The Twitter DeSaster and the Surgeon General’s Social Media Warning

24:06it. And the story today isn't about any of the themes he talked about. It isn't about him. The story today is just about what a fuck up it was. And the thing about Governor DeSantis and his office is today they have been very disciplined about message. Well, not today. Since this presidential campaign, I think they've fucked up with the Disney thing. They've done a series of fuck ups. He's very, but he's been his comms group. I don't agree with the message, but they've been very disciplined around kind of format and venue. It was such a missed opportunity because the reality is, and we don't like to say this on the left, Florida is an enormous success story.

24:52And if he'd gone to Tampa St. Pete, when you go to cities in Florida right now, you're surprised at the upside. You go to Tampa St. Pete and you go to the Dali Museum and And you're like, Jesus, this is a great city. You go to Orlando, you see the economic vibrancy. You go to Miami with even some of the impact problems it has. It's still the coolest city in Latin America, and it happens to be in America. I mean, Florida is – there's just no getting around it. I don't know why he didn't focus on that. It's a success story. He should have done an Amy Klobuchar-like announcement that was very kind of – very Florida.

25:27He should have done it from a great success story in Florida. And he has a lot to work with. And the reason why he's going to be a formidable candidate is there's just no getting around it. Florida is doing really well on most dimensions. Now, in terms of social justice. Except for the book banning, but go ahead. Thank you for that, Dr. Swisher. Anytime. For people on the ground and living in Florida, they're like, I'm getting a great value here. I have a nice quality of life. I have low crime. I have good schools. And by the way, I pay no state taxes. You know, that's just a winning value proposition.

25:58But instead of focusing on his assets, he travels to Elon Musk on a platform that breaks down. I mean, that's the story today was everything that went wrong. So this was a real misstep because he does have a lot to work with. And he didn't use any of it. I'm not so sure. There's a lot of problems in Florida, by the way. And there's been lots of documentation. But fine, it's fine. It's a very vibrant state. So are many states. But he does. He should be leaning into his strengths. No question. He cannot help. You know, I think he's probably doing this so he can suck up to him and get money from donors, you know, like Elon and his whole group of people around him.

26:35That would be my assumption. Being a lapdog to a billionaire is not a great look for someone who's supposed to be strong. I think he's been messing up a lot with the Disney thing. Error, unforced error. This was unforced error. And it gives people like Trump, who is so skilled at this, so skilled at these kind of – he had stuff out immediately and it was funny. You know what I mean? It was well done. And it was a good like slap, slap-a-do on this guy. And he can continue. And now they've got a new name, Disaster, right? They've got a new, he finally found it wasn't Meatball Ron. It wasn't Dissanctimonious.

27:09It's Disaster. And so he was doing all this talking about. They weren't challenging him. And then we had to hear what David Sachs and Elon Musk think about things. Really, they need to stop talking, those two. Agreed. But this is the governor's shot and his opportunity. And that is we consistently overestimate ideological issues and social issues impact on people when they go in the voting booth. And we underestimate quality of life issues. And there's just a large swath of Americans that will vote for whoever they think is going to put more money in their pockets. That's correct. And then I don't know if you remember Mayor Frank Jordan.

27:43Remember him? Oh. In San Francisco? Yeah. Rudy Giuliani. Deep, you know, incandescent blue cities. And once every 20 or 30 years, the quality of life gets so bad that when they vote a quote-unquote inequality of life person, there are a lot of states and cities that post-COVID, the quality of life has taken a big hit. And that's what the governor should be focusing on. Don't know why he's not – why is he hanging out with Elon? Well, you know, Elon does get – look, he probably thought we're going to get so much attention. It's a new medium. For Elon. For Elon. Agreed. But you can see why they thought this would be a good idea.

28:25The execution here was abysmal. I mean, it sounded like a podcast in 2012 where they said, we're going to try this new thing called podcasting. Bear with us. Yeah. I think when you stand next to Elon, no one's looking at you. They're looking at this freak. He's a black hole of attention. Tension. Exactly. One of the things that's interesting is right-wing personalities, of course. And then it was sad when they're trying to say it was good. Just say it was bad. Just please stop. and then they were all hurt about it. Like, oh, the media is going crazy. We're like, no, we're just pointing out you suck.

