EVERYTHING IS BACK

25:21There's slight overlap. I mean, a lot of people are like marketing people or like they have their own agency. Some of them are like pretty seemingly not very good agencies. I don't want to put them on blast, but maybe I'll put a little doc together. and we can weed through some of them. If they're real guests, but they're fake emails. Well, it's just like booking agents trying to, you know, like people with shit coming out or whatever it is. Like they want to get, you know, a little publicity going. Trying to use our platform. Trying to use our platform, which I think is, you know, valid. Fine, fine.

26:00We like to find our guests the old-fashioned way, which is through Instagram DMs. I called one of them out. I said, this is a great AI email. And they copped it. They said, yeah, admittedly, I did write this email on AI. Wow. Get that weak shit out of here. Slat away. Hit him with the Mutombo finger. Yeah, but it's always the same thing. It's always like, hello, Alex and Kevin. Upon listening to your last episode, we really liked when you talked about insert topical thing. we just talked about. Yeah. You know. Yes. We have lots of opinions on sweet green french fries. Yeah. And then it's like my client, you know, insert name, is an expert in this and for this reason they'd be make a great addition to the show.

26:52Come on. Wow. If you really want to be on the show, you know, get my attention with some crazy email. Wow. Yeah. You know, prove that you can mix it up with us and maybe we'll see what we can do. Damn, the fucking gauntlet has been thrown down, Kevin, is saying, send us your craziest email and maybe then we'll put you on the podcast. But yeah, something tells me we are, these AI bots are pitching people that maybe they don't know about our show or they're not really. Well, they do know about the show. No, the AI bots. They've inserted one nugget. Yeah, but that's, yeah, it's very easy to go onto the fucking chat GPT and be like, hey, what are the top design and branding and marketing podcasts?

27:34And then obviously Front Center shows up because it's number one in the world. And so they're like, oh, yeah, send an email. Do they have an email box? And they probably scrape all the episodes they know that you say. It's like Kevin at center.design. And then all of a sudden it's, you know. The podcast is hosted through my email. So I'm the guy who gets them. It's amazing that all these spam guests but not a single sponsor come through these fucking podcasts. Maybe we got to. Yeah. How about this? If you want to be on the show, sponsor the show. And then that's your number one fast track ticket to being on the show.

28:07We will shill for your product, but you have to pay us or at least give us something to promote. Yeah. I feel like that's a regular thing to do is like you can come on our show, but give me money. Give me a hundred bucks. Exactly. Venmo me a hundred bucks. That's right. Or do something impressive. Then we'll actually be excited to talk about it with you. Yeah. Speaking of, did you see the sweet green French fries? I did. Yeah. Kind of fire. I would. I would. I feel like I've known about these for like three years. You know, they've been teasing them. Is that true? Or I feel like Andrea posted about these like so long ago.

28:41She was, she's, you know, deep, deep, deep in the inside. Well, they've really been bullied on, on the internet to get away from seed oils. Shout out to all the bullies out there doing the Lord's work. The seed oil bullies are like some of the strongest bullies in the game. I saw one got like a cease and desist from Carbone. Cause they kept posting, Carbone Spicy Rigatoni Did you see they pulled up a truck outside of Carbone and they had like a big billboard that was like seed oils in the Rigatoni it's like nobody gives a fuck about your fucking billboard outside here's my argument is if I'm paying top dollar at Carbone like they should be using fucking olive oil in there you know I don't need some cheap ass you know less than type shit that's a cause I think is willing to fight for pull up a sort of trailer outside and put up a billboard.

29:33But like seed oil people leave Carbone alone. Like, you know, haven't they gone through enough? No, I mean, you're paying top dollar for high quality Italian. The least they could do is use proper ingredients. Have I been on the record to say Carbone is incredibly overrated? I think everyone knows that. I feel like that's common knowledge at this point that it's not bad, right? You know, a giant piece of, you know, veal parm for like$300, you know, it's going to be a good time. But it's not like it's it's not must see TV. Yeah, it's fine. Well, keep up the keep up the good work. Yeah, really. Pummel those brands into the ground.

