A Royal Writers Strike and Logo Rebrands | Weekly Digital Marketing Update 5/11

Digital Ad Market Update: 4/23 - 5/11 2023

Joe, Kiersten, and producer Alex are in the studio to give you all the latest marketing, tech, culture related news from the last two weeks. Hear it all in X minutes or less.

Top Stories:
King Charles' Coronation happened. We have some thoughts.

The Writers Guild strike is halting the production of TV shows and movies left and right. We dive into our predictions of what's to come.

Live events are finally back and LiveNation seems to be having no trouble raking in cash.

Drive-throughs are getting automated? Tipping at self-checkout? We have some opinions.

Gen-Z is in love with logos. We talk about the power of the brand and the influence of color on different generations.

Walmart has gone through several rebrands during its lifetime. We break down a few and the company changes we associate with each. From here, we get into the maximalism revival and how different industries can benefit from adopting this trend.

Articles Mentioned:
Wendy's, Google AI Drive-Through Push: https://bit.ly/3BfJrIu
Gen-Z's Love for Logos: https://bit.ly/44NGufK
Tipping at Self-Checkout: https://bit.ly/42mCpxF
Walmart's Past Rebrands: https://bit.ly/3nJ5qEH

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
On today's of Record, Should youtip at a self? Checkout our take
on the coronation just a few dayslate, and a breakdown of what's trending
in logos on this week's of Record. Of Record is a podcast focus on

(00:27):
the marketing and advertising industry from theperspective of industry expert Joe Clements. Joe
Clements is a co founder of StrategicDigital Services, a digital marketing firm based
in Tallahassee, Florida, and foundedin twenty fourteen. I'm Joe Clements and
this is the podcast of Record.Everybody, Welcome to a long awaited episode

(01:03):
of the of Record podcast. I'myour host Joe Clemens, co host Kirsteno,
producer Alex Yo. Clicking the buttonsto today no sound effects. Well,
it's been a while since we dida podcast, mostly because work been
a little busy. Yeah, don'tget to pursue don't get to pursue my

(01:26):
leisure activities like podcasting. But boydid we miss a lot. A lot
has happened in the last two weeks. We have a new King in England,
we had the met Gala, wehave we have all Hollywood going on
strike, we have um, whatelse is happening with the new king same
as the old king. Yeah,just a guy that is we're gonna get

(01:49):
off on the tangent. I've headon this podcast multiple times, but humanizing
royals makes zero sense. Like thepoint of having a monarchy is there,
like different somehow from you, Likeyou would have people over there literally believing
that the queen never pooped or farted. Good, that's what you want if
you have royals, that is whatyou have to have. Is that sort

(02:10):
of mentality My favorite part of thecoordination thing. And I don't want to
hog this segment, but I havea lot of thoughts on it. Is
the people that were like raising thesigns that said not my king, like
they literally just took from but notmy president, like you have a choice.
I don't know if you understand.It's the Republicans over there, right,
I don't even know what they're called, is Republicans. So like they're

(02:31):
not they're not monarcaus. They don'tbelieve there's gonna be a monarchy. Look,
I think marchy. It's interesting,right, We've talked about so many
times. It's like your country's mascot, so it's useful for that. But
I don't understand the Americans are sointo it. I am. I like
it, okay, just to say, like American women just love some royals

(02:54):
because there's good drama all the time. I mean, there's first piece of
drama I got out of that wasabout shoes at the coronation, and it
brings me back to a simpler time. Okay, that's why I like it,
back when we were arguing about somebodywearing shoes and what that meant,
and not like actual problems it was. It's just a good, you know,

(03:15):
break from reality. Just been abig, big year. And you
know what's that the Golden Jubilee isthat what the Platinum Jewbilee? And then
the the funeral and now the coronation. And this guy's old, so I'll
probably be dead in five or sixyears and then they'll be the other one
for his son and his wife wouldprobably be even bigger. Oh that one.

(03:36):
Okay, there's okay, man,I'm going on a coronation thing.
I just want to pick y'all's brainson it. They are saying this is
probably going to be the last coronationof the British monarchy ever because they think
that it is so out of touchwith you know, people are starving to
death, and you know kids arehomeless, and you know people are doing

(03:58):
drugs. That it is so outof touch that William probably will not even
do a coordination because it's just sucha bad taste anymore. And the fact
that they scaled this one back somuch already because they didn't want to bring
all the attention to all this lavishness, which is the point of why we
watch a coronation. I mean,like we want to watch the trs.
It's also the point of having royals, right, Like I'm here for the

(04:21):
visual aesthetic, Like I'm also notBritish, but like I've the mood that
I've been reading is that they modernizethis one so much and scaled it back
so much that they don't even thinkthat William will have a coordination. I
think that is not true, okay, because what yeah, I think you'll

(04:46):
have people in America that feel likethat. That is not how most people
in Great Britain think about it.Correct. It's a big party kind of
for it. It's a whole deal. So I don't think that's it.
And I think you would downplay thisone because you know, the William one
is going to be big because he'llprobably be king for longer. Yes,

(05:08):
so, And everybody likes William forthe most part, and everyone likes Kate
for the most part. You knowwhat, I I don't care. Nobody
likes Charles and nobody likes I thinkthe big mistake in World War two was
just the US didn't take over GreatBritain entirely. Yeah. Now that,
now that's a nice we get into. You want to spend two hours called

(05:31):
the East America? Okay, whatelse are we talking about today? But
what is it the special relationship orthe privileged relationship that you say the US
and England have. I don't evenknow. Yeah, it's like the privilege
or special or something, the privilegerelationship. Yeah whatever. The president but
by didn't even go here's a doctorJill Biden did doctor Jill? Yeah.