28:55Right-wing personalities are going all in on Twitter. This week, The Daily Wire announced it will upload full episodes of his podcast to Twitter, which Elon was asking them to do. Tucker Carlson still plans to host a show. He reportedly is rebuilding his home studio after Fox News repossessed the set and equipment. God, it costs them more to go get it than the stuff costs. Oh, God. You know, there's a lot of right-wing creators going there, but its brand reputation just took a massive hit. It's right now the Axios-Harris brand reputation poll that poll found that Twitter placed 97th out of 100 companies.

29:28I don't know what the last three were, even though the world's biggest ad agency said it no longer considers Twitter to be a, quote, high-risk platform for advertisers, but that's just because they're giving Linda a chance. But the whole announcement, it was a really good idea. It could have been a win for both of them if it had been well produced. This was a good idea for Twitter. It was a good idea for DeSantis. The execution was, I would be furious if I were the DeSantis folks and I would be enraged if I were Musk. He looks, wait, you want me? I'm sorry, you're trying to create autonomous driving technology and you can't do a fucking podcast?

30:06Yeah. Yeah. So apparently there wasn't, I'm excited to hear, read the reporting out of this. Apparently, there wasn't much planning. I just, I can tell you, when they had lots of people, it was always glitchy. Like, what? Hello? What? Hang up. Rehang up. You've been on those things with me when I did them. Okay, there was 200 ,000 people, supposedly, that listened to it, that were stuck around for the 20 minutes. What you and I are doing right now, we'll have more people listen. Yeah. Ron, come on our show. So the DeSantis announcement gets fewer people than the announcement of Kara Swisher's doctorate.

30:44Yes, yes. He should have partnered. They should have partnered with news outlets. Just their constant vituperative hatred of the media. And of course, that means they're obsessed with the media is really getting in their way. Just build something good. Just build a good product. And in contrast to that, as much as this was a disaster for DeSantis, you know, it was a victory. was um trump on cnn he just owned them he just owned them and it was i hate to say it was really he's the og he's the og on that stuff he just totally manipulated the medium and and by the way they had an intelligent person trying to their best to fact check a serial liar they filled the audience with sycophants and this was just it was just okay this is a show 1984 called and wants its technology back.

31:34Honestly, someone tweeted that Susantis is hoping, waiting around the basket, that Trump goes to jail. That's what would be his end, right? But I think Trump could beat him from jail easily. From jail? With his hands tied, shackled behind his back. I actually think the governor is a more formidable candidate than people are saying right now. I used to think, I was thinking maybe he's done. I actually think he's got a lot, a lot of talking points that are going to be pretty. Mr. Beto O 'Rourke's boyfriend. Okay, we'll see how that works out. I do not. Hello, Dreamy. I think, Like, that was a nice pick.

32:04And then who'd you pick after that? And who did Kara pick the whole time? Biden. You did pick Biden. I think he's, we're going to take a break. You think he's more formal. I think he's a charm. He makes Nixon look charming. That's hard. He's very wooden. I think he's charmless. He looks like he has no friends. He's Mr. Straightjacket. He literally looks like he has no friends. Like, speaking of men friends, he has no friends at all. No friends. No friends. And he looks uninterested in people. Like, he doesn't like people. And I'm sorry, you're not being president if you don't like people. And technocrats are fine.

32:34Just go run a state. That's great. Let's have him and Kamala Harris on the same ticket and we'll call it brightens up a room by leaving a ticket. I don't know. You can do better, Republicans, honestly, honestly. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about the Surgeon General's new warning and take a listener question about HBO's latest streaming rebrand, which Scott has a lot to say about.

32:58Support for the show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough, and you don't need to make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you find yourself drowning in software and processes instead of focusing on what matters, growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. It's the only business software you'll ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload, no more juggling logins, just one seamless system that makes work easier.

33:30And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

34:02Support for the show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough, and you don't need to make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you find yourself drowning in software and processes instead of focusing on what matters, growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. It's the only business software you'll ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload.

