DeSantis Burning Through Cash, Actor and UPS Strikes Could Cost Billions, & Tesla Cybertruck is Here

0:01This message is brought to you by AppleCard. Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases, wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at AppleCard.com. Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. On today's pod, we get our first glimpse of presidential candidates' finances, and one balance sheet in particular looks like it could use an infusion from Andreessen Horowitz.

0:42And it's a good time to be a pilot for United Airlines. We'll tell you why. Then we'll check in on Hollywood to see if the industry can survive a double rider actor strike. Plus, after an interminably long waiting period, the Tesla Cybertruck is finally here. It's Monday, July 17th. Let's ride.

1:08Toby, I was out Friday, and I'm surprised I still have a job here at this podcast. You and not Toby crushed it. It was a fun time. The weirdest part was definitely sitting on your side of the desk. The lighting is totally different, I realize. Like, it's a lot darker over there. I know. Maybe that's why people say you're better looking than me. It totally just comes down to lighting for sure. Tell me a little bit about Maine. Yeah, so we were in Portland, Maine. I think I did all of the highlights that I wanted to check off. I was there for a bachelor party, so it was a group. It wasn't just me.

1:41Kayaked in Casco Bay. Went to the Allagash Brewery, which is a great time. So many bachelorette parties, which I wasn't expecting. So if you're a bachelor party, it might be a good place to consider going. I'm so happy you had a good time there, honestly. Yeah, because you lived there for a year. also got a lobster roll from bite into maine which i highly recommend it's a food truck guess how much it cost it's got to be seasonal prices 27 30 30 oh that was the smaller size the four ounce i know it was 30 but it was delicious and i think i don't regret it but i don't know when in maine baby it was delicious that is a crazy amount that's a lot but uh when in maine all right let's get into our first story uh so running a presidential campaign is definitely a lot like running a business.

2:29You've got to hire staff, run effective digital marketing, and this one's key, not run out of money. Well, Ron DeSantis is struggling in that final point. This weekend, we got a first look at the detailed campaign finances of each of the presidential candidates. And the one thing that stood out was that the Florida governor's burn rate looks like something out of Adam Newman-era WeWork. DeSantis raised a lot last quarter, about$20 million, But he's also spent almost 40 % of the amount he's raised. That's largely because of his huge staff. 92 full-time staffers worked on his campaign, by far the most of any candidate.

3:07And even he realized he was overhiring like a big tech company in 2021 and fired about a dozen of them last week to cut costs. So DeSantis is following Zuck and trying out this year of efficiency. Did anything else stand out to you from these filings? filings. Yeah, I think also that, first of all, DeSantis is doing well. He raised a lot of money, but he's almost tapped out of his voter base a little bit because more than two-thirds of the cash that he has on hand is from backers who gave$3 ,300, which is actually the biggest check that individuals can write in primary elections. So it kind of shows that there is this initial burst of enthusiasm.

3:44A lot of people gave a lot of money for an individual donor, but now that those people I've given that money. I did not know this about the$3 ,300 limit. Right. I think you can give as much to a super PAC, which is sort of a, you know, a, an organization that can't really coordinate with a campaign officially and, but still, you know, runs ads and does stuff for your campaign. It's just kind of separated. Right. Yeah. And then less than 15 % of his contributions came from individuals of under$200, which is kind of a warning sign because you want to see that strong grassroots support and the less than$200 check.

4:21That's what most people are giving, which is actually the threshold it takes to remain under having to file a federal filing that shows you donated more than$200. So yeah, there's, again, he's raised a lot of money, but there are some of those warning signs blinking and flashing a little bit. This is like earnings season for political candidates because I need to file this documentation with, you know, federal regulators, which is the same thing as companies. And so we got a bunch of other candidates details to Trump raised 17.7 million last quarter, which is a little bit less than DeSantis. But he's got a huge war chest.

4:56He's got about twice as much to spend because apparently doesn't hire 92 people to work. And then Biden is literally like this bootstrapped startup, even though he's the president of the United States. He just spent one point one million dollars in the second quarter on his reelection campaign and employs four full time staffers. So scrappy. At this point in Obama's reelection campaign in 2011, he had spent 11 million dollars. So Biden is being a penny pincher here. No, seriously, it's a little crazy when you see it compared to Obama. And then I also just want to talk about what the other candidates, GOP candidates are doing because they're getting super creative.

