THE SUPER BOWL OF LOVE: WITH JACKIE DEJESU CENTER

0:00Kevin, can I ask you a favor? can you turn Jackie down in my headphones? A tradition unlike any other. I feel like every time I ask to turn Jackie just a little bit down, just a little bit down in my headphones. Is that better? Can you turn him down in my life?

0:20I'm not here for this council. She's still a little too loud. Can you just turn her down? It's too, it's booming in my headphones. Thank you, Kevin. and that's better. That's better. Can you turn me up and her down, please? I do this every year. I don't know how feminist that is. We do this every year. Is that part of the tradition? Yeah. I mean, I feel like when I thought it, I laughed in my head. That's the fact that I'm like, I've been here before. I've done this once or twice. Actually, four times. You're in the four-timers club.

1:00Three, two, one. Kevin. What's up? What's up? Nothing. Long time no see. Not really. But I guess kind of, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, it's been at least four or five days. Since what? You saw me? Yeah. Yeah, I guess. There you go. That's a long time in my book. There's only one person in my life that I see more than you, Kevin. And she's sitting in the program. She's in the booth today. It's my wife, Jacqueline. Hello, baby. How are you?

1:38I really like my sweatshirt. Thanks so much for having me, guys. For those that are not watching on YouTube, Jackie made her own version of the center sweatshirt and added Mrs. And it cut it out. And it's very cute. It's a collab. It's a collab. It's a one of one. It's a custom piece. Just like your wife. That's true. Just like my wife. One of one. For new listeners to the program, maybe they don't know that Jackie comes on each year and around this time to talk about Valentine's Day. She has a long history in advertising before she went and reinvented the shower cap. Everybody knows this. But we talk about advertising that people and brands are doing for the big day of love.

2:24And then also. Yeah, I used to work on Super Bowl commercials. We could talk about the Super Bowl. I'm glad that you brought up the Super Bowl. We were going to bring it up. We weren't even going to talk about the Super Bowl, but now that you bring it up, maybe we should get into it a little bit. There's like three things that are worth talking about. The flared jeans, the wink to the camera. Oh, the flared jeans. That's where you want to go, Kendrick. I'm just saying, I paid attention to certain things. Yeah. And it was not the game. Some say it's the Super Bowl of advertising, you know, because it's the most important moment in advertising.

2:54But you gloss over the fact that I re-individed invented the shower cap. I want my plug. Yeah. Do you want to do the quick plug for the people at home that don't know what a shower cap is? Yeah. A shower cap is a form and function reinvention of the shower caps that everyone's hated forever. And we're going into year 10. We have seven patents. We launched to critical acclaim. We have over 400 pieces of press written around my inventions. A-list celebs, incredible retailers. And we're launching a haircare line and that is Flames. And so we should talk about the Super Bowl though for a little bit.

3:38And my husband is so proud of me. I'm very proud of her. She's amazing and the shower cap is incredible. For those, buy one for your friends and your loved ones for Valentine's Day or for any day. For anyone. If they shower. Yeah. As long as they shower. If you love them. If you love them and they shower, buy them a shower. If you think that the women or the people in your life deserve to wear something that they feel good in when they strip down of everything else, then upgrade them. If you think they're worth it. And if not, they'll know. Thank you, Jackie. My girl doesn't shower, so it's all right.

4:18I've talked to her at length, actually. Yeah, she doesn't shower. About her hair washing habits. So, Jackie, as a former advertising creative director, do you have any sort of overarching themes or feelings about the Super Bowl ads this year? I know I was with you, so we were at one of those parties where people weren't necessarily dialed into the ads. But anything that popped off or anything that really stood out to you as far as faves go, I have a list here. We can react to them. Are we jumping into Super Bowl first? Just quickly. We're going to talk about it. Do you want my top line takes? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

4:52What did you like? What stood out? I thought that it was like so fundamentally advertising that there were like multiple flying mustache spots. Yeah. Like that. Well, one was eyebrows. The fact that everyone thought that they were like quirky and weird and differentiated and then they all fit. It was just two, but yeah, that's embarrassing, right? No, it is. It's really embarrassing. It's the same concept. The stylists on the red carpet, the pro stylists, they talk to each other so that they're not wearing the same fashions. You'd think that the CCOs of all the ad agencies would do the same. They don't talk to each other, though.

