STUFF WE MISSED

0:00Josh? We never talked about Josh. Yeah, Josh is kind of coming past. We should have talked about Josh like a month ago. Yeah, Josh was killing it out there. That's a brand's wet dream to have a Josh situation. Just organically just sets the world on fire. A brand marketer lives their entire life to gain that kind of internet traction and just puts so much effort into it. And then the fact that they just roll up and one tweet basically dunking on the brand for being, Have you had Josh? Have you ever had Josh? Me? Yeah. Are you a little too fancy for Josh? I don't drink wine, so I'm not too fancy for Josh.

0:38But I've never... I've had Josh. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Talk to me. The working man's wine. Okay. Not too fancy. It's some shit you'd rock up with. Okay. It was probably like 12 bucks a bottle. Maybe. So you're part of the Josh Assance? I mean, I'm not against Josh. I certainly would obviously love a better wine if I had the choice. But at the end of the night or towards the middle when I got a little buzz on, I'd let the Josh do the talking. But it's just so funny to me that there's people like me who could work on a brand for years and be like, this is my fucking brand Super Bowl. This is the type of traction I need.

1:22And it's just like one tweet. Josh is on. It's great. Honestly, the Joshessance gave me faith in humanity again and branding. Wow. Well, because you're right. Some of it is money and team and ideas and creative and logos and everything that goes into making something successful. And sometimes it's just irony. It's just, look at this bottle of wine that has Josh on it. And that's all it takes. And you can't script that. You can't manufacture that. You can't write that. It just happens to you. And I can see why, Kevin, someone like yourself that often wants to buck society and all of its – for all reasons.

2:19the the the thing that gives you hope in these trying times josh

2:29three two one kevin what's up that was a bad clap you know what i went to go kind of bring it and then my back yeah you got a little bit of spasm in there you blew it out uh i haven't been able to walk for for weeks so because you got your back blown out i got my back blown out and It fucking hurts, man. That sucks. Anyone who's ever had bulging discs or fucking back spasms or just lower back pain, it is not fucking fun. So send in your fucking recos. Send in your ideas. Please help me. Start doing some yoga. Yeah. I got to figure it out. Get that core tight. Yeah. Because I started working out too much.

3:07That's what happened. This is what happens when you actually start going to the gym. You start fucking making changes in your life. You get hurt. At least that's what happens to me. Start doing yoga. Yoga is the way. Yeah, I need core. I need to work on the core. Stabilize that shit. That's why we didn't do the podcast is because of my back. It's been so bad. Should we figure out with that? No, I'm kidding. That's not why. You already said it last week. I did say last week. Which was last night. That's true. Now we're stacking things. Kevin, you're giving away the sauce, how we make these things.

3:37That's fine. I'm not going to hide the fact that I'm on vacation. Yeah, so Kevin and I are both taking vacations. uh kevin's going uh denver colorado or just colorado he's going to the mountains he's on the mountains and he's going on a 10-day ski trip with the boys yeah with the boys it's sick and i'm just going to uh to the caribbean with the wifey nice exciting for both of us going very different locations today in brooklyn it is snowing like fucking hell yeah it's kind of nice though so it is nice but you know what again we've taken we took a couple weeks off earlier in this month uh kevin and i came into the studio in the snow uphill dedication both ways i walked a mile and a half man a mile and a half in the snow it was nice i liked it yeah it is kind of beautiful no one's out there it's kind of quiet as long as you get the right boots for it dude i got the gear there you go i got the gore-tex shoes i love it um i just realized that the super bowl when people listen to this is going to be like a week ago so yes it'll be it'll be fresh takes this these will These are lukewarm sitting out on the fucking countertakes.

4:42It's okay. I mean, it's fine. It's fine. We talked about the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day last year at the same juncture. And I think it was a bit too much. That's fair. So Super Bowl was just two nights ago. Kevin made better wings than any wings he's ever had in New York City. Damn right. Maybe except for like Dan and Johns. But I mean, they were top tier. In all seriousness, Kevin, when do we start monetizing? because I think whether it's recipes, whether it's a book, whether it's content, I'm ready to get into the Kevin cooking business. You have an investor. I think I am just a bit tentative because something about moving the hobby into like - Yeah, no, that makes sense.

