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Ad Bros Episode 62 // Make Ideas Great Again (MIGA) Part 2

• Ad Bro$ • Season 7 • Episode 62

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The episode explores the dramatic shifts within the advertising industry driven by major mergers, data usage, and the rise of AI. It highlights how these changes may impact creativity, the role of independent agencies, and the ethical implications surrounding diversity in advertising.

• Discussion on Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG and its implications
• The significance of data in shaping contemporary advertising strategies
• Concerns over job stability in the wake of consolidation
• Analysis of the American Dream's changing definition related to advertising
• Impact of holiday advertising on consumer engagement
• Exploration of independent agencies as creative hubs
• Examination of DEI initiatives in advertising and their rollback
• Insights into the relationship between advertising and emerging technologies like cryptocurrency

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Thanks for tuning in to The Ad Bros Podcast! If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share it with your crew.

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Theme Music by Yirayah Garcia

Speaker 2:

Well, I think they kind of put a blow on the whole evolution of advertising. You know, we see that. You know there's going to be this big AI revolution. It's obviously a big consolidation. We could talk about the consolidation, right, because we saw a couple of holding companies and a few advertising agencies Talking about combining right. Right, you want to talk about it? Yeah, we can talk about it.

Speaker 3:

I think, just jumping into that though, like what's, I think, what springboarded, that is the conversation around data. Yeah, true, so I think that a lot of this, and we're talking about the- acquisition of. Omnicom and IPG yeah.

Speaker 3:

I mean come so for some context. Omnicom Acquired IPG and them coming together has made them the the largest holders. It will make them the largest holding company and advertising in the world. Because I feel like before that it was like WPP and then I feel like Publicis uh, they, they edged them out, um, from a billings perspective, uh. And so now Publicis had like a little good run for a small time and now this acquisition which has to, it's still not finalized. I feel like it finalizes like in May or June, so it still could fall through right.

Speaker 2:

I think it's going to happen. We in that era of you know yeah, but just to kind of tap back into it.

Speaker 3:

So, from a data perspective, publicis acquired Epsilon and what they were able to do. Artur and his crew was able to say no, we need to have this across all of our businesses. And they were able to get it rolling, this data platform, rolling like much quicker and at a larger scale. Within the company, what happens? The stocks go up. So now they're doing good, they're showing growth. Ipg already had it going, but they weren't able to, you know, get it done as quick. So now OMD I mean, excuse me, omnicom is saying like, wow, publicist has blown us out of the water. From a data perspective, we need to do something about it. And that's what kind of brought this conversation together.

Speaker 6:

Interesting. I mean I thought it was more so. You know bigger agencies just trying to keep the lights on.

Speaker 6:

Like I think I mean there's only so much, so much fish in the sea, so much, so much food that we can. You know that agencies can fish for out in the sea, so much, so much food that we could, you know, that agencies can fish for out in the water. And I think you know one of the biggest things that that they're gonna be doing is obviously consolidating departments, people, names and and it's and it's interesting because so many people who left publicist, um, sorry, so many people who let, left ipg or went to omnicom or the opposite, you know, they were like trying to get away. Right now it's like, hey, man, coming back to, coming back home, which is which is interesting, and I think you know well, I mean, obviously there there's always, um, you know, these kind of shifts in advertising. So it'll, it'll be interesting to see, kind of once the I don't want to say the heads start rolling, but people start getting, you know, those Brown boxes, I was going to say those HR, those 9 am HR meetings.

Speaker 6:

Because look like I saw on Ad Age. Ad Age had an article. I only read the headline. I didn't read the whole thing, but the headline was you know, read the headline. I didn't read the whole thing, but the headline was you know, according to ad age, that the ceo of uh interpublic group ipg, philippe krakowski, is looking to receive a severance of 49 million dollars golden parachute and he is allegedly being promised a uh you know position when he gets hired at omnicom, which is crazy Again. Hey, more power to him.

Speaker 6:

You did whatever you did to get to that position. And again, this is maybe me being a person of the people, but there's so many people, obviously, that are going to be producers, head of productions, head of accounts, that are probably great and they will probably keep their job. But there's people who are good at their job who won't get. I'm not saying they need $49 million, but it's crazy that you can give someone $49 million and tell everybody else like yo, we can't even, you know, we can't even give you three months severance or we can't even give you six months.

Speaker 3:

You know, because in reality with that is very similar to Game of Thrones. When winter's coming, ai is coming. So, they're like you know what, let me cash out. Yeah, I got to cash out.