5:32I just think there's so many weird - Mustache ideas? Ideas. And there's so many great creatives that probably pitched incredible work. And I just like, I don't know, maybe I'm a little bit cynical, but my DMs are open and so are my LinkedIn's. and I do miss my day rate. Hit me up for Creative Direction and rdirection.com. Damn, damn. Little Caesars and Pringles are turning it into an opportunity to collab. Wow. They've slid into each other's comment section. I guess now we're going to get some fucking shitty pizza chip or something. There you go. If it is that kind of play, then that is what I love.

6:09I don't think it was intentional, but they're doing that, yeah. Is that actually happening? I think so. I don't know. I'm saying if that - I read a headline. If that is actually happening, then that is the best of advertising thinking. Like that is what I love about the industry. That is what is special and like cool is that type of thinking applied to brands and campaigns and culture. Yeah. When people take advantage of moments versus like, you know, I think in years past that would never happen where two brands would be like, ha ha ha, we made the same concept. Let's collab. let's use this as a catapulting moment or a storyline that we could then leverage for future creativity and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

6:49So I agree with you. That's kind of cool. I'd love to see Mr. Pringle stab him in the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or if it was there the whole time. And also, you know, I'm a Pringles fan, but I'm also an Adam Brody fan. Yeah. You love Adam Brody. You do love Adam Brody. Who is that? That's my fun fact. Is that Mr. Pringle? That was. He was on the OC, as was I. Oh, you are? Yeah, Jackie. That's my fun fact. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I played a bully on Fox's The O.C. The Old C. The Old C, yeah. Both The O.C. and The Old C. What season again? It was like season - Season four, episode three, The Last Waltz.

7:27There it is. Is the - Watch it. The episode where Misha Barton went to the new school, and she got bullied by this redhead, and I played one of four in The Bullies' Posse, and most notably, it was before streaming. so it was when like the ads and the clips of the ads for what was upcoming like actually mattered you know what i mean and there's just this cut of me on the benches in the high school where i'm rolling my eyes at misha barton and it's the coolest most ridiculous way i've ever made a dollar right now pause the podcast go on whatever peacock or paramount plus or whatever who's netflix it's on netflix oh go to netflix uh watch eoc and watch the last walter and check out That's the 18-year-old me.

8:10Yeah. Thriving. For my Super Bowl faves, I liked Seal as a seal. I just thought that that was like a silly, stupid idea. And Kiss from a Rose is just one of the greatest songs ever written. Yeah, but they bastardized it. I know. Yeah. You're right. I shouldn't like Kiss from a Lime or whatever the hell they were doing with the sort of Mountain Dew. Yeah, there wasn't much of a tie to a product. But I think it's one of those ideas, right, where if you're sitting at a party and people aren't really paying attention. Super Bowl and you're just like that seal is a seal like that breaks through versus like some of the other ads where you have to be kind of dialed in paying attention also feels like one of those ideas that a creative keeps in their notes that can apply to any brand for anything because it's just it's a touch of what if we got right like kissed by is just a touch of so it's like you could put that on tostitos with lime yeah you could put that on you could do literally with anything you could do with anything that's like an update or an upgrade yeah it's true good idea though i like the nike ad the nike ad uh which was uh featuring uh an all-star cast of female athletes caitlin clark sherry richardson i like that uh first super bowl spot in 27 years for nike that seems like a really long time but you know they've done nike football or nike running probably oh you're saying it that that the stat is uh is misleading you're saying it's a little misleading yeah well i liked it because it just had that classic nike feeling nike's been a brand that people have been kind of shitting on for a little bit here that you know their numbers are down and i don't know yeah love a manifesto spot had that classic widening kennedy advertising vibes jack you agree yes and that's an advertising thing guys if you don't know you're never supposed to say no.