5:24I don't know. Sometimes I'm like, I just kind of want to keep it a hobby. That's fair. I went to the Salvo's pop-up this weekend at Frog. Shout out Salvo. good sandwiches and they were working in this small tight wine bar doing good fucking crowded I'm sure they had a great weekend but that shit was hectic I don't know there's something to be said about just keeping the hobbies the hobbies and you're not trying to ruin it with work I hear you to be honest I haven't fully submerged myself in but I've sold my products before and I'm just kind of like this is great i love it it helps me batch things out but i don't know if it's worth the worry for me i get it because it will turn something that you do for fun purely for the joy that you get from it into something that will inevitably be something that is tinged with work yeah so that's just that's just that's i think that's a perfectly fair answer i'll circle back in a couple of weeks or months i think i think there's a way to do it where and i guess the salvo thing is a good analogy where it's like the dude love making sandwiches i'm sorry he's a big sandwich fan all of a sudden he's making the hottest sandwiches he's got a new york mag article whoa fucking snow just came flying down off of something what the hell was that it's right there in the window do you see that oh yeah like um it just hit hard from where i guess the roof somebody throw a snowball at us maybe maybe they were like they're like stop criticizing salvos um no uh there's no salvo's no no no absolutely absolutely not only love yeah love i mean sandwiches but i think that's like there's there's a love of sandwich making yeah but then you know you get you get some hype and then all of a sudden you gotta you gotta kind of maximize those uh those those opportunities and then you're you're stuck in a back room making sandwiches for the for the for the masses and honestly just uh you know being totally straight up not new york city it's too much too much okay too much stress okay too small i don't think you need to sell this the food i think my ideas i think are more like cooking with kevin content which we could just kind of set up a camera i would do that you know some molly boss type shit and all of a sudden it's just like how to make wings with kevin funny enough yeah part of my capstone that uh was was tragically lost in a hard drive malfunction oh no it was a a cooking program that i uh produced and shot.

7:52Where was this from? 2018. Wow. Long hair. Wow. And it was you in front of the camera. It was me in front of the camera. Bam. You know, you're... I don't even remember. Yeah, you didn't have a catchphrase? No, I didn't have a catchphrase. I was just being me. Yeah, Matty Matheson style. But one of my goals this year might be to salvage some of that footy. Okay. Try to get it back and do a proper edit now that I have skills and technique. I think I said this last week or something in the studio off, you know, just kind of like randomly off conversation was about how I would love if our website for Center, if by just, you know, there was just a link or something that you clicked and then just like a YouTube video, took you to a YouTube video of just Kevin cooking wings or like making something like just randomly.

8:39That's the kind of stuff. I'm not saying you need to like get into the content game or even the business of food. I just want to, I'm just trying to monetize a little bit. These wings sound great. I mean, also, I want you to share the wealth, these wings that you talked about. That's facts. I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't want to share. That's what I'm saying. I love sharing food. A recipe. A recipe. Well, here, I'll give it to you right now. Okay. Wings? Or wing sauce? So, it's all about the chicken wing. Okay. It's all about the, you got to have a good fry. And you got to have a good method.

9:10And you got to be prepared. Okay. So, for me, I bought the wings on Saturday. Okay. And I dried them off. Okay. Patted them dry with the paper towel. So put them in the fridge for overnight on a wire rack, uncovered, let the skin dry. See this passion that Kevin talks about cooking with? I like it. No, I know. It's funny when you hear someone talk about something that they really have affinity for. It lights them up. Yeah, dude. For sure. I've seen this also when you're actually cooking too. So it's not just talking about cooking. It's actually more so when you're in the kitchen. When I've been around you.

9:48That's true. And you're cooking. I'm like, this is a man that is in his habitat, his happy place. Damn right. So wings? Chilled in the fridge for a day. Yep, keep going. Have them nice and dry. You want them, the outside, exterior, you want it to be dry as fuck. Okay, okay. Then did a little light coating of flour, cornstarch, little baking powder, pinch of sugar, pinch of salt, and then some paprika. Okay. Did a light, light dusting on them. Okay. Coated them. And then I did a two fry method. So I did 10 minutes in the fryer on 300 degrees until they were like light gold. Okay. Took them out.