(06:00):
Uh. The other thing with thecoordination is under You know, people definitely
watched it and paid attention, butit was under followed compared to like the
funeral or because nobody wanted to seeCharles get crowned and nobody nobody wanted to
see Camilla get crowned. Are youkidding me? Yeah? No, I
wonder what the ad rates are whenthey were like doing the live broadcast on

(06:21):
American television. I wonder if thatwasn't above average ad rate or a blow
average ad rate. I bet youwas blow average because of the time it's
start Saturday morning. Four am iswhen you'd have start turning in, so
I mean maybe after six o'clock.Yeah, wow, that's why everyone was
falling asleep, like in like thestands and during the coordination, like all

(06:44):
the kids were like nodding off andstuff. So boring. If you're a
kid, you had to get up, get dressed, you know, stand
around, hurry up to waiting.I mean if it was all decorating and
everyone got to wear their tiaras andwe got to go all exam exuberant with
it, it probably would have beenmore interesting. So, you know what,

(07:05):
we won't be hearing about the coronationany nighttime TV jokes, nighttime show
TV jokes, late night because thewriter strike. Man, We're like,
we're like, if we're breaking newsto people, that's pretty sad. That
was a good transition. Yeah,I'm a professional writer strike is This happened

(07:27):
in two thousand and four. Twothousand and five, it happened, and
I actually had a big impact whenit when it happened last time. I
don't think it's going to have asbig of an impact this time. Why.
I think there's so much content inproduction, like that's already been produced,
that's already cams, that's already waiting, there's probably six months of it.

(07:48):
And then the access to content isso so radically expanded from what it
was in two thousand and four,audiences may not notice for a year or
eighteen months that there's been a writerstrike. Do you want me to go
over what the shows that have stopproduction and writer's rooms that are now closed.

(08:11):
Yes, these are shows that havestopped production. NBC's comedy Night Court,
the second season of Unstable on Netflix, The Venery of Samantha Bird from
Stars, Hacks from HBO has beencoming to a standstill. The seventh season
of Disney Channel's longest running live actioncomedy series, Bunked is on hold Saturday

(08:37):
Night Live stop production indefinitely, withthree episodes left of its forty eight years
since it's been relevant. I wassaying stranger things, Yes, Okay,
so these are ones that are withwriters rooms right now? Is Cobra Kai,
The Book of Power Raising Can YellowJackets, Abbot Elementary, and Night

(09:01):
of the Seven Kingdoms. The It'sthe Hedge Night. Um, it's a
Game of Thrones prequel. Um,Stranger Things will not start, will not
start filming. Um, I thinkthat's it. I've seen a couple of
movies too. Yeah, I'm lookingat the movies now like Blade. Yeah.

(09:22):
Um, but that look, Ididn't recognize a lot of things.
There's just because like I think itcould be a year before most consumers notice.
I I'm on the flip of thatbecause I think more and more shows
and movies are gonna get halted andpeople are gonna be like, so are
we gonna wait forever for this movie? And there's gonna be a lot of

(09:45):
pressure on the exact Yeah, butremember if it's already written, it can
go into production. It's just thewriters. Yeah, but the writers do
much more than just writing the script, Like most productions have on set writers
in different posiness as to like liveedit TV show scripts, and without that,
I think the quality of shows isjust going to go down and people

(10:07):
will eventually notice that. So I'mnot like, I don't know exactly how
that Hollywood production world works with unionsso that you couldn't have just like the
director or the assistant director like I'mgonna make the script edit real quick.
Yeah, is it like one ofthose things where like according to like the

(10:28):
strictures of like the way those productionswork, like no, you only a
writer, a member of the writer'sguild can touch the script. I'm not
sure about the specifics of that,Yeah, because I know one of the
sticking points and their negotiation is theywanted mandatory staffing for shows to guard against

(10:50):
like AI being able to do it. So you think about it, making
a script edit is something like somebodywill have a chat GTP plug in probably
already exist. And the big thingwith scripts, if you've never looked at
like a Hollywood movie script or afilm scripts, they have very specific formatting,
like over the top prescriptive formatting.There's bespoke software several programs that people

(11:16):
use to do this formatting for it. But with you know, a chat
GPT, this is the type ofthing. It's pretty easy and natural language
to be like, yeah, changeAlex's line, you know it needs to
be five seconds longer, and heneeds to say he needs to make a
joke in it and it'll do apretty good job changing that up, giving
you something to work from. Sothey were worried about that, so they

(11:39):
wanted mandatory staffing. Do you thinkthis is going to work out well for
screenwriters or do you think that theindustry is just going to evolve in really
plug into AI. So I don'tthink that's what's going to happen right now
to them. I think what's goingto happen right now to them is there's
going to be a lot of experimentationwith creator content, stuff that you don't

(12:01):
even need a writer for. SoI think reality shows can continue production,
and you definitely have like the socialmedia type personalities who can continue production.
And so I think they're going toexperiment with creator based content, bring back
like early twenty ten YouTube content,bring it back, where we just get

(12:24):
these creators, uncancel everybody and justbring it back. Yeah, that would
be that I miss that era ofentertainment that was better than any movie I
could think of at that time.So I think you could see some experimentation
with that, like, so notjust the AI. I think that's the
bigger risk for them, the AI, because that's really the bigger risk for

(12:45):
all of entertainment. All of entertainmentis not being right now pressured by AI.
All of entertainment is being pressured byTikTok. Yeah. I was gonna
say, you know, who shouldslide in as Quibbie. Didn't they go
bankrupt and sell? True, that'sthey're loss man. Look there's another thing,
which is which is why I thinkultimately the writers will end up getting

(13:07):
a settlement. Is okay, Solet's say Alex is right, people start
noticing that TV is like sliding,where are people going to go TikTok?
So I think they will probably geta deal if for no other reason,
then if you don't have new contentcoming out, people will substitute time.
And they're not going to substitute timetalking to their family or taking a walk

(13:28):
in the park. They're just gonnafill with TikTok. Yeah, I totally
agree. But it's interesting to mewhen I was just reading off of the
ones that are you know, affectedso far, I mean a lot of
that was like NBC's seven o'clock ato'clock drama that you're probably your mom wants
write them weekly. So those showsare typically written week by week, right,

(13:52):
and so they write it two weeksbefore and then it goes into pre
production, then it goes into productionwhen it's in season, So those shows
get paused. A lot of yourstreaming shows are not like that. The
whole season is written and then itgoes into production, or a movie is
written and then it goes in production. Of Alex mentioned, you might have

(14:13):
edits that happen in the course ofthe production process, but I'm not exactly
sure what the you know, whatyou would be allowed or not allowed to
do under kind of union rules forthat. The other pieces, the networks
and the streaming companies have known forsix or eight months this was going to
happen, and so they filled thehopper as full as they did with content.

