September 3, 2025 • 28 mins
Have a seat in your favorite rocker as René and Shawn chat about marketing strategies and the use, and abuse, of social media.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to another curveball production otherwise known as ragweed season.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And I don't have allergies, seasonal or not.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I think you may have developed some seasonal allergies.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well that's what cabin life does for you.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That's true. And we didn't make it to the State
Fair this year.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So I can't blame it on that. From the barns,
but it was no but it is beautiful. This is
our end of the summer podcast from the of the Bay,
near the dock of the bay, on the boat of
the bay right today.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We decided to broadcast no record, yes from the boat
because I didn't want to stare into the fireball in
the sky.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Because it is absolutely gorgeous. I guess getting back to
the State Fair, one of the largest as far as
crowds go for the entire how many days twelve days
of it?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, I believe it is twelve days. And for those
of you listening in Australia, welcome to the podcast. We
see you now, we do, and we have some new
listeners we are brought or we are recording from Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, oh good points. That's a good point way to go.
And I think we had it, did I mention we
had a new Zealander we did.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, so the word spreading that curveballs just keep coming.
Does anyone hear the dog barking in the background? That
would be Chloe, if my brother's dog, Chloe.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Who's joining us on the podcast. Nobody else seems to
want to ever do that, so we'll give it to
the close.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
You know, Gabe says he will join the podcast. He says,
how can you never have me on the podcast? I
think he'd be quite entertaining.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I think so as well.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
But today he heads back to do you save travels?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Gabe? It is one, yes, you took Tanner back. I
think we heard all about that, or we will hear
all about that because we did a fabulous podcast from
the road.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know what really bothers me about that is I
thought of additional funny stories that we forgot to tell
on the podcast. But if anybody wants a road trip story,
that's what we'll post on Wednesday of this week.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Thanks, So are we going to post this on Wednesday
of this week and wait for the road road trip
on for next time? I almost said.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Road kill the roadkill, which actually is almost roadkill, very
appropriate for that particular podcast. Yes, yes, but anyway we'll
have this is on air production right now, going.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
On right, this should be in a meeting seay email.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, but behind the scenes of the podcast world, this
is what we do. We talk about when we're going
to when we're going to actually publish the podcast, making
sure that the content is relevant.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Do we need to discuss my occasional drug use because
we were going to record the podcast yesterday morning, but
I tend to sleep like crap at the cabin. Not
for any particular, it's just well, I don't want my
mom to ever listen to this part. But no, it's fine.
It's just that I don't sleep well up here, and
we are in the middle of the living room or
(03:10):
the porch or whatever, so there are other people sleeping there,
and then people get up because I get the munchies
in the night. That has nothing to do with my
drug use, by the way, But so what I did
night before last, not that any of our listeners care,
but I took two tile and all PM because I
thought that I just really wanted to knock myself out.
I've been extremely tired since the road trip, and it
(03:32):
put me into a very deep sleep. But I had terrible,
terrible dreams, woke up angry at the world, mostly at Sean. Actually,
I know women listening you know that is you have
a dream and they really tick you off when you're sleeping.
And I looked at him and he goes, what And
I said, boy, you are in sin serious trouble today,
sir and AnyWho, I couldn't get the cobwebs out of
(03:54):
my brain yesterday morning. I felt hung over like it
took probably three four hours before I started to even
resemble myself. It was weird snow podcast yesterday. Today you
hit me fresh.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yep, and uh and she's ready to go head the
cup of coffee in and it's I think today is
going to be definitely more on the entertainment side than
the edge you side.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
We have a really good edgy podcast, but as fresh
as I am, I don't know that I'm ready to
actually have an intelligent conversation.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It's going to be. It'll be a good one, though
I kind of want to dive into it just because
it feels topical.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, Okay, so here's the As we all know, Uh,
Cracker Barrel has been into a bit of hot water lately.
Maybe you don't know. I was going to say, no,
perhaps you don't know. But here, So the backstory is
real quick. Cracker Barrel decided that if you're not for
what a Cracker Barrel is, it's a it's a restaurant
(04:55):
more of a Southern style, I guess you would call it.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
And it's you know, home good home cooking if you will,
if you live in the southern part of the United States.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And as we would say up here, food that sticks
to the ribs.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, yeah, you got your roast, your pot roast, you
got your biscuits and grated yours.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah. Anyway, So that so, Cracker Barrel decided that they
were going to change their image up a little bit.
