Podcast appearances and mentions of Crystal Pepsi

Our guest this time is Aaron Wolpoff who has spent his professional career as a marketing strategist and consultant to help companies develop strategic brands and enhance their audience growth. He owns the marketing firm, Double Zebra. He tells us about the name and how his company has helped a number of large and small companies grow and better serve their clients.   Aaron grew up in the San Diego area. He describes himself as a curious person and he says he always has been such. He loves to ask questions. He says as a child he was somewhat quiet, but always wanted to know more. He received his Bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of California at San Diego. After working for a firm for some four and a half years he and his wife moved up to the bay area in Northern California where attended San Francisco State University and obtained a Master's degree in Business.   In addition to his day job functioning as a business advisor and strategist Aaron also hosts a podcast entitled, We Fixed it, You're Welcome. I had the honor to appear on his podcast to discuss Uber and some of its accessibility issues especially concerning access by blind persons who use guide dogs to Uber's fleet. His podcast is quite fascinating and one I hope you will follow.   Aaron provides us in this episode many business insights. We talk about a number of challenges and successes marketing has brought to the business arena. I hope you like what Aaron offers.     About the Guest:   Aaron Wolpoff is a seasoned marketing strategist and communications consultant with a track record of positioning companies, products, and thought leadership for maximum impact. Throughout his career, Aaron has been somewhat of a trendspotter, getting involved in early initiatives around online banking, SaaS, EVs, IoT, and now AI, His ability to bridge complex industry dynamics and technology-driven solutions underscores his role as a forward-thinking consultant, podcaster, and business advisor, committed to enhancing organizational effectiveness and fostering strategic growth.   As the driving force behind the Double Zebra marketing company, Aaron excels in identifying untapped marketing assets, refining brand narratives, and orchestrating strategic pivots from paid advertising to organic audience growth. His insights have guided notable campaigns for consumer brands, technology firms, and professional service providers, always with a keen eye for differentiating messages that resonate deeply with target audiences. In addition to his strategic marketing expertise, Aaron hosts the Top 20 business management podcast, We Fixed It, You're Welcome, known for its sharp, humorous analysis of major corporate challenges and missteps. Each episode brings listeners inside complex business scenarios, unfolding like real-time case studies where Aaron and his panel of experts dissect high-profile decisions, offering insightful and actionable solutions. His ability to distill complex business issues into relatable, engaging discussions has garnered widespread acclaim and a dedicated following among executives and decision-makers.   Ways to connect with Aaron:   Marketing company: https://doublezebra.com Podcast: https://wefixeditpod.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/marketingaaron     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Hi there, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to chat with Aaron Wolpoff, who is a marketing strategist and expert in a lot of different ways. I've read his bio, which you can find in the show notes. It seems to me that he is every bit as much of an expert is his bio says he is, but we're going to find out over the next hour or so for sure. We'll we'll not pick on him too much, but, but nevertheless, it's fun to be here. Aaron, so I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. I'm glad you're here, and we're glad that we get a chance to do   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 01:58 this. Thanks, Michael, thanks for having me. You're gonna grill me for an hour, huh?   Michael Hingson ** 02:04 Oh, sure. Why not? You're used to it. You're a marketing expert.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 02:08 That's what we do. Yeah, we're always, uh, scrutiny for one thing or another.   Michael Hingson ** 02:13 I remember, I think it was back in was it 82 or 1982 or 1984 when they had the big Tylenol incident. You remember that? You know about   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 02:25 that? I do? Yeah, there's a Netflix documentary happening right now. Is there? Well, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 a bottle of Tylenol was, for those who don't know, contaminated and someone died from it. But the manufacturer of Tylenol, the CEO the next day, just got right out in front of it and said what they were going to do about removing all Tylenol from the shelves until it could be they could all be examined and so on. Just did a number of things. It was a wonderful case, it seemed to me, for how to deal with a crisis when it came up. And I find that all too many companies and organizations don't necessarily know how to do that. Do they now?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 03:09 And a lot of times they operate in crisis mode. That's the default. And no one likes to be around that, you know. So that's, I guess, step one is dealing even you know, deal with a crisis when it comes up, and make sure that your your day to day is not crisis fire as much as possible,   Michael Hingson ** 03:26 but know how to deal with a crisis, which is kind of the issue, and that's, that's what business continuity, of course, is, is really all about. I spoke at the Business Continuity Institute hybrid conference in London last October, and as one of the people who asked me to come and speak, explained, business continuity, people are the what if people that are always looking at, how do we deal with any kind of an emergency that comes up in an organization, knowing full well that nobody's really going to listen to them until there's really an emergency, and then, of course, they're indispensable, but The rest of the time they're not for   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 04:02 sure. Yeah, it's definitely that, you know, good. You bring up a good point about knowing how to deal with a crisis, because it will, it, will you run a business for long enough you have a company, no matter how big, eventually something bad is going to happen, and it's Tylenol. Was, is pre internet or, you know, we oh, yeah, good while ago they had time to formulate a response and craft it and and do a well presented, you know, public reassurance nowadays it's you'd have five seconds before you have to get something out there.   Michael Hingson ** 04:35 Well, even so, the CEO did it within, like, a day or so, just immediately came out and said what, what was initially going to be done. Of course, there was a whole lot more to it, but still, he got right out in front of it and dealt with it in a calm way, which I think is really important for businesses to do, and and I do find that so many don't and they they deal with so many different kinds of stress. Horrible things in the world, and they create more than they really should about fear anyway,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 05:07 yeah, for sure, and now I think that Tylenol wasn't ultimately responsible. I haven't watched to the end, but if I remember correctly, but sometimes these crisis, crises that companies find themselves embroiled in, are self perpetuated? Yeah?   Michael Hingson ** 05:23 Well, Tylenol wasn't responsible. Somebody did it. Somebody put what, cyanide or something in into a Tylenol bottle. So they weren't responsible, but they sure dealt with it, which is the important thing. And you know, they're, they're still with us. Yeah?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 05:38 No, they dealt with it. Well, their sales are great, everyday household product. No one can dispute it. But what I say is, with the with the instantaneousness of reach to your to your public, and to you know, consumers and public at large, a lot of crises are, can be self perpetuated, like you tweet the wrong thing, or is it called a tweet anymore? I don't know, but you know, you post something a little bit a little bit out of step with what people are think about you or thinking in general, and and now, all of a sudden, you're in the middle of something that you didn't want to be in the middle of, as a company well,   Michael Hingson ** 06:15 and I also noticed that, like the media will, so often they hear something, they report it, and they haven't necessarily checked to see the facts behind it, only to find out within an hour or two that what they reported was wrong. And they helped to sometimes promote the fear and promote the uncertainty, rather than waiting a little bit until they get all the information reasonably correct. And of course, part of the problem is they say, well, but everybody else is going to report it. So each station says everybody else is going to report it, so we have to keep up. Well, I'm not so sure about that all the time. Oh, that's very true, too, Michael, especially with, you know, off brand media outlets I'll spend with AI like, I'll be halfway through an article now, and I'll see something that's extremely generated and and I'll realize I've just wasted a whole bunch of time on a, you know, on a fake article, yeah, yeah, yeah, way, way too much. But even the mainstream media will report things very quickly to get it out there, but they don't necessarily have all the data, right. And I understand you can't wait for days to deal with things, but you should wait at least a little bit to make sure you've got data enough to report in a cogent way. And it just doesn't always happen.