(14:37):
Do you think that they're just goingto outsource a lot of these people
too? Like, I mean,okay, so screenwriters unionized, let's say
in America, Like, what's stoppingthem from you know, plugging in people
from other countries? My getting myguess is what stops you from doing that
in Hollywood specifically? And that's justHollywood, right. You may be able

(14:58):
to hear Netflix to Go Ion's contentfrom other countries where it's being produced,
but the politics of production in Hollywoodare such that like, well, if
you're gonna if you're gonna ice thewriters, then you may have a problem
with your other unions getting iffy onyou as well, and then you may

(15:18):
have like a strike or a walkoutor you know, something like that in
support of the writers, because yourassumption as well, they'll do to the
writers, they'll do it to us. Yeah, that's an interesting but again
not as I think when the writerstrike happened in the early two thousand it
was impactful because every show just kindof stopped season like it was just like,

(15:43):
all right, well, no morenew shows for a while. That
is not the case now, likeit will take a while before people are
noticing a disruption. I remember readingon this is a long time ago,
so I could be wrong. So, but Breaking Bad had just started when
that that first one had happened.They were wrapping up season one, and

(16:04):
I think season one even got cutshort because of that, And that's why
the writing at the end of seasonone in the beginning of season two was
kind of like off and a littleslow compared to the rest of the show.
That's typically a point where a lotof people will break off on the
show and was like, oh,I couldn't get into it. Yeah,
so that, like to Alex's credit, is something that could happen. I

(16:29):
don't think it maybe would impact alot. But when I'm breaking back to
my favorite show of all time,when I do talk to people about it
and they stopped watching it, itwas almost always at that point, which
I think is interesting. Yeah.So if your favorite show isn't going to
come on this year, maybe yourother alternative besides TikTok maybe live events.

(16:55):
M go to concerts, go toconcerts, live events. So Live Nation
announced a seventy three percent rise inrevenue year over year in their Q one
reportings, and it looks like thatis probably going to keep going. They
had about twenty million people attend theirevents in Q one, and they're on

(17:15):
track for the biggest in their history, above last year's total attendees of about
one hundred and twenty million people.They may go for one hundred and thirty
million people one hundred and forty thisyear. Have any of you ever done
a Live Nation thing, like boughttickets through it? Yeah? For what

(17:36):
I mean isn't Ticketmaster Live Nation.They're the same thing. Oh yeah,
oh yeah, I guess how manyconcerts I go to, And I think
they also owned some of the othercompanies. I was having discussion with somebody
who's an attorney that works in anantitrust and was like, I'm so surprised,

(17:57):
like no one's brought an anti trustsuit against Live Nation at this point
because it is People like to complainabout Google and Meta and Amazon for monopoly,
but Live Nation is one of themost aggressive was with exploiting their market
position. Oh yeah, Like atleast Amazon and Google they try to hide

(18:18):
what they're doing. They don't they'renot consumer facing and how it impacts Like
those companies are typically advertiser focus,so it has an impact on ad fees
and ad deals. But Live Nationis literally one of the most infuriating businesses
to deal with. Yeah, Imean we saw that with the tailor Swift
scandal and the tickets for their techticketmaster. Was it or just the fees

(18:42):
that are on top of it?You fee on the fee, it ends
up being like twenty percent of theticket cost. It's like, do you
want to breathe at this concert?Like extra? Yeah, the air is
extra? Oh do you want likea seat or do you want to just
sit on the floor, Like,oh god, Yeah, that's one of
those one of those companies that mustbe very well represented at the federal level.

(19:07):
It has to be. But wetalked about a couple months ago about
how now that COVID's over, howspecial these like live performances are because it's
like a once in a lifetime ordeal. Now like we just cherish them in
a completely different mindset. I think, yeah, that the virtualization of everything

(19:29):
has made the live experience more valuableoverall. Yeah. I think maybe a
year ago we had that whole conversationthat we thought it was going to be
like a big time for live events. Yeah, yeah, and clearly we
were right. We're right, AndI mean people are going to Kaylor Swift
concerts multiple times to see the samething. Like that just proves how special
it is. What if Taylor Swiftand The Killers did a tour together where

(19:53):
Taylor Swift sung in the Killers andit was Killer Swift. I would literally
ascend Killer to the sky. Ijust go like a beam up into the
sky and then it just a shootingstar that ai Taylor Swift singing Killer song.
Somebody had done one of like mixingtheir her music with a killer song.
Oh man, ah, let mefind it. It was really good.

(20:18):
Um Taylor Swift killers, AI remakesof artists or would have been taking
over Spotify. Let Spotify is tryingto take them all off of people than
they can. This is why wewould have run, which is a mash
up of um. This is whywe can't have nice things, would have,
could have, should have, andrun for cover all in one.