So they were going to change the interior decor of
their establishments to make it to make it more a
little bit more modern, and also change their logo.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Well I think what we call that in the biz
is a brand refresh. There you go, they're connecting. They
were trying to connect to a broader audience.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Ready for this, look at you. But yeah, so they
so they decided they were going to do this and
and really it had a lot to do with with
DEI and how they wanted to I guess, reconnect with
or connect with another uh marketing another group of people.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Broader audience, audience. I think they wanted to give the
impression of being a little more woke, if you will,
and a little more in touch with every consumer, not
just you know, hell abilities from the South and okay,
I know, send your hate mail to me, but that
is the vibe, right. It's like this old guy, their
old logos, this old guy next to a barrel, and
(06:18):
you know he looks a little old fashioned, shall we say,
he doesn't look like the modern version of who might
enjoy themselves some biscuits and gravy today.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So it didn't work. No, it's back.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Right, But that's what prompted this, as Sean's been chomping
at the bit part in my expression, but to have
one of these conversations because we've touched on it with
the bud Light a number of episodes ago, and how
these companies are trying to find in their target market, right,
but they know who their target market is, but they're
(06:52):
getting greedy and so they're like, you know what, we
want a bigger share of the market, so we're going
to appeal to this broader audience, and in some cases
it's worked, in some cases it's backfired, but in all
cases it's gotten them publicity. And so then we have
that argument, is all publicity good publicity, whether it's good
(07:14):
or bad, and in the cracker barrel thing TBD. I
think at this point it.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Is TBD, and I am taking it a step further,
and I believe that that it's contrived. It's contrived controversy, controversy,
and these organizations are taking advantage of social media and
(07:40):
the fact that they can get this organic publicity by
doing outlandish things that they think are then they come
back and say, oh, we made a mistake, we're going
to go back and do this, or they're not. Basically,
they're they're they're doing things on purpose to create controversy
so that everybody can so that they can build their
(08:01):
brand well.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And what that is is they're making sure that they're
visible in multiple news cycles. So the first news cycle
ends up being you know, this is the announcement, this
is the change, The second news cycle is the backlash
from it. Perhaps the third news cycle is oh, we're
sorry and we didn't mean this, and then the fourth
news cycle might be Okay, this is the this is
(08:24):
the effect of what's happened. And Sean believes that Cracker
Barrel had no intention of upsetting or had every intention
of upsetting its core. And so basically what they did was,
you know, Cracker Barrel has a target market of you know,
I haven't researched their exact analytics, but I would assume
their target market is in the South. It's family oriented,
(08:47):
it's probably leans, pretty conservative. You know, it's not going
to appeal to a lot of the you know, the
the valley. Yeah, I mean, and that's fine, but that's
who they're market is. And so in their effort to
be woke, they took the man and the barrel out
of the logo and it just says Cracker Barrel. And
(09:08):
then they updated their interior, they updated their menu, and
if you are familiar with the Cracker Barrel, it's a restaurant.
But before you get seated, you are in a country
folk gift shop where you can buy old fashioned candy
and quilts and knickknacks and brick a brac as they
used to say in the day. And so there was
this and there's rocking chairs out in front right on
(09:31):
the porch where you can just rest, and there's this
great little peg game, which I just remember as a kid,
because yeah, my family we had a cracker Barrel near
where I grew up, and we did go to the
Cracker Barrel from time to time and play the peg
game to find out if we were a genius or
or just playing dumb.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
But anyway, so now this whole backlash has happened. But
as these things are wont to do, it took on
a life of its own, and so what I thought
was funny is people are so you know, basically, Cracker
Barrel came out and said, hey, we're sorry, we know
how our audience is.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
We're going to go.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Back to our old logo. But I believe social media
is having some fun with this because I found a
supposed press release that Cracker Barrel had issued, and as
a marketing person professional, if you will, some days, I
would say, there is no flipping way the Cracker Barrel
actually wrote this, But I think our listeners might find
(10:31):
it a little entertaining. If you either read it, it's
going to be a little challenging because I have my
cheaters down here, but bear with me. It says official
statement from Cracker Barrel, which, by the way, is never
how you would start on a press release. But who's
keeping track? It says, Dear America, we heard you. We
screwed up, and wow did we screw up royally. Our
(10:51):
new logo rollout was supposed to be fresh and inclusive.
Instead it was about as welcome as vegan sausage on
our breakfast menu. Okay, that they could maybe get away with,
but here we go. Let's not dance around it as
we tried to cover up a total identity crisis with
a fancy new logo. Not fancy at all, by the way,
But the truth is we were trying to change Cracker
(11:13):
Barrel into something it was never meant to be. Y'all
called us out, and rightfully so we forgot rule number
one of business. Know your customers and don't spit in
their sweet tea. So here's what's happening. The new logo
gone shredded. Pretend it was a bad dream after too
much sweet tea. The old timer back forever. He's basically
the George Washington of breakfast food. You don't cancel that
(11:36):
the peg game untouched, You'll still get to feel like
a genius if you leave one peg and plain dumb
if you leave four and it goes on. But here's
the part that just made me go there is no way,
because they did let their CEO go after all this.
But here's what they said about that. And this is
why I knew, even if the rest of it was fake,
this has to be fake. It says, Now, let's talk
(11:58):
about damage. We tanked over one hundred million dollars in
stock value and your record time. Congrats to us. We
made Enron look like financial geniuses. To fix it, we've
informed our ceo, Yes, the one with glasses so big
she can spot a squirrel in the next county, Yet
somehow couldn't see our customers leaving that her last day
(12:18):
is this Friday. We don't expect standing ovation, but at
least claps slow enough, slow enough for us to hear
it while we crawl back to normal. And then they
basically say so, basically, please forgive us. There is no
way in a professional communication they are going to rip
on their CEO for her glasses. I mean, obviously it's
it's satire, right, but I mean it's it's funny.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It is funny. And again my whole take on this one.
And okay, so if you if you go back a
couple of years ago, you had the bud Light controversy,
right and again, real quick, all bud Light did was said,
a twelve pack of beer to a transgender influencer, Dylan mulvaney,
(13:06):
I believe, Yep, that's all they did. And this influencer,
Dylan then basically put a post up with her with
the with this bud Light and the cans had her
picture on it. That was all that was done. Well,
that caused.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
An uproar and people started boycotting, but like we started
boycotting because they didn't like that bud Light was embracing
the transgender community.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Bud Light's attempt to say, hey, we're inclusive and we
want to do this and and again, you know, for
for people who are drinking bud Light, it was like,
oh look I'm taking a stand. I'm gonna drink Miller LT. Okay, yeah,
big big leap there, Well done. Wait wait wait you
put your foot.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Down a water down domestic beer. Anyway, sorry, send your
hate mail to me again.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And and and and bud Light. My my thought is
what but bud Light did it a intentionally because yeah,
maybe they were trying to reach a different audience, but
also take advantage of getting some controversy going free advertising
because radio stations were all over it, newscasts were all
(14:11):
over it. They didn't have to put a dime into
any of it except to give this influencer some bud
Light and probably some money to put it out there.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Right, And it did have an impact in their stock value, So,
I mean, things like this do have impacts. So you
just never know as a brand if your idea of
humor or controversy is going to backfire or not. And
in bud Light's case, it did backfire, and it did backfire.
