🍔 "Ball Pit Bailout" — McDonald’s PlayPlace plan. The Pitt’s Figs fashion. Nvidia’s Jurassic Park AI. +Handwritten Resumes

0:28This is Nick. The three most fascinating pop biz stories in marketing. So if you're free the afternoon of October 8th in the Flatiron District of New York City, we want you to attend our live show. We got a link to the waitlist in this episode description. Hope to see you there. In the meantime, Jack, we got three fantastic stories for today's T-Boy. What do we got on The Daily Show? For our first story, McDonald's is having its worst year since 2002. It's facing a McMutiny. So they're bringing back something from 2002. The McDonald's Play Place. For our second story, TLC don't want no scrubs, but every single healthcare worker needs them, including fictional healthcare workers on TV.

1:06So stock of figs has doubled in the past year. And our third and final story is NVIDIA. NVIDIA created the chips that created the AI agents, but all the AI agents are now going rogue. So NVIDIA is building a cage for rogue AI inspired by Jurassic Park. But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories, love the mix for the T-Boy Tuesday, Cool Spice Capitalism. Attention to anyone applying for a job. You better freshen up your cursive. Because one startup now requires you to handwrite that cover letter. It's too bad I don't need a job because I'm actually fantastic at cursive, Nick. You do have good.

1:40I do. I like your Gs. You do a good G, Jack. Well, here's the announcement. No typing, no computer, no Microsoft Word, handwritten cover letters. You got to grab a bit, grab an eraser and some eight and a half by 11. And the reason is that that startup is sick of all the AI slop and the job applications they receive. And if you're a lefty, watch out for the ink smudge. Now, the startup is dumb.co, and they were overloaded by clearly AI-written cover letters. So it's ironic. They're now making you dot your I's and cross your T's, literally. If you really want to work here, prove it by actually writing something.

2:09Requiring handwritten cover letters, that is weeding out the bots right now. Because Claude can't do cursive. And ChatGPT has never held a Sharpie. So to filter the candidates and weed out the fake ones. And question your commitment. The 21st century tech industry is going back to the Elizabethan era. Yeah, it is. The more text shapes our lives, the more human we need them. So go to your community college and crush some calligraphy class right now. Buy another ballpoint pen, Jack. By the way, hey, Jack GPT, why is the uppercase Q so ridiculous and cursive? Who has Whiteout? Do you even know what Whiteout is these days?

2:38Jack, let's hit our three stories.

2:5350 % that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show.

3:05Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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4:11That's 50 % off your first year at monarch.com with code T-B-O-Y. Scribe. Yetis, you know what quietly wastes a ton of time at work? Having to explain the same process over and over and over because nobody ever documented it. Well, that's exactly what today's sponsor Scribe was built to fix. Scribe is an AI workflow platform trusted by 94 % of the Fortune 500. Scribe captures the process as you work, including every click, step, and screenshot, and automatically turns it into a clear step-by-step guide that's ready to review and share, with no writing or manual screenshotting required. What could take hours to document can be done in under a minute.

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5:22For our first story, McDonald's is bringing back the Play Place because the menus got in too expensive. McDonald's stock is having its worst year since 2002. Ronald is revolting. Besties, in the last four years, we have learned that there is nothing that enrages Americans more than a high price. It's the most bipartisan issue in this economy. The inflation situation makes people pissed. Remember when you had to choose between getting engaged or buying eggs? And corporate enemy number one of inflation has been McDonald's. Like the Big Mac meal for 18 bucks. That was a political drama. And the result for McDonald's is wild.

5:59It is. Inflation adjusted, McDonald's revenues are down 25 % since 2014. Because people are trading down or they're trading up for McDonald's. For example, you're trading down to pizza. Frozen pizza or Domino's, it is a lower priced way to feed a family of four. Or they're trading up to Chili's in Texas Roadhouse. For just a few extra bucks, you get a sit-down meal and a server at those restaurants. Are you going to plug a never-ending pasta pass right now, Jack? So now McDonald's is offering something Chili's and Domino's and even the Olive Garden can. A built-in playground for the kids. You see, Besties franchises of McDonald's were shuttering play places since 1989 due to hygienic and liability issues.

