The Return of Meme Stock Mania? & New ChatGPT Talks to You

This episode explores the resurgence of meme stock frenzy with GameStop and the release of OpenAI's new AI voice assistant, drawing parallels to the movie "Her."

1. GameStop's stock resurgence demonstrates the enduring influence of social media and key figures like Keith Gill on financial markets.
2. OpenAI's GPT-4.0 introduces a more human-like voice assistant, potentially outperforming current technologies like Siri.
3. The episode illustrates the interaction between technological innovation and its reception by the public and markets.
4. Discussions on related topics, such as baby name trends and the role of philanthropy, provide a broader cultural context.
5. The importance of understanding the underlying factors in meme stock phenomena and technological advancements is emphasized.

1: Introduction

Overview of the episode's main topics, including meme stock phenomena and technological advancements in AI voice assistants. Neil Freiman: "Today, OpenAI released an incredibly human-sounding voice assistant." Toby Howell: "Then the man, the myth, the roaring kitty has emerged from retirement to send GameStop shares flying once again."

2: GameStop's Stock Surge

Discussion on the factors leading to GameStop's stock price increase, primarily driven by social media. Neil Freiman: "Keith Gill tweeted, and that was all the masses needed to once again send GameStop pumping." Toby Howell: "GameStop is up 40% pre-market already. What year is it?"

3: OpenAI's GPT-4.0 Release

Exploration of OpenAI's new AI model, its capabilities, and its potential impact on the technology and voice assistant market. Neil Freiman: "This AI can ramp up its expressive voice if you wanted to read you a bedtime story." Toby Howell: "It is so much better than Siri. Like it is night and day."

1. Evaluate technological investments: Consider the potential of emerging technologies like AI voice assistants in investment strategies.
2. Monitor social media influence: Keep an eye on how social media can impact stock prices and market dynamics.
3. Explore new tech applications: Consider how new technologies can be integrated into personal and professional life for enhanced productivity and interaction.
4. Stay informed on market trends: Regularly update oneself on market conditions and notable influencers within the stock market.
5. Understand AI capabilities: Familiarize with the capabilities and limitations of current AI technologies to better leverage them in various sectors.

Episode 322: Neal and Toby discuss the surprising return of ‘Roaring Kitty’ which triggered another surge of GameStop shares. Is this meme stock mania part 2? Then, OpenAI unveils its newest ChatGPT model that can now listen and talk back to you. Also, Melinda Gates is leaving the Gates Foundation for good to start her own philanthropic journey. Next, a halt in sriracha production has hot sauce lovers worried of another shortage. Meanwhile, veneer techs are all over social media but does that mean you should go to these low-cost specialists? Dentists don’t think so. Lastly, how McDonald’s ultimately came out on top after the 2004 documentary ‘Super Size Me’ tried to take it down.

People

Neil Freiman, Toby Howell, Keith Gill

Companies

OpenAI, GameStop

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

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That's robinhood.com dot disclosures investing involves risk. Other fees may apply. Robinhood Financial LLC member SIPC is a registered broker dealer. Good morning, brew Daily show. I'm Neil Freiman.

Toby Howell
And I'm Toby Howell. Today, OpenAI released an incredibly human sounding voice assistant are we about to fall in love with chatgpt? Then the man, the myth, the roaring kitty has emerged from retirement to send GameStop shares flying once again. It's Tuesday, May 14. Let's ride.

So the Social Security Administration released its annual list of the most popular baby names in 2023. And wouldn't you know it, Toby and Neil are number one and two. Maybe in a few years. But actually Liam and Olivia topped the list this year. It's no real surprise either.

Liam has been on top for seven straight years now, while Olivia has held the throne since 2019. Neal, looking through the rest of the top ten, any names stand out to you? I got four big takeaways here. The biggest riser, the biggest winner is Mateo, which entered the top ten, was the only new name in the top ten. It ranks 6th for baby boys.