With Cracker Barrel TBD.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We don't know yet.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I mean, I mean, they're more in the news. Who
even thought of cracker barrel? Honestly in the last five years.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
That's the thing. And so then we fast forward it
a little bit and the next one that came up
was American Eagle. American Eagle has a an ad again online.
All this is online. Nothing was on TV, nothing was
really on radio. It was all It was an online
ad with with an actress, Sidney Sweeney, very good looking actress,
(15:09):
and she made a she made a commercial and honest,
she talks about her genes with a G E N E.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I need to stop you just for one second. For
people who don't know, American Eagle is a clothing store
primarily clothing kind of for the younger set.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I'm not saying there's an age limit, right, but you know,
popular with your high school, college and you know younger
crowd a little bit. And so I just think that's
important when you say she was commenting on her genes
g E n E s.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
As she was.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
It was a commercial for her genes j E A
n S.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And she was and and she made comments about how
her genes were great, and she was talking about her
jeens that you wear. But again, blonde, blue eyed, very
good looking people took umbrage with that.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, people, here's here's what happened. When she said she
had great genes. She was referring to the genes on
her body. But social media looked at as a double entendre,
if you will, and they said, way, way, wait, she's
talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
The ge n E s. And in the climate that
we're in these days of where it's at, there was
talk of white supremacy all of that, and and my
contention is that one American eagle did it on purpose,
tried to be as edgy as possible, hoping that there
would be controver controversy to help drive everything that they
(16:40):
have going on and say, look, we're going to do this,
We're going to take advantage of all of it.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Didn't they have a subsequent ad then with other genes,
like with somebody who wasn't blond hair and blue eye like. So,
I mean to your point, Sean, and I mean, this
is crafty marketing. Marketing strategy is big business, frankly, and
I mean if we could all be Coca Cola, right, So,
I mean sometimes you have to throw some things against
the wall to see what sticks. There's beta testing, there's
(17:06):
ab trials, all of that kind of stuff. You want
to see what's going to resonate with your audience without
alienating them, but allowing you to grow your market share.
And it's big business and it's touchy. But some times
the bad publicity gets you again somewhere else and it
makes sense, but you have to It's such a calculated thing, right,
(17:27):
because if you alienate who I mean, for me, I'm
about I'm a little bit more, you know, straight up marketing,
I'm saying, hey, we're not looking to offend anybody. Let's
figure out who your target market is. And what I
find does a lot of customers think they know who
their target market is. But after doing what we call
a lookalike profile, we can say, look, no, here, here,
(17:49):
here's who you think buys from you. Here's who actually
buys from you or attends or whatever the case is.
And then we say, okay, let's find And I know
people don't like profiling, but in marketing again big business,
and it's important. Let's figure out who's most like the
people who spend the most money with you, and let's
find some more of those people. Why because it's low
(18:10):
hanging fruit and it'll cost you less. But in this
age of social media influencers and a lot less radio advertising,
now you're getting podcast spots as I'm sure you've heard
on this very podcast, and you're getting you know, fewer
television ads because everybody's streaming things. The internet is playing huge,
(18:30):
huge influence in all of this. And so this idea
that you might just want to become a little controversial
to get some attention, to break through the clutter. If
you will can pay it can pay big money, but
it can also completely destroy your company.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Well, and what American Eagle did is they came out
immediately and didn't apologize for anything and said, look, this
is this is our ad and what's what we're doing.
And I know we are now reaching the people who
we want to reach, and that is something I think
that is I read about a bride about one of
(19:07):
the biggest issues in advertising is the attempt to be
everything to everybody. And you is what you just said
is absolutely one percent true. You can't be everything to everybody.