9:59You're always supposed to say yes and. Well, it's an improv thing but it's an advertising thing. Okay. And it's an improv thing turned advertising thing. I like Shane Gillis and Post Malone. I feel like if they did a buddy comedy like a movie. I'd watch, yeah. That's just a good combination. That was a good beer commercial. Likeable. Both very likeable. Yeah. I didn't like how they premiered that one like a week or two. A week before, yeah. I hate that. Yeah, I'm with you. I agree. That's a really annoying precedent. It's a Super Bowl commercial, not a week before the Super Bowl commercial. There was even a repeat.

10:32They do all different ways now. They do the teasers, and then they do the reveal, and then they do the cut down, and then they do the extended version. Just give me one commercial. That's what I'm saying. That was what was fun about Super Bowl. Yeah, you see it for the first time. You're like, oh, wow, that was great. Yeah, premiered. Yeah. Also, maybe watch it on YouTube later. I don't know. Yeah. Also, don't tell me it's coming. I don't want to know that like if that Post Malone, Shane Gillis moment happens out of nowhere, you're like, holy shit, that's amazing. That's so funny. I, you know, I've already seen the spot.

11:05I knew it was coming before I saw that spot and it loses all of its magic. I agree with that. There's nothing more lame than a brand that is trying to advertise to get you to care pre-advertising to pre-get you to care. Yeah. I think there's been some stories written about how like the Super Bowl kind of just doesn't have the same juice it does for advertisers. So I think they're just trying to maximize their sort of. They're probably just dumping all that money in. They're like, oh, we got to have like, yeah. Since we're putting all this money in, we got to have like four moments. Exactly. There's only one.

11:39You get a couple moments before the show or before the game happens if you, you know. Everyone's always trying to get as many moments as they can. They can't just be happy with one moment. But it's just like anything. like, you know, sometimes the anticipation for the actual moment makes the moment worth talking about. Like, I would say they're watering down the impact of the thing that they pay for. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. You know who never misses his moment? Who? Jesus. He didn't see that one coming. Yeah. He did it again. Yeah. Another great ad. You didn't see that segue? Oh, I did. Well, I saw all of it coming.

12:18You saw all of it coming. Yeah. Yeah. Simple ads, iconic. Have we talked about that being my nickname? Yeah, Jacqueline DeJesu Center, also known as Jesus. I used to walk into sorority parties and the entire frats would be like, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Would they crucify you? That's not what they called it. You know what the marker is of a good brand, Kevin? it's when you know it's for that brand even before it's coming Jesus has got that Jesus has got that Jesus has got a strong brand that's what I'm saying when that commercial came on at the party and I just saw the photos and the slideshow and it was just the music I was like this is going to be Jesus this is Jesus' moment and you know what we've been keyed into Jesus for a while he gets us and that's that was that so those are my highlights i think it was a pretty weak super bowl the game was terrible the halftime show was weak and the ads were not great either but born as super bowl it was like the totinos commercial with uh tim robinson and sam richardson yeah i didn't see it i didn't see we go back to jesus for one second sure our whole room was full of people that it was not a it was not a christian group shall we say um the the whole time people were like this has got to be Jesus this has got to be God and it was the vignette of the mom lifting the car where we were like this is definitely Jesus like the brand is so strong but it still needed like that over Jesus has a great ads partner whoever they are what's a better brand he's for all of us or something he gets us who's got a better brand than Jesus No, I mean, listen, the icon, the logo, spot on, you know?

14:16Yeah. What's the logo? It's a cross. Bro on the cross, yeah. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, the brand guidelines, strong. Yeah. It's the Bible. You know, this is, you know, it's a great brand. Are we not going to talk about how Super Bowl let Yeezy advertise? I guess this is the segue to that. You have to. How what? Kanye West. I didn't even see that on the TV. Maybe I was on my phone. Yeah. It was really minimal, black and white. He was in the dentist's office and he did it. It was a vertical screen. Yeah, he did that last year and the year before. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of a smart – we'll talk about Kanye and how awful he is in a second.