5:33So one candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, launched a program to give his backers a 10 percent cut of the money they raised for his campaign. So basically like created these traveling salesmen. Tupperware. Yeah, exactly. It's like a Tupperware campaign. And then the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, also is entering supporters into a raffle to win front row tickets to watch Messi play if they Venmo his campaign at least$1. And then North Dakota governor, Doug Burgum, is handing out$20 in gift cards to anyone who donates as little as$1. So you see all these like creative campaigns of maybe questionable legality of that are creating these financial incentives because the big thing is for these fringe candidates is to hit that 40 ,000 donor target.

6:19And if you do that, you get on stage for the first GOP debate. So we're getting real creative these days. So you consider yourself a marketer. I consider you a really good marketer. Is being on like a campaign interesting to you because it's kind of different. You're promoting a person or ideas rather than a particular product. And do you think these, you know, stunts like, you know, offering a free ticket to Messi or$20 gift cards are effective? Well, I would think absolutely they're effective, especially Francis Suarez, who's saying Venmo me a dollar. Because, first of all, I would as a marketer, I need to understand the legality of all these things.

6:56Like I don't there are definitely some more laws around campaign finances and fundraising. But if you can get, mobilize a population who knows what Venmo is and can use Venmo, I think that's a great strategy for like raising money because, yeah, it's just a dollar. Venmo is very easy for people. So I don't know. I love seeing how creative the fringe people get. We'll see if anyone make it on the debates. You just got to back out your costs and see if it's worth, you know, the cost per acquisition. Like a very traditional digital marketer. Apparently this North Dakota, first of all, he's a billionaire.

7:26Right. So he can afford this. but it would cost to get 50 ,000 donors that he's looking for with the gift card scheme. It would cost not even a million dollars. And then so you're paying basically a million dollars getting people into your system. You get a huge email database and then you get to be on the debate stage with Trump and DeSantis and all of them. So it might be a good scheme if it is legal, but they're not. But they're saying it might not be. Let's run one for Morning Brew Daily. Let's get a little referral system going. All right, Neil, let's move on to our next story. So remember last week, the SAG after Union, which represents 160 ,000 actors and other Hollywood personnel, officially went on strike joining the Writers Guild of America.

8:09It's the first time that both the writers and the actors have been on strike since the 1960s. And we're finally starting to get a picture of what that might mean for the film and entertainment industry. First and foremost, movie premieres are going to look a lot different because strike guidelines prohibit not only on-camera work, but also promotional activity. So for instance, this weekend, Disney held a red carpet for their new movie, Haunted Mansion. And instead of having stars like Tiffany Haddish or Danny DeVito walking the red carpet, they brought out characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Maleficent, and Cruella, which is pretty Black Mirror-y if you ask me, using fictional characters to promote a movie because your actors are on strike.

8:50We're in some weird times. I know. And then you also have the continued chatter around studios' desire to use AI to scan an actor's image and own it for the rest of eternity in exchange for one day's work. Speaking of Black Mirror, they made an episode about that. Yeah, isn't that the exact same kind of plot line in the most recent Black Mirror? Yes. I haven't watched it yet, but I did read that. You are correct. That was my next line. And then, plus, the walkout is also affecting productions internationally internationally in places like Thailand, where the next season of White Lotus is being filmed, as well as the UK and Europe.

9:25So this walkout clearly is turning into a global issue, and maybe even an existential one for the whole industry. Yeah, I mean, you have these big media CEOs going on interviews and saying, this is kind of going to destroy our industry. You had Barry Diller, who is this, if you haven't heard of him. He's this huge media mogul. He's the chairman of IAC and Expedia. He went on CNBC and said these conditions will potentially produce an absolute collapse of the entire industry because there's this flywheel, a negative flywheel, where if you don't have content, then people cut their subscriptions to Disney Plus and Hulu because they're like, well, I don't need to see all this stuff again.

10:06And then there's no revenue to produce new shows, even when this strike ends potentially, you know, a few months from now or whenever it does. And so he's just like warning that, you know, this entire Hollywood industry will collapse. Yeah, I could totally see it. It is kind of that doom loop that we've described. I think we described it with San Francisco. But yeah, you're right. Right. Like if there's no new content and there's no new money to film new content. So I could see it getting ugly. Then again, it's coming from him. and he's trying to stake out his negotiation and put pressure on the actors and writers to come back to the table.