You have to know who you're going after and who
is who are the people for your product. Cracker Barrel
is finding that out. They're finding out that, you know what,
(19:30):
we can't. There was a comedian who brought it up
and said, look, you can't try to be you can't
try to be everything for everybody and actually upset your
base the people who actually go to your restaurant. Well,
the funny part is them and that's everybody.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, well that's true, but the funny part is like,
as a consumer, it goes to speak to Okay, so
let's say we like, let's use Chick fil as an example,
because that's a polarizing restaurant. Some people will not patronize
Chick fil A because of their heavy religious involvement and
some of the thoughts that have been carried down throughout
(20:11):
that company that seem to lean towards a anti gay sentiment,
things like that. So there are lots of people that
will not use Chick fil A right or eat at
Chick fil A. They're closed on Sunday. There's a variety
of other things, hobby lobbies in the same category. My
whole thing is like for me personally, and I know
this sounds very dumb down, but I like chicken, and
(20:34):
I don't eat a lot of fried chicken. But if
I happen to be near a Chick fil A and
we decide we're hungry, then I'm like, oh, I really
like their chicken. If Chick fil A starts catering to
an audience that I don't know one way or the other,
I don't care if I like their product. But it
goes to show you how powerful marketing is because you
(20:54):
identify with your brand. If you like Nike, you wear Nike,
you're a Nike guy. Or if you eat it Chick
fil A you're I guess part of that thing. I mean,
for me, I don't take branding that serious, which is
partly which is maybe funny given my job. Having said that,
I'm going to be a hypocrite. I love my Target, right,
I don't want to be a Walmart shopper. Nobody wants
(21:16):
to identify with Walmart, do they? Maybe they do, I
don't know, but I think people feel like they're a
little bit better than if they And I'm ripping on
myself because I like Target over Walmart. It's pretty much
the same thing. And quite frankly, Walmart has way more
selection and their prices are a little lower, right, But like,
I identify as a Target shopper and I tend to
(21:38):
ignore the Walmart stuff. But boy bogs me when I
see that they got a better price on something, because
now I guess I do sometimes identify as a Walmart shopper. Well,
it's that's hopefully I will ever make the Walmart you know,
the commercial or the have you seen people of Walmart
dot com. It's terrible, It's I mean, it's very it's
very insulting to a lot of people. It is a
(21:58):
diverse section of.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Had no idea where on a confessions type too, But
that's okay, Sunday, but it's a beautiful day on the
on the lake. But yeah, and the the Again it goes,
it goes to understanding where you're at, Like you brought
up Chick fil A. Taco Bell serves chicken nuggets now,
(22:23):
and I guess they have for a while. I did
not know this, but you don't. Again, it's their attempt
to say, hey, I guess it makes sense. You're a
mom and dad. You want to go to Target, you
want to go to Taco Bell because I feel like tacos.
Your kids probably don't like tacos, but they have chicken nuggets,
so you can go to one. You can go to one,
go to Taco Bell. You get your food, the kids
get their food.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Well, it's probably why they added French fries too, because
I think you get French fries at Taco Bell.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
But again, it gets a little if we start the
whole restaurant thing of it, it gets a little bit
like for me, your nephew and Jacob and I had
a conversation about this. Okay, when you go to a restaurant,
we don't want the three panel, big, huge, laminated menu
with eighty thousand items on it. That's just too much.
Just give us a few items, but you gotta.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
But it's just oh, I'm gluttonous about that. I want
all the options if you can do them.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Well.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I like a variety. I mean, I know, I don't
necessarily want to go to Perkins and have stir fry,
right like I go to certain restaurants of certain cuisines.
If you will, and then you know, like if you're
in the mood for Italian, you go to an Italian restaurant.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
You're an English major on the side here, patronize, you
brought patronize If you go and you patronize a restaurant,
how do you differentiate patronize and patronize? If I if
I'm being patronizing or I'm patronizing.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I believe, I believe Sean, we would be using context clues.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Okay, but but still but but it's a different.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It's like the word shit. But how do you differentiate
if it's a good word or a bad word? Context
clues understood, But you brought up, but you brought but
you brought up if I'm patronizing if I think it
was Chick fil A said if I'm patronizing Chick fil A.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
I don't know if you're patronizing them or you're patronizing them.
I know context doesn't help. It does really at them, Well,
I'm patronizing you.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You could be patriotizing somebody who works at Chick fil A.
But I don't think I know what you're doing to me,
and it's too early for that trying.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
We we the whole marketing thing and it just happened
to pop up on on my LinkedIn and probably because
I was talking about marketing and that's what LinkedIn does
as well as anybody else. They were It was part
of this conversation that a person was having about marketing
(24:48):
and about how you need to go after the people
who you think are going to be the people that
will actually use your product or use your service. And
they brought up an ad that ca out in the
early nineteen hundreds and it was put on it put
in a paper I believe in England by an explorer
(25:08):
by the name of Ernest Shackleton. We've all heard of Shackleton, yep.
So for those of you haven't, I know our listeners
in Antarctica have. He was one of the early explorers
to Antarctica. Sorry, I'll get that.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Easy for you to say.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And back in the day he needed to advertise to
get people too interested in his expeditions, and instead of
you know, you think to yourself, hey, come join me
on this adventure. It'll be fun. You get all expense
paid trip, you get to be on a boat and
(25:44):
go shirt the go in the high seas, do all
this fun stuff. It'll be great, a great time.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Shackleton wasn't necessarily the greatest marketer, but he was a
big believer in honesty is the best policy.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Ad reads men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold,
long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return, doubtful,
honor in recognition in case of success. And he got
(26:18):
his folks who who actually said, look, I'm just nuts
enough to do this. But that's where that's where marketing
back back in the day made sense, because it was like, look,
this is what it is, right and away we went.
So it's just you know, for me, if the whole
marketing thing and where things were are are at and
(26:39):
these these tricks that companies are playing, I again believe
that they are contrived, that they know it's going to
bring a bit of outrage, which is going to do
nothing but continue to get their name in the news
for some cycles so that and they don't have to
do a thing, and all of a sudden, people know
who American Eagle is, people understand and who Cracker Barrel
(27:01):
is and the end it is a great way of
using the people to start a movement.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Well, if nothing else, I think this podcast will give
people food for thought. See what I did.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
There, well done, well done, food for thought.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
And I always have to point it out when I.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Do it, because she believes she's so subtle.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
But I think people will start looking at ads a
little more critically or think to ads that were a
little bit shocking and be like, hey, I think they
did that on purpose. I mean, do you think that
the uh is it progressive? The ones that rip on
old people? Like do you think that old people are like, well,
no matter what, I'm not gonna buy progressive because I
(27:47):
don't act like my parents. Because I mean, they have
their whole series of ads about like don't become your
parents or whatever. They're clearly targeting this middle age market,
which is when people are primarily shopping insurance, right but
I haven't heard that like AARP has, you know, went
after progressive insurance.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
The best part of it about that is I resemble
pretty much all of the things that they talk about.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I think this has been another Curveball production
Welcome to another curveball production otherwise known as ragweed season.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And I don't have allergies, seasonal or not.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I think you may have developed some seasonal allergies.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well that's what cabin life does for you.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That's true. And we didn't make it to the State
Fair this year.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So I can't blame it on that. From the barns,
but it was no but it is beautiful. This is
our end of the summer podcast from the of the Bay,
near the dock of the bay, on the boat of
the bay right today.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We decided to broadcast no record, yes from the boat
because I didn't want to stare into the fireball in
the sky.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Because it is absolutely gorgeous. I guess getting back to
the State Fair, one of the largest as far as
crowds go for the entire how many days twelve days
of it?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, I believe it is twelve days. And for those
of you listening in Australia, welcome to the podcast. We
see you now, we do, and we have some new
listeners we are brought or we are recording from Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, oh good points. That's a good point way to go.