Speaker 6:

Let's bring our forces together and figure this thing out. But my problem is, too, is just like just what. I don't want to get into too many different types, but just like with boomers, take that and retire, take that money and retire and then let the next generation take the helm. But instead I'm going to just stay here. $49 million at, I'm sure he's like close to $70 million what are you going to do with that?

Speaker 2:

Not to pocket watch. I'm just saying what are you going to do with that? Go on a beach somewhere.

Speaker 3:

He's probably going probably run for president.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, you're not from harlem no, you're kind of petty.

Speaker 6:

No, I mean queens brothers, you know we a little petty, but yeah I mean even, and I get you say they should retire.

Speaker 2:

And it's weird because the generations behind us, they won't be able to attain this thing called the american dream. Supposedly that caused like 4.4 million dollars now to get to acquire the American dream. Right and we can break that down.

Speaker 6:

Who's got time to do?

Speaker 2:

that Nobody.

Speaker 6:

You're going to work till you drop and look at all right, just to jump in. Sorry to cut you off, I guess to cut you off, but like, like, look at the housing and everything that's going on in California and in Florida with the weather, yeah, but with the weather. It's just like you could buy your dream home and then boom.

Speaker 6:

I mean and again not to sound all morbid, but I'm just saying, like you could put your life and your love into your dream home, and then insurance companies will say yo, we not, we not covering that.

Speaker 3:

Well, america doesn't start until you start losing, losing things. So that's true.

Speaker 6:

We can get back to the spot called wealth.

Speaker 2:

They basically said that America's dream cost is going to be a total of $4.4 million for your entire life, right?

Speaker 6:

That doesn't count. Family like raising a family.

Speaker 2:

It does, it does. This is how it breaks down Raising children ironically, that's the first point Raising children and paying for college you're talking about. From the time they're born to the time they graduate. You're probably going to spend $832,172 per child to $72 per child, right, if you're into pets I don't have a dog because it costs too much money, but if you want a pet, you're probably going to have multiple pets over your life. I feel about $36,000 in pets that's a lot of dogs, bro. Okay, then if you're talking about, like, annual vacations, right, just over a course of your life, you're going to spend about 179 000 just on vacations, right, you know then, if you say it's safe for retirement now I know that's working at a retirement company currently as a xd uh principal designer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're going to need anywhere from like 1.5 to 2 million just to live comfortable right, to buy these high-ass eggs in retirement. So you're going to need about $2 million plus to retire. Nice, and that's just you. Maybe you got a partner or significant other or whatever, so probably double that if you want to do it like that. If you're talking about spending money on your home, owning a home and putting money into it, you're going to have to spend roughly about $922,000 over the duration of your life. And owning cars, that's roughly about like $811,000. So you're saying over a course of like 40, 50 years you're going to spend about $4.4 million if you're here in America. So yeah, buckle up, baby You're going to need it.

Speaker 3:

This American dream? Whose dream is this? Because, man, when I start seeing those, bills racking up like that.

Speaker 2:

It's the dream they marketed Right exactly. Well, it's the dream that we sell in this world of marketing Like.

Speaker 6:

Valentine's Day is coming up, so you know it's time for us to Get your mouth, you got to start cooking.

Speaker 3:

No, no, I'm just saying from an advertising marketing perspective. Like do you know that America only stays afloat by way of the holidays that we market and sell? So like we would hit a deficit if we don't see the numbers go up before Valentine's Day or we don't see the numbers go up for Christmas, of course, President's Day weekend sales. Easter.

Speaker 2:

And all enough. If Americans just don't spend, everything would just plummet in price. All this inflation would literally disappear overnight. But we're just trained to spend. It's the American way. It's the American way.

Speaker 6:

Just to wrap up, the IPG thing, I think, another prediction. I think everyone's going to figure it out, but I honestly think independent shops are going to be. If you care about creativity, independent shops will be where it's at, like places like Wieden and Kennedy, mother, semitu and Sunny or Droga.

Speaker 2:

Those are some of the Well Droga's no longer independent? Oh, they're not. They're owned by Accenture.

Speaker 6:

Oh, by Accenture.

Speaker 2:

All right, Well take them off the list, or some of the Well. Drugs are no longer independent? Oh, they're not.