10:28Okay. Because I was batching them. I did like 60 wings. I should have did like 80. That's a lot. Were they gone? People are just fucking. Yeah. Yeah. They went real fast. Once I finished all 60. Yeah. Crank the oil up to like 350, 375. Okay. Did it for like four more minutes. Double fry. Yeah. Double fry. And so like by the time you double fry them, they're kind of coming out. So I take them out, rack them, throw the next batch in, and then throw them immediately into the bowl to be sauced. Okay. And then we had two sauces. I was going to say, what are the sauces? We had Wignuts Buffalo from Wignuts.

11:07How did you get it from Wignuts? My brother-in-law gave it to me for Christmas. Fuck. It's a bottle of wingnut sauce. It was great. How do you describe wingnut sauce? Just classic buffalo? It wasn't classic. It was their take on it. So it was a little sweeter. There's like a little honey in it. So, I mean, I added a little bit more Franks. Okay. I'm going to dash it to basket. Yeah. You and I are both Franks. Yeah. I would like to, my next goal would be to just, you know, nail a classic buffalo sauce. Okay. Yeah. Because I think that would have taken us to the next level. I got to say, my mom made wings.

11:36Yeah. You bake them, which, you know, I'm on my healthy boy shit. I don't think it doesn't even matter. We're talking about different things. But she did nail the sauce. She nailed the buffalo sauce. I mean, basically, Frank's and butter is all you need. And as long as you got a healthy amount of that. And one thing I do appreciate that she did was she went to our sort of local pizzeria to get the blue cheese. Oh, nice. I made my own. Wow. See, that's – Kevin, this is what I'm saying. A, now I'm starving. B, buffalo wings are the best. It's funny. We have a lot of topics on the show today that are Buffalo sauce, Buffalo related.

12:13Yeah. I say, let the wings be wings. They speak for themselves. Kevin, I'll ride you with this take. Get the Buffalo. You're going to ride me? Hey, pause. I'll ride. I'll ride with you on this take. Get the Buffalo, like leave Buffalo wings alone. Stop trying to make Buffalo a flavor. Get them out of the flavor. Yeah. Whatever the flavor house or fucking flavor lab. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, stop the Flavor Labs from Buffalo, buffaloing everything. We don't need that. The one thing I will say is acceptable is a Buffalo chicken sandwich. I think that's the one place where you're like, okay, Buffalo wings should only be buffalo, maybe a chicken sandwich, or yeah, that's really it.

12:54That's all I'm willing to give, which is just basically a fried chicken sandwich with Buffalo sauce. Yeah, get the fuck out of here with wing-flavored seltzer. Yeah, stop it. Buffalo seltzer. Stop it, stop it. Shut up. Stop it, stop it. Nobody wants that. Quick notes on the Super Bowl. Mahomes again. Kevin, sick of Taylor Swift, sick of ice spice. Yeah, I think I'm more sick of ice spice. Really? Really? She is being overexposed. Nah, it's just like I'm just not a huge fan. I don't respect her bars. I don't think she's got bars. I mean, good for her for ascending. I can't. I'm not going to be player hating, but I just don't really believe in the vision or the art.

13:33The art. The art. I don't think she's the fart. Here's the thing. I am with you, and I know you're a big Megan guy. You've been a Megan guy for those people who've listened to the pod since the beginning. Kevin has been riding with Megan Thee Stallion for a while. She's got bars. She can wrap her fucking ass off. And comparatively, I Spice is pretty - She's got six, seven-word lines. Yeah. One thing I have to say about I Spice, which I have to just say as a branding guy, The hair is such a definitive look. And I think every single time she shows up and she's got this sort of iconic hair, I'm like, this is good branding.

14:14Because you're still introducing yourself. You're still at the Super Bowl. You've got a new audience. Yeah. Grammys. These big moments. She breaks out the sort of the I-spice sort of do. It's a hard knock life. It's a hard knock life. Yeah, it's very Annie. but it's like that's distinguishing her she stands out because no one else has that and that's her signature look and i think we can all learn from that when you're in when you're introducing yourself don't try to switch it up too much like you know a lot of artists or a lot of brands they try to do you know change the styles to it's like you got to keep it consistent people need that repetition and i think her keeping the sort of uh signature i spice hair um to for me even though I know she sometimes has other styles.