Neil Freiman
So shout out to all the baby mateos out there. There was no big bump for Taylor at all, despite Taylor Swift's huge 2023. In 1993, it was the 7th most popular name for girls. Now it's number 261, and it hasn't bumped up at all recently. And then randomly, Khaleesi has so much staying power.

Five years after Game of Thrones ended, it hit its peak. In 2018, 562 girls were named Khaleesi, and last year it was 400. So just a slight drop off and final takeaway. There's just so many more names now than there were in the past. In 1973, there were 14,000 distinct names given to babies.

50 years later, in 2023, there were more than double that, 29,000. So there's just a huge more pool of baby names. Parents are getting a lot more creative naming their kids. My predictions? The WNBA kicks off tonight.

Toby Howell
Caitlin is going to be on the rise. Now let's hear a word from our sponsor, the Wendy's Cinnabon. Pull apart now. I've had some people ask me if the cinnabon pull part is more of a morning or an evening thing. And to that I say, don't let such a petty thing as the sun govern your internal sweet treat instincts.

Neil Freiman
A sweet treat transcends time and space. There's no am or pm, morning or night. There's just ooey gooey cinnamon sugar dough. We all have that little voice inside that knows when we need a little pick me up. Mine happens to be talking to me constantly, which is why I have to do marathons and bike races and whatnot.

Toby Howell
But hey, you gotta listen to yourself. Today feels like a morning sweet treat for me. And if you feel the same, head to a wendy's near you or go to wendy's dot. Morningbrew. By the way, some of you have been tagging us or sending us emails of you ordering it.

We love that. Keep it up. All right, let's dive in. Well, it happened again. GameStop turned back the clock like Lakers LeBron and went on a run like it's 2021.

At one point, the famous meme stock jumped 119% and trading was halted for volatility multiple times. Yesterday, it ended the day up 74% with a market cap of $9.3 billion. Why? It wasn't a solid earnings report. It didn't suddenly figure out how to make brick and mortar game shops popular again.

Nope. All it took to set off this rally was one tweet from the man himself, Keith Gill, aka roaring Kitty. Roaring Kitty was a bandana culture hero behind the first meme stock craze that culminated in a hearing before Congress, a movie made about him called dumb money, and an eventual slip into obscurity as he decided to take his family away from the public eye. But for whatever reason, before the market opened on Monday, roaring Kitty decided to post a meme of a guy leaning forward in his chair. That means things are about to get serious.

And that was all the masses needed to once again send GameStop pumping. Neil, we checked again this morning. GameStop is up 40% pre market already. What year is it? How did this happen again?

Neil Freiman
Here we go again. So I was looking at my group chat yesterday. My friend texted at about two or 03:00 p.m. Why is GameStop going? What's going on with GameStop right now?

And I had to say, realistically, this is what happened. I just wrote, keith Gill tweeted, I mean, the power of this guy to move this particular stock is insane. Nothing happened with this company. It's still in dire straits. It's not doing well.

And all he had to do was tweet a picture and it gained billions of dollars in market cap and people piled in. There's so much fomo. So I just don't even know what to say. This guy has so much power. He's the one of the most influential investors of our time.

Toby Howell
Yeah, I mean, you say that, but it's not hyperbolic to say that. Let's put it in perspective, though. Despite yesterday's rise, which also had built on a 50% increase from this month alone, GameStop stock is still only worth about $30. That's around a quarter of where it peaked at in 2021, before kind of the whole meme stock bubble ended up bursting. The stock is still down more than 99% since its 2021 peak.

So even though that we did have this big bump already, on top of another bump that it's seen throughout this month, we're still not quite at the frothy meme stock levels of 2021. No. And it doesn't appear there's a major short squeeze going on, which is what happened in the past. Short sellers like Melvin Capital, these big hedge funds, that was the battle that played out. This David versus Goliath battle that played out in 2021.