And I think we had it, did I mention we
had a new Zealander we did.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, so the word spreading that curveballs just keep coming.
Does anyone hear the dog barking in the background? That
would be Chloe, if my brother's dog, Chloe.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Who's joining us on the podcast. Nobody else seems to
want to ever do that, so we'll give it to
the close.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
You know, Gabe says he will join the podcast. He says,
how can you never have me on the podcast? I
think he'd be quite entertaining.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I think so as well.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
But today he heads back to do you save travels?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Gabe? It is one, yes, you took Tanner back. I
think we heard all about that, or we will hear
all about that because we did a fabulous podcast from
the road.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know what really bothers me about that is I
thought of additional funny stories that we forgot to tell
on the podcast. But if anybody wants a road trip story,
that's what we'll post on Wednesday of this week.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Thanks, So are we going to post this on Wednesday
of this week and wait for the road road trip
on for next time? I almost said.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Road kill the roadkill, which actually is almost roadkill, very
appropriate for that particular podcast. Yes, yes, but anyway we'll
have this is on air production right now, going.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
On right, this should be in a meeting seay email.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, but behind the scenes of the podcast world, this
is what we do. We talk about when we're going
to when we're going to actually publish the podcast, making
sure that the content is relevant.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Do we need to discuss my occasional drug use because
we were going to record the podcast yesterday morning, but
I tend to sleep like crap at the cabin. Not
for any particular, it's just well, I don't want my
mom to ever listen to this part. But no, it's fine.
It's just that I don't sleep well up here, and
we are in the middle of the living room or
(03:10):
the porch or whatever, so there are other people sleeping there,
and then people get up because I get the munchies
in the night. That has nothing to do with my
drug use, by the way, But so what I did
night before last, not that any of our listeners care,
but I took two tile and all PM because I
thought that I just really wanted to knock myself out.
I've been extremely tired since the road trip, and it
(03:32):
put me into a very deep sleep. But I had terrible,
terrible dreams, woke up angry at the world, mostly at Sean. Actually,
I know women listening you know that is you have
a dream and they really tick you off when you're sleeping.
And I looked at him and he goes, what And
I said, boy, you are in sin serious trouble today,
sir and AnyWho, I couldn't get the cobwebs out of
(03:54):
my brain yesterday morning. I felt hung over like it
took probably three four hours before I started to even
resemble myself. It was weird snow podcast yesterday. Today you
hit me fresh.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yep, and uh and she's ready to go head the
cup of coffee in and it's I think today is
going to be definitely more on the entertainment side than
the edge you side.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
We have a really good edgy podcast, but as fresh
as I am, I don't know that I'm ready to
actually have an intelligent conversation.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It's going to be. It'll be a good one, though
I kind of want to dive into it just because
it feels topical.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, Okay, so here's the As we all know, Uh,
Cracker Barrel has been into a bit of hot water lately.
Maybe you don't know. I was going to say, no,
perhaps you don't know. But here, So the backstory is
real quick. Cracker Barrel decided that if you're not for
what a Cracker Barrel is, it's a it's a restaurant
(04:55):
more of a Southern style, I guess you would call it.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
And it's you know, home good home cooking if you will,
if you live in the southern part of the United States.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And as we would say up here, food that sticks
to the ribs.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, yeah, you got your roast, your pot roast, you
got your biscuits and grated yours.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah. Anyway, So that so, Cracker Barrel decided that they
were going to change their image up a little bit.