14:59I think she's, she for the big moment, she's consistent. I respect that. But yeah, I mean, I think this was just like, there's the Taylor Swift, Kelsey thing. Like I'm with you, Kevin, like I'm not a Swifty, but I'm a Taylor Swift supporter and fan. I thought what she brought to football this year made it exciting. I've been excited by it. I'm ready to part ways with it. I'm right. I, it crossed over the Superbowl was the ending. It was great. It was right. She, They won. It was a storybook ending. No, it wasn't a storybook ending. I needed Travis Kelsey to get that anytime touchdown. Then I would have been stoked.

15:35I was praying for it. That would have been sick. I'm not a Taylor Swift Tater by any means. I think she's maybe a bit weird. The private jets are... You can't... She's not the only one. No, I know. Everybody is doing that. It's funny. She's taking 11-minute flights. Whatever. whatever you know i'm hating from outside of the club here she she does she does do a lot and i don't think she can help that you know even at war shows or other things you see her chug the beer yeah that was sick right yeah listen she's getting into the spirit man let her fucking have fun like let her let her enjoy the game i think that was good she's listen football is for everybody football is for everybody um and she should have chugged like eight more beers and then and then i would then she would earn my respect.

16:23Okay. Okay. So next time she's got to get hammered Jason Kelsey style and just like fucking jump into the crowd. Yeah. Yeah. Don't jump into the crowd. That's not going to happen. But yeah, the game was good. We got to talk about commercials because that is what we do around here. We talk about brand moves. It's a big, it's, it's the Superbowl for, for brands, you know, and I will say the commercials because I was watching with my family and And we were sort of like... Yeah, you were catching up. I was chatting with them. I didn't have my eye on the commercials quite as much as I typically do where I'm very focused.

17:00And I know there's been a lot of, probably at this point, nauseating sort of stories and opinions about this. There weren't many good ones. There really were. I typically defend them. I'm typically a defender of the commercials being like, come on, guys, they're not so bad. It's kind of like SNL where they're like, it hasn't been funny in years. It's like, no, their episodes are funny and their episodes that are not. um there there wasn't i just went through the whole list of every commercial and i struggled to find three that i really thought were good what were your favorites the michael serra for serra v thing is great oh it's fantastic yeah that one was my winner hands down yeah yeah without you know contest the fact that he said i've always been a fan of human skin or something like that that that is it's just it's one of those things it's just smart it's good it's it's it's give it all tim and eric at it again yeah brilliant stuff um another commercial that i thought was very good i had seen it before they ran it during i would say the afc championship or a couple weeks ago so i'd seen it was snapchat i i really think this is a smart move from snapchat distancing themselves from social media and kind of trying to sort of uh yeah kind of enter into the cultural conversation around sort of uh yeah the internet and how much we're all addicted to our phones and stuff.

18:15And I liked it. It felt like a manifesto-y kind of strategic positioning. Because they're not social media. They're not. Yeah. They're not social media. And I liked it. I thought that was smart of them. I thought it was a good move. And it made the branding guy inside of me smile saying, this grabbed my attention. Because they're definitely not social media. They're not. It's not media that you share with your friends socially. But it's not a feed. I mean, what's social media? What does that even mean? It is a bit of a feed. Have you been on Snapchat? To be fair, I haven't been on Snapchat in a minute.

18:47I open it maybe every other month. Yep. And it's a clown show. I don't even go there, so I don't know. But I like the story. I like the commercial. And then finally, the third spot, Jesus. Yeah, Jesus. Fucking Jesus, man. Back at it again. Killed the spot again. Jesus, he gets us. Putting the us in Jesus. Bringing the heat, washing feet. Yeah, man. And I love when you can watch a commercial, and even from the first couple beats, you're like, I know who this is, without seeing any words or even anyone talking or any brand, anything, product in the commercial. You're like, this is for Volkswagen, right?