Neil Freiman
There was 140% of the company's outstanding shares were shorted back then. That helped create that massive spike. Right now, that number stands at just about 24%, which is higher than a normal stock, but is not anywhere near the levels where you would get this massive short squeeze that happened in 2021. So I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen from here, but it does appear that retail traders are piling in there. The amount of trade shares traded for GameStop yesterday was 21 times what's been normal, and volume was at its highest level since March 2021.

So you see all these people, people in our group chats, everyone we know. A lot of retail investors are saying, wait, like, this stock is going up? Should I get in there or not? Should I? You know, so I'm sure this is good.

All good for Robin Hood, anyway. Yeah, let's party like it's 2021. It caused a rally in other meme stocks, too. AMC jumped 78%. Reddit itself, because it's now a publicly traded company, jumped around 9%.

Toby Howell
So it is a rising tide. A rising meme floats all boats. Neil, I'll put you on the spot, though. What do you think the tweet meant? Like, do you think read into it if you had an exam question that said, what did this tweet mean, what would you say to that?

Neil Freiman
It seems like he's going to be a more active market participant. I mean, he was making these YouTube videos in the past and explaining his thesis for why he thought GameStop was a good stock. And it could be that he will go back to YouTube, maybe talk about why GameStop is still a good stock. My big question is, could he do this with any other stock or is it just the folk aura around GameStop? Like, if he just picked another stock, would, would this happen with somebody else?

Like, if you're, if you're a public company, are you courting him and talking to him and getting him on the phone and saying, hey, here's like what, what our plan is. Why don't you talk about, I think. If he gave the same level of thought and actually talked through his bull case like he did with GameStop back in the day, then yes, maybe he could pump another stock. I just, my mind immediately went to Berkshire Hathaway. Do you think he could pump Berkshire Hathaway up?

Toby Howell
I don't know what would be the hardest possible stock for him to pump. But yeah, right now GameStop seems like it's, it's found its groove. I would say buckle up because this thing is not over. It's going to happen the whole week based on these pre market moves. Yesterday, OpenAI revealed its big new product update that had been hyped for weeks despite swirling rumors.

Neil Freiman
It wasn't a search engine and it wasn't a partnership with Crocs. Instead, it was straight out of a Hollywood movie, her, where walking Phoenix falls in love with his AI assistant, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The tech company released an updated AI model called GPT Four O that features a super conversational voice assistant that sounds eerily like Johansson in that movie. This AI can ramp up its expressive voice if you wanted to read you a bedtime story. It can be more robotic if you want more monotone in your life, and it can start singing if you crave a little night music.

And it can also translate languages between two speakers in real time. OpenAI said the assistant was not inspired by her, but CEO Sam Altman did not get the memo because he tweeted her after the event and also said it's his favorite movie. You're probably not going to fall in love with Chap Chibi t just yet, but the capabilities on display yesterday make existing voice assistants seem like dial up Internet. I don't see how Siri can financially recover from this. Yeah, I mean, let's just dive right into that because we've been hearing rumors that there is a partnership brewing between OpenAI and Apple.

Toby Howell
After hearing this voice mode, this voice assistant in action, you have to think that Apple saw that and said, all right, Siri is a thing of the past. Let's just partner. This is an incredible little piece of technology here. It is so much better than Siri. Like it is night and day.

It feels like one is a robot. One feels much more expressive. And it was. The biggest thing that stood out to me about some of these demos was the latency and response time. That's what makes it feel so human.

Instead of having it load or having that awkward pause before responding, the latency was as low as 232 milliseconds in an average of 320 milliseconds, which the team is saying, that's human latency time. When I talk to you, you're only taking a few milliseconds to respond to me. That's what this new voice chat assistant can do. Huge unlock right there. I think it's also a shot of Costa Bow, not just to Siri or Google Assistant, but also to these hardware makers that are trying to create AI first hardware, like the humane pan and Rabbit R one, because this thing can do a lot of what those companies are trying to do.