34:30No more juggling logins. Just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

35:07Scott, we're back with our second big story. The Surgeon General says that social media may pose risk to young users. You're kidding. In a new report, Dr. Vivek Murthy says that, quote, quote, there are ample indicators that social media can have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. The report calls on tech companies to enforce age restriction and create strict default settings for young users around privacy and safety. It also calls on governments to create health and safety standards for tech platforms. However, the report didn't condemn social media use for all young people, and it didn't define what healthy social media would look like.

35:43I think a lot of people who've been in this for a while, we're a little bit underwhelmed, but it was long in the making. We talked to the Surgeon General on this topic in March of last year. Scott asked him about age-gaining specifically. Here's what he said. Part of the challenge we have, though, Scott, and you're getting at the heart of it with your question, is that we actually need data to understand the impact on children, right? We have some data. We have alarming rates of depression and anxiety that have increased in our kids. We have clear evidence, in fact, that the suicide rate has increased significantly in the 10 years prior to the pandemic in young people.

36:16We have record numbers of young people who are saying they feel persistent feelings of hopelessness and sadness. We know that things are getting worse for our kids. He stopped short of calling for age. He said a lot of words, not age gating, which you asked him specifically about. The Surgeon General has the power to recommend, but not enforce, I guess. I think a lot of people felt he could have been stronger, I guess. Facebook responded. They had already done some of the things he suggested, like automatically setting accounts to private if a user is under 16. Your thoughts on this? I think Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is already the most significant Surgeon General we've had in decades.

36:50All right. Attacks companies. And usually the Surgeon General doesn't do that. Well, cigarette. He is attacking probably, in my estimation, what is the most dangerous emission of our time, and that is rage and loneliness from these companies. If you read the actual report, it is steeped in rigor and research. research. I know this personally. I mean, I'm low on the totem pole of experts around this stuff. He called me, him and his team called me several times to try and really get to the heart of these issues. Several of my colleagues have been contacted by him. He is a serious person doing serious work.

37:26He talks a lot about his own struggles with loneliness as a young man. He's a father. And it's all steeped in academia and his experience as a doctor. This is someone who was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. He is trying to prevent a tragedy that comes. He's raising the thing. Your friend Jonathan Haidt did not think it was enough, for sure. Others did. You know what I mean? They wanted an even stronger thing, cigarette level, I guess. And I get that. But he doesn't have that authority. He has the public forum. Yeah. And what Surgeon General has raised an issue, has gotten more attention around an issue of more importance in the last 40 years?

38:06Okay. I'm just telling you a lot of people. It's largely a symbolic position where they stand behind the president when they're actually doing things. In the outfit, in their outfit. And then they go on to sell Life Alert. I mean, it's just this has been a position. He is hands down addressing an issue that is difficult. He's doing it with rigor. And I also think loneliness with AI, people are going to start withdrawing even further, especially young men. And to what your son's comments were about. And he's directly saying, I've already parroted one of his lines. He gave me the line, people are mistaking friends for friendship.

38:43And he talks about the need for third places where we make investments in things like parks and leagues and bring people back together. And the thing I like about him is that he does stuff with grace and he errs on the side. He is. He's a classy doctor like myself. He never makes personal attacks. He never tries to inflame the other side. He's just like science. No, he's a very measured science focus. But he's sincere. He is seen as a good actor that's earnest that is trying to protect the well-being of our children. I think he should do this all the time and be very firm about it. I just feel like you've got to really lean into this in a heavy.

39:21If it's going to be like cigarettes, you're going to do the age gating and being a leader. You can still be a leader even if you don't have enforcement. A real, a bit like press, press, press, press and a little less nice. Like, look, people, that kind of stuff. We'll see where it goes. He always does try to tend to find the middle. He seems like that kind of person. But in this case, I think he could have even more impact if he was highly specific and really weighted in there, even if it's not his to weight into. And this age gating has a lot of issues. It's nuanced and they could have more data about our kids, their IDs, birth certificates.

