Scott Galloway · 37:46
And acquired a bunch of customers, and then they basically sell to one of the big guys. They end up being kinda niche customer acquisition vehicles for the duopoly that is Verizon
Kara Swisher · 37:53
and AT and T.
Scott Galloway · 37:54
But you can get the same plan for less for less money. But I don't I I like these little niche offerings. If people are that crazy about Trump and they wanna do it, but they... It's just insane that somebody who has the power of the purse, power of laws gets to decide the most important decisions globally that sets the tone for the rest of the world is selling a fucking phone. I mean, come on. It just... We become so numb to how terrible and inappropriate all of this is, and just the incredible erosion. I have found, I'm on a bunch of panels, and I have found I'm the anger pillow for Cannes. They set me up, you say brand is dead, and then they have a very articulate British person say why brand matters more than ever, and I have felt I don't want to say anti American resentment, I just think globally our brand, you want to talk about brands? There has never been a brand erosion of a brand as big fallen as far as fast as The US in the last one hundred and fifty one days.
Kara Swisher · 38:53
Well, Tesla, but go ahead. Fair
Scott Galloway · 38:57
enough. That's fair.
Kara Swisher · 39:00
And that's still going. Down.
Scott Galloway · 39:02
If you think about it, we used to be the good guys, people said, okay, they get it wrong, but generally speaking, the White House has an occupant in there that may be dumb, maybe not some fair, not dumb, maybe not the brightest person in the world, may be arrogant, may be imperialist, bad wars, but generally speaking, our hearts in the right place. I've always found that. And what I'm sensing when we go abroad is a certain level of fear. Like I think people quite frankly took America a little bit for granted. They sort of said, oh, you're smart, you're nice, you have more weapons than anybody, that's kind of nice. And then when they realized, okay, our rich Uncle Sam's gone fucking crazy. They're like, wow, we kind of miss our uncle, we kind of miss the old uncle, that felt pretty good. And also there's a real decent level. I find that it's not, I don't want say there's an anti American thing in France. We're still wonderful allies, we push back fascism together, but what I notice visibly when I'm on panels, someone makes an anti American joke and that people just love it. That people just love it now. So that erosion of brand equity has enormous impact on it. It means that one of the largest exports in our nation, you know, US education, we make $42,000,000,000 a year, we make 40,000,000,000 selling TV shows and movies overseas, we make $42,000,000,000 getting the richest kid from El Salvador to come to NYU Stern and pay 288,000 in tuition over four years. All those numbers are accurate. We get the best and brightest, the flows of human capital in The US. People have one aspiration of the best and brightest typically, and that is to come to The US. If you're noticing a terror cell forming and people wanting to get on planes to DC or to San Francisco, there are a lot of people that say, you know what, Americans are good people and they notify our embassy. They highlight security threats. I have always run global companies, small companies, but global companies. And I was found when I walked into Samsung or to LVMH or Toyota in, you know, Tokyo, Seoul, or Paris, and I took for granted, you know what, people generally like Americans. They generally speaking think Europe, no, actually it's funny, but they like us. They think, you're...
Kara Swisher · 41:11
Not now though. We're gonna have to...
Scott Galloway · 41:13
Well, that's my point. That's my point is that that brand erosion, I mean, you're in the business of brand. Brand erosion means less margins. It means less consideration. It means less profits. The erosion in goodwill will translate to a economic hardship and making our soft targets much bigger targets.
Kara Swisher · 41:32
Except for the drunkard guys. Is making out like bandits and I mean bandits. Mean, I'm stressing bandits. What what could they sell next? Then I wanna get to questions. We only got a few minutes.
Scott Galloway · 41:41
I have no idea.
Kara Swisher · 41:42
I think erectile dysfunction.
Scott Galloway · 41:44
Well, if you think about advertising, advertising used to shape culture. Now it sells creatine to self hating people like me. Yeah. No respect
Kara Swisher · 41:52
to Excellent. Alright. One more quick break, and then we'll take some questions from the audience.
[Ad break]
Kara Swisher · 44:02
Scott, we're back. Let's take some questions right here.
Speaker · 44:05
You think Trump and Musk are gonna make... Kiss and make up?
Kara Swisher · 44:08
No. I do not. No. I think Trump has... He's used his... Musk has outlived his usefulness, and he's he's a he's a live wire. And he takes away too much attention, and Trump doesn't need him at this point. He's got his billions of dollars. He's got his presidency. He'll probably get off scot free. Not everyone in that administration will get off scot free, but Trump certainly will. And so I think he doesn't need him. And I... The only thing is Musk... Is not... Like I said, it's not like Omarosa leaving. There'll be... If if if Scott... Although he has qualities of Omarosa, although I like her a lot better, I think that she will... I think that he will... He could cause trouble. You just never know what he's gonna do. So I think that's one of... He has some power, especially on... If he changes the algorithm on Twitter, you could fuck with him there. You could fuck with him a lot of places. That said, there's plenty of people rushing in to take his place, and and Trump's got most of tech by the balls. So, for some reason, I don't know why, because they have... They could certainly do damage to him too. I don't know. Very quick? Quick. Or else No.
Scott Galloway · 45:13
I'm not going quick.
Kara Swisher · 45:15
Alright.
Scott Galloway · 45:15
You don't don't love the homie? You don't love
Kara Swisher · 45:17
the Bowen Yang is waiting.
Scott Galloway · 45:19
Oh, I'll go quick.