Neil Freiman
Recognize images, respond, have a conversation with you, and respond to voice prompts. But this thing can do it so much better than they can. Those were horrible. I mean, Marcus Brownlee said they were some of the worst products that he's ever reviewed. So, for all this talk of moving AI to an AI first hardware, maybe we're just looking at what AI first hardware is, and it's your phone, right?

Toby Howell
We did. I mean, we said that in our conversation about that, is that it felt like an app, but it also just feels like something that if that Apple partnership comes to fruition, then it is something that will just be contained within your phone. Another demonstration showed the phones using the phone's camera function to show the AI model a math problem or something like that, a coding problem, and then have their voice mode walk you through how to solve it. That felt like a major step forward in education. Can you imagine being all you need?

You have a tutor in your pocket. I mean, we've kind of been saying that ever since the Internet created, but now you truly do have someone who can walk you through step by step, how to solve a mouth problem that you show it via camera. It did have, like, this very magical feel and made you bullish about the future of education as well. Okay, but why is it so sexy? I know.

Yeah, that was, I mean, you say that, but people on Twitter were saying why the voice does come off across a little more sultry than necessary. And the team was just saying, like, we tried to make it sound as human as possible. There are other voices as well. We didn't model it after Scarlett Johansson, but it was genuinely concerned. Is like, the voice comes off a little more.

More sensual than you want it to. So, yeah, you're right on that account. There was a major shakeup at the apex of the world of philanthropy yesterday as Melinda French Gates announced she would resign as co chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation next month. It comes almost three years to the day after the two announced their divorce and is the second high power decoupling of charitable initiatives from ex husbands after Mackenzie Scott fully separated her charitable ventures from Jeff Bezos back in 2019. As part of the announcement, Melinda said she would receive $12.5 billion for her charitable work going forward, saying in a statement that it is a critical moment to protect and advance women's rights around the world.

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is huge. It's doled out $77 billion worth of grant payments since its founding almost 25 years ago, and it currently has around $75 billion in assets under management. And now it's reverting back to just the Gates foundation with Bill as the sole chair. This is a big shakeup. Yeah.

Neil Freiman
If you're in the philanthropy world or the nonprofit world, whatever happens at the top of the Gates foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, soon to be the just the Gates foundation, is huge. It's going to impact everything that you do. Look, reading between the lines, you know, you can say anything about their personal relationship, and we have no idea what that is. But they did have distinct philanthropic visions as well. They both focused on certain areas.

Melinda was way more focused on gender equality and minority access in the United States and around the world. Bill was far more focused on health outcomes in developing countries. So there might be a different thinking in terms of where they want to spend their money, and that might have led to this split as well. Right. And then this is not coming out of the blue either.

Toby Howell
When they divorce, they did say that they'd allow themselves of a trial period to feel out if they could continue working with each other at the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. So it was a little bit telegraphed. We are coming up to the end of that trial period. And I think you're right. I mean, Melinda definitely sees the current moment where the world is heading as a very crucial moment for women's rights around the world.

I mean, you just look at the row back of Roe v. Wade in the United States. So maybe she did feel like it was time to really take her money and do with it what she wants to do with it. It also comes as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation did rejigger their strategy in general towards how they dole their money out. It used to be they were criticized for being a little too prescriptive, a little too top down, especially with their education initiatives.

But now they're kind of giving the money to these organizations, getting out of the way and saying, you do with it what you please. A lot of things have been changing around this foundation, and that might have. Been influenced by Mackenzie Scott, who's given out $16.5 billion in philanthropy. When she divorced Jeff Bezos, she got 4% of Amazon stock and has been using that to give away so much money. And she kind of shook up the world of philanthropy by giving these foundations a blank check and was saying, here, here's money.

Neil Freiman
I'm going to explain where I'm putting this money, but you really do what you want with it, which was a break from what, what has done in the past. So Melinda French gates and Kenzie Scott are some of the biggest forces in philanthropy right now that are going on their own. Up next, how the heck are we running out of Sriracha again?