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 07:33 Yeah, well, I don't know who the watch keepers of that are. I'm not a conspiracy theorist in that way by any means?   Michael Hingson ** 07:41 No, no, it isn't a conspiracy. But yeah,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 07:44 yeah, no, no, I know, but it's again. I think it goes back to that tight the shortness of the cycle, like again. Tylenol waited a day to respond back in the day, which is great. But now, would you have you know, if Tylenol didn't say   Michael Hingson ** 07:59 anything for a day. If they were faced with a similar situation, people would vilify them and say, Well, wait, you waited a day to tell us something we wanted it in the first 30 seconds, yeah, oh, yeah. And that makes it more difficult, but I would hope that Tylenol would say, yeah. We waited a day because we were getting our facts together. 30 seconds is great in the media, but that doesn't work for reality, and in most cases, it doesn't. But yeah, I know what you're saying,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 08:30 Yeah, but the appetite in the 24 hour news cycle, if people are hungry for new more information, so it does push news outlets, media outlets into let's respond as quick as possible and figure out the facts along the way. Yeah, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 08:46 Well, for fun, why don't you tell us about sort of the early era and growing up, and how you got to doing the sorts of things that you're doing now. Well, I grew up in San Diego, California. I best weather in the country. I don't care what anyone says, Yeah,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 09:03 you can't really beat it. No, I don't think anyone's gonna debate you on it. They call it the sunshine tax, because things cost a lot out here, but they do, you know, he grew up here, you put up with it. But yeah, so I grew up, grew up San Diego, college, San Diego. Life in San Diego, I've been elsewhere. I've traveled. I've seen some of the world. I like it. I've always wanted to come back, but I grew up really curious. I read a lot, I asked a lot of questions. And I also wanted, wanting to know, well, I want to know. Well, I wanted to know a lot of things about a lot of things, and I also was really scared. Is the wrong word, but I looked up to adults when I was a kid, and I didn't want to be put in a position where I was expected to know something that I didn't know. So it led to times where I'd pretend like I need you. Know, do you know? You know what this is, right? And I'd pretend like I knew, and early career, career even, and then I get called out on something, and it just was like a gut punch, like, but I'm supposed to know that, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 10:13 what did your parents think of you being so curious as you were growing up?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 10:17 They they liked it, but I was quiet, okay? Quiet, quiet, quietly, confident and curious. It's just an interesting, I guess, an interesting mix. Yeah, but no, they Oh, they indulged it. I, you know, they answered my questions. They like I said, I read a lot, so frequent trips to the library to read a lot about a lot of things, but I think, you know, professionally, you take something that's kind of a grab bag, and what do I do with all these different interests? And when I started college undeclared, I realized, you know, communications, marketing, you kind of can make a discipline out of a bunch of interests, and call it something professional. Where did you go to college? I went to UCSD. UCSD, here in San Diego, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 11:12 well, I was just up the road from you at UC Irvine. So here two good campuses,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 11:18 they are, they are and UCSD. I was back recently. It's like a it's like a city. Now, every time we go back, we see these, these kids. They're babies. They get they get food every you know, they have, like, a food nice food court. There's parking, an abundance of parking, there's theaters, there's all the things we didn't have. Of course, we had some of it, but they just have, like, what if we had one of something or 50 parking spaces, they've got 5000 you know. And if we had, you know, one one food option, they got 35 Yeah, they don't know how good they have it.   Michael Hingson ** 11:53 When I was at UC urban, I think we had 3200 undergraduates. It wasn't huge. It was in that area. Now, I think there's 31,000 or 32,000 undergrads. Oh, wow. And as one of my former physics professors joked, he's retired, but I got to meet him. I was there, and last year I was inducted as an alumni member of Phi, beta, kappa. And so we were talking, and he said, You know what UCI really stands for, don't you? Well, I didn't, I said, What? And he said, under construction indefinitely. And there's, they're always building, sure, and that's that started when I was there, but, but they are always building. And it's just an amazing place today, with so many students and graduate students, undergrads and faculty, and it's, it's an amazing place. I think I'd have a little bit more of a challenge of learning where everything is, although I could do it, if I had to go back, I could do it. Yeah, UCI is nice. But I think you could say, you could say that about any of the UCs are constantly under, under development. And, you know, that's the old one. That's the old area. And I'm like, oh, that's I went to school in the old area. I know the old area. I remember Central Park. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So you ended up majoring in Marketing and Communications,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 13:15 yeah. So I undergrad in communications. They have a really nice business school now that they did not have at the time. So I predated that, but I probably would have ended up there. I got out with a very, not knocking the school. It's a great, wonderful school. I got out with a very theory, theoretical based degree. So I knew a lot about communications from a theory based perspective. I knew about brain cognition. I took maybe one quarter of practical use it professionally. It was like a video, like a video production course, so I I learned hands on, 111, quarter out of my entire academic career. But a lot of it was learning. The learning not necessarily applied, but just a lot of theory. And I started school at 17, and I got out just shortly after my 21st birthday, so I don't know what my hurry was, but, but there I was with a lot of theory, some some internships, but not a ton of professional experience. And, you know, trying to figure it out in the work world at that point. Did you get a graduate degree or just undergrad? I did. I went back. So I did it for almost five years in in financial marketing, and then, and I wear a suit and tie to work every day, which I don't think anyone does anymore. And I'm suddenly like, like, I'm from the 30s. I'm not that old, but, but no, seriously, we, you know, to work at the at the headquarters of a international credit union. Of course, I wear a suit, no after four and a half. Years there, I went back to graduate school up in the bay the Bay Area, Bay Area, and that's when I got my masters in in marketing. Oh, where'd you go in the Bay Area? San Francisco, state. Okay, okay, yeah, really nice school. It's got one of the biggest International MBA programs in the country, I think. And got to live in that city for a couple years.   Michael Hingson ** 15:24 We lived in Novato, so North Bay, for 12 years, from 2002 to the end of June 2014 Yeah, I like that area. That's, that's the, oh, the weather isn't San Diego's. That area is still a really nice area to live as well. Again, it is pretty expensive, but still it   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 15:44 is, yeah, I it's not San Diego weather, a beautiful day. There is like nothing else. But when we first got there, I said, I want to live by the beach. That's what I know. And we got out to the beach, which is like at the end of the outer sunset, and it's in the 40s streets, and it feels like the end of the universe. It just, it just like, feels apocalyptic. And I said, I don't want to live by the beach anymore, but, but no, it was. It was a great, great learning experience, getting an MBA. I always say it's kind of like a backpack or a toolkit you walk around with, because it is all that's all application. You know, everything that I learned about theory put into practice, you got to put into practice. And so I was, I was really glad that I that I got to do that. And like I said, Live, live in, live in the Bay. For a couple years, I'd always wanted   Michael Hingson ** 16:36 to, yeah, well, that's a nice area to live. If you got to live somewhere that is one of the nicer places. So glad you got that opportunity. And having done it, as I said for 12 years, I appreciate it too. And yeah, so much to offer there.