10:40Well, but he also says his plan for going forward is that he thinks the top studio execs and top paid actors should take a 25 % pay cut as a good faith measure. So I don't know about that. Like in reality, who knows if that's ever gonna happen, but that's his path forward as like to bring some stability to the negotiation table. but then I also just want to talk a little bit about the SAG-AFTRA president, Fran Drescher, who's been on an absolute press tear recently. So during our Toby Not Toby show on Friday, we actually talked about Bob Iger, Disney CEO's comments on the strike, where he called for the picketers to be, quote, realistic with their demands.

11:21Well, Fran was none too happy with those comments, and we have a little clip that illustrates the extent of her distaste. What did you think about Bob Iger's comments yesterday? I found them terribly repugnant and out of touch, positively tone deaf. And, you know, I don't think it served him well. If I were that company, I would lock him behind doors and never let him talk to anybody about this because it's so obvious that he has no clue as to what is really happening on the ground with hardworking people that don't make anywhere near the salary that he's making. So obviously you can kind of hear the charged nature of the discourse around the strike, which has almost shifted into a bit of class warfare, where you have the unions representing the common person, pitted against the 1 % in CEOs like Warner Bros., Discoveries, David's Last Love, and of course Disney's CEO, Bob Iger.

12:21It's crazy though how... Right. She was talking about how much Bob Iger was making. And I think he earned$65 million from Disney in 2018, which was about 1400 times the company's median employee salary. And he just signed this new contract where he's going to get paid up to$31 million. So he's getting paid a lot But also it's a little bit odd to see Super highly paid actors like Fran Get up there and talk about the working man But you just kind of have to think about the fact that The vast majority of the people in this actors union Are not people like her and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon It's these background actors that When you see King's Landing And they're all walking through It's all the people saying shame And they're actors and they get paid about$26 ,000 from acting over the course of the year.

13:15So you have really rich people talking on behalf of not rich people against really rich people. So yeah, it's a very interesting class dynamic. For sure. And then just looking ahead a little bit to another strike, UPS workers are potentially going to go on strike this week for a variety of reasons from working conditions. Most of their trucks don't even have AC in them to better pay. And experts think it could be one of the costliest strikes in at least a century. It would likely cost$7 billion for a 10-day work stoppage. So we got strikes on strikes coming right now because UPS kind of is the lubricant that makes the economy function.

13:53That one's going to be far more debilitating for the global economy. It's just to have Hollywood actors on the picket line with and then UPS workers. It's going to be – it could be the summer of strikes. Yeah, absolutely. All right, Neil, for our next story, I want you to think back to November 22nd, 2019. Remember that day? I do. Oh, wow. I absolutely do. I'll tell you why. It was the day that Elon brought a Cybertruck on stage and threw some metal balls at its windows to show how unbreakable they were. Well, he absolutely shattered those windows and apparently the capabilities of Tesla to produce the truck itself.

14:29but after a global pandemic, one purchase of a social media platform and a potential cage match with Mark Zuckerberg, the Cybertruck is finally here for real. Over the weekend, Tesla built its first Cybertruck at its plant in Austin, Texas. It's been such a long time coming, Neil, but now the question is, do you think this will meaningfully move the needle for Tesla in any way? He's looking at a video of it. I'm looking at a video of it and making up my mind. I'm going to say no. I don't think this thing is going to sell really well. It is ugly, like objectively. I mean, it's interesting because this pickup segment is so profitable for car companies, and there are so many classic names in there like the Ram and the F-150.

15:17And the way Ford has gone about its electric transition is it wanted to model its electric Ford F-150 Lightning so much to the T of Ford, the actual Ford F-150 to get, you know, people, you know, those guys who love the truck drivers, who love their F-150 to come over and buy electric and say, look, it's the same thing. Like, you're not going to see anything different. You know, you don't have to explain to people that this is electric and stuff. Like, don't worry about it. And then Elon's gone the complete alternate route by creating something that is so obviously different and electric from a design perspective and i'm not sure that's going to resonate with the people who buy pickup trucks it might resonate with you know elon fanboys and people who are really on the cutting edge but when it comes to a car i think you want to go basic right and you don't want to stand out it seems like he overthought it a little bit and like yeah if he just made an actual pickup truck that looked like one then it probably would have gone fine i do want to talk a little bit about the price of the Cybertruck real quick.

16:22So initially it was estimated to be priced at$39 ,000 for the lowest model. That model is now expected to cost$50 ,000 and have a range of over 300 miles. But get this, the priciest version starts at around$70 ,000 and will have three electric motors with a range of 500 miles. So three electric motors and 500 miles is actually kind of a selling point. This thing is a beast. Yeah, it's a big... It can tow a lot. It's comparable to the biggest pickup trucks like the Ram. It is a very good pickup truck design notwithstanding. It can tow a lot of crap. Yeah. And then just in terms of pricing against other competitors, the Rivian starts at$74 ,000.