30:09And I do think these sweet green fries look cool. And I'll tell you the number one reason why they put them in the McDonald's tray. That was the smartest thing they did. So that's why it's actually a worthwhile topic here. It's because the fries. Sure. They're just look like potatoes in the crisp. and they could have just put those, you know, fries, whatever into the menu and made it, made something about them, but they took the McDonald's tray and made it green. They put sweet green on the front and that's my friends is how you do marketing. Yeah. I mean, it is good to see like, um, big, I guess this isn't, I don't know if I'd consider this.

30:46This is fast food. It's good to see, um, big food brands, you know, kind of prioritize, like health and wellness and, you know, go away from like a deep fried thing and, you know, move towards, you know, air fried French fries. So shout out to them. I would try this. I will say you put these fries next to McDonald's fries. It's going to be a tough competition. Put the fries in the bag. Yeah, just put the fries. But I do like the ad that said their fries are fries. I mean, it's a tough, it's a tough competition. Obviously you can, you know, clearly win on ingredients. I think less ingredients, sure, better, but I don't know.

31:25I'm willing to try them once. I think that's something that I'm willing to give sweet green. I think it would be great. As a guy that eats legitimately one to two sweet green salads a month, maybe a week, in my high point in some - Those numbers not going up now that we got it in the neighborhood? Yeah, my numbers have always been kind of consistent. I think it's the meal plan, but I'm a Sweetgreen loyalist. You know, I got the card-carrying membership. And I've been, you know, on the record saying Sweetgreen is the best. But, yeah, I think this is why, though. It's because they, to your point, Kevin, are fast food.

32:01But they treat their brand with a healthy amount of respect. And they do good packaging. And this is good advertising. And they've done some good ads, I feel like, you know, with Devin Booker. And they've done some cool. in my home. Good partnerships. Partnerships. Like, from day one, I've always said, they're mixing it up. Sweetgreen gets it right. Yeah. And I think they've done a lot of good over the years. And the salads, pound for pound, are, you know, they hit every time. Yeah, they're pretty good. One thing that does make me a little sad, Kevin, is that when I make my sweetgreen salad online, and I throw all the shit in it I like, and it's like 1 ,400 calories, I'm like, damn it.

32:38Yeah. Well, what are you going to do? Healthy halos. um kevin um uh the duolingo owl is dead no it's not what are you talking about uh hold on moment of silence wait it's not that it's not dead oh they killed it they killed it and brought it back pretty much immediately oh my god um with a lot of drama surrounding the brand yeah yeah they um they did the thing they they've done it they went full gary v yeah and you know what's funny is you wrote that you know you wrote that gary v did it first yeah i was like that can't be true and i mean i was i did some research and turns out yeah planters was the first brand to kill their mascot yeah covered it yeah and on the show i think that just speaks to you know how played out this is already that a brand kills their mascot and i just could not care or you know it's just not i don't find it very interesting listen it got attention right when he died and And I think it takes a lot of courage to kill your mascot.

33:38But I think from the beginning, I was like, this is a stunt. We've seen this before. And I didn't see all the sort of in memoriam stuff and the sort of plush dead toys that they did. I didn't see any of this stuff. All I thought in my head was, say what you will about Gary V. But he did do this thing first. He killed Mr. Peanut. And I will say, that was brave. That was very brave. It was during the Super Bowl of 2011. Who could forget? 2020, I think. I didn't know a year, so I just made it up. Yeah, and that was stunt marketing, and it was a great idea. Shout out to Gary Vee. You know, kill the mascot.

34:21But yeah, Duo Owl, they did it. And I guess what happened? They brought it back. They were like, oh, he's not dead. Basically, they were like, oh, if you do more language lessons and earn more XP, we'll bring him back yeah and i guess you know people stepped up and they did um i mean he's back allegedly downloads went up 25 after the the death announcement and prompting for people to do lessons to bring him back yeah allegedly i don't know where those numbers are coming from i found them on the internet i don't know if i trust them yeah no um yeah well it's giving mcrib kevin it is I will say, yeah.

34:58I will say, I actually would pass by a McDonald's somewhere, and it was like, McRib is back. I was like, I can't believe they keep getting away with this. This is fucking crazy. And then I had to tell Jackie, I was like, so here's the deal. They bring the McRib back, and then they get rid of it, and then they bring it back, and it's always going in and out. And she was like, I couldn't care less about this. The McRib is like, it's always back. No, I know. That's the thing. Which is cool, I guess. If I were to be one thing, I would always want to be back. That's true. You're right. That's the marketing strategy.