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 16:51 The only problem I had was it was in between the two.com bubbles. So literally, nothing was happening. The good side was that the apartment I was living in went for something like $5,500 before I got there, and then the draw everything dropped, you know, the bottom dropped out, and I was able to squeak by and afford living in the city. But, you know, you go for look, seeking your fortune. And there's, there's, I had just missed it. And then I left, and then it just came back. So I was, I was there during a lull. So you're the one, huh? Okay, I didn't do it, just the way Miami worked out. Did you then go back to San Diego? I did, yeah. So I've met my wife here. We moved up to the bay together, and when we were debating, when I graduated, we were thinking, do we want to drive, you know, an hour and a half Silicon Valley or someone, you know, somewhere further out just to stay in the area? Or do we want to go back to where we where we know and like, and start a life there and we, you know, send, like you said at the beginning, San Diego is not a bad place to be. So as it was never a fallback, but as a place to, you know, come back home to, yeah, I welcomed it.   Michael Hingson ** 18:08 And so what did you do when you came back to San Diego?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 18:12 So I have my best friend from childhood was starting as a photography company still does, and it was starting like a sister company, as an agency to serve the photography company, which was growing really fast, and then also, like picking up clients and building a book out of so he said, you know you're, I see you're applying for jobs, and I know that you're, you know, you're getting some offers and things, but just say no To all of them and come work with me and and at the time it was, it was running out of a was like a loft of an apartment, but it, you know, it grew to us, a small staff, and then a bigger staff, and spun off on its own. And so that's, that's what I did right out of, right out of grad school. I said no to a few things, and said there's a lot, lot worse fates than you know, spending your work day with your best friend and and growing a company out and so what exactly did you do for them? So it was like, we'll call it a boutique creative agency. It was around the time of I'm making myself sound so old. See, so there was flash, flash technology, like web banners were made with Flash. It had moved to be flash, Adobe, Flash, yeah. So companies were making these web banners, and what you call interactive we got a proficiency of making full website experiences with Flash, which not a lot of companies were doing. So because of that, it led to some really interesting opportunities and clients and being able to take on a capability, a proficiency that you know for a time. Uh was, was uh as a differentiator, say, you know, you could have a web banner and an old website, or you could have a flash, interactive website where you take your users on an experience with music and all the things that seem so dated now,   Michael Hingson ** 20:14 well, and of course, unfortunately, a lot of that content wasn't very accessible, so some of us didn't really get access to a lot of it, and I don't remember whether Adobe really worked to make flash all that accessible. They dealt with other things, but I'm not sure that flash ever really was. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I really, I don't think so.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 20:38 What we would wind up doing is making parallel websites, but, but then mobile became a thing, and then you'd make a third version of a website, and it just got tedious. And really it's when the iPhone came out. It just it flash got stopped in its tracks, like it was like a week, and then action script, which is the language that it runs on, and all the all the capabilities and proficiencies, just there was no use for it anymore.   Michael Hingson ** 21:07 Well, and and the iPhone came out, as you said, and one of the things that happened fairly early on was that, because they were going to be sued, Apple agreed to make the I devices accessible, and they did something that hadn't really been done up to that time. They set the trend for it. They built accessibility into the operating systems, and they built the ability to have accessibility into the operating systems. The one thing that I wish that Apple would do even a little bit more of than they do, than they do today, although it's better than it used to be, is I wish they would mandate, or require people who are going to put apps in the App Store, for example, to make sure that the apps are accessible. They have guidelines. They have all sorts of information about how to do it, but they don't really require it, and so you can still get inaccessible apps, which is unfortunate,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 22:09 that is Yeah, and like you said, with Flash, an entire you know, ecosystem had limited to no accessibility, so   Michael Hingson ** 22:16 and making additional on another website, Yeah, a lot of places did that, but they weren't totally equal, because they would make enough of the website, well, they would make the website have enough content to be able to do things, but they didn't have everything that they had on the graphical or flash website, and so It was definitely there, but it wasn't really, truly equal, which is unfortunate, and so now it's a lot better.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 22:46 Yeah, it is no and I hate to say it, but if it came down to limited time, limited budget, limited everything you want to make something that is usable and efficient, but no, I mean, I can't speak for all developers, but no, it would be hard. You'd be hard pressed to create a an equally parallel experience with full accessibility at the time.   Michael Hingson ** 23:16 Yeah, yeah, you would. And it is a lot better. And there's, there's still stuff that needs to be done, but I think over time, AI is going to help some of that. And it is already made. It isn't perfect yet, but even some graphics and so on can be described by AI. And we're seeing things improve over, over, kind of what they were. So we're making progress, which is good,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 23:44 yeah, no, I'm really happy about that. And with with AI and AI can go through and parse your code and build in all you know, everything that that needs to happen, there's a lot less excuse for for not making something as accessible as it can   Michael Hingson ** 23:59 be, yeah, but people still ignore it to a large degree. Still, only about 3% of all websites really have taken the time to put some level of accessibility into them. So there's still a lot to be done, and it's just not that magical or that hard, but it's mostly, I think, education. People don't know, they don't know that it can be done. They don't think about it being done, or they don't do it initially, and so then it becomes a lot more expensive to do later on, because you got to go back and redo   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 24:28 it, all right, yeah, anything, anytime you have to do something, something retroactive or rebuild, you're, yeah, you're starting from not a great place.   Michael Hingson ** 24:37 So how long did you work with your friend?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 24:42 A really long time, because I did the studio, and then I wound up keeping that alive. But going over to the photography side, the company really grew. Had a team of staff photographers, had a team of, like a network of photographers, and. And was doing quite, quite a lot, an abundance of events every year, weddings and corporate and all types of things. So all in, I was with the company till, gosh, I want to say, like, 2014 or so. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 25:21 And then what did you go off and do?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 25:25 So then I worked for an agency, so I got started with creative and, well, rewinding, I got started with financial marketing, with the suit and tie. But then I went into creative, and I've tried pretty much every aspect of marketing I hadn't done marketing automation and email sequences and CRMs and outreach and those types of things. So that was the agency I worked for that was their specialization, which I like, to a degree, but it's, it's not my, not my home base. Yeah, there's, there's people that love and breathe automation. I like having interjecting some, you know, some type of personal aspect into the what you're putting out there. And I have to wrestle with that as ai, ai keeps growing in prominence, like, Where's the place for the human, creative? But I did that for a little while, and then I've been on my own for the past six or seven years.   Michael Hingson ** 26:26 So what is it you do today? Exactly?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 26:30 So I'm, we'll call it a fractional CMO, or a fractional marketing advisor. So I come in and help companies grow their their marketing and figure themselves out. I've gone I work with large companies. I've kind of gone back to early stage startups and and tech companies. I just find that they're doing really more, a lot more interesting things right now with the market the way it is. They're taking more chances and and they're they're moving faster. I like to move pretty quick, so that's where my head's at. And I'm doing more. We'll call em like CO entrepreneurial ventures with my clients, as opposed to just a pure agency service model, which is interesting. And and I got my own podcast. There you go. Yeah. What's your podcast called? Not to keep you busy, it's called, we fixed it. You're welcome. There you   Michael Hingson ** 27:25 go. And it seems to me, if my memory hasn't failed me, even though I don't take one of those memory or brain supplements, we were on it not too long ago, talking about Uber, which was fun.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 27:39 We had you on there. I don't know which episode will drop first, this one or or the one you were on, but we sure enjoyed having you on there.   