39:55kids. It's different than, say, porn or cigarettes because that's a physical thing. Kids go in and buy cigarettes. This is digital information online using a digital product. So speaking of regulating social media, TikTok is suing Montana, not a surprise. We said they probably would, violating the First Amendment. So are a bunch of TikTok users, First Amendment. Montana's going to lose. No proof. They shouldn't be here, as we said. But the problem for TikTok is there was a report in the Times this week says that TikTok user data is regularly shared in Slack-like tool that employees use to address user complaints.

40:29The data can include a driver's license and accessible to employees in China. This is the issue. Even if they're not malevolent, it seeps right through. Yeah, but you said it. This creates unnecessary momentum for TikTok because people are busy and all they'll see is that the Supreme Court or a court, not the Supreme the court overturned the decision to ban TikTok. And people say, oh, it's illegal, they shouldn't do it. And no, they'll decide that a state can't overturn a ban on media, that that's a bad idea. So this was an unforced error, a purely political move by someone who should be an operator, the governor of Montana.

41:09But TikTok, I mean, it's already happening. I think Senator Warner's Restrict Act made a lot of sense. They were good actors here. And I'm worried it's losing momentum. TikTok is going to the tried and true playbook. And that is just wait them out. We're like a cat. The public and our elected officials are like a cat chasing a dot. And it's just like, wear them out. And then they'll need a nap. And then have some dumb person like the governor of Montana do something. Yes. Let me just reiterate. TikTok is a national security threat. is the ultimate propaganda tool. The people running TikTok in the United States deserve to be really wealthy.

41:47They're good people who have built an amazing product. There is no sunlight between a Chinese company and the CCP, and the CCP is now running the largest streaming network that is bigger than all other streaming networks combined for people under the age of 25. And every day, our next generation of military, civic, nonprofit, and business leaders are gonna feel a little shittier about America because the CCP has its thumb on any scale around content reaching our young people. It absolutely needs to be banned or spun. And we can't let up here. We can't move on to the next thing. Exactement, as I like to say.

42:25Exactement. I'm also a French doctor. Anyway, let us pivot to a listener question just in your wheelhouse, Scott Galloway. You've got, you've got. I can't believe I'm going to be a mailman. You've got mail. Hi, this is Emily from Phoenix, Arizona. I just wanted to hear Kara and Scott's take on HBO Max transforming its brand to just Max. My friends and I are making fun of this relentlessly and also just scratching our heads because the HBO brand is, in our opinion, one of the best out there. is certainly as far as television goes. So changing it to Max just seems very bizarre. And it kind of seems like what's the reason for that?

43:16And are they the stupidest company ever? So thank you so much. Appreciate it. Oh, I'm going to let you go on. But I have to say, I was at CNN this week because of the DeSantis stuff. I saw the Max thing. And it doesn't look good. They took out all this stuff and there's these big Max things. Everyone, I brought you stickers, Max stickers they had lying around. It's jarring when you see it, I have to say. And it's not jarring in a good way, like, ooh, attractive. It's ooh, unattractive. And I actually, everybody thought that in the lobby. Everyone's like, no, this is not pleasing to me. And again, there's the Skinamax thing that we like to talk about.

43:56And HBO is great. And I love that someone from Phoenix is like, are they the stupidest company? I love that these people are sitting around thinking about it. But your thoughts, Scott, you have a lot of them. Well, I started a brand strategy firm. I've taught brand strategy for 20 years. It's hard to think of a stupider move. Brands like this take decades to build. And I have a real bias here because some of the most moving moments, I think, in the history of television, whether it's the Prince of Dorne saying, I will be your champion to Tyrion Lannister. or the mother in Six Feet Under looking at the photos of her family and sobbing.

44:33I just think HBO is literally one of the core associations of a brand built over decades is we have assembled a culture of creativity that is fearless in storytelling and moves people. If you were to try and embody the zeitgeist of America, cultural America over the last 40 years, somewhere in that word cloud would be the letters H, B, and O. And you're going to turn that into Max? And the only reason they can come up with is people are confused. We need something that's more literal, that explains what this actually is. And HBO, we shouldn't lead with HBO. We have so many other things, right?