35:25Yeah, it's like, we're so back right now. Yeah, front and center back, baby. Yeah. That's it. Did the McRib bring back being back? Whoa, fuck, dude. Did it start being back? I don't know. Oh, my God. Did you see the McFood boys or whatever on TikTok? The Maryland food boys? The Maryland food boys. We haven't talked about it. The new stars of the internet. The new middle schoolers. The new middle school content. Yeah, podcasters coming for our job, Kevin. That's it, you know? Well, I think, you know, they've already surpassed us. I know they're fucking killing it out there. I will say I watched like five minutes of one of their episodes.

36:00And I just think it's so hilarious that like a bunch of kids talking about pizza. And they're like, what are your favorite toppings? He's like, I like pepperoni. He's like, I like cheese. And then he was like. So true. And he's like, the other kid was like, I like meat lovers. And he was like, I've never had it. And it's like, because the kid's 10. Yeah. You know, he's great. He's like, you know, he's that he's got his whole life to live and try all the toppings that come on pizza. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of rhetoric about, you know, oh, we should make podcasting equipment more expensive.

36:28That's true. Yeah. We should raise the bar to entry. No. I don't think so. I agree. The Maryland food boys are proof that we should get them younger. Yeah. We should be giving them microphones. We need to lower the bar. Lower the bar to entry because you never know what's going to, you know, what's going to be a lightning rod for culture and all that. All that good stuff. Yeah. Move over Costco, guys. Welcome Maryland food boys. This is, Kevin, I think this is one of your strongest. takes. We need to put podcast equipment in all elementary schools. Yeah. It should be sent to everybody. Yeah. Yeah.

37:00Everybody should get them, get them young. Yeah. I didn't say bring it to elementary school. No, no, no. That's what you said, Kevin. That's what you said. Potentially like a step too far. Why? We got to get these middle school takes out there. That's true. Yeah. Let these kids try their first meat lovers pizza and be like, oh man, I tried meat lovers pizza over the weekend. But I did really appreciate how the Talking to Accompaniment podcast started doing Maryland Food Boys content because those guys... Talking to us. What happened? Haley's gone. She was tired. She was tired. She exited the...

37:35The crypto game and then the content game. She exited the opinion. Wow. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like she didn't really do that much wrong. I think she should get back in there because I want to hear Talking Talk to a review talk to a podcast again. Exactly. Yeah. Those guys are the real stars of the show. But it does make me kind of sad that Haley, you know, she had this like big moment and then she was actually going to turn it into a real career and then man did that fucking fizzle up. Well, I guess the crypto people I guess they were mad about losing the talk to a coin or hawk to a coin.

38:08Whatever it is. Yeah. Well, this is all big news, Kevin. And this is why the podcast like, you know, these stories are going on and, you know, in the world and we just, you know, we weren't able to talk about that. You know, I think Haley Welch really needs a brand. Free Haley. I think she needs a long-customer package goods. CPG brand, yeah. Yeah, maybe this is Expo West this week, which is where all the, you know, sort of CPG people go to. Wait, weren't we supposed to go this year? We've said this every year. We're going to go next year. So, Kevin, put it on the record. Yeah, we're going to go next year.

38:34We're going next year. But, yeah, I think Haley, what kind of product does she need? Hmm. Yeah. Lip gloss? Yeah, lip gloss. Yeah, all right. Speaking of new products, Kevin, Skims and Nike is the big real story of the past month. Nike, athletic brand out of Portland, Oregon, is partnering with none other than Kimberly Kardashian out of Calabasas. And it's a big deal because it's not just like a collaboration. They're giving her her own like subline. She's Jordan-esque. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty, pretty crazy. and I think it's fucking insane that we are now living in a world where Nike needs skims seemingly more than skims needs Nike.

39:23That's what I read from those. Yeah. What? That's fucking insane, dude. Like the fact that like On Running and Aloe and Lululemon and all that kind of stuff is like really taking a bite out of Nike's business and that the, you know, they put up the bat signal and the bat signal is Kim Kardashian. Wow. This is a crazy turn of events. I did not see this coming. What a time to be alive. What a time to be alive. But, you know, sports science and athlete insights, you know, they can only take you so far. So we got to get Kim and we got to get the whole brand into Nike Skims. Yeah. I mean, I'm excited to see what happens here.