Speaker 6:

They're owned by Accenture, oh, by Accenture. All right, well, take them off the list. But I think that's going to be kind of where, if you care about making something creative and changing the world, blah, blah, blah, that's going to be where you want to go. If you just care about punching in, collecting a check, maybe doing something cool and creative, then these larger agencies will be for you. But you know you'll be, you'll be a meat. I'm not going to say small. You might be a medium fish, large pond, or you could be a big fish in a big pond, because a lot of independent agencies are not small. I just want to be clear. Like I think people who aren't in the industry may not, you know, realize it, but when you are at these medium to midsize agencies that are independent, a lot of them do a lot and they do have big. They have a big reach in terms of, like, just brick and mortar places and they're making cool shit. So, like I mean, right now that's where I want to be.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and it's interesting that you say that too, even from a client's perspective, like, I think clients, some clients would prefer to deal with those smaller agencies. They don't want to get caught up in the shuffle of like this one RFP and like you got all these big wigs coming at you and also too just to drop the dime real quick, because maybe I am from harlem.

Speaker 6:

But like, like, like these large agencies are doing stuff. They double dipping in the, in the funds, they're forcing their, their, their brands and these clients to um work with uh kind of internal resources and they're basically billing it like come on, dog, like I mean you know.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean making the money work and they sell it in, like they sell you this dream. It's in the scope of work.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, yeah, right yo we got people in new york. We got team in london. We got it. We could be. They're selling you for 24 hours. They're like yo, we could do this shit 24 hours.

Speaker 3:

But they'll tell you oh we, well, we have an associate, we have a senior associate and a manager to do it, and then when they get the business, they'm like, oh shit, we can't do this or they only.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, they got you and one other person and you don't know that you got three roles. Well, look let's?

Speaker 2:

let's take a quick break, um, because this this is a great segue to the next topic around creativity and culture and how that's gonna play out. I do want to get, uh, brother francis on the call so we can take a time to just kind of take a break and punch him in. How about that? Yeah, let's do that, I bet.

Speaker 5:

Master Lord, please Thank you, my lord. Master Lord, a game of chess is like a sword fight. You must think first before you move. My lord, a handsome sword. Do you think your wu-tang sword can defeat me? I came here tonight to play chess. Nobody ever mentioned anything about a sword fight.

Speaker 2:

What's good people? We're back from break, just want to, you know, punch in Brother Francis. So what's going on with you, sir? We back. How you doing man.

Speaker 7:

I'm good bro. Thank you for punching me in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, the brothers just caught up on a couple different things. We basically talked about some personal journeys over these last three years, because the last time we actually recorded, you hosted and it was cool. It was very chill. You covered a bunch of different topics. One of the things you talked about was like you started a company around Seat at the Table. You brought up a couple different topics around predictions, around the current president and a bunch of other things. So we just want to see how you're doing, man, and see what's going on before we jump into some other things around creativity and culture.

Speaker 7:

Man, I've been good over the last what three, four years, or whatever. Yeah three years. Yeah, it's just been a lot of hustling. Man just hustling on the front end, back end side hustles different companies. I've been working on Plus, like you know, my regular day to day advertising gig, so you know, black men don't really ever get a day off.

Speaker 7:

No, you don't, man, I'm always doing something. Plus, you know, in between all of that other stuff, I try to enjoy my life and my time on this planet, been on a few trips seeing more to earth and, um, yeah, man, I'm just living, man, I'm I'm super blessed, can't really complain about a lot. Man, yeah, I'm happy to be reconnecting with you all, to get on here and talk some shit. I'm gonna try. I said my new year's resolution, uh, I'm gonna try to reduce my cursing. So I know I just cursed, I just broke that, but I'm gonna try to keep it clean for the rest of, uh, this recording okay, that's cool, man um, because I don't.

Speaker 7:

I don't want it to to take away from any of my intellectual, introspective, thought-provoking commentary, no doubt by putting an MF on top of stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but sometimes you just gotta say, motherfucker, it's kind of like Samuel Jackson, right? I think it's a black thing.

Speaker 7:

It is African-American urban setting nuance that we love. Mf. Yeah, only we can say it. If you hear somebody white say it it's like oh my god, what do you say?

Speaker 6:

that's true, almost almost repulsive that's funny. I remember I was watching. I was watching, um, uh, chris rock's top five and I remember he was doing a radio promo and the white white guy was like yo put some stank on it and he did some shit like that, where he's just like this is the motherfucking blah, blah, blah. It was just funny, but yeah, man, it was good. Francis, how you doing, man? This is Tony.

Speaker 7:

Yo, what's up, bro? How are you?

Speaker 3:

I'm good. I'm good if a white guy said put some steak on it to you, what would you say, bro, my? Response would be very black and say I'll slap the shit out. Oh my god, I think only black people say that I've never heard anyone from any other ethnicity or race say I'll slap the shit out, you, even if you don't do it. It's just a black thing to say.

Speaker 7:

Yeah, it's a forewarning. That is very black it is.