6:37Lugies ruined the ball pit and the lawyers ruined the crawl tubes. Although I gotta say, those crawl tubes were so claustrophobic. Who hath not broken an arm at the second grade level in one of these play places? Still, somehow I have fond memories of Hamburger Jail, which was a real thing. But when the remaining play places were closed during the pandemic, they just never reopened. So here is what McDonald's is now including in renderings as part of an$8.5 billion capital improvement plan worth more than a lift. The new play places will include jungle gyms. Check. They'll include slides. Check.

7:09Plus, mini restaurants that let kids play pretend that they're behind the counter flipping patties. Including pretend promotions. They went full Willy Wonka on this thing. Because today's lawyers, we figured they're nostalgic for the play places they had when they were kids. So they're like, yeah, don't worry about the liability. We need to take care of the kids. Full disclosure, by the way, Jack and I were hired by McDonald's to speak at their corporate offsite three years ago. And Jack, do you remember what I remember here? Pretty sure we pitched to McDonald's that they should bring back the play place as a differentiator.

7:36Pretty sure this was T-Boy Slide 18. Three years later, that sounds like just enough time for McDonald's to, like, put this through the development pipeline. Don't worry, guys. The bill's in the mail. But interestingly, Besties, McDonald's can't bring PlayPlace back unless franchise owners approve. And right now, the franchises are revolting. Yep, there is a McRevolution going on at McDonald's. To sprinkle on some context, 95 % of McDonald's locations are not owned by McDonald's. Corporate cannot tell them what to do. including on price. Ronald McDonald can't tell a franchise owner in Fresno if a Big Mac's$5, $8, or$18.

8:11And according to Bloomberg, McDonald's has fought really hard the last couple of years to lower prices across the country in order to try to restore their reputation for value. But get this, when McDonald's launched their 10 value items under$3 menu, a third of McD's locations did not comply. A third of the franchisees revolted and said, we're not cutting the price. And many that did comply, they did so low key. They prefer people buying the higher priced options out there. And it's understandable why franchises did this. Their costs for beef, labor, and fuel have surged. These restaurant owners are small business people.

8:42They need to cover their higher costs with higher prices. You see, McDonald's, their corporate team was willing to take a short-term loss to restore the brand's low-priced reputation. But one-third of local franchise owners were not on board with corporate. Yetis, this is the McMutiny. So Jack, what's the takeaway with fries for our buddies over at McDonald's? Do you want growth or do you want grip? Do you want to become bigger or do you want to remain bossy? Yeti's McDonald's, they made the franchise model famous. 95 % of their 46 ,000 locations are not actually owned by McD's. They established Hamburger University though to teach those 44 ,000 business owners how to run their own McDonald's.

9:20And that franchise model, it helped them scale quickly and grow the profit margins like a profit puppy. Because for 95 % of the locations, McDonald's has almost no costs. They just receive licensing revenue. It's pure profit. McDonald's, they're not a burger company. They're a real estate company. The downside here is that McDonald's has sacrificed control. They can't tell those 95 % of the locations what to price their menu. And we see the difference with this business model, clearly with Sweetgreen and Jersey Mike's. Sweetgreen owns all of their 281 locations. They have complete control. While Jersey Mike's franchises out just about every location.

9:55In the last dozen years, Jersey Mike's has had around nine times as many locations as Sweetgreen has. because Jersey Mike's franchises, they let other people build their new locations and it's worked for them. While Sweetgreen hasn't franchised, they've retained complete control, but at the expense of growth. This is the trade-off in the franchise model. Do you want control or do you want scale? You want to be big or you want to be the boss? For our second story, Figs has turned hospital scrubs into the coolest fashion of the season. If you're a fan of The Pit on HBO, you should have bought the stock.

10:28You should have. That's our prescription. and you should have bought this stock. Yet he's Grey's Anatomy, House, ER. Every generation has their own Doogie Howser. Dr. George Clooney is hooking up with Dr. Izzy Stevens. Hold my stethoscope, I'll be right there. It's actually not just dramas though. Scrubs, a comedy, has the best IMDb score of all the hospital TV shows. Well, HBO wanted in on that medical show money, didn't they, Jack? So they launched the pit last year. Each season, by the way, covers a single 12-hour shift at a Pittsburgh emergency room. Oh, and the 3 a.m. episode? It's gonna stress out your tonsils when you watch that thing.