45:10Okay, so are people going to mistake The Sopranos for a show about singers? So we're going to turn it into the big mafia show? I mean, it's just, this is Matsushita is going to turn their brand name to shit? Yeah, I have Vox. Ox. Vox is Ox? I went crazy last night. You did. You looked like you were like doing edibles and thinking up names. And I'm sure people will get used to it, but it's not a happy brand transition, right? Remember when Airbnb did that thing and everyone thought it looked like a vagina? I don't remember that. Yeah. It could go away, I guess, and you just get used to staring at the vagina.

45:44But this is companies and organizations pray that over several generations, they can build intangible associations of this quality and this depth. So how did it happen? How did it happen? I have a feeling that David Zazzo's like, well, Discovery, why is HBO there? I can see it coming right from the top. I think the majority of bad decisions in corporate America are made by guys in midlife crisis and its ego. And this guy comes from the Discovery side of the house and thought that Discovery was an amazing brand. And if I'm going to give up Discovery and we want something new, and not only that, we need something new that I'm the CEO of.

46:21I don't think he wants to give any credit to the guys. I mean, Wells Fargo was bought by Norwest, a boring mortgage company in Minneapolis, but they were smart enough to know if we're going to pay this kind of money, we need to go with the right brand and they change it to Wells Fargo, right? Dayton Hudson had this little growth company called Target. And they said, you know what? Our kid is now bigger and stronger than we are. We're going to call the whole company Target. People don't make dumb moves like this. They go, these things are incredibly hard to build. Why? Where do you is going to go.

46:50Will it matter? We'll just like hate it, just get used to it and hate it. A lot of people feel it looks like the branding, the fonts look like, women know this looks like MaxiPad's ads, but go ahead. It'll be seen as an example of where David Zasloff screwed up. The whole industry is under attack right now. So consolidation, you can understand the strategy operationally around trying to bring it up. I can see the beginning of this conversation. I think he probably dominated it and everyone shut up. He decided, he made this, I'll bet you anything he made this decision because any consultant, any consultant, anyone in the marketing department with an IQ over 80 said, shouldn't we think about it being HBO if we're only going to pick one brand?

47:29Shouldn't we go with the brand that means quality and great storytelling and the ability to capture the moment? Instead, we're going to call it max. I mean, you know what they should have called it? Zazz. Zazz. Zazz hands. There's a song, a little bit of zazz. Yeah, this is just literally every brand strategist, my mentor who taught me everything I know about brand strategy, David Acker, is literally just sitting there with his head in his hands. Yeah, yeah. But when Datsun became Nissan, that made absolutely no sense. But you're used to it. Does it ultimately, you're a brand person, ultimately people get used to it, right?

48:05They'll be like, oh, it's Max, right? Yeah, but it's like ultimately they get used to a shittier product. I mean, it's just, this is, he basically took HBO. If you had$10 billion and you tried to recreate a brand like HBO, you probably couldn't do it. It'd be one in 10 chance you could do it. So he's taken tens of billions of dollars or at least billions in equity and he's taken it into the street and created a fire to warm his ego because he didn't invent HBO. He invented something else. This is whenever you can always really brain dead moves can always be reverse engineered to a guy in his 50s or 60s who is making a decision from ego, not from business or shareholder value.

48:53This is this is one of those moves. This is one of those decisions where I actually think a board should not dictate strategy. They should, generally speaking, not get involved in operations. But someone on the board who actually understands branding and assets should say, you're taking billions of dollars and you're emulating it. Yeah. Yeah. Like, what are you doing? Disney would never do this. You know, they would. And by the way, they have a name, Marvel. If you change theirs to Marvel, you'd be that was going to be the name of MSN back in the day, by the way. But they have names that would be good, too.

49:24But they would never do this. Like, Marvel is a good name for something like this. No, they understand brand. They wouldn't. And they wouldn't have a new CEO who came in from Lucasfilm and go, we're going to call it THX or something. They would just never do that. No. But this will go down as one of the great brand disasters. You know, Discovery would have been a better name than Max, honestly. I don't know. Anyway, except Discovery, you think of Guy Fieri. That's pretty much what you think about. Is that right? I think of sharks. You think of sharks. Anyway. I just want to give David Zaslav some credit.