Speaker 2:

So, francis, check it man. Like I said, we basically covered a couple different topics. We talked about the evolution of advertising, we kind of jumped in. You know, obviously the topic of the day is AI, right, so you know we ain't really got to get that deep. But some of the different agencies, we talked about this thing around ethics in advertising, especially when it comes to DEI and these different rollbacks of those programs. I want to get your perspectives on that because we know that those type of I guess, issues and policies and rollback of these programs is definitely going to affect creativity and culture when it comes to design, advertising and the whole commercial world.

Speaker 2:

So I want to just get your point of view on that.

Speaker 7:

I mean, I think, even when I think about the rollback on any of that stuff, the first thing I think about is just the economy of people of color, right, Right. So like, if you're rolling back programs like that, you're cutting jobs. You're, you know, cutting supplier or budget mandates that may have been earmarked. So the first thing I think about is I think about the attack on the economy of people of color right and specifically black folks, because you know we usually have less than everybody, right?

Speaker 7:

um? So you know, when I hear about all of that, those cutbacks, I think about, like, what the immediate and long term effect is. And a long term effect, and the short term effect too, is just less. We're getting less and less of the pie. So I think that you know the pivot is is like trying to, like, be as smart as possible and and, and you know, being forward thinking right and it and I want to jump in there too, just to add uh to what francis is saying.

Speaker 6:

You know, I I do. It is a little disappointing to see how dei hasn't has evolved to, to a term sort of like woke, like. I think a lot of people have taken it and evolved it. Because I just want to be clear, dei is not. I mean, obviously it helps a lot of people of color and black people, but it's not just black people, it's race, it's gender, it's sexual orientation, it's age, because in our industry, specifically advertising, it's like ageism.

Speaker 6:

And it's religion. So I think a lot of people outside of maybe the industry or or any industry that includes dei might think like oh yeah, we're we're just um cutting jobs from black people who probably didn't deserve it. But it's more than that. It might even include 100.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, cause I was. I was just waiting for everyone to go. I was going to mention that too, and I feel like the reason that is is because black people are on the front line for everything. So, like, even you know, if, if they want to test something, if it's cool, if it's not cool, or or Like you know, you have in the classroom and someone just like looking at that one person and they're going to, they're going to all look at black people. Like if you look at civil rights, like I mean, think about that, like everyone benefited off of that, but that was, you know, a fight by way of black people.

Speaker 7:

So when you look at the footage, you see brothers getting dogs and hoses on them. You don't see Latinos or Asians.

Speaker 3:

So now you so? So there, you got the black people doing the work, yeah, and then once the work is done, everyone else benefit falls in. So it's like you know, and nobody wants to be fodder- anymore right, right yeah, I mean according to the new administration.

Speaker 6:

Um, you know, dei is gone, dei died honestly I think I, I think DEI died in at least 22.

Speaker 2:

Are you saying when they actually gave Juneteenth a real?

Speaker 6:

holiday. I think well, I don't want to say that.

Speaker 6:

That was the pivot. But I want to say, like my personal opinion, I started to see a lot of companies just care less and less about, you know, following up with the policy, less about worrying about where the budget goes. And you know I can say firsthand I saw, you know, I saw when companies were saying like, hey, like if you're, if you're bidding a job, you have to have a diverse amount of bidders. Because you know I don't know if you guys do in the media, but I know in production we triple bid, which is basically just to make sure you get a fair number. You know you bid it with three different people, three different companies, just to make who could do the job, someone that's probably black person of color, poc, what they would like to say? Um, and then I just started to see, at least by 2022, they were just like they don't care, just bring whoever you want.

Speaker 2:

It's 2025 now right, we hear these programs roll back. So a cat like me from Atlanta, georgia, born and raised there, my first take on DEI was not called DEI, it was, like, really called affirmative action. A person like Maynard Jackson, as an example, new mayor in a city that's trying to make, I guess, a foot for itself, right, like create a good footprint for itself, trying to be a major player on this world stage, basically was saying that you know, for like, the airport at the time was kind of like a Mayor Currier airport. You talking about Hartsfield, basically wanted to become a bigger airport.

Speaker 2:

So the goal that he helped to set was, like you know, so many contracts would have to be diverse.

Speaker 2:

It couldn't just be a bunch of you know good old boy white guys bidding on trying to build out the airport. He got people like HJ Russell, who would come out and pour all the runway concrete for these planes to land, and a bunch of other like local businesses, like Pascal's and other smaller businesses to be like some of these inaugural businesses, black businesses to help build out the airport back in the late 70s. So a guy like him had foresight of how to use, at the time affirmative action to help build black wealth in a city like Atlanta, georgia, and we're still seeing the benefits of that literally four or five decades later. So I do think this idea of DEI maybe being rolled back is one thing, but I do think there's still power in local municipalities, even certain companies like Costco. They're like F you, we're going to do what we want Our customers like this. We're not going to rock the boat and you guys can do what you want and you know what's crazy.