So they were going to change the interior decor of
their establishments to make it to make it more a
little bit more modern, and also change their logo.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Well I think what we call that in the biz
is a brand refresh. There you go, they're connecting. They
were trying to connect to a broader audience.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Ready for this, look at you. But yeah, so they
so they decided they were going to do this and
and really it had a lot to do with with
DEI and how they wanted to I guess, reconnect with
or connect with another uh marketing another group of people.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Broader audience, audience. I think they wanted to give the
impression of being a little more woke, if you will,
and a little more in touch with every consumer, not
just you know, hell abilities from the South and okay,
I know, send your hate mail to me, but that
is the vibe, right. It's like this old guy, their
old logos, this old guy next to a barrel, and
(06:18):
you know he looks a little old fashioned, shall we say,
he doesn't look like the modern version of who might
enjoy themselves some biscuits and gravy today.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So it didn't work. No, it's back.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Right, But that's what prompted this, as Sean's been chomping
at the bit part in my expression, but to have
one of these conversations because we've touched on it with
the bud Light a number of episodes ago, and how
these companies are trying to find in their target market, right,
but they know who their target market is, but they're
(06:52):
getting greedy and so they're like, you know what, we
want a bigger share of the market, so we're going
to appeal to this broader audience, and in some cases
it's worked, in some cases it's backfired, but in all
cases it's gotten them publicity. And so then we have
that argument, is all publicity good publicity, whether it's good
(07:14):
or bad, and in the cracker barrel thing TBD. I
think at this point it.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Is TBD, and I am taking it a step further,
and I believe that that it's contrived. It's contrived controversy, controversy,
and these organizations are taking advantage of social media and
(07:40):
the fact that they can get this organic publicity by
doing outlandish things that they think are then they come
back and say, oh, we made a mistake, we're going
to go back and do this, or they're not. Basically,
they're they're they're doing things on purpose to create controversy
so that everybody can so that they can build their
(08:01):
brand well.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And what that is is they're making sure that they're
visible in multiple news cycles. So the first news cycle
ends up being you know, this is the announcement, this
is the change, The second news cycle is the backlash
from it. Perhaps the third news cycle is oh, we're
sorry and we didn't mean this, and then the fourth
news cycle might be Okay, this is the this is
(08:24):
the effect of what's happened. And Sean believes that Cracker
Barrel had no intention of upsetting or had every intention
of upsetting its core. And so basically what they did was,
you know, Cracker Barrel has a target market of you know,
I haven't researched their exact analytics, but I would assume
their target market is in the South. It's family oriented,
(08:47):
it's probably leans, pretty conservative. You know, it's not going
to appeal to a lot of the you know, the
the valley. Yeah, I mean, and that's fine, but that's
who they're market is. And so in their effort to
be woke, they took the man and the barrel out
of the logo and it just says Cracker Barrel. And
(09:08):
then they updated their interior, they updated their menu, and
if you are familiar with the Cracker Barrel, it's a restaurant.
But before you get seated, you are in a country
folk gift shop where you can buy old fashioned candy
and quilts and knickknacks and brick a brac as they
used to say in the day. And so there was
this and there's rocking chairs out in front right on
(09:31):
the porch where you can just rest, and there's this
great little peg game, which I just remember as a kid,
because yeah, my family we had a cracker Barrel near
where I grew up, and we did go to the
Cracker Barrel from time to time and play the peg
game to find out if we were a genius or
or just playing dumb.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
But anyway, so now this whole backlash has happened. But
as these things are wont to do, it took on
a life of its own, and so what I thought
was funny is people are so you know, basically, Cracker
Barrel came out and said, hey, we're sorry, we know
how our audience is.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
We're going to go.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Back to our old logo. But I believe social media
is having some fun with this because I found a
supposed press release that Cracker Barrel had issued, and as
a marketing person professional, if you will, some days, I
would say, there is no flipping way the Cracker Barrel
actually wrote this, But I think our listeners might find
(10:31):
it a little entertaining. If you either read it, it's
going to be a little challenging because I have my
cheaters down here, but bear with me. It says official
statement from Cracker Barrel, which, by the way, is never
how you would start on a press release. But who's
keeping track? It says, Dear America, we heard you. We
screwed up, and wow did we screw up royally. Our
(10:51):
new logo rollout was supposed to be fresh and inclusive.
Instead it was about as welcome as vegan sausage on
our breakfast menu. Okay, that they could maybe get away with,
but here we go. Let's not dance around it as
we tried to cover up a total identity crisis with
a fancy new logo. Not fancy at all, by the way,
But the truth is we were trying to change Cracker
(11:13):
Barrel into something it was never meant to be. Y'all
called us out, and rightfully so we forgot rule number
one of business. Know your customers and don't spit in
their sweet tea. So here's what's happening. The new logo
gone shredded. Pretend it was a bad dream after too
much sweet tea. The old timer back forever. He's basically
the George Washington of breakfast food. You don't cancel that
(11:36):
the peg game untouched, You'll still get to feel like
a genius if you leave one peg and plain dumb
if you leave four and it goes on. But here's
the part that just made me go there is no way,
because they did let their CEO go after all this.
But here's what they said about that. And this is
why I knew, even if the rest of it was fake,
this has to be fake. It says, Now, let's talk
(11:58):
about damage. We tanked over one hundred million dollars in
stock value and your record time. Congrats to us. We
made Enron look like financial geniuses. To fix it, we've
informed our ceo, Yes, the one with glasses so big
she can spot a squirrel in the next county, Yet
somehow couldn't see our customers leaving that her last day
(12:18):
is this Friday. We don't expect standing ovation, but at
least claps slow enough, slow enough for us to hear
it while we crawl back to normal. And then they
basically say so, basically, please forgive us. There is no
way in a professional communication they are going to rip
on their CEO for her glasses. I mean, obviously it's
it's satire, right, but I mean it's it's funny.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It is funny. And again my whole take on this one.
And okay, so if you if you go back a
couple of years ago, you had the bud Light controversy,
right and again, real quick, all bud Light did was said,
a twelve pack of beer to a transgender influencer, Dylan mulvaney,
(13:06):
I believe, Yep, that's all they did. And this influencer,
Dylan then basically put a post up with her with
the with this bud Light and the cans had her
picture on it. That was all that was done. Well,
that caused.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
An uproar and people started boycotting, but like we started
boycotting because they didn't like that bud Light was embracing
the transgender community.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Bud Light's attempt to say, hey, we're inclusive and we
want to do this and and again, you know, for
for people who are drinking bud Light, it was like,
oh look I'm taking a stand. I'm gonna drink Miller LT. Okay, yeah,
big big leap there, Well done. Wait wait wait you
put your foot.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Down a water down domestic beer. Anyway, sorry, send your
hate mail to me again.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And and and and bud Light. My my thought is
what but bud Light did it a intentionally because yeah,
maybe they were trying to reach a different audience, but
also take advantage of getting some controversy going free advertising
because radio stations were all over it, newscasts were all
(14:11):
over it. They didn't have to put a dime into
any of it except to give this influencer some bud
Light and probably some money to put it out there.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Right, And it did have an impact in their stock value, So,
I mean, things like this do have impacts. So you
just never know as a brand if your idea of
humor or controversy is going to backfire or not. And
in bud Light's case, it did backfire, and it did backfire.