(20:41):
Yeah. Do you want me toplay a little snippett? Okay, here,
guys, this is my new laptop. Let's see what it sounds like.
Limit to entertainment. Let's see itfor entertainment. Purposely, we're gonna
violate like nineteen different copyrights in termsof use. Go got a long lead

(21:04):
in there, Kirson. I needsyou to start close to the words.
Yeah, I'd listen to it.Yeah I would. I'd pay a lot
of money for that. Yeah,killer Swift, killer Swift. Um,

(21:29):
that's it. You know I've heardobviously a lot of people have covered this
of the music making using AI remixingvoices. Legitimately, some of the stuff
I've heard is better than the artiststo make themselves. Right, we were
saying about licensing your voice and forai and just letting writers write it like
and people you know could do aoutstanding knockout job. And I think what's

(21:55):
going on is for so long,like twenty years, you've been maybe even
twenty five years the DJ scene.You know, so many people have had
enough experience with like music mixing ontheir computer that they've gotten kind of good
at playing around with songs, snippetingsongs, djaying, Oh, you have

(22:15):
a ton of professional working DJs outthere that you have enough talented people that
when they had this tool, they'relike, oh, I can have this
additional layer to something I'd already doneanyway. Yeah, so they had already
kind of known like oh, Ican play this song over here, but
now they can change the lyrics ofthe song they're playing over top of the
music. It's like throwing gas ona fire. It's so cool. There's

(22:37):
one thing you can count on themusic industry doing with this epically, epically
screwing it up for themselves, justlike they did at the beginning of streaming
of internet downloads and like two thousands, which they finally, I don't know
two years ago, recovered from interms of sales, total sales of all

(22:59):
of them is they couldn't figure outhow to work with that technology. So
they fought it and they shut downNapster and they shut down the streaming services
and then they just kind of gotlucky and Apple saved them with download streaming.
And I'm sure they will spend thenext four or five years fighting this
and suing like seventeen year olds inOklahoma for violation of copyright before they figure

(23:25):
out that this is a substantial opportunityfor most artists and there's probably a way
to make money on it. Yeah, they will fight this, I think
too. The nail Oh they alreadyare. Yeah, I mean, and
I think a lot of artists thatdon't get it are going to as well.
Those who get it get it.Like, if you were smart and
you wanted to license your voice couldmake some really good money and you'd never

(23:49):
probably have to tour or do allthese other crazy things unless you wanted to.
Well, what you would do isyou would make the licensing cost relatively
inexpensive, so and you would makeif I was doing this, I was
a big artist, I'd make itrelatively inexpensive and then I would tie my

(24:11):
fee to the amount to the numberof downloads the song received, and so
I licensed it everywhere, and thenall I need is a couple of people
to just have massive hits, andthen I make a ton of money on
the massive hits, and the stuffthat sucks nobody finds or discovers or listens
too. Yeah, so I would. I would turn myself into this distributed

(24:33):
voice that people can use or workwith, but then I get paid on
the top hits that people make.Now this begs the question of how do
you become a major artist in thefuture. Well, you're probably not going
to be a major artist making vocalsin the future, Yeah, because your
vocals are not going to be thatvaluable. It's gonna be all about songwriting,

(24:55):
going to be all about MacBook,MacBook, MacBook do that. I'm
waiting to see them do it withdead singers. Oh, with Michael Jackson
singing the weekend songs. Yeah,I want more. There are some prints
in there. Yeah, great opportunityfor those estates. But I don't know
unless you have a very unique voice. How how anybody in the future is

(25:22):
going to surface from just being avocalist. I think the age of the
vocalist, it's probably over probably valuablestill if you're touring, if you're playing
live, But if you can usea MacBook, you probably don't need to
sing. You probably don't need tobe able to play an instrument. Singing
is only impressive when you see itlive. Now, I think, yeah,
because then you're like, what,well, so much of that crap
is auto tuned anyway? Sure?Yeah, the radio it's not even a

(25:47):
real voice. It's been synthetic foruh, you know, twenty years,
right, But it's like the performative, the you know, the aesthetic of
it is. Yeah, I thinkstill you know, pairs whip dancing on
that chair, oh man in therain in Nashville. Sorry, mommy,
mommy. Sorry. She had afour hour delay because of the lightning,

(26:11):
and she still did her whole showtill two am. I know what.
You can say what you want aboutTaylor Smift, but that was pretty cool.
That was good for her image andher fans. Yeah, when you're
an artist like that, you know, if you do that, it's going
to be iconic. And and sheknows she has the cameras there, so
whatever they're gonna do with that footage, you know, you're setting a story.

(26:33):
Oh yeah, exactly, she's thatdocumentary it comes out. But looking
at you, wasn't Morgan Wallen whocanceled after everybody was sitting there for hours
and was like, sorry, I'msick. My boy sucks and then like
just canceled and refunded everybody, whichis fine. I'm pretty sure he was
just drunk though. Oh we allknow he was drunk. We all have
that video of him in Oxford,Mississippi. Yes, we do. Johnny

(26:56):
cashed. It just got too drunkto before. Yeah, like, look,
I like some Morgan Wallen. Youdon't get me iconic, but that
guy looks like a dude that wouldcall thirty minutes before his shift and goes,
I can't come in. Yeah,you know, like he's an old
school country artist. So tying it, man, My transitions are on point

(27:18):
today. So AI, we talkedabout a use that I think is cool,
Like that track you play It iscool. There's a use of AI.
I think I'm less excited about orI don't know. I'm curious your
guys thoughts. It is this outof the Wall Street Journal, Windy's,
and Google Train the next generation oforder taker, The AI chatbot. By

(27:40):
the way, the AI has tropeis the story I'm falling in love with.
They you just plug AI into anystory from the last ever and you
get a brand new story. It'sgreat thoughts on and we've talked about that
the future of all services was nohuman interaction. I honestly, if I
can text it and I don't haveto talk to it, even though some

(28:03):
of the voice recognition stuff is gettingpretty good, I'd be okay just pulling
up to a drive through texting myorder. Yes, i will, even
if I'm in a line and I'mlike a couple of cars back. I'll
even do my mobile order on myphone. So when by the time I
get up there, I'm just like, oh, I have a mobile order,
and they go okay, pole ahead. The exception the exception to that,