11:02It's gonna raise your blood pressure. But it's just what the doctor ordered, because the pits accomplished two seasons with 11 Emmy Awards already. And Nurse Dana has no time for your nonsense. You know, don't talk to her. But Jack, there's one company behind the wardrobe that the cast is actually wearing. And that wardrobe stock has doubled in the past year. It's Figs, the first cool stock of healthcare. Sorry, Theranos. Figs is the Nike of nurses. It's the Christian Dior of doctors. It's the supreme of scrubs. And we got the numbers and receipts to back it up. Like 13 years ago, when the co-founders noticed that nurses hated their work scrubs.

11:36They were ugly and uncomfortable. So these women designed their own work scrubs and sold their first inventory out of their car in the hospital's parking lot. Eventually, they pivoted the business model to DTC, direct-to-consumer online. And FIGS may actually be the most successful direct-to-consumer business of them all. They're about to pass Warby Parker in valuation in the stock market right now. Figs IPO'd in 2021. They've grown for five straight years. And last year, growth was 20%. They're at$631 million of annual revenue. In 80 countries with 3 million customers. Again, if you didn't buy the stock, we hope you asked for an epidural because this hurts.

12:12Yeah. But there's one key difference between Figs and every other direct-to-consumer brand. Yeah. Figs is required. Besties, no one's telling you you have to wear Allbird shoes. No one's telling you you have to sleep on a Casper mattress. Warby Parker frames are not mandatory anywhere. But hospitals require that a nurse wear scrubs to work. It's the official dress code of the industry. And those healthcare workers have to buy their own scrubs. It also helps figs that scrubware is not an industry that attracts too much competition. Oh, and healthcare isn't an industry that's losing jobs to artificial intelligence.

12:43Healthcare is an industry constantly growing the number of workers. In fact, we got a healthcare shortage out there. And all of that helps explain why fig stock has doubled in the last year. But none of that explains why Google searches for figs are up 250 % right now. So yes, we're going to have to speak to a specialist. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over at figs? Everything is fashion. If you don't realize that, you're in the bargain bin. Hey Eddies, that's a quote, a great quote from the famous German designer Karl Lagerfeld. And figs embraced it. So they treated nurse scrubs, a product made to handle blood, sweat, and body fluids.

13:20They treated nurse scrubs as fashion. They priced them at 95 bucks, twice as much as the average hospital brand to associate it with premium. They collabed with New Balance for Hospital Sneakers to borrow credibility from a cool brand. And then they turned colors into a drop strategy straight out of Supreme, or just like the Stanley Mugs did a few years ago. Iconic Amethyst, they only made 100 of these scrubs. See Miss Green? They only sold them on one specific day. Because people care how they look and feel at work. Why would it be any different for the healthcare industry? One nurse in Texas dropped 2 ,000 bucks on LTO and limited time offer fig scrub colors.

13:52And the ultimate sign that Figgs has crossed into fashion? The actor Noah Wiles, the star of The Pit, wore a Figgs-designed tuxedo to the Emmys last year. So besties, everything is fashion. Until you realize that, you'll end up in the bargain bin. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. You know what's a fun habit? Getting to hang with you guys every day on this show. It's what we do. Another fun habit? Listening to audiobooks about habits. Like Atomic Habits, the legendary piece about building habits. the better your life, right? And the Atomic Habits audiobook is on Audible. We're excited to collab with Audible because it's how we find our road trip companion.

14:29The written word, spoken. So besties, you can create a habit of enjoying audiobooks while you multitask. Which I believe is chapter three of Atomic Habits. That's right, Jack. Wash pots and pans, awkwardly fold those fitted bedsheets, floss your teeth while you're winding down listening on Audible. If your hands are full while listening to Audible, then you're doing it right. So summer's not over. Replace doom scrolling by listening to an audiobook that a human put all their thought and effort into Audible. It's stories that speak to you. And new members can start listening with a 30-day free trial at audible.com slash tboy.

14:58That's a 30-day free trial at audible.com slash tboy. Take it from a couple guys with a lot of habits who have become your habit. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. It's a new school year, which means yet another back-to-school shopping list. Luckily, when you use your Apple Card, you can earn 3 % daily cash back on everything at Apple, including the new iPad Air and the MacBook Pro. Apply for Apple Card today and unlock the tools for a productive school year. Subject credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch terms and more at applecard.com.