With Cracker Barrel TBD.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We don't know yet.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I mean, I mean, they're more in the news. Who
even thought of cracker barrel? Honestly in the last five years.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
That's the thing. And so then we fast forward it
a little bit and the next one that came up
was American Eagle. American Eagle has a an ad again online.
All this is online. Nothing was on TV, nothing was
really on radio. It was all It was an online
ad with with an actress, Sidney Sweeney, very good looking actress,
(15:09):
and she made a she made a commercial and honest,
she talks about her genes with a G E N E.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I need to stop you just for one second. For
people who don't know, American Eagle is a clothing store
primarily clothing kind of for the younger set.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I'm not saying there's an age limit, right, but you know,
popular with your high school, college and you know younger
crowd a little bit. And so I just think that's
important when you say she was commenting on her genes
g E n E s.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
As she was.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
It was a commercial for her genes j E A
n S.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And she was and and she made comments about how
her genes were great, and she was talking about her
jeens that you wear. But again, blonde, blue eyed, very
good looking people took umbrage with that.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, people, here's here's what happened. When she said she
had great genes. She was referring to the genes on
her body. But social media looked at as a double entendre,
if you will, and they said, way, way, wait, she's
talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
The ge n E s. And in the climate that
we're in these days of where it's at, there was
talk of white supremacy all of that, and and my
contention is that one American eagle did it on purpose,
tried to be as edgy as possible, hoping that there
would be controver controversy to help drive everything that they
(16:40):
have going on and say, look, we're going to do this,
We're going to take advantage of all of it.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Didn't they have a subsequent ad then with other genes,
like with somebody who wasn't blond hair and blue eye like. So,
I mean to your point, Sean, and I mean, this
is crafty marketing. Marketing strategy is big business, frankly, and
I mean if we could all be Coca Cola, right, So,
I mean sometimes you have to throw some things against
the wall to see what sticks. There's beta testing, there's
(17:06):
ab trials, all of that kind of stuff. You want
to see what's going to resonate with your audience without
alienating them, but allowing you to grow your market share.
And it's big business and it's touchy. But some times
the bad publicity gets you again somewhere else and it
makes sense, but you have to It's such a calculated thing, right,
(17:27):
because if you alienate who I mean, for me, I'm
about I'm a little bit more, you know, straight up marketing,
I'm saying, hey, we're not looking to offend anybody. Let's
figure out who your target market is. And what I
find does a lot of customers think they know who
their target market is. But after doing what we call
a lookalike profile, we can say, look, no, here, here,
(17:49):
here's who you think buys from you. Here's who actually
buys from you or attends or whatever the case is.
And then we say, okay, let's find And I know
people don't like profiling, but in marketing again big business,
and it's important. Let's figure out who's most like the
people who spend the most money with you, and let's
find some more of those people. Why because it's low
(18:10):
hanging fruit and it'll cost you less. But in this
age of social media influencers and a lot less radio advertising,
now you're getting podcast spots as I'm sure you've heard
on this very podcast, and you're getting you know, fewer
television ads because everybody's streaming things. The internet is playing huge,
(18:30):
huge influence in all of this. And so this idea
that you might just want to become a little controversial
to get some attention, to break through the clutter. If
you will can pay it can pay big money, but
it can also completely destroy your company.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Well, and what American Eagle did is they came out
immediately and didn't apologize for anything and said, look, this
is this is our ad and what's what we're doing.
And I know we are now reaching the people who
we want to reach, and that is something I think
that is I read about a bride about one of
(19:07):
the biggest issues in advertising is the attempt to be
everything to everybody. And you is what you just said
is absolutely one percent true. You can't be everything to everybody.
You have to know who you're going after and who
is who are the people for your product. Cracker Barrel
is finding that out. They're finding out that, you know what,
(19:30):
we can't. There was a comedian who brought it up
and said, look, you can't try to be you can't
try to be everything for everybody and actually upset your
base the people who actually go to your restaurant. Well,
the funny part is them and that's everybody.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, well that's true, but the funny part is like,
as a consumer, it goes to speak to Okay, so
let's say we like, let's use Chick fil as an example,
because that's a polarizing restaurant. Some people will not patronize
Chick fil A because of their heavy religious involvement and
some of the thoughts that have been carried down throughout
(20:11):
that company that seem to lean towards a anti gay sentiment,
things like that. So there are lots of people that
will not use Chick fil A right or eat at
Chick fil A. They're closed on Sunday. There's a variety
of other things, hobby lobbies in the same category. My
whole thing is like for me personally, and I know
this sounds very dumb down, but I like chicken, and
(20:34):
I don't eat a lot of fried chicken. But if
I happen to be near a Chick fil A and
we decide we're hungry, then I'm like, oh, I really
like their chicken. If Chick fil A starts catering to
an audience that I don't know one way or the other,
I don't care if I like their product. But it
goes to show you how powerful marketing is because you
(20:54):
identify with your brand. If you like Nike, you wear Nike,
you're a Nike guy. Or if you eat it Chick
fil A you're I guess part of that thing. I mean,
for me, I don't take branding that serious, which is
partly which is maybe funny given my job. Having said that,
I'm going to be a hypocrite. I love my Target, right,
I don't want to be a Walmart shopper. Nobody wants
(21:16):
to identify with Walmart, do they? Maybe they do, I
don't know, but I think people feel like they're a
little bit better than if they And I'm ripping on
myself because I like Target over Walmart. It's pretty much
the same thing. And quite frankly, Walmart has way more
selection and their prices are a little lower, right, But like,
I identify as a Target shopper and I tend to
(21:38):
ignore the Walmart stuff. But boy bogs me when I
see that they got a better price on something, because
now I guess I do sometimes identify as a Walmart shopper. Well,
it's that's hopefully I will ever make the Walmart you know,
the commercial or the have you seen people of Walmart
dot com. It's terrible, It's I mean, it's very it's
very insulting to a lot of people. It is a
(21:58):
diverse section of.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Had no idea where on a confessions type too, But
that's okay, Sunday, but it's a beautiful day on the
on the lake. But yeah, and the the Again it goes,
it goes to understanding where you're at, Like you brought
up Chick fil A. Taco Bell serves chicken nuggets now,
(22:23):
and I guess they have for a while. I did
not know this, but you don't. Again, it's their attempt
to say, hey, I guess it makes sense. You're a
mom and dad. You want to go to Target, you
want to go to Taco Bell because I feel like tacos.