40:04I think Skims makes good stuff from what I've heard. I don't personally own any or wear any, but people seem to like it and people seem to like Nike. So, you know, what a combination. I got a quote. Quote, we're energized by the opportunity to build a new brand and shake things up for the next generation of athletes with Nike skims, said Heidi O 'Neill, president of consumer product and brand Nike. This partnership brings together the best of both brands and unlocks an incredible opportunity to disrupt the industry with our shared passion and commitment to innovation. We will invite even more athletes into sport and movement with a product that makes them feel strong and sexy.

40:40Wow. That says a whole lot of nothing. Yeah. I love her ID picture. The badge. Yeah. Kim Kardashian's Nike badge. That's awesome. That is a trend. I saw some people posting online about how the old badge launch announcement thing is something to look out for. But yeah, this has got a lot of people's attention. And I think Skims has been killing it. We've talked about this for years now on this show. We've said Skims is a legitimate brand that is doing incredible work, that is doing great marketing, that is creating a great product. We always shout out our boy Jens Greedy, who is absolutely killing it.

41:22And I think this could be cool. I just think that two things. One, I don't love the name, Nike Skims. It just doesn't feel... It just feels like we just smashed the two brands together. You got any other... I don't have any other ones, but I feel like it just is... It just feels a bit like we could do better. Classic feedback, director feedback. That's great. I feel like we could push this a bit further. And then my other note is we need a Kim K Jumpman logo. We need something that's... We can't just put Skims and Nike together. We need to create an iconic badge. So call us. Call us. We will, you know, we got this.

42:04But, yeah, we'll see what happens from this. And, yeah, I think it will. Will this be the savior that Nike needs? Like all this like talk online. Well, I don't know if Nike needs a quote unquote savior. I don't know, Kevin. Their sales are down. They're a pretty massive company. And, you know, LeBron James ain't going to play basketball at this level for too much longer. Yeah, they'll be all right. Just kidding. He's playing at an incredibly high MVP level and will continue to play this way until he turns 50. No, they'll be all right. I don't know. We'll see what happens here. Yeah, I'm intrigued.

42:32I'm into it. They've done some cool sports stuff, right? Like they did the Shea, Gildress, Alexander sort of stuff, right? There were other people in that, but he was the – Yeah, the men's boxers. Oh, you know what else I watched on Netflix, Kevin? They did a documentary about the Olympic basketball sort of tournaments like with like – Oh, we beat the dream team? No, that's a different thing. This is more like USA basketball, LeBron, Steph, and Durant versus Canada with Shea, and then Paris with Wemby. And so they kind of made a show out of all these international teams, how the international game is expanding, all that kind of stuff.

43:09Damn, they got a show for everything. They do. They fucking do. And I don't know if you remember, but Steph went crazy in that last game. Yeah, he did. Where he got shot fucking a million miles away with two guys on him. Yeah, to bet he's an Under Armour athlete. I know. But if you enjoyed that moment in real time, wait to see the Netflix dramatization of it with the night night and the slow motion and everybody talking about it. And it was a beautiful moment. I got to relive it again. But yeah, I'm here for this and I'm excited to see what comes of it. You know, we'll see. We shall see. What else do you want to talk about, Kevin?

43:44Graza. Frizzle. I feel like this is a big thing. I feel like they've been they were teasing this for a little bit. They got sizzle. They got drizzle. And now they got frizzle. Naming? Pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah. No, they did a good job with this. Yeah. I think it was about that time that they released a high heat frying oil. Damn, Lizzo. Sure. As a chef yourself, Kevin, is this something that you're looking for? I know you like to turn up the heat real high. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. If my smoke detector is not going off, I'm not doing something right. Yeah. I mean, I think I would probably use this.

44:27Yeah. I feel like this is a product for you. I like that the thermometer guy is the illustration. He looks like he's sort of about to freak out because the temperature is going up so much. Shout out to our friends at Gander. Yeah, definitely. It looks great. They did an awesome job. I'm more of a beef tallow man. Oh, you're going tallow on him? Yeah, not to – I'm shutting down any inadvertent dog whistles there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just – I really fuck with the origins. I really fuck with the origins. That's what they all say. Yep, tallow. And then, you know, the woke left is – they're trying to ban our tallow.