Speaker 6:

What you know. What's crazy about all this? What In what? What's crazy about all this? What in what day is today, 20 and 26, in about five days? All these companies that?

Speaker 7:

roll back dei. Yeah, black history month, yeah. I don't even think, I don't even think those companies are going to acknowledge it not enough.

Speaker 7:

Oh, that'll be interesting if you if you noticed, over like the last, I would say, 10 years or so, it's like black history month is getting smaller and smaller, uh like awareness and conversation around it. Right, like you see, some brands still do stuff around it, but for the most part, uh, I don't think so. You see way more pride um activations and, like you know, uh, media around pride versus black history month. Like black history month, I feel like it's actually going like the way of the dinosaur, wow yeah, yeah, I mean I also, and and not even, not even just um, from like a corporate standpoint.

Speaker 7:

I just think even black people as a culture, I don't think we care about Black history movement, Do you think, because you know we're kind of.

Speaker 2:

it seems like you know these companies are only talking to us this time of year and they're pandering, which they do that with every other, you know, I guess holiday, but specifically, black history started as a week and it turned into a month. But do you think it's Francis? Do you think it's around, like? Do you think it's around, like? Do we feel that these guys are just pandering? They just kind of throwing money, but they don't really mean anything what you mean when they do acknowledge.

Speaker 7:

Yeah, like you know, only this time of year I, I don't, I don't know if they, if they're pandering, I mean maybe, but I I think that it's just, it's kind of like one of those tent poles, right, it's an opportunity for them to make money around something right. So, just like how, like over the last maybe five years or so, like you see, way more lunar new year stuff, mm-hmm, like I never even knew what lunar new year was 10 years ago and I lived in fucking new york, right, right, um. But now, like you see, like um, I mean I actually just saw something on uh the ralph lauren site. There's like all types of lunar new year stuff for uh the ralph lauren is doing and he's he actually even did like something for black history month, I feel like last year.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, he did that whole capsule, the design capsule, with the uh designer right, and then he had like the little buttons that was like uh, uh, in in the colors too, and he did the more house. I think it was like the hbcu, uh, kind of capsule with like the style, like it was like the sweaters and all that stuff was dope that that didn't come out in black history month.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 7:

Yeah so real quick. But I mean, at the end of the day, too, it's like a company is looking for another point of entry to making money, Right yeah. So you know, if black people as a whole aren't talking about Black History Month and aren't pushing it within our culture, then why would a company latch on to that as an opportunity to make money?

Speaker 3:

So real quick quick.

Speaker 7:

If the main demographic doesn't really care about it. I don't think they're gonna care about it rosé, you say yeah, yeah so.

Speaker 3:

So that's an interesting point that you uh brought up. Francis, I'm gonna call you frank right so so no, that's an interesting point that you bring up, because when you're saying like like I'm hearing, like we and us and culture, and like when we're saying black people, but I think the thing is black history is more geared towards American history.

Speaker 2:

It is right.

Speaker 3:

And so it's American history, right? So then, when you have people from different places who are black, right, but being black doesn't really mean as much to me, because everywhere I go in this place it's black people. So it makes me think about that, right, because that's a really good point that he brought up, like how black people don't really care about it, and I think it's certain pockets that don't really care, because if I'm from a place and the government is black, everywhere I go it's like 95 black. When I go to america, like why would I care about this?

Speaker 7:

like back home everyone's black, right, so I didn't, but don't, you, don't even think about it like that though like, like, like, honestly think about people that you know in your circle, right, I guarantee. You take 10 black people right now between the eight let's, let's do it like media 25 to 49 years old, and you ask 10 black people, um, who medgar evers was, or um, or shit.

Speaker 7:

Nikki giovanni just died right ask 10 black people between 25 and 49. You might get six black people or five black people who know who she was but.

Speaker 3:

But my question is why? Why do you think that is? Though, that's what, that's what I'm kind of getting to the why why you think I think.