19:28Or this is for Budweiser. You see that commercial, the music's playing, the photography. You're like, I think this is Jesus. And it was. It was. It was. It's got to be. He washed his feet. Washed his feet. Yeah. Great spot. really good really strong executed last year i think i liked last year's better but i thought they brought it again i think last year's was a bit more jarring yeah because well now we know that jesus is uh is got ad money i do believe that they had two jesus ads i can't really remember the second one oh i didn't see this i don't know i can't remember but i liked that one you know me i'm trying to be you know a better person more christ-like and uh yeah yeah yeah jesus in the feet so am i um what other spots did you like um i i liked the paramount plus commercial with tua and hey arnold and um and creed i thought that was a nice cultural like it kind of like just distilled kind of what like 2023 you know yeah it was it felt good but i was just gonna say it i saw it like on monday before the super bowl and i was just like wow good ad i thanks for showing it to me.

20:34Yeah. The element of surprise is important. Especially when you're making a commercial like that which has like a randomness to it that I think is, yeah. Call me old fashioned but I think the first time you see a Super Bowl commercial should be at the Super Bowl. And then if you want to, you know, put it on YouTube so I can go back and watch it later if I want to, yes. But it really just kills the moment. Element of surprise. Yeah, it kills the moment for these ads when I see them before the Super Bowl. I don't like that. Yeah, I forget when it was but i feel like it was probably like 10 years ago or something there was some sort of study or data or something about how people are more likely to register something when they have seen it before or maybe there's like a or maybe you're like even if you had seen a teaser for something you're like oh this is the commercial for paramount plus we're like yeah i saw this something they were online first so you're not like totally cold but i agree with you it does remove some of the magic.

21:32Yeah, I just would like to see it for the first time. I want to be surprised. Yeah. So commercials I hated, so I got not too many, but like, because most of them are unhateable, which is which makes it actually worse. Yeah. The commercial I hated the most is Dunkin's. Yeah. That Dunkin' commercial, like I love Dunkin' Donuts as a brand. That was in the beginning of the game, right? It's such a great brand. I don't know when it landed, but to me the Ben Affleck thing is smart, right? Because he's a prodigal son of New England. Boston's very own. Boston's own. And I like his involvement with the brand.

22:10But I think what has happened now is that Dunkin' Donuts has gone so far in on Ben Affleck that it's like Ben Affleck's coffee brand. And you can't have that. And also, I don't know. Leave us alone, Ben Affleck. It's not your fucking moment. I don't need to see more Ben Affleck in my life it's not working for me also Tom Brady I've had enough of Tom Brady's too much Tom Brady I'm sick of it maybe in the booth will be better because I don't have to see his weird looking face that face is so weird man it's just like this new chiseled plastic surgery face it's creepy man I don't want to see that Just leave me alone, Tom Brady.

22:59And then I got to say this too. J-Lo. Was she in that commercial? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's Ben Affleck, so it's J-Lo. And then it's just like, oh, God. She did SNL last week and she was pretty bad. It's just like, I don't know. I've had enough of J-Lo. And that combination of things. And then she's a comedy in the jackets. I hated that. I hated that. I hated it so much. I missed that one. I was pretty thankful that I missed it. Yeah. The thing that makes me so mad at it is that people had it at the top of their list. People were like, this is my favorite. Your wife liked it. Yeah. I mean, people liked it.

23:38A house divided. I'm befuddled. I'm confused. I thought Beyonce is better than Verizon. I like the idea of it that she can't break the internet and Verizon is so strong. That concept is smart. I don't know. Just something about Beyonce just you know just uh don't mess with the brand i guess and then poppy i wish to talk about the soda the soda that you're looking look at them yeah they really have uh they've taken the uh the big the big first swing at the soda game which you know as as a uh as a brand builder i respect but um i think poppy tastes like shit so that's my big beef with it it's like it doesn't taste like soda to me.

24:23It's just, it's fake. They're faking the soda. Yeah. Versus United Soda is America, the best tasting soda brand on planet Earth. But that's the commercials. Kevin, did you see Joe Biden? As a man that is very tapped into memes and the internet, did Joe Biden get it right with this tweet? He knocked it out of the park, bro. That was on period. I loved when he said just like how he wrote it. Yeah, yeah. It was funny. I saw a tweet yesterday. I'm not sure who said it, but it was like, basically commenting on like, oh, Joe Biden just, you know, gave, you know, a million schizophrenic people some shit to think about this week.