Michael Hingson ** 27:46 Well, it was fun. Well, we'll have to do more of it, and I think it'd be fun to but so you own your own business. Then today,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 27:53 I do, yeah, it's called Double zebra.   Michael Hingson ** 27:56 Now, how did you come up with that name?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 27:59 It's two basic elements, so basic, black and white, something unremarkable, but if you can take it and multiply it or repeat it, then you're onto something interesting.   Michael Hingson ** 28:13 Lots of stripes. Yeah, lots of stripes.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 28:17 And it's always fun when I talk to someone in the UK or Australia, or then they say zebra or zebra, right? I get to hear the way they say it. It's that's fun. Occasionally I get double double zero. People will miss misname it and double zero. That's his   Michael Hingson ** 28:34 company's that. But has anybody called it double Zed yet?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 28:39 No, that's a new one.   Michael Hingson ** 28:41 Yeah? Well, you never know. Maybe we've given somebody the idea now. Yeah, yeah. Well, so I'm I'm curious. You obviously do a lot to analyze and help people in critique in corporate mishaps. Have you ever seen a particular business mistake that you really admire and just really love, its audacity,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 29:07 where it came out wrong, but I liked it anyway, yeah, oh, man,   Michael Hingson ** 29:13 let's see, or one maybe, where they learned from their mistake and fixed it. But still, yeah, sure.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 29:23 Yeah, that's a good one. I like, I like bold moves, even if they're wrong, as long as they don't, you know, they're not harmful to people I don't know. Let's go. I'm I'm making myself old. Let's go back to Crystal crystal. Pepsi, there you go for that. But that was just such a fun idea at the time. You know, we're the new generation and, and this is the 90s, and everything's new now, and we're going to take the color out of out of soda, I know we're and we're going to take it and just make it what you know, but a little unfamiliar, right? Right? It's Crystal Pepsi, and the ads were cool, and it was just very of the moment. Now, that moment didn't last very long, no, and the public didn't, didn't hold on to it very long. But there's, you know, it was, it let you question, and I in a good way, what you thought about what is even a Pepsi. And it worked. It was they brought it back, like for a very short time, five, I want to say five or six years ago, just because people had a nostalgia for it. But yeah, big, big, bold, we're confident this is the new everyone's going to be talking about this for a long time, and we're going to put a huge budget behind it, Crystal Pepsi. And it it didn't, but yeah, I liked it.   Michael Hingson ** 30:45 So why is that that is clearly somebody had to put a lot of effort into the concept, and must have gotten some sort of message that it would be very successful, but then it wasn't,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 31:00 yeah, yeah. For something like that, you have to get buy in at so many levels. You know, you have an agency saying, this is the right thing to do. You have CD, your leadership saying, No, I don't know. Let's pull back. Whenever an agency gets away with something and and spends a bunch of client money and it's just audacious, and I can't believe they did it. I know how many levels of buy in they had to get, yeah, to say, Trust me. Trust me. And a lot of times it works, you know, if they do something that just no one else had had thought of or wasn't willing to do, and then you see that they got through all those levels of bureaucracy and they were able to pull it off.   Michael Hingson ** 31:39 When it works. I love it. When it doesn't work. I love it, you know, just, just the fact that they did it, yeah, you got to admire that. Gotta admire it. They pulled it off, yeah. My favorite is still ranch flavored Fritos. They disappeared, and I've never understood why I love ranch flavored Fritos. And we had them in New Jersey and so on. And then we got, I think, out to California. But by that time, they had started to fade away, and I still have never understood why. Since people love ranch food so   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 32:06 much, that's a good one. I don't know that. I know those because it does, it does that one actually fill a market need. If there's Doritos, there's, you know, the ranch, I don't know if they were, they different.   Michael Hingson ** 32:17 They were Fritos, but they they did have ranch you know they were, they were ranch flavored, and I thought they were great. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that one didn't hit because they have, I think they have chili flavor. They have regular. Do they have anything else honey barbecue? I don't know. I don't know, but I do still like regular, but I love ranch flavored the best. Now, I heard last week that Honey Nut Cheerios are going away. General Mills is getting rid of honey nut cheerios. No, is that real? That's what I heard on the news. Okay, I believe you, but I'll look it up anyway. Well, it's interesting. I don't know why, after so many years, they would but there have been other examples of cereals and so on that were around for a while and left and, well, Captain Crunch was Captain Crunch was one, and I'm not sure if lucky charms are still around. And then there was one called twinkles.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 33:13 And I know all those except twinkles, but I would if you asked me, I would say, Honey Nut Cheerios. There's I would say their sales are better than Cheerios, or at least I would think so, yeah, at least a good portfolio company. Well, who knows, who knows, but I do know that Gen Z and millennials eat cereal a lot less than us older folks, because it takes work to put milk and cereal into a bowl, and it's not pre made, yeah. So maybe it's got to do with, you know, changing eating habits and consumer preferences   Michael Hingson ** 33:48 must be Yeah, and they're not enough of us, older, more experienced people to to counteract that. But you know, well, we'll see Yeah, as long as they don't get rid of the formula because it may come back. Yeah, well, now   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 34:03 Yeah, exactly between nostalgia and reboots and remakes and nothing's gone forever, everything comes back eventually.   Michael Hingson ** 34:10 Yeah, it does in all the work that you've done. Have you ever had to completely rethink and remake your approach and do something different?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 34:24 Yeah, well, there's been times where I've been on uncharted territory. I worked with an EV company before EVs were a thing, and it was going, actually going head to head with with Tesla. But the thing there's they keep trying to bring it back and crowd sourcing it and all that stuff. It's, but at the time, it was like, I said it was like, which is gonna make it first this company, or Tesla, but, but this one looks like a, it looks, it feels like a spaceship. It's got, like space. It's a, it's, it's really. Be really unique. So the one that that is more like a family car one out probably rightly so. But there was no consumer understanding of not, let alone our preference, like there is now for an EV and what do I do? I have to plug it in somewhere and and all those things. So I had to rethink, you know what? There's no playbook for that yet. I guess I have to kind of work on it. And they were only in prototyping at the point where we came in and had to launch this, you know, teaser and teaser campaign for it, and build up awareness and demand for this thing that existed on a computer at the time.   Michael Hingson ** 35:43 What? Why is Tesla so successful?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 35:48 Because they spent a bunch of money. Okay, that helps? Yeah, they were playing the long game. They could outspend competitors. They've got the unique distribution model. And they kind of like, I said, retrained consumers into how you buy a car, why you buy a car, and, and I think politics aside, people love their people love their teslas. You don't. My understanding is you don't have to do a whole lot once you buy it. And, and they they, like I said, they had the money to throw at it, that they could wait, wait it out and wait out that when you do anything with retraining consumers or behavior change or telling them you know, your old car is bad, your new this new one's good, that's the most. We'll call it costly and and difficult forms of marketing is retraining behavior. But they, they had the money to write it out and and their products great, you know, again, I'm not a Tesla enthusiast, but it's, it looks good. People love it. I you know, they run great from everything that I know, but so did a lot of other companies. So I think they just had the confidence in what they were doing to throw money at it and wait, be patient and well,   Michael Hingson ** 37:19 they're around there again the the Tesla is another example of not nearly as accessible as it should be and and I recognize that I'm not going to be the primary driver of a Tesla today, although I have driven a Tesla down Interstate 15, about 15 miles the driver was in the car, but, but I did it for about 15 miles going down I 15 and fully appreciate what autonomous vehicles will be able to do. We're way too much still on the cusp, and I think that people who just poo poo them are missing it. But I also know we're not there yet, but the day is going to come when there's going to be a lot more reliability, a lot less potential for accidents. But the thing that I find, like with the Tesla from a passenger standpoint, is I can't do any of the things that a that a sighted passenger can do. I can't unless it's changed in the last couple of years. I can't manipulate the radio. I can't do the other things that that that passengers might do in the Tesla, and I should be able to do that, and of all the vehicles where they ought to have access and could, the Tesla would be one, and they could do it even still using touch screens. I mean, the iPhone, for example, is all touch screen. But Apple was very creative about creating a mechanism to allow a person to not need to look at the screen using VoiceOver, the screen reader on the iPhone, but having a new set of gestures that were created that work with VoiceOver so that I could interact with that screen just as well as you can.