Speaker 7:

I think it's a, it's a lack of knowledge itself, right? I think that, like we, we've been bombarded with so much other shit that makes us not care about like you know who we are, where we're from, right what our contributions to America and society are. I think all that has shifted. I mean shit, I'm what? 45 now. I think that that that started probably within the last 20 or so years.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to add to that because, okay, I'm 48. I got a cousin. I'm not going to say who he is, he was like 18 at the time. He's older now, but at the time, you know, this is when I lived in Atlanta before moving to New York, and this is kind of funny I literally asked him the question of hey, so what city was Martin Luther King born in? Mind you, we in Atlanta, I'm asking him this question, and he couldn't do it. I literally gave him the answer by asking the question. But I had to think about it. I'm like, ok, martin Luther King was literally assassinated eight years before I was born, right 68. I'm born in 76. That's eight years. That's not a lot of time, right, my cousin born 10 years after me, so he's a little bit more far removed from that sense of urgency of having to know about our history.

Speaker 2:

On top of, I think, to what um, you know, francis is saying of brother frank, is that it depends on where you're from, it depends on how you learn about history. I'm from atlanta. You just naturally see black people everywhere, right, you kind of see black history being made, but you also. I learned most of the black history I know, not from school. I actually learned it from my community, from my dad, my parents, the coaches, the band instructor I mean most of my band instructors. They all went to HBCUs, so living a black experience was just seamless. Now, that was my privilege. I understand that there are a lot of people from different places don't have that privilege. So learning about Nikki Giovanni, learning about the nation, learning about the Panthers, learning about Mega Everest, you know, or even Fred Hampton or any of these people like, was just, it's just not top of mind, you know.

Speaker 3:

I guess I'm gonna land my plane with this, right, what you got. My original point was we're talking about, like black history and I'm saying in america, it means something different to be black in america than it means in other places, because people from other places that happen to be black, they lead with their ethnicity and their nationality. In America, it's important to put race first before your nationality and your ethnicity, right? So when we're talking about I grew up kind of the same way where it's like no, you need to know who Clarence 13X is, you need to know who Elijah Muhammad is right.

Speaker 3:

That that's how I grew up baraka right right but someone coming from somewhere else. It's like well, yeah, I'm black, but like it oh, they look at it as just american it's just like. It's like well, I'm, I'm jamaican, right, nobody leads, and I'm black jamaican. So what I'm saying is I think that plays a part in it. To it too is like yeah, like I'm, I'm just here. I'm just here, like I here's a good example of that.

Speaker 2:

You take Drake right? Yeah, drake is a good example of a person who learned black history through rap music. He never really learned about blackness because he grew up Jewish. He didn't grow up around his dad right he really grew up around his mom. He learned who his dad was over a period of time. But if you think about his whole ethos, to learn about that black experience was through rap music, not through books, not through talking to intellects or normal people like us. Right, he learned through rap music, black culture.

Speaker 7:

Do we know that, though, bro?

Speaker 2:

Oh, we know that.

Speaker 6:

You can just listen to the shitty rapper.

Speaker 3:

But I'm just saying we've seen it and we can speculate we know, I mean his father, his uncles.

Speaker 7:

They are they, they, they are like us, like they're.

Speaker 6:

They're regular good memphis dudes right right we don't know if you spent summers down there, bro yeah, I think, I think I think what ad is saying and is like, based on what he said and interviews when he was on degrassi and how he carried himself, um, you know, in a more kind of posh way, you can speculate. I'm not saying it did happen, but I'm saying you could speculate that later on in life is when he, kind of like, adopted that and learned.

Speaker 3:

But I agree with you, we don't know if he didn't learn but to frank's point like we don't know that, because it's like when I show up in the court, like in a corporate setting, I don't bring the like my inner self. You know the corporate setting, that's true, because like they're not ready for that, you're not ready for that, but he's an artist I'm an artist at some point as an actor he's still an artist, though.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, at some point as a artist, you're going to represent part of who you are through your art, that's very self-reflective or something you just reporting, as you see, and that's where hip-hop started like that. So we don't know that. But I can almost pretty much guess that most of that shit he learned the black culture aspect of who he is wasn't necessarily about talking to some homies on the steps all the time.

Speaker 3:

And this is kind of like market research too, like what we're doing right now, because being black is so complex. That was my main point. It's like it's very complex.

Speaker 2:

But I think to kind of move this conversation still in the vein of creativity and culture, because we're touching on that, well, let's literally talk about more aspects around dei, culture and even with social. What's going on with social? We know that we got certain platforms like fan base. They're kind of reaching out to the culture, right being that a lot of things have been kind of rolled back at meta. We don't have to get into the details of that, but you know the zuck kind of letting you guys know that he's going along with getting rid of all this DEI, not even just that, he's actually getting rid of a bunch of things around fat checking. So now, even the mere fact that you're going to be on Meta, people can literally come and debunk your history or who you are by saying that what you're saying is not true, right? So how do we feel?