14:53But I do think it's kind of clever to do a commercial that's like a vertical phone that's kind of like – Yeah, 100%. – unedited and kind of like, I don't know what I'm doing here. Go to uzi.com. Yeah, I mean, if it wasn't Kanye West promoting a website with a t-shirt with a swastika on it, I'd say cool ad. Yeah, I'd say clever. But I can't say that. Can't say that because that's bad. He was sending people to Yeezy.com and on Yeezy.com, not at the time of the Super Bowl, but the next day, it was just one t-shirt with a swastika on it. And, you know, as a Jewish person, I will say, fuck that guy.

15:32Yeah, that's insane. That's awful, and it pains me to see my favorite artist of all time be an open Nazi, and it's just really, truly terrible. I am happy, though, that people as society are coming out and saying, fuck that guy, and Shopify, not just Spotify, Shopify, take down the fucking store. Don't let him do this. Elon Musk is letting him run rampant on Twitter. It's a major problem. I saw a goodbye on Twitter. From him. A what? From him. Yeah, he said, I've done enough and basically got all my ideas out. He said, thank you for letting me use the world as a sounding board or something crazy like that.

16:19Yeah, fuck him. Genuinely, everything he said is just truly awful. The fact that he was just spewing garbage and just, I mean, it's just terrible. Dunkin' Donuts, please stop with the Affleck brothers and these commercials. No, don't stop. Why? You like these Dunkin' Donuts commercials? I like the Affleck brothers. No, I like them. As does most of America, especially Boston. And it's a tie to Dunkin'. I get the tie and I guess I don't mind them. It should have been funnier. It's just not funny what they're doing. It should have been cooler or funnier or anything. It just feels like it's so cheesy and it's so corny to me.

17:08It just feels like they're trying so hard. Yeah, like write a skit. I think all advertising is trying so hard. I mean, that's fair. Well, yeah, but it has to come across as you're not trying that hard. A little bit. Or that you know that you're trying that hard. Yeah, or if you're trying so hard, it should pay off to have something be good, right? Or clever. If you're trying as hard as it's clear that you're trying, it needs to be good. I would say the same thing about Poppy. It's just like, I get it. You are the Gen Z soda. It's like, stop trying. Allison, I told them not to talk about this. I mean, stop trying so hard.

17:41Stop trying so hard. Even Liquid Death, it felt like they were trying a little bit too hard for me. Yeah, whatever. The open AI spot, the ChatGPT thing. Did you see that? Yeah, I called it. I said, this is AI. Wow. Immediately. Oh, wow. See, that's a fun trick you can do at home when you're like with friends. What is it? Open AI. What about it? I don't know. They had a commercial. With a bunch of dots? Bunch of dots. Remember? It was like chat GPT. Remember? You were like, oh, wow. It was like a very artful commercial with a bunch of dots moving. Oh, the one that looked like the morning show. It did look like the morning show.

18:14Yeah. Yes. That was the commentary in the room was, that looks like somebody took the morning show. Yeah. Opening. Probably AI did better. And said, we want to. Yeah. Yeah. AI made me a commercial kind of like the morning show, but a little bit different. You know what one pissed me off? The Coca-Cola one where they're like, oh, do you think AI is going to take over? And then they flashback to somebody being like, oh, do you think computers are going to take over? And then they're like, nah, we'll be all right. Yeah. I mean, it's hard. It's hard to use the meta narrative around your brand to try to get ahead of things.