49:58I think he is really helping the mental health of Americans because what he's saying to every American is I'm not, you know, you're not the only one that makes really expensive mistakes. Let me ask you and Elon Musk. We've seen that. My favorite also. They already realized they fucked up. They posted on Twitter and Instagram a big logo that says, introducing Max. And then right below it, it says, the one to watch for HBO. It's like they've already realized they fucked up. The creators are getting mad, too, because of the way they're phrasing it and stuff like that. They're changing different things.

50:30There's a whole controversy on that. Maybe we'll talk about it next week. Even Amanda was like, she turned it on and it offended her. She was watching Succession, episode nine, and she's like, I was just offended by the font. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want that. I want HBO. It was funny. HBO, there'll be case studies written for decades, and not only around brand, but around culture. HBO was a 120-pound flyweight that was beating Larry Holmes. They were spending$2 or$3 billion a year while Netflix was spending$17. And what are we talking about around the water cooler? We're talking about Succession and Game of Thrones.

51:10Yeah. Do you know what HBO stands for, of course? Because my family was one of the famous companies. Home Box Office. Yeah. And it was a self-expressive benefit. My dad used to brag. I remember at cocktail parties when my dad was trying to like sleep with all the other wives at the party. He would say, oh, well, we only watch HBO. Like that made him a baller. That was his big thing. That was his big thing. He didn't say home box office. No, well, at the Galloway household, we'd only watch HBO. And it's like, oh, yeah, that's going to get her. It used to just be movies. It used to just be shitty movies when it started.

51:44I remember it because we had it on our campus. You don't remember. I love it. The Mind of the Married Man and then the Gary Shandling show. Yeah, Gary Shandling. They had some really good stuff. They were like early Fox. Remember early Fox network? That kind of stuff. It was good. It was really good. Rest in peace, HBO. Rest in peace. Let's change the name of our podcast to HBO. That's what we should do. Good. That'd be good. Here we are, the doctors on HBO. Dr. HBO. Let's do that. The one thing that I have to say, Black Blue, Drunk and several is all the different HBO streaming service. HBO Go, HBO Now, HBO Max.

52:16HBO Joey Bag of Donuts. Yeah, I know. HBO Light. Yeah, I used to call them a joke. I'm like, what's the name today? HBO Plus. Oh, my God. Max was a good name. Anyway, if you've got a question of your own, that was a very good session there. If you've got to go, David, call us. Call Scott and Kara. The doctors are in. Anyway, if you've got a question of your own and like answered, send it our way and go to nymag.com to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. We love a voice question. Thank you, Emily from Phoenix, Arizona. Great question. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

52:56Support for the show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough and you don't need to make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you find yourself drowning in software and processes instead of focusing on what matters, growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. It's the only business software you'll ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload.

53:24No more juggling logins. Just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

54:00Support for the show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough, and you don't need to make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you find yourself drowning in software and processes instead of focusing on what matters, growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. It's the only business software you'll ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload, no more juggling logins, just one seamless system that makes work easier.

54:31And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

55:07Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. You said you had one, you were saving it, or maybe you have a new one. My prediction is, after listening to the shit show last night, there was the presidential announcement or the candidacy of Governor DeSantis. And we're speaking on stage at Cannes, which I'm really excited about. We need a friend of Pivot. I did ask Linda Yaccarino. Well, my prediction is around Linda. Yeah. And just to ensure Linda does. I'm not sure Linda is going to come on stage with us now, but I don't think there was ever any chance she was going to come on stage. Yeah, I probably shouldn't, Linda, but you should.

55:41I will tell and I'm committing to this every CMO in the room. And this is really essentially, you know, they can creativity festival is kind of like a contest around. Let's give awards to the advertising that sucks the least. Yeah. And let's let's, you know, we're all pilots. But it's in France and there's Rosé. We're all pilots on a 747 for Pan Am, and we think we're important, but let's be honest, our days are numbered, and let's go to a party hosted by our executioners, Google and Meta on the beach. But what I will say to every CMO in the room, and we will get a ton of them, and I'm speaking in a couple places, and I will repeat this, that the fastest way between a CMO and an unceremonious exit is to advertise on Twitter.