17:06So it's right around the same price as the Rivian. And then the Chevy Silverado is actually coming out. And that will start the electric version of the Chevy Silverado. And that will start at$77 ,000. So this is on the lower end. This is the affordable pickup EV. It's a classic Elon move. Like, he loves lowering his prices. All right. Before we jump into our next story, Neil, we're going to take a quick break. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast? Smart move. Being financially savvy? Smart move. Another smart move? Having State Farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto.

17:45bundling just another way to save with a personal price plan like a good neighbor state farm is there prices are based on rating plans that vary by state coverage options are selected by the customer availability amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state this episode is brought to you by ebay buying parts for your car you'll know that will it work feeling but on ebay buying parts is different ebay's free returns means if it doesn't fit Or if it isn't what you expected, you just print a label, drop it off, and get your refund fast. No haggling, no stress, and at least 30 days to return any eligible item.

18:22Millions of parts, free returns. eBay. Things people love. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. All right, let's hit our winners of the weekend, a segment that is pretty self-explanatory. Corey. My winner of the weekend is United Airlines pilots because they are on the verge of getting a massive raise. The pilots union and United reached a preliminary agreement that would boost pay by up to 40 percent over four years and a contract valued at 10 billion dollars. This is a big win that highlights two existing trends. First is this pilot shortage. The airline industry is short thousands of pilots because so many decided to take buyouts and retire during covid.

19:04So the pilots have a lot more bargaining power, the ones that remain. Also, it speaks to the incredible resurgence in air travel demand post-pandemic. Airlines are adding routes all over the place, and they need to staff up to serve all these travelers. Pilots are obviously a big part of the equation because they're driving the thing. I know. It is crazy that flying is already back to pre-pandemic levels, which was not a guaranteed thing by any means just a few years ago. And then, honestly, I do love that United looked at Delta. Delta just gave their pilots a big raise and said, listen, we're not we're not flying unless you give us something on par with Delta as well.

19:40So, yeah, definitely 40 percent over over four years. Like that's not nothing right there. That's outpacing. It's a big race. They all they already make one hundred thousand dollars, you know, at least one hundred thousand dollars. But also we talked about this a few weeks ago. The requirements to become a pilot are so stringent in the United States. You need fifteen hundred hours of flight time compared to two hundred in Europe. so there is an you could say there's an artificial shortage of pilots and this union wants to keep it that way because they can do things like negotiate 40 raises hey i'm on team pay the pilots though like our lives are in their hands like yeah let's make sure they're qualified and pay them a pretty penny all right neil my winner of the weekend is a place very near and dear to my heart and that is the grocery store chain publix publix is a staple of floridians everywhere including apparently the newest Floridian Lionel Messi.

20:31The GOAT was spotted shopping in Publix over the weekend and it sent the internet into a tizzy. People were pumped that the greatest soccer player of all time was shopping at the greatest grocery store of all time. But Neil, honestly, Florida and Miami in particular have really rolled out the red carpet for Messi ahead of his move to enter Miami. Murals have been popping up in the city left and right. There's a brewery selling a Messi-themed beer that comes in a special can. And then the Hard Rock Cafe already created a Messi chicken sandwich that comes with a chicken cutlet, provolone, aioli, arugula, and tomatoes, which is supposed to resemble one of Messi's favorite Argentinian dishes growing up.

21:13Honestly, seeing Messi at Publix, Neil, pumped me up a little bit. Yeah. I think he was destined to play in Florida. I was about to say that. It's like this seems like the perfect move. I mean, he could have been in Saudi Arabia, right, for a lot more money, But he's coming here and with all of the very strong Latin American community in Miami and their love for soccer, it might just turn Miami into a sports town. Messi's arrival. Miami is the sports town. Remember, they have the Florida Panthers. Just because they're good doesn't mean people care. All right. Well, still, I mean, they've had a same with the Tampa.

21:45I mean, people, the Rays are good. Champa Bay. The Rays are good, but no one goes. But I'm saying this might actually make people care because soccer is such a global sport. Miami is such a global city. And Messi is this larger-than-life character who came to MLS. And he's Miami's savior. It honestly, it warmed my heart seeing him in Publix. Like with his kids, they're picking out just like Captain Crunch cereal. It was a fun little video. But yeah, just seeing him in the place that I have stepped foot in, that was a little surreal. What is like the thing you order from Publix? Pub subs, baby.