(28:25):
though is Chick fil A, wherethey stand outside because you can see
them face to face and it makesthe order a lot easier. It's not
like coming through this fuzzy speaker yeahwhopper, Yeah, Alex. We need
a like a voice filter that soundslike an old school fast food the speaker

(28:49):
on it. Yeah, Like,man, I love it on your list.
I love going into on McDonald andthey have the screens up there and
you just plug in your order.And how can venient that is when you
have multiple people with you, Likewhen we were on like our retreat and
we were grabbing breakfast at a McDonald, it's nice just to stand there and
every way you can just be poopand you don't have to sit there and

(29:11):
be like, okay, your turn, Okay, you're turned. Oh wait
this, Oh you don't have that? You know? Like it? It
streamlines everything for the people working there, the people that are your guests.
I think it's great, great productpositioning opportunity as well, because you can
just suggest it when they're pushing it. You can rearrange the icons to try

(29:32):
and get more orders of your highestvalue. It turns the online ordering into
more like ordering on a website.Yeah, so it's much more dynamic,
right, I'm sorry it turns inperson ordering, yeah too, much more
similar to ordering on a website.I don't think actually anybody likes to work
and a customer service headset environment,no matter who you are and what company

(29:55):
it is. I don't think peoplereally enjoy it. You just do it
because it's your job getting paid.But I think people would much rather just
be like working in the back withtheir headphones in, like you know,
getting through their shift. It probablywould be a lot more relaxing slinging mc
doubles man, Sometimes I think,you know, life would be so nice
if I just worked at Target andjust folded clothes and nobody talked to me

(30:17):
like people talk to you. Girl. People definitely would talk to you.
If you worked at Target, you'dhave customers coming out. You're gonna be
in the middle of folding something.Excuse me, I'm looking for I don't
know what's the weirdest thing people aregonna ask you for. They're looking for
adult nipers, your feminine hygiene products. Oh that's down there. Take a
lapt on the right. Boom,Yeah that's true. You already know,

(30:38):
so you're already qualified. Yeah,yeah, I remember. Everything isn't Target.
It's fine, And I could evenprobably give them a recommendation. Where
is your toddler clouds over there?That's a really cute one over there?
You can get that one. Thatone was on sale actually, and if
you go and download your Target Circleapp you can get an extra twenty percent
off. Kirsten would be the Targetemployee that actually like soft sells you on

(31:00):
products like walks you up, like, oh, let me show you where
it's at. I would love towork the dressing room and Target and like
I'm like, okay, come out, can you turn around? Okay?
Well how does it feel when youbend over? Okay? So I think
you need another size exit No,But like I would actually like probably enjoy

(31:22):
helping people. But I think thatwould be hilarious TikTok. Content is you
just show up and give people unwantedfashion advice and a Target dressing room I'd
like, but girl, your legsare great, however you're short, Like
that would be hilarious content. Ohgosh, So that's just not going to
work for you. But I havea better recommendation. I'll go pull it

(31:44):
for you right now. Okay,what color? Okay? Like? Or
you just get a job at aTarget for a week for the bit where
what you do is give people verydetailed advice on all products. There was
this guy that used to dress upas a Target employee, which is just
wearing a red shirt days and he'dgo in on a Black Friday and boss
people around and he didn't even workthere. But I think about that every

(32:07):
year, and I'm like, youcould do it. That would be kind
of fun to do for like justa little bit. I think you're highly
qualified to run a target, probablymore than some of the people at work
that you know a lot about target. I do so. Tying into AI
taking your orders is how do youfeel about being asked to tip at a

(32:28):
self checkout boom? According to theWall Street Journal, this has customers crying
emotional blackmail. Yes, it's kindof like when you get hit up at
point of sale to like donate moneyto whatever charity. It's that, but
it's like give money to the employeesthat you never saw that work here.

(32:49):
I look, it's the same thingwith Panera. Do you tip people at
PANNAIRA? I know you don't.You're gonna go. I don't go to
panair because it's airline food. That'swhy I just don't like it. Yeah,
if you are not providing a likeweight, like a waiter waitress service,
I do not see a point fora tip. If you are working

(33:09):
in a cash register or you area line cook, you are probably making
like a wage at that point.Like I'll tip you if you went above
and beyond and there's you know,you actually help me or something like that,
but like no, but they doit every time because the thing is
like when it always will come upwith like tip and they spin it around
and you feel obligated to press anyof them. And I think at the

(33:30):
bottom in the tiny ones, there'sno tip, yeah, and then they
spin it around. Then they gothey like raise their eyebrows when like they
sell you did no tip. It'slike you didn't do anything order. Yeah.
I was like, it's really notlike you were providing outstanding service.
Like, but people do feel guiltyand they feel bad like they have to
because they're present the option. Doyou feel negative enough about it to go

(33:54):
to that place less? Because it'sbecause it's so normalized now that like it
doesn't even phase me. Like maybein the beginning, I kind of was
like I felt a little bit awkward, Like there used to be a donut
shop here in town that like wasone of the first interactions I had with
it back in the day, andI always felt awkward about it, and

(34:15):
I always like walking up to there, I always was like, oh,
I'm not gonna tip. I'm likeit feels a little awkward. But now
I'm like everybody has that kind ofregister, Like that is the normal register
these days. Could you imagine likegoing to publics and they spin it around
and ask for a tip, Likeyou just think that's so weird. Yeah,
just bake it, bake it intothe price please. Yeah. Like

(34:36):
or like you're at Walmart and theyliked spinning around and they like ask you
for a tip. This is likekind of the borderline of this like service
work. Yeah. Like there's someretail stuff if like you know, you're
buying a product at the Costco orwhatever, and some kids they don't do
this to Costco made best buy.Some guys like hoof in your TV out
the door for you. Yeah,like I don't mind a tipping for that,