25:03Okay. Yeah. I mean, I thought it was funny. I thought it was funny. Like, again, like, it's funny because Joe Biden is not in on the joke. He did that. Yeah. We're talking about the meme for the people that maybe don't know we're talking about. The conspiracy theory was about how that the NFL was rigged so that Travis Kelsey could win the Super Bowl and then Taylor Swift could come on the field at the very end of the game and endorse Joe Biden. Right? That's the conspiracy there. I don't think anyone thought she was going to like come out and say it on camera. I think it's like a future play. Got it.

25:37They want her to do it. Got it. I mean, they certainly would like her to do it. Sure, sure. But then so then Joe Biden to make fun of that conspiracy theory, which may or may not have any merit. He tweeted, uh, and just like we drew it up with him with the sort of, uh, red, the dark Brandon eyes. Yeah. So listen, you know, can't beat him. Join him, I guess, you know, get in the muck and, uh, yeah, start doing, start, uh, Taylor Swift is not a psyop. Yeah. Taylor Swift is not a psyop. Yeah. Taylor Swift is not a psyop. Taylor Swift is not a psyop. I like it. The thing that I liked about Joe Biden, which I thought this was good and well handled.

26:13I also liked, he did this little comedic bit about how snacks are getting smaller called shrinkflation. Oh, nice. And you know how like when the Super Bowl, like before the game, they like, I feel like Obama did this a lot where he'd be like, they'd be like, Super Bowl with Obama. And he'd be like, here's how I like to spend my night. And, you know, just trying to humanize the president with a sort of a little light banter, maybe a little bit of a comedy. Joe Biden had one of those things, talking to the people of America, and his beef is with how snacks are slowly getting smaller in size and shrinking.

26:54Damn, that's crazy. The pretzels, the chips. And the thing is, he's not wrong. And it's a funny thing for him to take a stand on because, of course, you know that is the economy and these businesses trying to cut corners. and I was like, wow, that's really funny. I get to my mom's house. My mom is like, I got Haagen-Dazs and she goes, the fucking pint is smaller than it used to be and I was like, I just watched this thing about shrink flation. I don't think she saw it because she didn't mention it and she's like, it feels different. It feels different than the pint and I was like, no way, you're making that up.

27:29I look at the Haagen-Dazs pint, chocolate chip, 14 ounces, Kevin. You know how many ounces are in the pint? How many? 16. That was fucking fast. They took out two ounces. Yeah. That's bullshit. Because there's not many snacks that are measured in their measurements, right? You don't get like a pint of pretzels. You know, you don't get like, you know, you don't get other snacks and measurements. Gallon of milk. You get a gallon of milk and you get a pint of ice cream. A pint. If a pint of ice cream is not a pint anymore. Yeah. What's next? We got problems. We got fucking problems, man. And so shame on you, Haagen-Dazs.

28:04Yeah. Shame. Yeah. That's. That's absurd. I stand with Joe Biden on this. I mean, he is making a valid point. Yeah. And it's not just Haagen-Dazs. They're just, you know, that's just the most egregious. But yeah, I feel like there's less M &Ms in an M &M bag. I feel like there's less Doritos in a Dorito bag. Big business, they're shrinking. They're shrinking down. I love big business. And you know what? They didn't think we were going to notice. We fucking noticed. We fucking noticed. Products going down, profits going up, baby. Yeah, cutting corners. Let's run it. It's like when those pizzas, you ever see those videos where they cut out the middle of the pizza and they put it back together and then they slice it up?

28:41Jam on you. Jam on you, pizza places. That is what's happening. This is bullshit. This is not on my watch. Yeah. Kevin, we got a couple things to talk about, things we missed, stories. So Liquid Death, your favorite brand and a brand that has done lots of really wonderful things in terms of their marketing. I'm not sure they're my favorite brand anymore. Do you want to call them out? Do you want to speak on this? No, I just think I don't really like brands anymore. Overexposed? Too much. They've done too much. Me? I am overexposed. To them? To everything. Okay. To everything in the brand sphere.