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 38:59 That's interesting that you say that, you know, Apple was working on a car for a while, and I don't know to a fact, but I bet they were thinking through accessibility and building that into every turn, or at least planning to,   Michael Hingson ** 39:13 oh, I'm sure they were. And the reality is, it isn't again. It isn't that magical to do. It would be simple for the Teslas and and other vehicles to do it. But, you know, we're we're not there mentally. And that's of course, the whole issue is that we just societally don't tend to really look at accessibility like we should. My view of of, say, the apple the iPhone, still is that they could be marketing the screen reader software that I use, which is built into the system already. They could, they could do some things to mark market that a whole lot more than they already do for sighted people. Your iPhone rings, um. You have to tap it a lot of times to be able to answer it. Why can't they create a mode when you're in a vehicle where a lot more of that is verbally, spoken and handled through voice output from the phone and voice input from you, without ever having to look at or interact with the screen.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 40:19 I bet you're right, yeah, it's just another app at that point   Michael Hingson ** 40:22 well, and it's what I do. I mean, it's the way I operate with it. So I just think that they could, they could be more creative. There's so many examples of things that begin in one way and alter themselves or become altered. The typewriter, for example, was originally developed for a blind Countess to be able to communicate with her lover without her husband finding out her husband wasn't very attentive to her anyway. But the point is that the, I think the lover, created the this device where she could actually sit down and type a letter and seal it and give it to a maid or someone to give to, to her, her friend. And that's how the typewriter other other people had created, some examples, but the typewriter from her was probably the thing that most led to what we have today.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 41:17 Oh, I didn't know that. But let me Michael, let me ask you. So I was in LA not too long ago, and they have, you know, driverless vehicles are not the form yet, but they we, I saw them around the city. What do you think about driverless vehicles in terms of accessibility or otherwise?   Michael Hingson ** 41:32 Well, again, so, so the most basic challenge that, fortunately, they haven't really pushed which is great, is okay, you're driving along in an autonomous vehicle and you lose connection, or whatever. How are you going to be able to pull it off to the side of the road? Now, some people have talked about saying that there, there has to be a law that only sighted people could well the sighted people a sighted person has to be in the vehicle. The reality is, the technology has already been developed to allow a blind person to get behind the wheel of a car and have enough information to be able to drive that vehicle just as well, or nearly as well, as a sighted person. But I think for this, from the standpoint of autonomousness, I'm all for it. I think we're going to continue to see it. It's going to continue to get better. It is getting better daily. So I haven't ridden in a fully autonomous vehicle, but I do believe that that those vehicles need to make sure, or the manufacturers need to make sure that they really do put accessibility into it. I should be able to give the vehicle all the instructions and get all the information that any sighted person would get from the vehicle, and the technology absolutely exists to do that today. So I think we will continue to see that, and I think it will get better all the way around. I don't know whether, well, I think they that actually there have been examples of blind people who've gotten into an autonomous vehicle where there wasn't a sighted person, and they've been able to function with it pretty well. So I don't see why it should be a problem at all, and it's only going to get   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 43:22 better. Yeah, for sure. And I keep thinking, you know, accessibility would be a prior priority in autonomous vehicles, but I keep learning from you, you know you were on our show and and our discussions, that the priorities are not always in line and not always where they necessarily should   Michael Hingson ** 43:39 be. Well. And again, there are reasons for it, and while I might not like it, I understand it, and that is, a lot of it is education, and a lot of it is is awareness. Most schools that teach people how to code to develop websites don't spend a lot of time dealing with accessibility, even though putting all the codes in and creating accessible websites is not a magically difficult thing to do, but it's an awareness issue. And so yeah, we're just going to have to continue to fight the fight and work toward getting people to be more aware of why it's necessary. And in reality, I do believe that there is a lot of truth to this fact that making things more accessible for me will help other people as well, because by having not well, voice input, certainly in a vehicle, but voice output and so on, and a way for me to accessibly, be able to input information into an autonomous vehicle to take to have it take me where I want to go, is only going to help everyone else as well. A lot of things that I need would benefit sighted people so well, so much.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 44:56 Yeah, you're exactly right. Yeah, AI assisted. And voice input and all those things, they are universally loved and accepted now, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 45:07 it's getting better. The unemployment rate is still very high among, for example, employable blind people, because all too many people still think blind people can't work, even though they can. So it's all based on prejudice rather than reality, and we're, we're, we're just going to have to continue to work to try to deal with the issues. I wrote an article a couple of years ago. One of the things where we're constantly identified in the world is we're blind or visually impaired. And the problem with visually impaired is visually we're not different simply because we don't see and impaired, we are not we're getting people slowly to switch to blind and low vision, deaf people and hard of hearing people did that years ago. If you tell a deaf person they're hearing impaired, they're liable to deck you on the spot. Yeah, and blind people haven't progressed to that point, but it's getting there, and the reality is blind and low vision is a much more appropriate terminology to use, and it's not equating us to not having eyesight by saying we're impaired, you know. So it's it's an ongoing process, and all we can do is continue to work at it?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 46:21 Yeah, no. And I appreciate that you do. Like I said, education and retraining is, is call it marketing or call it, you know, just the way people should behave. But it's, that's, it's hard. It's one of the hardest things to do.   Michael Hingson ** 46:36 But, you know, we're making progress, and we'll, we'll continue to do that, and I think over time we'll we'll see things improve. It may not happen as quickly as we'd like, but I also believe that I and other people who are blind do need to be educators. We need to teach people. We need to be patient enough to do that. And you know, I see so often articles written about Me who talk about how my guide dog led me out of the World Trade Center. The guide dog doesn't lead anybody anywhere. That's not the job of the dog. The dog's job is to make sure that we walk safely. It's my job to know where to go and how to get there. So a guide dog guides and will make sure that we walk safely. But I'm the one that has to tell the dog, step by step, where I want the dog to go, and that story is really the crux of what I talk about many times when I travel and speak to talk to the public about what happened in the World Trade Center, because I spent a lot of time learning what I needed to do in order to escape safely and on September 11, not ever Having anticipated that we would need that kind of information, but still preparing for it, the mindset kicked in, and it all worked well.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 47:49 You You and I talked about Uber on on my show, when you came on, and we gave them a little ding and figured out some stuff for them, what in terms of accessibility, and, you know, just general corporate citizenship, what's what's a company that, let's give them a give, give, call them out for a good reason? What's a company that's doing a good job, in your eyes, in your mind, for accessibility, maybe an unexpected one.   