Toby Howell
Hey, Neil, what's your favorite part of a road trip? Hmm, that's a tough one. Probably queuing up the perfect playlist before I hit the wide open road. What about you? Honestly?

I like to kick back and play a video game as a passenger, of course. Really? Doesn't it get all glitchy and laggy? It can, but with at and t in car wifi, there's no worry about that. Basically, at and t hooks up car with unlimited wifi so you can stay connected, stream video, blast that streaming playlist, or even catch up on work.

Neil Freiman
Oh, nice. Does it work in rural stretches? For sure. At and t actually covers more roads than any other carrier based on independent third party data. It even powers features like real time gps and voice assistant.

Toby Howell
And it works outside your car, too, if you want to get a little tailgate action going or something. Sounds awesome. So, where can I go to add some wi fi to my wheel? Head over to att.com incarwifi. That's att.com incar wifi.

Neil Freiman
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Toby Howell
That's massmutual.com planning.

Neil Freiman
If you've got a bottle of sriracha in your fridge, use it sparingly. No squirts more than necessary on those eggs. If you must have spice, pivot to cholula. That's because hui fong foods, the maker of the most popular version of Sriracha, told distributors last week that it's stopping production until at least September, sparking fears of a shortage. If you're feeling deja vu, no need to get your head checked out.

Sriracha experienced severe shortages last summer, too, and other supply snacks have halted production at least three times since 2020. This has been a persistent problem for the brand. So what's the issue this time? Hui Fong said that the jalapeno peppers it uses for the sauce were too green to proceed with production, as it is affecting the color of the product. And those jalapenos are pretty much the entire shebang.

78% of every bottle of Hui fang Sriracha consists of pureed red chili peppers. Okay, my question for you, Toby, is this. Other companies make sriracha. They use chilis, and you're not hearing a peep about any production problems. Is this a hui fang specific problem?

Toby Howell
Yeah, if I'm a customer of hui fang, I'm a little upset here. One, because Neil keeps pronouncing my product as sriracha instead of sriracha. But the decision to halt production of its sriracha sauce has been its third since 2020. How does this keep on happening? And I think the last time people kind of took it in stride and said, hey, you decoupled from your old supplier, you're working out some supply chain kinks.

But now here we are years later, and we're still having the exact same issue over and over again. Some people were taking to social media and saying, I think it's a gimmick at this point. They're trying to drive artificial scarcity every year they're having the same exact shortage issue. But then when I go to the store, I still see bottles there. So people were trying to dig deeper here and say, it can't just be a supplier issue.

You must have figured it out by now. But I do think that people are getting a little bit fed up at this point with. With Huifang. Yeah. So you mentioned this supplier issue, and this seems to be the root of the problem.

Neil Freiman
It had this really long relationship with a company called Underwood Ranches, which grew their jalapenos, and they had a three decade long, amazing relationship, but that broke down in 2017. There was a really nasty legal battle. A jury awarded Underwood Farms $23 million in damages. They separated a few years ago. And it seems as though Hui Fong has not been able to find another supplier for its jalapenos, because it's true there.

A bunch of other companies makes Sriracha, including Underwood. He started a rivals Sriracha brand, but he's saying, I. Yeah, I have plenty of jalapenos. What's going on here? And the only brand that is not able to get this supply that they need is Hui Fong.

And other Sierra companies are doing perfectly fine. So it does appear like this is a complete own goal by them because they haven't been able to find a reliable supplier after that long relationship broke down. Every year, two other brands do capitalize on this almost yearly supply chain issue. Tabasco launched an entire website dedicated to helping people find Sriracha substitutes. And then also, you're right, Underwood Ranch has launched its own competing product as well.

Toby Howell
So it's probably not a grand conspiracy, as much as I'd like it to be. It just. They don't have sufficient backup suppliers. And there's also, just like, the lack of rain in Mexico is something that's very hard to. To get around.