Your kids probably don't like tacos, but they have chicken nuggets,
so you can go to one. You can go to one,
go to Taco Bell. You get your food, the kids
get their food.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Well, it's probably why they added French fries too, because
I think you get French fries at Taco Bell.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
But again, it gets a little if we start the
whole restaurant thing of it, it gets a little bit
like for me, your nephew and Jacob and I had
a conversation about this. Okay, when you go to a restaurant,
we don't want the three panel, big, huge, laminated menu
with eighty thousand items on it. That's just too much.
Just give us a few items, but you gotta.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
But it's just oh, I'm gluttonous about that. I want
all the options if you can do them.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Well.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I like a variety. I mean, I know, I don't
necessarily want to go to Perkins and have stir fry,
right like I go to certain restaurants of certain cuisines.
If you will, and then you know, like if you're
in the mood for Italian, you go to an Italian restaurant.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
You're an English major on the side here, patronize, you
brought patronize If you go and you patronize a restaurant,
how do you differentiate patronize and patronize? If I if
I'm being patronizing or I'm patronizing.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I believe, I believe Sean, we would be using context clues.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Okay, but but still but but it's a different.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It's like the word shit. But how do you differentiate
if it's a good word or a bad word? Context
clues understood, But you brought up, but you brought but
you brought up if I'm patronizing if I think it
was Chick fil A said if I'm patronizing Chick fil A.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
I don't know if you're patronizing them or you're patronizing them.
I know context doesn't help. It does really at them, Well,
I'm patronizing you.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You could be patriotizing somebody who works at Chick fil A.
But I don't think I know what you're doing to me,
and it's too early for that trying.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
We we the whole marketing thing and it just happened
to pop up on on my LinkedIn and probably because
I was talking about marketing and that's what LinkedIn does
as well as anybody else. They were It was part
of this conversation that a person was having about marketing
(24:48):
and about how you need to go after the people
who you think are going to be the people that
will actually use your product or use your service. And
they brought up an ad that ca out in the
early nineteen hundreds and it was put on it put
in a paper I believe in England by an explorer
(25:08):
by the name of Ernest Shackleton. We've all heard of Shackleton, yep.
So for those of you haven't, I know our listeners
in Antarctica have. He was one of the early explorers
to Antarctica. Sorry, I'll get that.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Easy for you to say.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And back in the day he needed to advertise to
get people too interested in his expeditions, and instead of
you know, you think to yourself, hey, come join me
on this adventure. It'll be fun. You get all expense
paid trip, you get to be on a boat and
(25:44):
go shirt the go in the high seas, do all
this fun stuff. It'll be great, a great time.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Shackleton wasn't necessarily the greatest marketer, but he was a
big believer in honesty is the best policy.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Ad reads men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold,
long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return, doubtful,
honor in recognition in case of success. And he got
(26:18):
his folks who who actually said, look, I'm just nuts
enough to do this. But that's where that's where marketing
back back in the day made sense, because it was like, look,
this is what it is, right and away we went.
So it's just you know, for me, if the whole
marketing thing and where things were are are at and
(26:39):
these these tricks that companies are playing, I again believe
that they are contrived, that they know it's going to
bring a bit of outrage, which is going to do
nothing but continue to get their name in the news
for some cycles so that and they don't have to
do a thing, and all of a sudden, people know
who American Eagle is, people understand and who Cracker Barrel
(27:01):
is and the end it is a great way of
using the people to start a movement.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Well, if nothing else, I think this podcast will give
people food for thought. See what I did.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
There, well done, well done, food for thought.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
And I always have to point it out when I.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Do it, because she believes she's so subtle.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
But I think people will start looking at ads a
little more critically or think to ads that were a
little bit shocking and be like, hey, I think they
did that on purpose. I mean, do you think that
the uh is it progressive? The ones that rip on
old people? Like do you think that old people are like, well,
no matter what, I'm not gonna buy progressive because I
(27:47):
don't act like my parents. Because I mean, they have
their whole series of ads about like don't become your
parents or whatever. They're clearly targeting this middle age market,
which is when people are primarily shopping insurance, right but
I haven't heard that like AARP has, you know, went
after progressive insurance.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
The best part of it about that is I resemble
pretty much all of the things that they talk about.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I think this has been another Curveball production
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.