Speaker 6:

about it. Well, just to correct not correct that, but to add that he's going to do community notes similar to that Listen, tayson, fuck them.

Speaker 2:

notes Like there's a lot of dumb people online. Okay, like if we are saying that the community which is a lot of dumb people and potentially are bots, they're not even real people, potentially. I'm just saying so what we're saying right, I'm just adding context brown people, whomever, you know, this DEI aspect of culture in these social platforms that has more or less made all these platforms a lot of money and create a lot of data. How do we feel about that?

Speaker 3:

Y'all don't give a fuck.

Speaker 2:

No.

Speaker 3:

I mean it's a good point.

Speaker 7:

Actually, I think I kind of missed the real question. Say that again.

Speaker 2:

Well, the question is this right being that somebody like Mark Zuckerberg has decided to roll back DEI very publicly he kind of go the way of the wind as well as getting rid of fact-checking how do we feel about our culture impacting or building his platform, for that matter, and now that he's kind of like turning a back on all of that, how do we feel about it? I?

Speaker 6:

mean, I think, looking at it from a business perspective, as my brother Jose might say, we don't own this shit, so it's like it's not ours.

Speaker 2:

That's true. So at what point do we stop giving away shit?

Speaker 6:

we don't own, I don't know. We like to give away the sauce.

Speaker 2:

You know what I'm saying like, like, like I mean, and that's behavior like like I feel like, I feel like you know we can.

Speaker 6:

We can look back at a lot of times in in culture, life, hip-hop, whatever where we've just given the sauce away for free for some photos or for some clout, quote, unquote clout recognition and we give it away. Some people are smart enough to be like yo let me get a check for this Monetize and monetize, but like a lot of times, like you know, we, like I, just look at it like we don't own it. So like I think, what was that app that was popular during COVID and people were just speaking Clubhouse Clubhouse during um covet and people were just speaking clubhouse clubhouse people people were upset about that.

Speaker 6:

I mean, I think it flopped eventually, but they got evaluated at like close to a billion just now, just because black people were talking shit and doing a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff that you see now on podcasts about relationships, all that other shit. But it's like you know, I I remember saying people be upset like yo, we made it hot, blah, blah, blah. But my thing I almost say is this um, for people who say black people make we do, mix up hot, but yo, if you made hove, make another hove. That's all I'm saying like, like, if we could do that on these, on these uh platforms that aren't owned by us, if we can make it, then like, let's get something black popping.

Speaker 3:

I think what happens is just from the business perspective, like what does this mean for businesses? Right? I mean you look at X, twitter, x, whatever you want to call it. Right, there's a lot of Twitter. Right, there's a lot of advertisers that do not jump into that space and sponsor any kind of content because of the brand safety.

Speaker 2:

They don't sue a lot of ad companies for that.

Speaker 6:

Who. I mean he announced the lawsuit. I don't know, actually. I'll look it up.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if he actually but I mean he's, he also doesn't, he doesn't come from a marketing background, right. So it's like the reality is, if, hey, there's hate speech, right, right, and in my ad is running next to hate speech, people are going to come back to my marketing brand, coming back to me as a brand, say, hey, you're sponsoring hate speech, so this is why. Or if there's like porn, right, it's like, and you have ads running next to it. So I mean, all all of these, these guardrails are put in place purposely, right, purposely, so people don't come back and say, and to your brand saying, yo, man, this is what you're sponsoring, like nah, we, we, we off this. You know what I'm saying. So I think the same thing applies to zuck, right. Like, once you start letting people tell lies, uh, you start letting people, you know, say what they want to say, and then you see those numbers go down, then you'll rethink it, because this is america and it's all about that dollar.

Speaker 3:

It's about that dollar, and you know so and just to jump in.

Speaker 6:

um just quick look out, it seems like um some of the lawsuits that elon uh put on advertisers have been dropped. Some are still ongoing, but so far the only people who are winning are the lawyers.

Speaker 3:

And he still owe people money. Yeah, broke boy.

Speaker 2:

That's funny. Are you about to say something? No, all right. So listen, I think that kind of wraps up this thing around culture and creativity. So I mean, that's what it is Representation, comeback of the analog. I mean, listen, you know, I think at this point we kind of going to be seeing where these platforms are going. We're seeing what culture is. I mean, it's kind of like MAGA or nothing, or it's kind of like I'm just checking the fuck out because I'm tired of fighting. So I guess this is like a continuous conversation when it comes down to culture and impact. But I think we can move on now to like this part around the intersection of technology and creativity. We've covered a lot about AI, so I don't think we need to get more into that.