(34:58):
or the Christmas t guy the Christmastree place made you a re ties
it to your car. Fine.Server definitely makes sense. I'm not sure
like now literally we know, likeyou could do that job yourself, because
some places have like you just pushthe order on the screen. Yes,
Why would I tip you for ajob that I know I can just do

(35:21):
myself and probably can have done itquicker. Yeah, and would have gladly
done it myself too. That's theother poor part. It's like if I
was given the option, if Iam ever given the option to go talk
to a person in the store orjust check out by myself, I don't
ninety nine point nine percent of thetime go by myself. Yeah. Now,
if I was worked at one ofthose places, I would probably make
a lot in tips because every timesomeone walked up, I would just compliment

(35:45):
something they were wearing or doing.That's an easy way to do, an
easy way to give a dollar.Oh girl, I love your nails.
Yeah, I said to my cashhow old? How old is she?
What kind of dog is that?She's so cute? This is so like
if you're worrying that people are waitingthere, you get a second, you
just look, make a quick judgment, give them a compliment. So even

(36:06):
get a smile. They're gonna tapeyou. They're not gonna they're not gonna
blank you on that. I mean, you got a dollar per transaction all
day long. Imagine Joe working asa varista real quick, I mean everyone,
just to visualize this, I wouldbe the wealthiest man at Panera.
And this like a woman comes inand he goes, oh, how far
along are you? And She's like, I'm not that would be so horrible.

(36:29):
That would be Joe, and Joewill go oh boom roasted. Oh
god, is that a real babyor a food baby? Oh my god.
You were like, oh, it'slike ninety nine percent of the time.
It works all the time except thatone part. Oh gosh, Well,

(36:53):
speaking of retail, you had anothergood one, did I about I
got the logos story? Yeah,I'll talk about the logos yea, because
I was talking about, like,what if they spun the register around at
Walmart for a ten? Okay,So let me tie this into the Walmart
one in a minute. Because thefirst story we have out of Morning Consolt

(37:13):
is on logos is research titled Gen'sEars might buy your product if fill in
the blank, alex if what ifit's logo? It's cool clothes slays Slay
Slay. So they did research onlogos that people said that they liked.

(37:34):
And this was an online survey,and it suggested that people like logos if
you can believe it, that aresimple, bold, and realistic. So
I can share with you some ofthe numbers here. Thirty six percent of

(37:55):
people said they like a retro logo. Only twenty three percent said they like
futuristic, fifty two percent said theylike bold colors, fifty five percent said
they like simple, forty three percentsaid still or static, and twenty two
percent said moving. I think thatis to indicate that the logo indicates motion,

(38:15):
not that it's actually moving twenty I'msorry. Thirty two percent said they
like a mascot, twenty six percentsaid they did not want a mascot,
and forty nine percent said they likeour realistic logo versus seventy percent who said
they like abstract. Boy, wouldthey hate our logo? Of record has

(38:36):
a reasonable logo? It's straight upyeah, it's fun. Yeah. And
then there was a generation by generationquestion that said shares of respondence who said
they have purchased a product because ithad the following an interesting logo. Well
that was Jim Zeers. We're allabout the interesting logo, with fifty five

(38:57):
percent saying they purchased it because oflogo, and boomers only fourteen percent limited
edition packaging. Millennials and gen zerswere all about the limited edition packaging.
Boomers were not, only twenty onepercent of them said they liked it.
About fifty five percent of millennials andGen's ears and a new logo we're packaging.

(39:22):
About ten percent of boomers cared,but fifty percent of millennials and gen
Zers cared about new logos. I'mtrying to think of. There was a
big controversy about the Ivory Soap.I think it was a couple of years
ago that they changed Ivory Soap tolike this really a feminine like version and

(39:47):
wasn't Oh maybe it was, no, it had to have been. Anyway,
they changed it to like this,and it looked kind of like tampons
and like it literally made people soa greed because the old logo was like
I'm trying to find an example.It was just like so unisex and everyone
loved it and it was just likeiconic. I guess people have really like

(40:08):
Ivory Soap, but when they switchedit, it really made people upset.
I don't know why. That justreminded me of that. Sorry that was
a little So this does note somethingI don't know that I've I've noticed and
so colors rank prominently. But bythe way, if you know anything about
branding, this research is not arevelation at all that people like colorful,

(40:32):
simple logos that is the nature oflogos with some you know, they'll be
trends that come and go. Isthis that the better part of the last
decade was dominated by millennial pink,while it seems gen z yellow is starting
to have a moment. Who Ihave never noticed millennial pink? Yes,

(40:57):
okay, millennial pink was huge forI mean, at least girls like that
was the whole point. Like whitepink got included with iPhones and MacBooks like
that Rose Goal. Okay, Ididn't even think of that. Yeah,
that was like a huge Like pinkbecame very popular in the last couple of
years because before it was such likea little girl color. It was like
hyper feminine, and then all ofa sudden it became this like really classy

(41:20):
like color that was like, youknow, a fun neutral. Yeah.
There's a whole article in a sitecalled The Cut about the It's a timeline
of millennial pink and it shows allthe products that's been used in and gen
z yellow looks nice though. I'mreally I love the color yellow, So
I'm here for this all right,gen z yellow taking a look at the

(41:45):
gen Z Yellow. This is anarticle in the Guardian. It was a
Pantone for it. Gen Z Yellow, Alex, get your yellow on,
Bro, what are you doing black? You're lacking It's like highlighter yellow.
I know, how can I noticethat you're gen Z if you're not wearing

(42:07):
bright yellow all the time looking likebig bird. That's why everybody in there
looks like to me is a bigbird. So this ties into an insider.
There was a history of the Walmartlogo, which the article titled Walmart
has rolled out seven different logos overthe years. See how the retailer's logo

(42:28):
has evolved that. Of course,last month, Walmart rolled out a brand
new logo for it's a new subscriptionshopping platform or sorry, it's a membership
shopping platform, Walmart Plus. Andit is essentially their spark logo with a
plus sign. I always like thesestories where you see the history of an