56:25This is an individual running this company who threatened to sue advertisers who left, that when an individual sells his stock, says he hates humanity, is subscale, clearly has all sorts of technology issues, but they want to get advertisers to advertise on Twitter. So if you're a CMO, literally on a risk-adjusted basis, the stupidest thing you can do, you would be better off starting a meth addiction in terms of your own professional trajectory than advertising on Twitter. And this goes to my prediction. She is pushing a rock up a hill that is going to get bigger and heavier every day. She will be blamed for not restoring the ad revenue that he has recklessly alienated.

57:12and she will leave or be fired within 12 months. Oh, wow. He has, this is the mother of all. Linda, come on stage with us, please. This is the mother. Well, let me get this. Let me get this. I might sue you if you advertise and then leave. I might threaten to sue you. I might say that you individually, I'm not scared to go after people, go after people less powerful than me and use the population of the UK and Germany to say that you're a sex criminal if you do something I don't like. Or shrill. The doctor is shrill. But advertise with us, and she will be blamed for it. They're going to give her a chance, though.

57:52They like her. She's very well liked. Yeah. And he's such a loyal guy. She will be blamed for not accomplishing an impossible task, and that is to get people to advertise on something that was always subscale, But now it's subscale and toxic and dangerous for people's careers. And they will hold her responsible and she will leave. And attempting to be that. I'll tell you what's more important, Scott. The numbers aren't very good. The numbers aren't very good. Like, let's get away from wokeness and he's obnoxious. If it worked, they'd do it, right? The numbers aren't good. That's all. It's not an effective advertising platform.

58:29That's where he will place the blame is on Linda Iaccarino. Yeah, he will. He won't say, Linda, I gave you an impossible task. What can I do to be helpful? I'll tone it down. What can I do to help score advertisers? He's just going to make her life impossible and then hold her responsible for what an awful job she has. Yeah, I would love to know what's going on inside her head. In addition, she's not the CEO. She's the COO. Yeah. I'm going to handle product and strategy. She's going to handle business and revenue, meaning I need someone to blame. That's what he said. I need someone to blame. She did walk into this, and I think she thinks he's less terrible than he seems.

59:08She was smart to take the job. Even if it doesn't work out, I didn't know who Linda Yaccarina was. I mean, I run advertising for NBCUniversal. Great. Is there anyone else here I can speak to? No, I get it. She wanted to raise her profile. 12 months. Let's timestamp this. 12 months or less. 12 months. All right. Okay, we'll see. Literally, this is the mother of all. Let's pour honey on her and send her hunting for bears. I mean, God. That's a visual. She's a tough lady. We'll see. But they didn't do a good job for her. That's the platform I want to advertise on. They don't understand technology, and they might humiliate me in front of 120 million people.

59:49Yes, take my money. I wonder which presidential candidates will do it. They'll be like, no, I don't think so. I'll just go on Fox News. I think after seeing what happened, where the black hole of attention, Elon Musk couldn't resist, this, the technology issues, all of the negative press they're getting. I mean, people will go on the platform. Yeah. But they're not. I can't believe I said this in my long tweet storm was just handed over to Tucker Carlson. He knows how to do media. He does. He puts on a good show. Even I hate the show. It's a good show. Several years ago, right when I was just getting to podcasting, I heard from Andrew Yang's people saying, Andrew really wants to come on your show and talk about his candidacy for presidency.

1:00:30And I remember I wrote back and said, the fact that he wants to be on my podcast totally makes him an illegitimate candidate, in my view. And by the way, I got to know Andrew. He had a moment. And we become friends. And I think he's a good man. And I think he's had a positive impact on the world of politics. For the first time, people are actually considering some form of UBI. I don't think the child tax credit would have gotten anywhere without him creating cloud cover around UBI. I think he's a good man. But I remember, you know, he was literally, you know, the medium, you summarize it perfect.