Michael Hingson ** 48:20 Well, as I mentioned before, I think Apple is doing a lot of good things. I think Microsoft is doing some good I think they could do better than they are in in some ways, but they're working at it. I wish Google would put a little bit more emphasis on making its you its interface more more usable to you really use the like with Google Docs and so on. You have to hurt learn a whole lot of different commands to make part of that system work, rather than it being as straightforward as it should be, there's some new companies coming up. There's a new company called inno search. Inno search.ai, it was primarily designed at this point for blind and low vision people. The idea behind inner search is to have any a way of dealing with E commerce and getting people to be able to help get help shopping and so on. So they actually have a a phone number. It's, I think it's 855, shop, G, P, T, and you can go in, and you can talk to the bot and tell it what you want, and it can help fill up a shopping cart. It's using artificial intelligence, but it understands really well. I have yet to hear it tell me I don't understand what you want. Sometimes it gives me a lot of things that more than I than I'm searching for. So there, there's work that needs to be done, but in a search is really a very clever company that is spending a lot of time working to make. Sure that everything that it does to make a shopping experience enjoyable is also making sure that it's accessible.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 50:08 Oh, that's really interesting. Now, with with my podcast, and just in general, I spend a lot of time critiquing companies and and not taking them to test, but figuring out how to make them better. But I always like the opportunity to say you did something well, like even quietly, or you're, you know, people are finding you because of a certain something you didn't you took it upon yourselves to do and figure out   Michael Hingson ** 50:34 there's an audio editor, and we use it some unstoppable mindset called Reaper. And Reaper is a really great digital audio workstation product. And there is a whole series of scripts that have been written that make Reaper incredibly accessible as an audio editing tool. It's really great. It's about one of the most accessible products that I think I have seen is because they've done so well with it, which is kind of cool.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 51:06 Oh, very nice. Okay, good. It's not even expensive. You gave me two to look, to pay attention to, and, you know, Track, track, along with,   Michael Hingson ** 51:16 yeah, they're, they're, they're fun. So what do people assume about you that isn't true or that you don't think is true?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 51:25 People say, I'm quiet at times, guess going back to childhood, but there's time, there's situation. It's it's situational. There's times where I don't have to be the loudest person in the room or or be the one to talk the most, I can hang back and observe, but I would not categorize myself as quiet, you know, like I said, it's environmental. But now I've got plenty to say. You just have to engage me, I guess.   Michael Hingson ** 51:56 Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. I'm trying to remember   Michael Hingson ** 52:04 on Shark Tank, what's Mark's last name, Cuban. Cuban. It's interesting to watch Mark on Shark Tank. I don't know whether he's really a quiet person normally, but I see when I watch Shark Tank. The other guys, like Mr. Wonderful with Kevin are talking all the time, and Mark just sits back and doesn't say anything for the longest period of time, and then he drops a bomb and bids and wins. Right? He's just really clever about the way he does it. I think there's a lot to be said for not just having to speak up every single time, but rather really thinking things through. And he clearly does that,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 52:46 yeah, yeah, you have to appreciate that. And I think that's part of the reason that you know, when I came time to do a podcast, I did a panel show, because I'm surrounded by bright, interesting, articulate people, you included as coming on with us and and I don't have to fill every second. I can, I can, I, you know, I can intake information and think for a second and then maybe have a   Michael Hingson ** 53:15 response. Well, I think that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? I mean, it's the way it really ought to be.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 53:20 Yeah, if you got to fill an hour by yourself, you're always on, right?   Michael Hingson ** 53:26 Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I know when I travel to speak. I figure that when I land somewhere, I'm on until I leave again. So I always enjoy reading books, especially going and coming on airplanes. And then I can be on the whole time. I am wherever I have to be, and then when I get on the airplane to come home, I can relax again.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 53:45 Now, I like that. And I know, you keynote, I think I'd rather moderate, you know, I'll say something when I have something to say, and let other people talk for a while. Well, you gotta, you have a great story, and you're, you know, I'm glad you're getting it out there.   Michael Hingson ** 53:58 Well, if anybody needs a keynote speaker. Just saying, for everybody listening, feel free to email me. I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at Michael H i@accessibe.com or speaker at Michael hingson.com always looking for speaking engagements. Then we got that one in. I'm glad, but, but you know, for you, is there a podcast episode that you haven't done, that you really want to do, that just seems to be eluding you?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 54:28 There are a couple that got away. I wanted to do one about Sesame Street because it was without a it was looking like it was going to be without a home. And that's such a hallmark of my childhood. And so many, yeah, I think they worked out a deal, which is probably what I was going to propose with. It's like a CO production deal with Netflix. So it seems like they're safe for the foreseeable future. But what was the other I think there's, there's at least one or two more where maybe the guests didn't line up, or. Or the timeliness didn't work. I was going to have someone connected to Big Lots. You remember Big Lots? I think they're still around to some degree, but I think they are, come on and tell me their story, because they've, you know, they've been on the brink of extinction for a little while. So it's usually, it's either a timing thing, with the with with the guest, or the news cycle has just maybe gone on and moved past us.   Michael Hingson ** 55:28 But, yeah, I know people wrote off Red Lobster for a while, but they're still around.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 55:35 They're still around. That would be a good one. Yeah, their endless shrimp didn't do them any favors. No, that didn't help a whole lot, but it's the companies, even the ones we've done already, you know, they they're still six months later. Toilet hasn't been even a full year of our show yet, but in a year, I bet there's, you know, we could revisit them all over again, and they're still going to find themselves in, I don't know, hot water, but some kind of controversy for one reason or another. And we'll, we'll try to help them out again.   Michael Hingson ** 56:06 Have you seen any successes from the podcast episodes where a company did listen to you and has made some changes?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 56:15 I don't know that. I can correlate one to one. We know that they listen. We can look at the metrics and where the where the list listens, are coming from, especially with LinkedIn, gives you some engagement and tells you which companies are paying attention. So we know that they are and they have now, whether they took that and, you know, implemented it, we have a disclaimer saying, Don't do it. You know, we're not there to give you unfiltered legal advice. You know, don't hold us accountable for anything we say. But if we said something good and you like it, do it. So, you know, I don't know to a T if they have then we probably given away billions of dollars worth of fixes. But, you know, I don't know the correlation between those who have listened and those who have acted on something that we might have, you know, alluded to or set out, right? But it has. We've been the times that we take it really seriously. We've we've predicted some things that have come come to pass.   Michael Hingson ** 57:13 That's cool, yeah. Well, you certainly had a great career, and you've done a lot of interesting things. If you had to suddenly change careers and do something entirely different from what you're doing, what would it be?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 57:26 Oh, man, my family laughs at me, but I think it would be a furniture salesman. There you go. Yeah, I don't know why. There's something about it's just enough repetition and just enough creativity. I guess, where people come in, you tell them, you know you, they tell you their story, you know, you get to know them. And then you say, Oh, well, this sofa would be amazing, you know, and not, not one with endless varieties, not one with with two models somewhere in between. Yeah, I think that would be it keeps you on your feet.   Michael Hingson ** 58:05 Furniture salesman, well, if you, you know, if you get too bored, math is homes and Bob's furniture probably looking for people.