Kara Swisher · 45:21
I got a The gaze are waiting to come on. They wanna see the gaze.
Scott Galloway · 45:24
This happens every day.
Kara Swisher · 45:25
I'm a gay.
Scott Galloway · 45:25
This is a much bigger, bolder, cattier, stupider version of the following. And it happens millions of times in corporate America. My company was acquired. I didn't like working there. They didn't like me. I didn't like them. That's a little harsh.
Kara Swisher · 45:38
Shocking.
Scott Galloway · 45:38
Different culture. And they said, okay, I said, I want out. And they said, fine, we want you out. And they gave me a shit ton of money and I signed non disparagement and non compete agreements. That is effectively what's going on here. They have fired him. He wanted input on CIA, NASA, and IRS picks. They said, No, you've overstepped your boundaries. We need you out. He started shitposting them, calling the president a pedophile. It didn't seem to bother him when he wanted subsidies. Can you think of anything worse you could call somebody? And meanwhile, all the the right wing media that was saying release the Epstein files, there's all these Democrats, they're all of a sudden like, oh, that's not true. That's just Trump. He just hung out with Epstein for fun. I just love how all of a sudden they're like, oh, conspiracy. Anyways, they basically said to him, boss, we're not gonna give you extra money, but we're not gonna put Tesla and SpaceX out of business, but you have to sign a non disparagement. This is a firing and he's basically been told, okay, if you want us to take SpaceX from 300,000,000,000 to 30,000,000,000 by losing all contracts, and you us to take Tesla from 950 to 50, you better shut the fuck up. Sign here. This happens every day in corporations. Yeah.
Kara Swisher · 46:46
He's much more leveraged than you realize. If if Starlink falls apart, he's got a lot of problems, and Tesla's on a downward spiral, which has something to do with his Trump support, but a lot to do with his lack of good cars. That's really... I mean, at the very heart of it.
Speaker · 46:59
Hi. I'm Kendra Barnett, senior tech supporter. I think I'm a huge fan of both. Think you can
Kara Swisher · 47:03
be here.
— Predictions segment begins —
Speaker · 47:04
Thank you. Just wanted to ask if you guys could share any predictions about the remedies that we're gonna see in both of the DOJ Google cases.
Kara Swisher · 47:12
I think goo... I think probably they'll have to break it up. I think they'll they'll have to be spinning something off. I think that Judge is really smart, actually know a lot about him. But I I think Google's on the ropes on that one. The Facebook one, I'm not sure, because some people felt it wasn't a particularly strong case, and Facebook's being ultra aggressive. And they've got some support for the idea that they do have... I I think it's a better case that they brought back, that Lena Khan then resubmitted. But I think a lot of people feel that that possibly, Facebook will possibly... I think the judge will rule against them, but it will go to appeals. It'll go on and on and on. But I think the Google one is a significant... Probably a significant issue, It'll keep it'll keep going, but the Google one is more... And it's very clear what hap... What's happened there. And they should not be on every side of every market, including, you know, YouTube is now television. You know, they they control so much stuff, and it's so obvious that they should be broken up in some fashion. But rolling back the Instagram purchase, I don't see it happening.
Scott Galloway · 48:13
Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts here, but I think if Alphabet stock continues to underperform it, for some reason it goes down, I think that they will decide to prophylactically spin YouTube, because I think once an asset, Alphabet trades at a P of I think 16, the S and P trades at 24, the average S and P company is not nearly as impressive as Alphabet. At some point the shareholders of Alphabet will go, alright, the whole is worth less than the sum of its parts, so maybe we can kill two birds with one stone, go to the DOJ or the FTC and say, what if we spin YouTube, which would probably be worth more than Netflix, it captures 11% of viewership, Netflix captures 7.7%. So I think if they see the tea leaves, would be good for shareholders and potentially maintain the wolves, the FTC and DOJ wolves at the door, I think you'll see a spin. Having said that, every prediction I have made around DOJ and FTC over the last decade has been entirely wrong.
Kara Swisher · 49:08
But the Trump administration hasn't pulled back on this, which is interesting. I don't... You know, I think they probably thought they might get a little bit of... But it doesn't matter. This isn't in front of a judge, and we'll see what happens. But they don't seem particularly interested in helping these companies. But I do think Google's probably gonna have to spin something off at some point. Anyway, okay. This is the end. Okay. Thanks. But Bowen Yang is waiting, he's sick of you. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott, let me give it Read to us out.
— Predictions segment ends —
Scott Galloway · 49:39
Think I
Kara Swisher · 49:39
know Read my my account. Gonna wait for you. Go ahead. Go.
Scott Galloway · 49:41
All the people we value
Kara Swisher · 49:42
so Get the hook situation. Can you please?
Scott Galloway · 49:44
Today's show was produced by Laren Amon, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Earning interest on Engine this episode. Thanks also to Gibraltar's Miss Severio and Dan Shalon, shock Kerwal's Vox Media executive producer podcast. Thank you to Lauren Stark, Rae Chao, and Jackie Singuya. Do I get that right, Jackie? I've known you for so long.
Kara Swisher · 50:00
Oh, right here. Mine.
Scott Galloway · 50:01
She's in charge of events
Kara Swisher · 50:03
She does a great job.
Scott Galloway · 50:04
At Vox. Anyone in charge of events, it's what I call an invisible until you fuck up job. Make sure to follow Pivot your favorite podcast platform. I say that with affection. She knows it. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nmimag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
Kara Swisher · 50:24
Thank you so much. We love you. We love you.
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