So even though I wish it was some marketing stunt engineered to create artificial scarcity, I do think it's just a simple supply chain issue. Where there are safe medical procedures, there will be cheaper and more dangerous knockoffs. We've seen it with medical tourism, we've seen it with plastic surgery, and we're seeing it again in the $8 billion cosmetic dentistry industry. And I'm going to dig into that for today's edition of Tobi's trends, where I take a scroll through the Internet to find a trend you should know about. Today's trend is all about viral veneer techs and the illegal procedures they are conducting.

Veneer techs are people who take a paid course, print out a certificate that invite people into their homes to apply fake veneers to their teeth at way below market rates. The cut talked to one woman who wanted an icy white smile, so she found a veneer tech who goes by princess and booked an appointment for a set of 20 composite veneers for $1,500. They had already started to fall out on her drive home, and in a few days, a dozen had detached apologies for anyone who's ever had that teeth falling out nightmare. But that's pretty much what happened, Neil. This trend encapsulates so much of modern day social media culture.

The pursuit of pearly white teeth you see on red carpets, the cottage industry that pops up to support those desires, and the secondary cottage industries that pop up to, quote, unquote, certify the people doing the work. It's transception here. Great, great trend, Toby. It is transception. One of the veneer tech virals videos that went viral was not just the people getting them, but the people who were getting certified.

Neil Freiman
Some guys said, hey, I took this two week class, and now I'm a certified veneer tech. And people were like, uh, what? Are you able to do that? Because you're not allowed to do it unless you're a licensed dentist. And I don't know, learning about this veneer stuff is.

Was alarming and very interesting. Apparently, there are two types. There are these porcelain kind which require you to shave down teeth a decent amount to put them on. Those are the ones that last ten to 20 years. And then there are these cheaper versions, composite bonded veneers, that are less invasive.

And you don't have to shave your teeth down all that much. It appears that the veneer tech quotes, in quotes, are doing this more composite, cheaper variety, and it's leading to all kinds of problems of these teeth falling out, and they're just not lasting as long. Plus, healthy people who have, you know, pretty healthy teeth don't necessarily need them at all. Right? And then also, veneers are just having a moment in general.

Toby Howell
The cut wrote another article that referenced the author was watching the golden bachelor and was like, whoa. Every single pair of teeth I see here are just very pearly, pearly white here. And it is definitely something fueled by social media. There's a cosmetic dentist in Beverly Hills. They have over 750,000 followers on Instagram.

And then, of course, you're seeing these veneer tech videos popping up on TikTok, people flaunting their certificates, saying, I'm making a. It's a great side hustle for me. Take this course. So you're seeing just this assault on all angles of the social media, from the certification side to the actual veneers gleaming back at you every time you turn on the tv. It explains why we're talking about this trend in this current moment right now.

Neil Freiman
And meanwhile, actual dentists are saying this is not only bad, it is dangerous, because these veneer techs can't find infections in your teeth. And when you put a veneer on, you're basically locking in that infection, if it does exist, which could go straight to your brain. So these people aren't able to identify actual problems with your teeth and literally put a veneer, you know, in many senses of the word, over the actual problem. Finally, here's an anniversary worth noting. 20 years ago this month, the documentary super size me was released.

Yeah, know we're old. And it turns out the only thing it supersized was McDonald's business. Two decades after the biggest pr crisis in its history, the golden arches are more powerful than ever, according to a report in the New York Times. As a reminder, this movie was created by a guy named Morgan Spurlock, who ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days and charted what happened to his body. Super Size me was a sensation, earning $22 million on a 65k budget and drawing global attention to the fast food industry's unhealthy menu and kid focused marketing.