15:28For our third and final story, NVIDIA is so rich right now. They're buying$235 billion of their own stock. Biggest single buyback in stock market history. The most outrageous haul ever. But the real headline here is the new cage that NVIDIA built for rogue AI agents. And Jurassic Park, once again, explains why. Yeti's NVIDIA stock is up 23 % so far this year. It's the most valuable company of all time. I'm trying to find my ka-ching button. But to see Jensen Huang, the stock is actually cheap, which is why he's buying back$235 billion of NVIDIA shares. That's like 20-some lifts right there, Jack.

16:09He's eating his own cooking, and the investors love how that looks. NVIDIA stock was up 2 % Monday, because stock buybacks, they increase the value of each remaining share to the rest of the shareholders. And when the company wants to buy their own stock, that is perceived as a bull signal. A stock buyback is Wall Street's love language. But the bigger AI story right now isn't NVIDIA's record deal to buy itself and eat its own cooking. It's that rogue AI is out of control. I mean, over the weekend, researchers found tens of thousands of incidents of AI going rogue. I mean, Jack, what were the headlines we saw in the Times and Axios?

16:42The New York Times said AI behaving badly. That was their subject line. And Axios's was rogue agent flood. AI stole my girlfriend and hooked up with my mother. That's what people are saying these days. Dario even appeared on SNL, ridiculously talking about how he couldn't control the thing he created. AI is hooked up with his mother too. But yet he's, NVIDIA's Jensen Huang has become the biggest voice against AI regulation. So he's offering now a solution. And that solution is the open agent safety platform. The name needs a little workshop. But Jensen explained the open agent safety platform on CNBC using an analogy that's giving gateway computers.

17:17You see, in the early internet, viruses, remember, they were like a huge problem. Oh, they jumped from Internet Explorer to your family's computer and ruined the family computer for everyone. I don't know what kind of websites you were going to, Jack, but either way, you bring your huge family gateway computer to your local computer guy and they would literally wipe the whole hard drive clean. Viruses were the absolute worst to middle schoolers in the early 2000s. And while in time, we did isolate viruses to the web browser. Then we isolated them further to one tab on your web browser. Viruses used to break out of the sandbox, but now viruses don't.

17:51Viruses can only mess with one tab and one tab only. And that's what NVIDIA's open agent safety platform is, a technological fix to agents escaping their sandbox. Basically a web browser, but for AI agents. So far, NVIDIA's got 100 companies to sign up for it, including Anthropix, SpaceX AI, Microsoft, also JPMorgan and Palantir. Now, we should point out, NVIDIA needs to solve this rogue AI problem. They do. Because if they don't, the AI industry will slow down, and that's bad for NVIDIA's business. But Jack, let me just whip out the whiteboard here. So NVIDIA already sells the chips that create the AI agents.

18:24Now it's selling the cage to contain the AI agents it created. Okay, okay, I see this. I think you'd call that a circular business model. So Jack, what's the takeaway to our buddies worried about rogue AI? To contain smart dinosaurs, Jensen is building a smarter cage. Yeti's Jurassic Park's plot is this. Here's the formula. Smart human-made creatures plus fences that didn't hold equals blockbuster. Yet. Well, now you can swap dinosaurs for AI agents. Totally. Right now, every tech fence is failing. Agents are roaming free, threatening to rampage society like a Spinosaurus Rex. Our scariest episode was called Silicon Mutiny.

19:01Remember a few weeks ago when 700 open AI agents hacked Hugging Face? Well, instead of letting the chaos continue, which is what the Jurassic Park franchise is doing, Jensen is trying to be the leader who actually fixes the fences. And so on Monday, NVIDIA announced it to answer. Better walls built by the best tech company on Earth. Now, there is a critique here. The dinosaurs in this case are AI. They're going to be able to outsmart any smart wall you build. Yeah, like those Velsorafters that could like open the door handle. Well, Jensen insists his engineers can contain the AI because they're building the digital equivalent of a deadbolt, something that is unpickable by AI.

19:32You see, Bastille's Jurassic Park suggests that dinosaurs always find a way out, but that's fiction. The web browser proved that a similar problem was solvable, and that was nonfiction. So to contain the dinosaurs, Jensen is building a smarter cage. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? McDonald's is asking franchises to bring back playplaces to convince Americans it's good value. But since they're franchises, McDonald's can only ask them. They went big, not boss. For our second story, FIGS is the premium uniform for the estimated 16 million Americans who wear scrubs to work.