22:20Publix sub. Is it just a sandwich? Yeah, they just have a deli department over there. It's just like a very famous, they got good bread. You know how people love their sandwich chains, but pub subs do hit. So the day that Messi orders a pub sub, that's the day you know he's a true Floridian. Okay, Neil, let's move on to our next story. I can't believe I forgot to mention this at the top of the show today, but happy International Emoji Day. Happy International Emoji Day to you. Thank you. Honestly, I'm pretty staunchly against national days because I think they're usually contrived by some sort of corporation, but I'll give an exception for today because I think emojis are pretty cool and deserve their time in the sun.

22:57First, a little history lesson. Emojis were first created by a Japanese artist who saw the way young people loved getting a little heart symbol on some of the first generations of pagers and set out to design some symbols for modern texters. That was back in 1999, and he used Chinese kanji characters as well as marks used in weather forecasts as an inspiration. And then they really hit mainstream though when Apple added an emoji keyboard to its iPhone in 2011. Fun fact, emojis are actually rendered by developers. So that's why an Apple emoji looks different than an Android emoji. Android emoji is obviously better.

23:35Disgusting, absolutely not. But now in modern day, emojis are as integral to communicating as text and voice. So Neil, before we get into some of the ways emojis are infiltrating modern society, what is your favorite emoji? Definitely the straight face one where he's just kind of looking into space and then there's no expression where he's just like, mmm. That one just, I think that that encapsulates my personality so much, just the deadpan, you know. That's funny. So that one always strikes a chord with me. I'm just like that. He, me, for real, for real. He, me, for real, for real. What about you?

24:11I like the handshake emoji just because it's so versatile. Like whenever someone congratulates you or says like, oh, I love like listening to the show, you just give them the handshake emoji. He says like, I'm right there with you, brother. Like, yes, absolutely. So that one and then like the new added Italian one. Oh, the Italian one's good. That just is perfect for showing that something else is perfect. Yeah. Before we move on, we should talk quickly about the fact that emojis have been popping up in legal cases as like normal language. Crazy. So one judge in the United States ruled that an emoji like rocket ship stock chart and money bags count as investment advice.

24:49Crazy. Which we've known kind of for a while because those are so associated with the stock market. But legally, you know, we shouldn't be using those without being like a registered broker. And then another case, a Canadian judge ruled that the thumbs up emoji is as valid as a signature. Yeah, I agree with that one. Thumbs up. If someone said, like, do you approve of this document? Like, a thumbs up is pretty unambiguously a consent to that. So I'm on the judge's decision on that one. That's what it was. It was a guy, a buyer, texted it to a farmer saying, please confirm that this flax contract, I'm buying$60 ,000 worth of flax from you and you're going to deliver it, right?

25:27Yeah. And in reply, he got a thumbs up to it. And then the farmer, and so he's like, okay, where's my flax? And then the farmer is, you know, not happy with this. He said, that means I received it. Not that I agreed to the contract, but the judge was like, nope, that is literally a signature. Yeah. Well, there's plenty of ambiguous emojis. Like, what does this truly mean? But I think a thumbs up is not one of them. Like, that is consent for sure. Yeah. All right. Happy emoji day. It's super fun. I was such an emoji hater and now I am fully embraced. I do have one final emoji fact. Today is June 17th is emoji day because the calendar emoji that you see in your app is on June 17th.

26:07So that is why today is emoji day. July 17th. July 17th. Thank you. Take us. Take us. All right. Our final segment is a week ahead where we preview what's going on this week. Get you excited. Number one thing. Barbenheimer. And I should say it's not Barbieheimer. It's Barbenheimer. And when they write about this in the history books, they will call it Barbenheimer apparently. uh so this is the day obviously on friday when barbie and oppenheimer two movies that couldn't be any more different are hitting theaters at the same time and it's created this marketing cyclone yeah that has maybe probably helped both movies that are playing off one another and i can't wait to go see them both yeah i'm a little sad though because the writers in our actors strike yeah there's no red carpets for these things which i feel like robbed them of some big like barbenheimer moments you watch a lot of red carpet well i don't know like the memes that come out of it will be good so i i'm a little sad and we should revisit our wager where we talked about mission impossible barbie and oppenheimer and you rank them in terms of box office gross you said it would be mission impossible then barbie then oppenheimer well mission impossible came out this past weekend kind of a disappointment only 56 million in domestic box office revenues over three days.