18:45Whatever you say, billion dollar company. To paraphrase friend of the pod and shower cap board advisor, Emmett Shine. What is that? Founder of Gin Lane. He gives a talk every year at the LEED conference or almost every year on trend forecasting. And obviously, it's a super hot button topic. But he was like, everyone's freaking out about AI. Everyone's freaking out about AI, but the best way to treat it is as your best creative assistant, as your best assistant. Sure. I mean, there's AI. Just let it live in that role and use it as such. Yeah, but the - It's not your boss. Yeah, but the billion - It's not your editor.

19:28Billion-dollar companies aren't going to just let it be assistants. It's not just going to be like, oh, here's a cool thing to help you work less. It's like, yeah, it might start off like you're working less, but then it's going to start taking jobs and eliminating roles from people who depend on the money and the resource from that company. I just go back to the meme that's like, if we're going to have AI do everything, does it have to be creative, stimulating, beautiful work? Can't it be the laundry? I mean, I think that there's a really good point there. Well, I think, do you have any more thoughts on the Super Bowl other than Go Birds and...

20:11I don't know if I'm going to say Go Birds. Oh, we didn't talk about Taylor. Taylor Swift? Yeah. She got booed. She got booed. She got booed. I also thought that her response was perfect. What did she say? She didn't say anything. Her meme of the eye roll, whether it was a natural response or practiced, was just perfect. What was it? She kind of was genuinely shocked shocked like a little bit of an eye roll and then like shrugged it off was like fuck it i'm i'm taylor's lift yeah she she shakes it off me all you want that's what she does you know i'm shaking it off i guess you know it's got to be weird feeling to be booed by you know 50 000 you know drunk people well just think how many times you've been cheered ah kevin great point the boos of one stadium are just pale in comparison to the amount of cheers on the Aeros tour over the last like five, six, seven years that she's been doing.

21:10I'm just going to give the feminist hot take, which is when Taylor brings Travis out, everyone's cheering and clapping. I'm booing. When Taylor, you hate her. She wrecked him. He has no swag anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two catches. Hair plugs, no catches. I think any stadium, You put any successful woman in front of a stadium of drunk white men and you'll get booze, to be honest. Not all men. Not all men. We don't condemn those men, those drunk idiots at that football game. I'm just saying, I think it's indicative. Kevin and I would never. It's more about our society as a whole. I would have booed Taylor Swift.

21:50I'm not above it. All right. All right. Not all men. She lives and has created a world that is maybe not for you, right? Mm-hmm. But you have to respect it. Like, if you don't respect the power and the impact on culture and the loyalty and the cult obsession, then my ask is why. Like, what is there to hate on? The cult obsession is just weird. But that's what I'm saying. What is there to hate on? She's literally built her brand off of being not offensive. I'm not hating her. I'm saying if she... But what is there to boo? It's fun to boo people at stadiums. That's fine. Like when the Mets are shown sometimes.

22:42I'm responding as if we actually didn't respect T-Swift. When Mayor de Blasio walked out at the Coney Island hot dog eating contest, everybody booed him. It's fun. Yeah. It's fun to boo prominent figures. Yeah, it's true. When the Mets are shown at the Knick game, they just boo them. And it's because it's more of a Yankee town. So it's just like how it goes. But hey, listen, it's the Super Bowl. It's the biggest stage. I thought the game, I mean. If a man was playing better, maybe there would be more cheers. I said if a man was playing better, maybe there would be more cheers. I mean, probably not.

23:19I think it just really has to come down to. In my mind, I bet those are just Eagle fans booing. Yeah, of course. Travis Kelsey is part of it. A lot of Eagles fans are allowed. Really as simple as that. And I think there are more Eagles fans at the game than G's fans. For the next section of this podcast, we're moving on to Valentine's Day. For all the lovers out there, it's only days away, so make sure you get your roses ordered, your reservations. That's been established. Yeah. Get your reservations on resi.com. get your flowers on 1-800-Flowers, get your edible arrangements in order because Valentine's Day is here.