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 58:12 Yeah, I could probably do that at night.   Michael Hingson ** 58:18 What advice do you give to people who are just starting out, or what kinds of things do you would you give to people we have ideas and thoughts?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 58:27 So I've done a lot of mentoring. I've done a lot of one on one calls. They told I always work with an organization. They told me I did 100 plus calls. I always tell people to take use the create their own momentum, so you can apply for things, you can stand in line, you can wait, or you can come up with your own idea and test it out and say, I'm doing this. Who wants in? And the minute you have an idea, people are interested. You know, you're on to something. Let me see what that's all about. You know, I want to be one of the three that you're looking for. So I tell them, create their own momentum. Try to flip the power dynamic. So if you're asking for a job, how do you get the person that you're asking to want something from you and and do things that are take on, things that are within your control?   Michael Hingson ** 59:18 Right? Right? Well, if you had to go back and tell the younger Aaron something from years ago, what would you give him in the way of advice?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 59:30 Be more vulnerable. Don't pretend you know everything. There you go. And you don't need to know everything. You need to know what you know. And then get a little better and get a little better.   Michael Hingson ** 59:43 One of the things that I constantly tell people who I hire as salespeople is you can be a student, at least for a year. Don't hesitate to ask your customers questions because they're not out to. Get you. They want you to succeed. And if you interact with your customers and you're willing to learn from them, they're willing to teach, and you'll learn so much that you never would have thought you would learn. I just think that's such a great concept.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 1:00:12 Oh, exactly right. Yeah. As soon as I started saying that to clients, you know, they would throw out an industry term. As soon as I've said I don't know what that is, can you explain it to me? Yeah? And they did, and the world didn't fall apart. And I didn't, you know, didn't look like the idiot that I thought I would when we went on with our day. Yeah, that whole protective barrier that I worked so hard to keep up as a facade, I didn't have to do it, and it was so freeing. Yeah, yeah, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:41 I hear you. Well, this has been fun. We've been doing it for an hour. Can you believe it? Oh, hey, that was a quick hour. I know it was a lot of fun. Well, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank you all for listening. Please give us a five star rating wherever you're listening or watching. We really appreciate it. We value your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you and get your thoughts on our episode today. And I'm sure Aaron would like that as well, and I'll give you an email address in a moment. But Aaron, if people want to reach out to you and maybe use your services, how do they do that?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 1:01:12 Yeah, so two ways you can check me out, at double zebra, z, E, B, R, A, double zebra.com and the podcast, I encourage you to check out too. We fixed it. Pod.com, we fixed it.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:25 Pod.com, there you go. So reach out to Aaron and get marketing stuff done and again. Thank you all. My email address, if you'd like to talk to us, is Michael, H, I m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, and if you know anyone else who you think ought to be a guest on our podcast, we'd love it if you give us an introduction. We're always looking for people, so please do and again. Aaron, I just want to thank you for being here. This has been a lot of fun.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 1:01:58 That was great. Thanks for having me. Michael,   **Michael Hingson ** 1:02:05 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

In this episode of The Brainy Business podcast, Melina Palmer shares the exciting launch of the brand new YouTube channel, @BrainyMelina, and the journey that led to this moment. After years of planning and preparation, Melina discusses the importance of timing and readiness in expanding The Brainy Business brand into video content while maintaining the integrity of the existing podcast. Listeners will hear about the challenges and insights gained during the process of creating a new channel that reflects Melina's passion for human behavior and behavioral science. From researching YouTube trends to understanding the nuances of content creation, Melina emphasizes the significance of aligning expectations with audience perceptions. She also highlights the importance of creating unique content tailored for video, rather than simply repurposing existing podcast material. This episode provides a behind-the-scenes look at the launch, including the first video on the curious case of Crystal Pepsi, and gives listeners a taste of the new format with engaging shorts and deeper dives into behavioral economics. In this episode: Celebrate the launch of the new YouTube channel, @BrainyMelina. Understand the importance of timing and readiness in business expansions. Explore the challenges of adapting content for different platforms. Learn about the psychological impact of setting clear expectations for products. Discover the exciting content planned for the new channel, including behavioral breakdowns and shorts. Get important links, top recommended books and episodes, and a full transcript at thebrainybusiness.com/529. Looking to explore applications of behavioral economics further?  Learn With Us on our website. Subscribe to Melina's Newsletter Brainy Bites.  Let's connect: Send Us a Message Follow Melina on LinkedIn The Brainy Business on Youtube The Brainy Business on Instagram

ESCUCHA EL CONTENIDO EXCLUSIVO PARA LOS SUSCRIPTORES DEL SPREAKER CLUB, AQUÍNo todo lo que lanzan las grandes marcas se convierte en éxito. En este episodio de Interesante Historia, te cuento los casos más insólitos y costosos de fracasos comerciales protagonizados por gigantes como Colgate, Pepsi, Apple, Coca-Cola, Microsoft y más. ¿Qué salió mal con la lasaña de Colgate? ¿Por qué hay videojuegos enterrados en el desierto? ¿Y cómo una gaseosa morada puso en aprietos a Inca Kola?Detrás de cada error, hay una lección poderosa sobre identidad de marca, marketing y cultura.

En Seattle, una máquina expendedora de refrescos apareció en los años 90 sin que se conociera su propietario. Ofrecía bebidas raras y desapareció misteriosamente en 2018 generando diversas teorías sobre su origen.

Show Notes:Time glitched, music looped, and somehow we never logged out of the 1999 party. In this week's Y2K special, Joeba, Ripley & Zero dust off their floppy disks and boot up old fears, from crashing planes to runaway pets. We're diving headfirst into the millennium panic, sharing ridiculous Y2K stories, and playing “Y2K or Nay?”, where we expose the wildest (and weirdest) predictions of the era. So grab your cassette player, crack open a Crystal Pepsi, and prepare to spiral back into the digital void—because the year 2000 might have ended, but this kegger sure didn't. Stay slurred, Dimension Hoppers!Today's Hyperspace Headlines:-https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/07/kentucky-boy-orders-dum-dums-https://apnews.com/article/australia-election-democracy-sausage-aed5e43539e7c13970fc5c8ee8e6204fSpecial Segment: Y2K or Nay?Test your paranoia levels as we quiz ridiculous Y2K fears—were they REAL… or a total fabrication?DISCLAIMER:Close Encounters of the Slurred Kind is a Slurred Kind LLC Production. We engage in satire, parody, and critical commentary. All opinions expressed are for comedic purposes only. If you think vending machines would take over post-Y2K, that's on you.CREDIT: Metaphysical https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFLc4Okc_LQ&list=WL&index=60&t=107sInterstellar Index (Social Links)IG - https://instagram.com/theslurredkindTwitter - https://x.com/theslurredkind?s=21Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Theslurredkind?mibextid=LQQJ4dFacebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1435506800329193/Email - closeencountersslurredkind@gmail.comWeb: https://ceskpod.42web.io/?i=1Podcast Outro By:Stop.Drop.Rewind - “Space Force Theme Song”Rate & Review: ✨Love the show? Help fuel the warp core!✨ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-encounters-of-the-slurred-kind/id1474550704Spotify: Follow & hit that 5-star button!

James and Brandon talk about food and drinks that we grew up with. They talk about Crystal Pepsi, Hi-C Ecto Cooler, Dunkaroos, Sprinkle Spangles, Doritos 3Ds, Little Hugs, Surge, and more!

Prova SHOPIFY ad 1€ - Prova SHOPIFY ad 1€ - ⁠⁠⁠⁠shopify.it/BRANDY⁠⁠ Storia dell'ultimo atto di una rivalità rivalità senza fine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting 2025 with a bang, Brent rejoins the podcast for this latest episode of A-SIDES as we dive into one of the most enduring and polaring rock bands, Van Halen! We shared our favorite songs from both the Sammy and David Lee Roth-fronted eras, along with our thoughts on 1995's album Balance, replacement singers that also play guitar, even Crystal Pepsi gets a mention, and several hot takes on hip hop country artists. Nothing is sacred on Episode 183! Happy New Year and thank you for listening to this episode of A-Sides!