(42:49):
older company's logo. Yeah, sothat spark logo, which is the current
Walmart logo. The it was adoptedin two thousand and eight, and I
was wondered this. I thought itwas a sunbeam, not a spark.
Do you know what the spark represents? I didn't until I just read,
but to represents Sam Waltman's stroke ofinsight, like his spark of genius to
start Walmart. See, I neverwould have guessed that. I thought it

(43:13):
was a son as well. Yeahme too, What did you think?
Yea, yeah, yeah, SamWalton stroke it. This is why people
hate marketing and advertising, right andAlex and I can at test. We've
had to do a little bit ofthis recently, where you make something that
just looks good and then justify itwith a story to get the client to

(43:34):
approve it. I feel like thiswill happen, like, oh, this
looks cool, what do we say? I know? This a spark of
insight the founder. I actually thoughtit would like to their whole like holistic,
because I kind of like went throughthat rebranding thing of like because remember
where everyone was like, don't eatfood from Walmart. Well, that's what
that was. In two thousand andeight when they repositioned because they were losing

(43:57):
so much traction to target, theyneeded to reposition more towards like a middle
to try and get up to likeupper middle class consumer, and so they
simplified the logo, they added thatlittle spark, they made the stores brighter.
That's when that all started happening wasthe late two thousands. I was
in Walmart list past weekend and Ihadn't been in a Walmart in a couple

(44:19):
months, and they completely redid thestore. They went by the Costco out
here, and the layout is Imean, it was very confusing, but
it's going to be totally different fromthat store. And I know I'm seeing
some Walmart's reconfigured their like clothing sectionsto be more like like Target, but
even better. Actually, I thinkthey're brighter, they're more colorful. They

(44:42):
actually feel like you're in another store, like you're almost going through a mall,
like oh interesting, it feels reallycool. And you know, every
time a girl finds something good atWalmart, they go, okay, Walmart.
How is that not a TikTok handleit? Kind of okay Walmart.
Every time you see something cute,you're like, okay, Walmart. I
see you like but like I meanit though, they're clearly starting to roll

(45:07):
it out here in Tallahassee, andI think that, I mean I would
I need to you gotta keep aneye of Walmart here. They're clearly,
i think, repositioning themselves a littlebit more or they're either settling in more
to that brand. I don't know. So this is a tough thing to
do on a podcast, but someof the logos on here the history.

(45:30):
So the ninety two to two thousandand eight Walmart logo, it's kind of
how I remember it in my head. It's Wall star Mart. The new
Walmart logo got rid of anything betweenWall and Mart's just Walmart. Yeah,
and before that, and I havevague memories of the nineteen eighty one to
ninety two logo, which is abrown wall Dashmart. You still see some

(45:54):
old Walmarts and parts of the countrywhere that's still the thing on the sign.
Still see the star every now andyeah, still see the star?
Does the star? What does thestar make you feel? Right now?
Like when you look at that oldlogo, what does that? What emotion
looks like? Texas? Okay,you're getting Texas? Yeah, what emotions?
Are you feeling? Grunge? There'sno one get like a patriotic five

(46:20):
but that it's very nostalgic, patriotic. It gives me nine eleven vibes.
Like I don't know why that becausebecause I was probably when I was a
kid, But like, like whenI look at that old Walmart logo.
I think like America, like weall stood together, like I don't know
why, but that's what that alwayscommunicates to me. What's funny about this
is so looking back. I'll sparethe verbal descriptions of all of them,

(46:42):
but if you go back to theirfirst logo in nineteen sixty two, it's
actually a how would you describe thatfont? It's all what it's all one
word again, very clean, SamSarah font. Are you talking about those
black one? Go down? Godown to the nineteen sixty two to nineteen
six four one. Oh sorry,I was way too scrolled down. Nineteen

(47:05):
sixty in that timeline, there's justoh yes, yes, but remarkably simple
compared to what they did in nineteensixty four to eighty one. I think
because that minimalism was getting out duringthat time. We were in going into
the seventies. We were looking forchunky bowl. Yeah, oh we got
chunky color. I mean it lookslike the one they had in the sixties

(47:29):
looked like it was a western generalstore, like we're some red dead redemption
yeahbes coming out of it. Idon't know why they went with that font
because it does look like a saloon. Yeah, welcome to the Walmart saloons.
Like you look like they're like they'relike throwing a guy out for drug
and the swinging doors and they're likeget your horse and leave and don't come

(47:52):
back. Yeah, And then theyhad in their logo it's haid Walmart Discount
City Satisfaction Guaranteed, we sell forless, like that was all text in
the logo in the sixties and seventies. Yeah. One thing I love about
logos is a trend right now islike we've gone from like that really sharp
sarah look that even like that minimalismwhen we saw at the six and sixty

(48:14):
two to this like round at all. Letters are so rounded now or each
letter has a rounded component to it. And I don't know if it's supposed
to be playful or makes you feellike safe. I don't know what it
is. But if you look atjust about any rebranding logo these days,
they all have like a curvature totheir letters. Now there's there are sharp

(48:37):
parts, but then you could seewhere they've gone in and made a curve.
It's very interesting to me, whichmeans in the next ten fifteen years,
everything's going to be sharp again everything'sgonna get sharp again and minimal And
well, I don't think we movedfully through the logo maximalist phase yet,
have we? No, I don'tthink we're out of it yet, because

(49:00):
I think we're still in the veryearly stages of the maximalism phase. I
agree. Well, I mean,I okay, I see more and more
of new places that are opening areway more maximalist and design. About a
year ago I had talked about inthe podcast about color disappearing and how that's
why maximalism is going to be abig trend coming out of COVID and stuff

(49:21):
like that, because people want toexpress themselves. They don't want to see
sanitary, they don't want to seethey don't want things that remind you them
of like a doctor's office, whichhas been a big trend. That's why
all these kitchens these days, ourcabinets are blue, they're green, Like
nobody wants a white kitchen anything.All the crazy color appliances like the pistels.
Yeah, yeah, And so Imean I firmly believe that, like

