The Best One Yet
👻 “Halloween Canceled” — Spirit’s trade war-ning. Fortune 500’s founder fun. Pizza Hut’s reading app.
05 Jun 2025
Spirit Halloween cancelled their summer costume preview… because the trade war has a tail.A record 55 women lead Fortune 500 companies… and a record 24 founders do too.Pizza Hut’s “Book It” app … it’s an original example of gamification.Plus, Ikea did a commercial in 1994 that changed the country… The 1st ad with a gay couple.(FYI, here’s that Ikea ‘94 commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCGv1hN6S9E)$AAPL $YUM $METAWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Tommy Bahama’s Beach Chair 🏖️Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.TBOY Live Show Tickets to Chicago on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsAbout Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Full Episode
This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Thursday, the new Friday, June 5th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yetis, you are listening to one of the top 50 podcasts in the world. We just got the numbers from last week. Yeah, we started spiking on the Apple charts. It's all thanks to your listening, so thank you.
Besties, thanks for being a part of it. Top 50 shows in the world. In the overall category. Overall. Not like pop business news pods hosted by former college roommates. Top 50 overall. So thank you, Besties. Jack, three stories for today's team boy. What do we got in the show? For our first story, Spirit Halloween just canceled their Halloween preview party.
Because the scariest part of the economy right now isn't the tear of teeth, it's the trade war tale. For our second story, the Fortune 500 list for 2025 just dropped this week. And we found the two most interesting numbers. We hope the number of women CEOs keeps rising, but we know the number of founder CEOs will. And our third and final story is Pizza Hut.
Their most powerful product isn't pepperoni pizza, it's a book club. That's right, book it. The popular summer reading challenge for kids is Pizza Hut's soft power. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix of stories. No one else is doing that mix. Love the mix, Jack. 1994 was a wild year for the world.
I mean, Jack, you had the OJ Simpson car chase, you had Michael Jordan quitting basketball, and you had Jeff Bezos founding Amazon. In 1994, you also had Ikea run a commercial on television. So Jack, let's pause the pod for a sec and talk about that Ikea commercial. In the commercial, a couple of guys are buying furniture. Very nice. Steve is more country. He likes a farmhouse furniture vibe.
Dana's more modern. He prefers sleek, dark rugs and some heavy curtains. Here's the thing. Steve and Dana are not roommates. That's right, Jack, because Steve and Dana are a gay couple. And in 1994, this was the first time a commercial on American television showed that. We repeat, Ikea was the first brand in America to explicitly show a gay couple in a commercial.
The network was so worried about this commercial, they wouldn't air it during prime time. They actually waited until 9.30 p.m. when kids were asleep before they showed it. They treated it like R-rated content. That's right. It was a couple of dudes shopping for sconces in an Ikea. Now, today, every pharmaceutical ad has like six different and diverse couples that appear in it.
I mean, odds are that that Thytastrosol commercial stars a lesbian couple in wheelchairs. That's the reality. But big change always starts with the first one. And in 1994, Ikea was that one. So happy Pride Month, Yetis. And besties, if you've got the best pride fact yet, hit us up. We want to get it on the pod. We dropped a link in our episode description to that Ikea commercial.
In the meantime, Jack, let's hit on three stories.
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