But if you saw the movie and thought, McDonald's is cooked, I should not invest, well, you'd have missed out. Its stock price has shot up almost 1000% since super seismy came out, nearly twice the return of the s and p 500. Meanwhile, fast food in general is booming. There are 40 chains with more than 500 locations in the US. 36% of Americans eat fast food on any given day.

And it's the second largest source of private employment in the country, after hospitals. Toby, it's clear that Morgan Spurlock never stood a chance. McDonald's won. Let's go back to the time when the super size me was released. I distinctly remember being in 6th grade.

Toby Howell
It was one of those days where the computer turned off the lights, rolled out the tv, and we watched it. It felt like a very big cultural moment. It was a very big cultural moment. Awareness was raised. These alarm bells were sounded.

There's these nightly news segments that were covering it and was a very big deal. But then, if you just zoom out, McDonald's is up 1000% since then. You're right. Fast food is more popular than ever. McDonald's has 42,000 global locations.

And it was just a combination of a lot of the marketing that McDonald's did around that time. Remember, they were marketing very aggressively to children. A lot of those children are in their millennial stage. They are those older millennials at this point. So they have very good memories associated with that marketing that was tied to their childhood.

So just a relentless wave of consumers have remained committed to the fast food industry, despite that. Documentary speaker one, totally going back to what happened during that documentary and the discourse around it is fascinating. I mean, look what happened to this guy's body. So he gained 24.5 pounds. Over the course of those 30 days, his body mass increased by 13%.

Neil Freiman
His cholesterol spiked. He had moves, twins, and had fat accumulation in his liver. There's also pushback to Morgan about, you know, the way he did this. And people were saying he actually adopt a regular lifestyle. He.

He tried to walk like a mile and a half a day, but he didn't try to be healthy. And so you had the. All these people doing similar things and showing what happened to their bodies. There was this high school teacher who said he lost 60 pounds while eating exclusively at McDonald's for 180 days. So there were people doing this challenge as well and saying, hey, Morgan, maybe this was a particular stunt, and you were trying to prove a point.

And I'm not saying what he, you know, I'm not saying it's good for you at all, but it was interesting to see people try to do this as well and take on what he was doing in varied, in various formats. Yeah, it's clearly a more complex health puzzle than eat. McDonald's equals bad. There is more to health than just your diet as well. I do just want to zoom out to how McDonald's has maintained its relevancy, because the one thing that did come out of that documentary is the marketing to children did tone down a lot, a lot of consumer groups saying, hey, if you are marketing to kids, nine times out of ten, it's probably something that is bad for the kids themselves or bad for people in general.

Toby Howell
So now, how has McDonald's remain relevant? They've really hit on celebrity marketing. And again, that doesn't sound very revolutionary, but the way that McDonald's approached it, it was. Remember, the Travis Scott menu was one of the first celebrity meals that came out where it essentially said, look, celebrities, they're just like us. They have a fast food order, too.

When the Travis Scott menu debuted, it doubled the sales of quarter pounders in the first week because everyone wanted the Travis Scott menu. They've since done more partnerships going forward. So that's kind of how they've maintained their cultural relevance in an era where they don't market as aggressively to children. And now their big problem is they've got too expensive. So the going ahead, I mean, sales have boomed for the past few years, but in the past quarter, they've really slowed down as people are getting hit with inflation.

Neil Freiman
So the next step for McDonald's needs to get back to that cheap aura that they had in the past. And it looks like they are going to be releasing a five dollar value meal coming up so that you have to look forward to. Man, I'm feeling nostalgic for those late, those turn the lights off movie days, and hopefully children these days know what I'm talking about. That is all the time we have for today. Thanks so much for listening and have a wonderful Tuesday.

Call us. Beep us if you want to reach. Send an email to morningbrewdailyorningbrew.com dot. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer.

Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Yuchinoa Ogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio. Hair and makeup is hoarding Sriracha.

Devin Emery is our chief content officer. And our show is a production of Morning brew. Great show, Daniel. Let's run it back tomorrow.

Toby Howell
Let's run it back tomorrow.