Speaker 2:

But this idea that crypto, crypto is really making, oddly enough, a huge comeback. You know, the current president rolled out his own coin. His wife rolled out a coin. Yeah, the wife rolled out a coin. Yeah, the hot tour got a coin. Yeah, I mean, the pastor who was at the inauguration do had a coin. So it seems that crypto, more or less, is becoming like a great marketing tool, a great consumer engagement tool and, let's be real, it's a great way to. You know scam people money. It's just keeping it being right, but I mean any perspectives on that. You know scam people money. That's just keeping it being right, but I mean any perspectives on that. Have you guys been paying attention to like how this crypto aspect is making like a 2.0 comeback post the whole FTX implosion and, oddly enough, sam actually made people money ironically doing that whole fiasco FTX? But any thoughts on that?

Speaker 6:

I think to quote the great Matthew McConaughey from Wolf of Wall Street, great movie it's all Fugazi. It's all Fugazi Like it's all in the wind. Like you know, I'm just like, like. I think, obviously, like you know, when you cash out the money is real. You know the thing that we're trading is real, but I think it's like, I mean I guess, similar to American currency. It's kind of trading just on the idea of money.

Speaker 2:

But it's opaque, though.

Speaker 6:

You don't know who's pulling what, right? But I mean, my whole thing is that I don't want to get into a big crypto convo because I still need to kind of understand a little bit more, but I just I don't understand what it's backed by.

Speaker 2:

The idea that it seems to be backed by the idea that it's valuable and that you can bypass the banking systems. Okay, right, this idea that is.

Speaker 6:

So are they selling an idea and maybe we need a crypto expert. But like, are they selling an idea.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, okay, think about the coin. The coin is this I just acquired a new position. I became president. Right, I got a lot of power Right, a whole lot of influence Right. This guy's face is everywhere. He's the most powerful man on the planet.

Speaker 6:

People buy into the idea of access to him and this idea that everything he touched just turns to gold, right, so it's this idea.

Speaker 2:

Or gold plated, it's essentially like his toilets to gold, right, so it's this ideal of this perception. Or gold-plated, essentially like it's toilets. It's gilded. But what they're buying into supposedly is this future of being able to have, I guess, value of this earning. It's kind of you know, it's kind of like some sucker shit, like hey, you know you get it's kind any investment.

Speaker 6:

You're investing in the hopes that you'll make some money later.

Speaker 2:

But it's funny because now these coins really have no real utility, but they're being used to engage audiences, to dump money into it right, as well as get a lot of data, because again, they're getting a bunch of crypto data that's not there and it's being exchanged on Ethereum, but it's also being used to more or less get money.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, did any of y'all get the big T coin?

Speaker 2:

I didn't get the big T coin, because I know at some point it's going to crash. It's a sucker's game, I mean if you get it early you might be all right. But the earliest are people who's a part of setting it up, not the people who invest in it early Right.

Speaker 6:

Well, yeah, that's true, right, yeah, well, yeah that's true, yeah, so I don't know.

Speaker 2:

I mean again, I do think the genius of this guy is that he know how to get people to believe in something that seemingly don't even exist. He's a he's a.

Speaker 6:

I mean just to kind of shift really quick, and this is we're not supporting any political party, but I do want to say you know, you have to look at and this could be another episode but hats off to you know Trump's, he's a personality. If you look at everything from a marketing perspective, you know he's done stuff where he's marketed himself and aligned himself and obviously there's a lot of other intricacies with you know him winning him and you know Republicans winning the presidency. But from literally just strictly marketing perspective, he has these one-liners that are unfortunately hilarious sometimes they're eating the dogs. When he was debating and talking about Haiti, it feels like wrestling, yeah, it's like WWE and it's just like you know he's found this niche way to basically, you know like it looks like he's making a a bold move, but he's just I think he's done more than throwing shit to the wall sometimes.

Speaker 2:

I think he's done more than the base he's figured out how to democratize that. Thinking like maggot is no longer just a group of people, it's a mindset yeah.

Speaker 6:

It's a real mindset, it's a movement.

Speaker 2:

I've seen Hotel Brothers investing in this coin.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, Right. So I mean Well, that's different, that could be a money thing, that could just be like yo.

Speaker 3:

I'm just trying to pay yeah. No soft talk when it comes to telling the truth.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, man, thanks for joining us Protect your neck, join us again on the next pod.

Speaker 3:

Peace, peace, peace.

Speaker 4:

Thanks for tuning in to the Ad Bros Podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget to forget to like, subscribe and share it with your crew. Catch us next time for more insights and creativity, right here on the adbros podcast powered by caffeine media network. See you soon.