(49:44):
you're right, like the maximalism isworth the very tip of the iceberg on
that, Like we'll probably get anothergood fifteen years. I think out of
that, I think it'll be increasing. You know, you still think of
the what's the middle class fancy thejoke meme like you know, trendy new
hometown restaurant and it's like wooden stools, Edison bulbs. Yeah, you know,

(50:05):
we're still We've spent fifteen years buildingthese minimalist, industrial looking things,
and so now I think we're tippingback into this like, oh, that's
an empty wall, we need tofill it with things. Yeah, everything's
gonna look like a cracker barrel.Yeah, I love it. Cracker Bill
never gave up the maximalism, no, and that's why it's still relevant today

(50:25):
today. And the food is whatstores? So finishing up what stores?
Are restaurants or even hotels? Doyou think our prime to go hard maximalist?
Oh you made me immediately think oflike hotels, because I feel like
there's certain brands of hotels that candefinitely be trendier and be like not the

(50:50):
sterilized clean environment that like some peoplereally like what their hotels. I'm trying
to think of what brand that is, because clearly, like Marriott Hilton,
we're thinking about between the two ofthem, right, Yeah, they have
a million other hotels underneath them andstuff. What could really do this is
like a ConA lodge and stuff likethat. I feel like because you're already

(51:13):
going to like a ConA lodge,like you're you're already expecting it to be
like mid but it's a pleasant surprisewhen you see it, like really nice
or like days in. Yeah,it could be a good one like these
like Moteli ones could definitely you haveto have ones that didn't just go through
a big upgrade and so like yourHampton Ends just upgraded, your Day's Ends

(51:34):
just all got rebuilt. Yeah,you got to have something that's going into
a rebuild phase. What about stores? Do you think Target well ever transition
into something more maximalistic. I meanthat's a bad example because it's already so
full of stuff. It kind ofis maximalist. Yeah, and you know
Target does an already good job withit because it's not like everything is on

(51:55):
a shelf. Like if you gointo the home to core area, you
see the magnet only a collection andit's belt out with these like home frames,
like you feel like you're in likea barn almost, like it's each
little corner of the store has alreadybeen tailored to like, you know,
a unique design, so I wouldsay target on the retail space is probably
already there. Yeah, retail clothingstores could really take advantage of that.

(52:22):
Yes, if Forever twenty one oneto get out bankruptcy and like actually like
really like redo their store, LikeI'm talking make that I want colored lights
in their velvet. Victoria's Secret actuallyis a perfect example of rebranding your retail
and making it like maximalist and goodbecause old Victoria's Secret was like the peak

(52:45):
the black, you know whatever.You go into any Victoria's Secret now and
you feel like you're in a sexclub. It is swanky boutoir, dark
lighting, velvet, like you feellike you are in a fashion show or
you're going out on to a runway. They are very high end now,
like interesting, it's an experience justto walk through one. Yeah, maybe

(53:07):
not so much the one we havehere in town, but like back in
Jacksonville they redid them and I waslike overwhelmed when I walked in because I
was like, oh my gosh,I feel like I'm gonna like walk into
something I'm not supposed to be apart of it. Oh Man well,
that's a great example. Freaking urbanoutfitters could do that. I mean they

(53:27):
already are pretty much already there,but you know, if they wanted to
take it to the next level,still very industrial look, yeah, yeah,
they could totally go all the waywith crazy stuff and that would be
their brand. Yeah, I'm justgonna keep rattling them off. Sorry,
I'm like going through a whole phasenow with thinking about I don't know about
restaurants. I don't know how theycould incorporate it, Like you'd have to

(53:51):
have to sit down restaurants that doit. Yeah, yeah, it's probably
easier for a local restaurant to that'syou know, building out a bespoke location
to do it. Yeah, becauseI can't imagine like Applebee's like trying to
like be a maximalist Like well thoseplaces like an Applebee's was for a long

(54:12):
time, the older ones were verymaximist. They just filled the walls with
pictures of stuff. Sure, butlike we have a different definition I think
of maximalism now, like there's atheme, it is curated, the colors
all work, there's there's a levelwith the textures before it exists before I
think maximalism like in like the ninetieswas kind of just like fill that wall

(54:34):
and just like put anything you wanton it, and even if it didn't
belong there, like you were puttinglike your grandfather's like sword from like sixteen
hundreds on their style. Yeah,Like I mean even Cracker Verrel does sort
of have a like a consistent themefor the most part. It's country.
It's all that. Actually, thetrendier new restaurants I've been in in the
last year, Yeah, I've allbeen very long the lines. What you're

(54:57):
saying, the biggest difference when maximalismtoday is texture, and that's what I'm
talking about, Like velvet, that'swhen they have like marble the grass wall,
like its walls popping up everywhere.Yeah, I mean that's been a
thing for a long time, ina long time, a couple of years
now. But like I mean thatevery wall has a distinct like you should

(55:19):
look at it and know what itfeels like. It's very um I want
to touch that sensory overload. Icould go into this forever. Maybe we
will, Maybe we will in anupcoming episode. Until that, If you've
enjoyed what you heard today, pleaseleave us a review wherever you find your
podcast until next time. This hasbeen a Record of Record is hosted by

(56:00):
me Joe Clemens with the assistance ofproducer Alex Reinhard. Of Record is produced
at the Trailway Studio in Tallahassee,Florida. This episode was edited by producer
Alex Reinhard. Our theme music iscomposed and performed by Rob Goki. Special
thinks to our entire team here atSDS. You can see more information about

(56:22):
the show on our website, Podcastof Record dot com. As always,
we'd appreciate your reviews and ratings inyour podcast app of choice. These ratings
in reviews help more people discover theshow, which helps us keep delivering quality
content each week. Thanks for listening.