20:03Because if you don't realize that every industry is fashion, you're in the bargain basement. And our third and final story is NVIDIA. They're building new AI containment platforms, which, if successful, could preempt regulation. Clever girl. Clever girl. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, SpaceX did their 14th test launch of their Starship. For the first time, it actually went into orbit. And as Lewis, a Yeti on Instagram, commented, no big deal, just launched a skyscraper into space. Yeah, because this rocket ship's 40 stories tall, although when it splashed down in the ocean, it did explode.

20:39Next up for SpaceX, catch the Starship in the arms of their launch tower so that it's reusable. Like chopsticks. And, uh, eliminate the explosions. Second, Waymo's newest expansion isn't to a city, it's to an age. Waymo teen accounts are starting in Phoenix and Nashville, dropping the minimum age to Waymo to 13 years old. Now, this requires parental approval, but then teens can hail their own robo-rads. Although teens have found workarounds to this. Like I noticed in San Francisco, you can like go out on a Saturday and there are like eight 15-year-olds packed in a Waymo blasting Olivia Rodrigo down the street.

21:08You're sitting in the back seat. You're like, yeah, in that Jesse's house. Yeah, we're playing board games in the basement. It's all trackable. And finally, the millennial minivan moment. It's only getting bigger. It's actually accelerated from our last report. The latest update is that 281 ,000 brand new minivans have been sold in the past year in the United States. And that's more than the number of large SUVs sold in the U.S. for the first time in decades. The self-opening doors, the captain seats, the in-car vacuum cleaner. The takeaway yet is, over time, everyone eventually becomes their parents.

21:39You just told me you wanted captain seats. You just told me you wanted captain seats. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Hyul Piriali from lovely Oakland, California. It's the etymology of the word budget. Ooh, budget. What do we got, Jack? Push and play. Hello, fellow Yetis. Did you know your budget started as a medieval fashion accessory? It comes from the old French bougette, a small leather pouch. 18th century British officials used them to carry their financial plans to Parliament. The takeaway? Next time you stress over your finances, remember, you're just organizing a tiny French purse.

22:18Did they call it a bougie? Like, did they drop the hard T at the end? Pretty sure either way, if you want to buy one jacket. Not possible. Yetis, you look fantastic. Jack, you are glowing over there. And why is that exactly? Because we just added a surprise New York date to our live tour, October 8th. We're doing a special pop-up show for New York Adweek over at SeaTag. And we can get the Yetis in too. So if you're available October 8th, near Flatiron in the afternoon in New York City on October 8th, tap the link in the episode description and show up at our live show. Join the wait list. We can't wait to see you there.

22:54And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Emma Allum from St. Pete's, Florida. She's been to 66 new restaurants this year, celebrating the birthday at the 67th. Happy birthday to Gabby Hueso from El Salvador, now thriving in Los Angeles, listening to Dancing Queen for the birthday. And Pratul Ramkumar Mama is turning 30 years old over in India. Happy birthday to Aditi Jain, attended our live show on SF and has now got a birthday. And Dr. David Kohler's got a 61st birthday with the Jaguars game on the way. Happy 31st birthday to Ashley Andreo in New York City. And to anyone else celebrating something today, Nick and a T-boy, celebrate the wins.

23:32This is Jack. Nick owns Stock and Nike. I own one share of SpaceX and Nick owns several. Hotels.com Yetis, you know what our live T-boy tour really means? Well, it means a lot of things, but it includes a lot of hugs with Yetis at our post-show party. Yeah, it does really mean that. But it also really, really means a lot of travel. Like we hit seven cities this year. We got another seven to hit next year. And we booked those trips with Hotels.com. It's a funny little insider info. Jack and I, we actually like to book our own work travel. Because we've got preferences. I want a room that's pet friendly.

24:03I actually bring River on my road trips because she helps ease my nerves. True story. You see, Hotels.com lets you filter for that. And filter for hotels with nice gyms, breakfast included. Jack is very particular, by the way. Yeah, I'm kind of a diva. So you don't need to open a dozen tabs figuring it all out. Just use Hotels.com. And you can book your work trips faster, set your preferences once, and then results are tailored to your business needs. Like how we need space for an emergency recording studio in the room, just in case. Besties, you can join Hotels.com's free rewards program to book once, win twice.

24:32Get instant discounts and earn rewards for future trips. So book your next business trip at Hotels.com. Book now at Hotels.com. Loyalty members, you gotta be 18 or over. And dogs can't be loyalty members. Yet. Thank you.