45:06I've been putting it on my face. Really? Yeah, I bought a specific – Face tallow? Skin care brand, and it uses tallow. And I think it's very good. I've been very happy with the results. I will say... Dry skin no more. Some of my family member loves to cook, and during Christmas Hanukkah, she made latkes with tallow and those things. Fire. Fire, fire, fire. Talk about turning up the heat. It's a good oil. It's a good oil. We're here to talk about graza. Frizzle, frizzle. Frizzle's also a good oil. And also the spray. I think the spray looks nice. I kind of wish the top was green. I know that's such a nitpicky thing, but the top kind of just feels a little stock.

45:45and uh yeah i would i would guess that that was probably a difficult situation yeah as a guy that you know uh is i bet they tried in the biz i bet they tried to go green with that top i think it would look better but i bet they really tried i bet they tried and uh unfortunately they did not succeed because uh it's it's white perhaps not possible perhaps not i mean listen impossible takes a week right that's what jay-z said and uh but yeah i i'm here for this i can't when they were teasing it and they were like yellow yellow yellow i was kind of hoping it was going to be like a lemon flavored olive oil.

46:16I like a Meyer lemon olive oil. Why don't you just squeeze your own lemon? Dude, come on. You think I got that kind of time? That kind of time, Kevin? What do you think this is? But yeah, I'm here for it. I think Graza, one of the great brands of our time and good for them. They're really doubling down on cooking, which is really what the brand's for. It's not for people like me that just dip their bread. Yeah, no, this illustration is really good. I'm a big fan. Big fan. It's a great system that, again, there are people that they built. What's next? What is next? Yeah. Where do you go from here?

46:50Hopefully some Izzle. Yeah, something Izzle. Kevin, we got two big launches that we got to talk about. Dove, Whole Body Dio, which comes to us from our good friends at Dove. It is a full body odor control and skincare for your neck and your back and everywhere else. And to sort of complete the play, they created a commercial where they used My Neck, My Back, but they changed all the lyrics so that they were much more acceptable. Oof. I kind of liked it. Like, I typically hate that kind of cheesy, like, take a 90s song and, like, reinvent it. But it works here. Like, it makes sense. I think they should have just maybe kept the original lyrics.

47:29What do you think? Yeah. I don't fuck with whole body deodorant. I hardly fuck with regular deodorant. but um no i i don't really i didn't really like the song i thought it was i thought it was a cruel bastardization of that song i wasn't very much i didn't really like it you didn't like it yeah that's that's my business i'll stand on kevin i will say leave it alone i didn't know what a whole body dio was until i put together that dio is for deodorant yeah and uh that made me feel 100 years old but uh that's something is that something that uh i should have known is that something that's been around for a while?

48:06I guess. Who knows? People like to shorten words. Wow. They do. They do. They absolutely do. What else we got here, Kevin? We got a lot of stuff. What about Dove Crumble? Oh, is that - If you want to smell like a cookie. Oh. Dove Crumble. Is that - Exclusively at Walmart. I have a question. Did we talk about this already? Dude, I think they have a running contract where they do at least one collab per year, and it's always around this time. With Dove or with Crumble? Dove Crumble. I think this is about the third year in a row. What? And we're just catching on to this now? No. I think we've covered it, or at least it's been in the docs.

48:44Wow. Have I talked about how I'm convinced that Crumble is AI and isn't a real company? Have I put the stake on the record? I had some Crumble cookies recently. Oh, you've had them. They're real. They're real. Pretty good. I like when our boy Ben Johnson, is that his name? The guy that doesn't want to die? That's not his name. Brian. Brian Johnson. He did this thing. I thought I didn't follow him but his content is following me around the internet and he takes apart a crumble or someone gives him crumble and he's like this is death do you want death I'll kill you he's like there's no reason why anything should have this much sugar and he's just like yelling at the camera about the sugar I mean he's onto something they were fucked up good like they were very delicious and they tasted amazing but fucked up yeah there's something like 5 ,000 calories and like 100 million grams of sugar in each cookie.