23:59What? What do you got, Jack? Where do you stand on Valentine's Day? It's nice to celebrate love. It is nice to celebrate love. And I will say. And I'm glad that I'm not one of those girls that has to have a Galentine's. Okay, but listen, for all the Galentine's out there. I'm appreciative of being in a long-term partnership on a day. I'm glad that I can enjoy the day is all I'm saying. Well, that's a beautiful thing. I'm appreciative of our love. It's a day to celebrate love. And that is why Jackie is here because she is my Valentine for the fourth year in a row or the 17th year in a row. The fourth year in a row.

24:41Four-time reigning Valentine. Before that. It was all those crucifications. She is 17 years my Valentine. Crucifications award. I don't believe so. And for the fourth year on the podcast, my Valentine, that's what I meant to say. And so brands, because they need social calendars and they need events and they need things to promote and they need reasons to sell their things. We have Valentine's Day brand activations. Kevin, the man that he is, has put together a laundry list of brand activations. Well, Jackie helped too. And Jackie helped too. And so for today's episode, I thought it would be a fun game to just quickly not spend too much time on each activation or idea, but just, I will pitch you the idea as best as I understand it.

25:36And then you guys tell me whether you love it or leave it. Both of us. Okay. And then I'll chime in, I guess, if I have any thoughts. The first one comes from Mischief. It's called Mischief Rock Candy Diamond Ring. It is a partnership. I saw this. With nobody. It is Mischief being mischief. And they had a playful twist on the rock candy ring. What do you call it? Ring pop. Ring pop. Where they made. All time favorite candy. A great candy. They made three different rings. Blue raspberry, cotton candy, green apple, and strawberry. and each of the rings features a actual diamond set in a sterling band with candy around it.

26:24So as the candy melts away, a diamond ring is in the interior and it only costs$1 ,000. All right. Where do we stand? Do we like this idea? Do we love it or do we leave it? I love it. Love it. It's cool. I mean, it's - I love mischief. Yeah. I mean, this is just what they do. They can do no wrong in my eyes. Wow. Dream business. Good culture play. Dream business. Good culture play. Smart work. They get it. Art direction. Guy that got out of the game. Pretty cool. The art direction is crazy. Art direction, fine. On this? If I'm being honest. Okay, that's fair. I think that's a fair question. There were so many other ways that they could have taken it.

27:01And I think the cool, funky, whatever that is. It looks like my girl Savannah Rudy. It's a bit indie sleaze kind of vibes. It's just like teeth and up close, fish eye. grills. Kind of grills. I'm with you. I think the art direction is fine. But I like the website. I like the packaging. They get the details right, and I think this is a really cool idea. Second idea, Subway is setting you up on the perfect eat cute with a buy one, get one free footlong deal for Valentine's Day. I love it. I love it. You love it? I'm taking my girlfriend to Subway for Valentine's Day. Ooh, get her a footlong? Yum, yum, yum.

27:41Just to celebrate our love, we're going to Subway. Kevin, did you know that in 2017, Julie and Zach Williams visited their local Subway for sandwiches and left with a soulmate? They sealed the deal with their wedding in 2021. Didn't we talk about Subway last year? I mean, Subway is - We're always talking about Subway. We're always talking about Subway. We love Subway. I think a BOGO deal compared to what they did last year, last year was cooler. Last year, they rounded up the best Subway locations, didn't they? I don't know. Yeah, don't remember. Oh, no. Was that Chipotle? That was Chipotle. Oh.

28:15That was a good one. Crossing my fast casual joint. Speaking of fast casual gourmet restaurants. I wouldn't just take anybody to Bogo at Subway. Yeah. Buy one, get one. I'd only buy one, get one with somebody I really thought was special. How much are, not that it matters. It's the thought. A foot long is no longer$5. Probably like$8? $10? $10? Yeah. Yeah. Who knows? Maybe even more. You can get like a real sandwich for that much. No, you can't. No, you can't. Real sandwiches cost$16,$17 in this economy. You get what you pay for. Everywhere. What's in that meat? Fair enough. I was paying damn near$20 for big-ass Jersey Mike subs.