I don't know. But here's the thing. Whether they did or not, it does look good. Colors are cool. I like that they kind of have this like yellow to green range.

49:25And the products are regular mayo, a fancy mayo, and then a garlic aioli. Sort of not totally sure why, you know, sort of some are in plastic or some are in glass. I know that this mayo is sort of meant to compete with like the Hallmans and Dukes and sort of of the worlds. And I think not totally sure if that's going to work, but I know that I'm sticking with my Miso Mayo Jardineo from AO because those things are quality products that I trust. And my personal favorite mayo brand. And that has nothing to do with Center's design and branding and packaging. It's just because I love the mayo. Yeah.

50:09I mean, honestly, I will probably try this. I like mayo. I like the idea of mayo made with extra virgin olive oil. I'd probably go for the fancy stew. I think that one's calling to me. Yeah, I mean, I think this is interesting. Obviously, Graza, this is a big move for them. I know that, of course, like I said, they've launched a bunch of other products. But this feels like a sort of major move going from olive oil sort of forward to olive oil-based mayos. I think it's a smart move. I think that brand is doing well, and I think people like it. And I think this is like – it's an extension that I think makes sense.

50:48And I think it will be interesting to see what it tastes like. I'd be curious to try the garlic one. And, yeah, we'll keep an eye on this and see if they have – I'm here for this. Lots of other products. Again, I'm an AO guy. I just want to put that on the record very, very clearly here. I would never – Non-biased AO guy over there. I would never. I'm not even going to try this. Okay. Out of principle. Just like I would never try Glenn Powell's mayonnaise. Never would. I'd never try that one. I'm just loyal. I'm just. I don't know. One thing I actually saw recently, I saw an ad for Smash Kitchen, right?

51:23Is that what it's called? They called it the Glenn Powell of condiments. And you know what? That's good copywriting. Yeah. You know? Sure. It's like, yeah, it's the Glenn Powell of condiments. That's the show, Kevin. anything else you want to say before we get out of here? I don't know. You don't want to talk about Honda? Oh, shit. Honda. We don't have to. It has nothing to do with New Year and New You, but Honda. Yeah, in unrelated news. They rebranded for 2027 a logo to be, which I like, and they are going with this fire new H mark. It's a mark that they've been flirting with for a couple years.

52:02Yeah, I feel like I saw this a while ago. We may have even talked about this. We covered it. And I think it's because at the time it was going to be used just for electric vehicles. And now this is going to be on everything. And I think that's the right call. I think this is a logo that actually used in the 60s. And I think in the sort of classic designers looking at logo sheets and being like, go back to that one. This is the right move. And they did it. And now they're going back to that sort of original age. They cleaned it up a little bit. It's much wider than the current Honda Mark. And it just looks fucking cool.

52:36and there's not enough car brands doing cool shit. Car brands don't do any cool shit. Yeah. We have like 12 brands of cool mayo and like no cool car brands. So the opportunity is there, and this is a good move. Yeah. Maybe they should design a car that doesn't look like a vacuum. Is that? Oh, the electric car. This electric car, the image of this electric car looks like a damn vacuum. It does. It looks like it's going to hoover up all the streets. I don't know. We need to do something about these car designs. Car designers, get it together. Step your shit up. I agree with that. I've been saying that for years.

53:11Maybe we need the National Design Studio to step in. Yeah, and just start designing some cool-ass cars. Yeah. Back when cars were cars. The Cybertruck, again, say what you will about Elon Musk, bad guy. That car looks different than all other cars. Why do we not have other cars? Yeah, it looks fucking stupid. It looks dumb, but it's different. We need more bold designs out there on the streets. I guess. I mean, I'd rather see more traditional designs on the street. Oh, old. Yeah, not old, but just make a car that looks like a fucking car. Just do something different. I will say this car, because it does look like a sort of Dyson, it would be cool if a car would clean the streets while it drove.

53:52That's a good idea. It could just kind of suck up the garbage. Yeah, street cleaners. But like we should chip in. I personally don't want my car to be sucking up garbage. I have to clean that out. No, you need some sort of way, some sort of next generation sort of electric thing that will decompose or compose whatever the garbage. It could run on garbage, maybe. Has anyone thought of that? We're in fucking minute 45 of this podcast and we got big ideas. This is how you know we're firing on all cylinders. Definitely. and uh thank you again uh to all the new listeners you like fitness Alex Kevin you're not getting me with this you like fitness no you're not getting me like it's not gonna you don't you don't like fitness I love fitness see you guys tomorrow