49:35I don't eat that. I don't know. That doesn't speak to me. I'm not a big cookie guy like that. But do you want to smell like a crumble cookie? No, I don't want that either. But I was thinking of the other partnership, which was like a deodorant with, was that with crumble too? Or that was with like Girl Scout cookies? Oh my gosh. Can I do a quick little 60 on Girl Scout cookies? Sure. Got a couple boxes in my crib. Yeah. Are you fucking them up? Yeah, fucking those things up. Tagalongs still go They don't call them Samoas anymore But they got a new name Those things still go There's some new ones Yeah, they got some new Girl Scout cookies You know, the Girl Scouts are in the lab They're in the flavor lab?

50:14Yeah, they're mixing up, making some new things There's, yeah Like those cookies, they're just Listen, say what you will About the Girl Scouts What is there to say? You know, listen, it's a Ponzi scheme for cookies Yeah, that's fair enough. Jard labor. You know, Tagalong is one of the great cookies. Caramel Delights, I think is what they call them. Those are really, really good. Thin Mints, I'm not a mint guy. I know you're not a mint guy, but they have this new thing called like Adventureful. Some new stuff, some caramel inside of a chocolate cookie type thing. Did you buy these from a child?

50:51A child? I believe my wife did, yes, from an actual child. Cool. Yeah, a cousin, I would assume. Oh, that's good. Yeah, that was my follow-up. It was like family friend. Yeah, yeah. Supporting the Girl Scouts. Yeah, yeah. That's good. That's wholesome stuff. That's what I'm saying. And I just happen to eat them all every night for a very long time. Yeah, I'm happy I have not delved into there. I don't have any Girl Scouts in my life. That's good. Yeah. Kevin, before we get out of here, we've got to talk about Nathan's, one of my favorite brands on planet earth is uh is trying to bottle up the iconic uh the water of new york city with new york's famous tap water in a can uh i feel like i've seen this before i feel like some people have tried but i like that nathan's is doing this like is this direct from nathan's or is this like a partnership with some other water company no it's a direct direct from nathan's they are bottling new york city tap water or canning new york city tap water i gotta say i've been on the Nathan's beat because it's one of my favorite brands.

51:54And I've often said that like their design isn't that great. And it felt like, you know, of all the fast food establishments that have gotten better design over the years, I feel like Nathan's was on that sort of Mount Rushmore projects. I like it. I like how their design's not that good. No, their design has actually gotten a little bit better. And I'm actually on their website right now. And if you go on their socials and their packaging, I don't know who's working with Nathan's, but they're doing a good job. They haven't really touched the main logo, good don't i think yeah i agree with you i don't know that we should be um yeah leave that alone but when i go to like mech games they have like the nathan's n on some packaging like they're using that alone so i don't know i don't know who's doing it or who's out there but um shout out to them yeah uh if you want this you gotta what do you gotta do it's some sort of like contest um there's only you gotta win it um you can enter those interests you can enter to win a limited edition four packs starting today, which I don't know when that is, at 2.20 through tomorrow at 2.19 Eastern Standard Time.

52:58If you win, you'll even get a free coupon, a coupon for a pack of free Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs to complete the mail. Yeah, I don't know. It's all in the water, dude. Yeah. Everyone always talks about New York City water, yada, yada, yada. It's why the pizza's good. It's why the bagel's good. Got little shrimps in it. Yeah. No, it is good. I actually - Good water. When I came back from Mexico, the first thing I did was just hit the tap and I was like, you know, we're back, baby. Yeah, you drinking the tap water there? No, drinking the tap water here. And you drinking the tap water in Mexico? You can't.

53:28You cannot. But yeah, no, New York City tap water. Again, I feel like this has been done before. And like, I mean, the packaging isn't bad. I'll say it. But it's something about it that I don't know. It just doesn't feel like it's green and blue. And it's interesting. I don't know that it's going to move the needle. I just don't know that it's going to break through and get people talking. I haven't seen this story until you put it here in the stock. Yeah. It hasn't reached my desk. This isn't a very massive idea. I don't know if it'll move the needle generally, even if it had an awesome package design.

54:10Yeah. You don't think they're trying to make this a big deal? You think this is more just like a small batch run? Yeah, definitely. A little press release, food and wine article, call it a day? Yeah, 100%. They're not trying to go for liquid deaths crown here? No. I mean, yeah. I mean, Nathan's could do it if they did it right, I think. But you're probably right. They're not trying to get into the canned water business. Yeah. But, yeah. The water here is the best. It's the greatest city in the world. It's good water. Of course, we got the best water. Solid water. You know? And that's just a fact of the matter.