1:01:01The medium is the message here. And the medium yesterday was a fucking shit show. Shit show. And so the message. The message was this sucks. The message was this just doesn't work. Yeah. Yeah. And also look at Elon over here. Anyway. Do you have a prediction? I do not. I don't know. I do not. I do not. Although I was right about it being a shit show. I forgot. I have another right one. Linda Yaccarino is going to come on the show. after she resigns. After she leaves. And it's going to be a great show. Linda, we'll help you get a job. We know everybody. She's a talented woman. She's going to be fine.

1:01:34We will help you get a job. I'm already talking about her as if she's already been, if she's already left. Oh, we'll see. We'll see. As they say on Succession, it's a knife fight in the mud. Life is a knife fight in the mud. By the way, I'll have a prediction. The end of Succession is going to be a big viewership. I can't handle it. It's too emotionally traumatic. I have two podcasts on it. That's how good it is. Two. Yeah. Is this week the - Sunday, yeah. It's done? It's over? Mm-hmm. Wow. I don't know how they could do any more surprises. Are Shiv and Tom going to strangle each other? I have to even like skip through.

1:02:10I'm not saying a word. I say no words. People should not be that mean to each other. And also, as someone, light of my life, you know, I know your father's passing out a big impact on you. My mother said, it's getting a little much. He's dead. Just put him in the ground. It's getting a little much. It's getting a little rancid. It's getting a little much. He didn't like you. He wasn't nice to you. Put him in the ground and start spending his money. I have to say, I love all the speculation. And the funniest one was the person who said, Tom and Shiv are going to have a baby and Cousin Greg is going to imprint on it, you know, like the end of Twilight.

1:02:47No, it's going to be Rosemary's baby. It's going to be the spawn of Satan. There's no baby. This is a week happening. There's no baby happening. It's a week. It might fast forward. Who knows? By the way, greatest series finale in history. In history. What? Was on HBO. It was the series finale of Six Feet Under. I agree. That was a masterpiece. That was a kick in the fucking gut, wasn't it? A masterpiece. The Sia song. And the only way they could match that is if they fast forward. And Greg, Cousin Greg, is the CEO of Waystar and banging models and doing blow off the ass of really, really hot. really hot male and female prostitutes.

1:03:28I am so here for that. HBO. I can't believe. H to the B to the O, bitches. HBO. I cannot believe that you and I agree on the best finale. That's true. And also, by the way, rest in peace, Tina Turner. And we agree on her greatest song, What's Love Got to Do With It. Although I will say, It's Only Love with Bryan Adams. Jesus. They were. Everything. His voice contrasted with hers. everything she did. Everything she did. I listened to Tina Turner one year when that big album came out that she got sort of revived again. And I lived in New York and I listened to it on play and play and play again.

1:04:09And I just love Tina Turner. Also a decent actress, Mad Max, I think it was Beyond Thunderdome. Yeah, Thunderdome. And just a cool person. If you look, there's a lot of interviews showing up with her online and they're all fantastic. She's just hysterically funny. And she was with Mike Wallace at her beautiful estate. She had an estate in the south of France where we'll be, not at the estate. And it was gorgeous. She had an infinity pool overlooking the Riviera. And he goes, do you deserve this? I think he says this to her, which is kind of a weird question. Do you deserve this? But she handles it so beautiful.

1:04:42And she goes, I deserve more. And just the way she did it was quiet and like, fuck you, dude. Well, you know who bought that estate out of probate already? Who? David Zaslav. He's there now in Cannes. By the way, what's the chance I'm going to get offered as another CNN show right now? Not at all. Less than zero. I'm not. I'm entirely serious. We're going to have a conversation after this. We are changing the name of our podcast to HBO. Read us out. Just do not say HBO once more. Read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Evan Engel, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Dertot engineered this episode.

1:05:17Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Miel Silverio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Be sure to tune in to Girls, to Game of Thrones, to The Wire, and to Pivot from HBO.

1:05:39That's good. That's good. Support for the show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough, and you don't need to make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you find yourself drowning in software and processes instead of focusing on what matters, growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. It's the only business software you'll ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more.

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