54:40I've had better water, though. Yeah, me too. But it's home, Kevin. Before we get out of here, we talked about AI for a bit. Open AI rebrand. This was kind of premiered at the Super Bowl, so we kind of maybe talked about it. But Studio Dunbar just did a really great job with this. Really cool motion and really cool sound design. Oh, yeah. They know how to make things move. They do. They make it move. They make it move really well. And, yeah, as someone that uses a lot of ChatGPT, yeah, the little dot, you know, kind of the way that information comes out. It's all feels like rooted from the applications and the programs, which is what we love to see.

55:20I'm kind of more of a Gemini guy. Ooh, really? Put me on. What's up with Gemini? It's just Google. Oh, Google. And they provide sources. Yeah, it's interesting that all apps now have AI. like obviously like in your mail, in your texts, you know, Apple intelligence and chat GPT. And it's, it's, yeah, we, we were promised the AI revolution. I feel like we are in it and yeah, information is it, you know, I will say on this podcast, I was like, you know, my brain wasn't working for a second. And I was like, what are the skims Nike competitors, blah, blah, blah. And I, you know, and I just, I wanted to know more about skims Nike and that.

55:59and it was just like, just gave me all the information. Yeah, it's good to use it as like a smart search engine. Yeah, that's essentially what it has become. And then also my therapist, Kevin. Wow. You know, when I'm having a bad day. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, I put it online and I will say not to pat myself on the back, but I did get a couple other people that were using my prompt of like, I'm having a tough day. Can you make me feel better about being blank? And, you know, that's pretty cool. You should have asked me, Alex. I would have said, why don't you go outside, get some sun, stand on the grass for a little bit.

56:33You don't need AI. You just need to touch some grass. I don't know. Did you see their response to me, Kevin? That felt really damn good. They were just like, you're the man, dude. You're fucking killing it. You're running the marathon. You got this great agency. It was like, yeah, thank you. That was what I wanted to hear. That's sweet. I don't want to hear like, get over it. Go outside, touch some grass. I know that, Kevin. But yeah, Kevin, that's the program. The one thing I did like about this rebrand, call toll-free 1-800-CHAT-GPT. It's a text hotline that you can text and ask your questions, which is fun and smart and whatever.

57:08How many times have we pitched a hotline to brands? A million times. About a hundred times. Every brand that comes through here. You ever thought about a hotline? What if there was a phone number that you could call and you could ask questions? Yeah. There's a voicemail. That's a very sort of advertising-y idea. Yeah, definitely. We need a hotline. It's good to see it get through. I want to celebrate one advertising idea, actually, that I really liked before we get out of here. After the Oscars, McDonald's did this thing where they had all these sort of like day after Hollywood celebrity sort of receipts.

57:41And I thought that was pretty smart. Yeah. I liked Julia Fox's. What was hers? It was like hotcakes with like 10 syrups and extra whipped cream. That's fucking fire. Yeah. Very cool. I love Julia Fox. I will say it actually made me want to eat McDonald's. It genuinely did. Which is very rare. I have very good memories about eating their hotcakes. Really? They're very nostalgic for me. I love McDonald's hotcakes. Really? Yeah. I am a McGriddle guy. I'll say it. I haven't had one in a long time. But if I want to eat 4 ,000 calories and feel truly terrible for a long time. I fuck with McDonald's breakfast pretty heavy.

58:22Yeah. No, breakfast comes first. It was like big, bold type, very simple graphic receipt system. That's good advertising. That's good stuff. Maybe advertising's back, Kevin. Maybe we've been shitting on this for so long. Everything's back. Everything's back, Kevin. That's the name of the episode. That's the episode. Beautiful. Everything's back. We're back. Thank you guys for being patient with us as we go on our nine-day skiing vacations. But yeah, we'll figure out what the new schedule of the pod is going to be. But we love you and we thank you for listening. And we'll see you next week. Nor, we'll see you.

59:00Yeah, we'll see you soon. Don't want to promise anything. We'll see you soon. We got more episodes coming. All right, peace.

59:32Peace. like this