We chug back in time to revisit the marketing campaigns of two legendary beverage busts to see how they go down a few decades later.Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #Coke #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #PEPSI #Brands #CocaCola #SodaWars #Blunders

Send us a textA training video on how to sell Crystal Pepsi. The rise and fall of Tupperware. Some more weird old Thanksgiving recipes.Episode 171 will stuff you full of nostalgia and even provide some leftovers.It begins with the story of the rise and fall of the iconic brand Tupperware. For decades it has been synonymous with food storage. However today Tupperware is at a crossroads. Whether they survive or fade into the past we'll look at the impact of the brand this week.One product that came in with an explosion and quickly faded away was Crystal Pepsi. Once hailed as the soda of the future it ended up becoming a punchline for failure. We go back to the beginning though as we review an employee training video about selling and marketing Crystal Pepsi. This video will make you think of what might have been in between loud laughter.Hopefully, you will not see these foods on your table this year. A new Top 5 will showcase more weird old Thanksgiving recipes. These range from odd to unique to just plain gross. The first weird recipe countdown is in Episode 94.There will also be a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the wreck of the Essex which inspired the classic novel Moby Dick.For more great content become a subscriber on Patreon!Helpful Links from this EpisodeThe Lady of the Dunes.comPurchase My New Book Cape Cod Beyond the Beach!In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide(2nd Edition)Hooked By Kiwi - Etsy.comDJ Williams MusicKeeKee's Cape Cod KitchenChristopher Setterlund.comCape Cod Living - Zazzle StoreSubscribe on YouTube!Initial Impressions 2.0 BlogUPDATE: Bonnie Bickwit and Mitchel Weiser Case - Rolling Stone.comWebcam Weekly Wrapup PodcastCrystal Pepsi Training VideoCape Cod 1929 PodcastListen to Episode 170 hereSupport the show

Welcome to Consumer Reports: Everyone is Wrong edition. On this episode, noted collegate Apple hater Daniel Ellis comes on the pod to defend one of tech's most notable product punchlines - the digital media player and failed iPod rival that was the Microsoft Zune. We dive into the Zune's design, musician-friendly features, Spotify before Spotify, Allen Iverson crossovers, and *//deep sigh* squirting (NO NOT THAT, GET YOUR MIND OUTTA THE GUTTER). Crack open a can of Crystal Pepsi or New Coke and enjoy listening while playing your Nintendo Virtual Boy.

An episode that scores!Here's the play-by-play for this episode: * In today's episode, Matt and Angela sit down with Rick Bryson, one half of the powerhouse team behind Movies with Balls: The Greatest Sports Films of All Time, Analyzed and Illustrated.* Movies with Balls combines fandom, analysis, and nostalgia, featuring unique illustrations of fantasy ticket stubs, memorabilia, and playmaps. It's perfect for fans who love revisiting classic sports films and uncovering hidden gems—get ready to “play ball” with a whole new perspective!* Movies with Balls was inspired by a simple question: what would the tickets from our favorite sports movies look like? From iconic matchups like Rocky vs. Drago to the 2004 Las Vegas Dodgeball Invitational, the book imagines physical, tangible tickets for legendary events we'd love to experience firsthand, beyond the movie theater or living room couch.* Rick discusses the nostalgic appeal of media artifacts from a bygone era and how this inspired him and co-author Kyle Bandujo to create fantasy tickets—and an entire book filled with them. From kerning and font choices to color design, every detail carries significance.* Much like how many autistic individuals find meaning in patterns, structure, and subtle details, Movies with Balls celebrates the joy of uncovering these small but important elements in the films we love. The attention to detail in the design of the fantasy tickets mirrors the way autistic people often experience the world—finding deep significance in things that others might overlook. Whether it's the choice of color, font, or layout, these elements become a way to connect with the media on a deeper, more personal level, just as many autistic people connect with the world through the nuances that make up their unique experiences.* Speaking of the little details, Rick shares the careful thought he put into designing each ticket stub, ensuring they had realistic crinkles, wrinkles, and stains—making them look as though they had truly been part of the experience.* Movies with Balls is available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon—get ready to score a copy!“I think a lot of people just watch the movie and then enjoy the movie and move on. And we [autistic folks] are like, my God, what were the tickets like? What were the chairs like? Were the chairs wider then? Was there more room in the seats? What kind of drinks did they have? Was that original Coke? Did they have Crystal Pepsi at that event? Like we want to know everything, okay. ” - Angela“These are the teams we love as much as real-life teams. Frankly, we probably love these sports movie teams even more than our real-life teams, because they don't let us down even postseason.” - Matt“When a sports movie is done right, nothing can top it. You know, it gives you that big chill moment, makes you want to jump up off the couch and cheer.” - Rick Bryson“There's this great line in Seinfeld where I think he's sitting on a plane and he's spewing out all this pop culture nonsense to the supermodel and he's hitting on her. And she's like, ‘you know a lot about nothing'. And I feel like that's me and Kyle. We have a database of just worthless stuff that helps us nowhere in the world. And then we found an outlet for it with this book.” - Rick Bryson Did you notice how Movies with Balls captures the spirit of classic sports films? In today's episode, we dive deep with co-author Rick Bryson! Thanks for tuning in! Share your thoughts on the conversation in the comments, and use #AutisticCultureCatch to connect with fellow listeners on social media. Which scenes or insights gave you that “sports ball” thrill?Resources:Movies with Balls: The Greatest Sports Films of All Time, Analyzed and IllustratedRelated Episodes:McEnroe Is AutisticReady for a paradigm shift that empowers Autistics? Help spread the news!Follow us on InstagramFind us on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyLearn more about Matt at Matt Lowry, LPPJoin Matt's Autistic Connections Facebook GroupLearn more about Angela at AngelaKingdon.com Angela's social media: Twitter and TikTokOur Autism-affirming merch shop This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com/subscribe

David Novak, co-founder and former CEO of Yum! Brands, joins host Jeff Berman to share lessons from scaling one of the world's largest restaurant companies. Hear how his focus on listening, team recognition, and taking big swings helped grow a fast food empire to a $32 billion market cap. He also reveals lessons from the infamous Crystal Pepsi campaign, how he came up with Cool Ranch Doritos, and what fuels his mission to develop the next generation of leaders. His podcast and latest book are: “How Leaders Learn.” Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.comSubscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brandon and James discuss the short-lived '90s soda Crystal Pepsi! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the90stoday/support

#534: We sit down with David Novak, the co-founder and former CEO of Yum! Brands, the giant parent company behind KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and the Habit Burger Grill. David shares stories from his remarkable career, offering insights into leadership, decision-making, and personal growth. We dive into one of David's most memorable projects: the creation of Crystal Pepsi. David talks about how the idea was born out of a gut instinct when he noticed a trend toward clear beverages. The media buzz was massive, and he was convinced it was a winner. But the Pepsi bottlers pushed back, saying it didn't taste enough like traditional Pepsi. David pressed on anyway. The product launched to a lot of fanfare but ultimately flopped.  David reflects on this experience as a lesson in the importance of listening to feedback, even when you're sure you're right. The conversation then shifts to David's unique upbringing. He lived in 23 different states before high school. This taught David to adapt quickly, make friends fast, and assess people and situations—a skill set that became invaluable in his leadership roles. David then takes you through his early career, from being a mediocre student who found his passion in advertising, to making a pivotal move from marketing to operations at PepsiCo. This shift was crucial, setting him up to eventually lead Yum! Brands.  David's journey is filled with stories of hard decisions, like turning down a bigger job at Frito-Lay because it didn't align with what truly made him happy. He shares his philosophy on prioritizing joy and finding fulfillment in your work, a principle that guided his entire career. Leadership is a major theme in the discussion. David talks about the balance between confidence and humility, using Warren Buffett as an example of someone who embodies both. He also shares his thoughts on how to handle criticism and feedback.  According to David, the key is to listen carefully, avoid being defensive, and understand whether the feedback is valid before making decisions. David also offers practical advice on personal development. He talks about his “Three by Five” exercise, where he regularly assesses who he is today and what he needs to work on to become more effective. This habit of self-reflection has helped him stay grounded and continually improve as a leader. The episode wraps up with a discussion on company culture. David believes that creating an environment where everyone feels valued is essential for success. He emphasizes the importance of leaders modeling the behavior they want to see in their teams and being the first to extend trust and positivity. David's stories and insights provide a deep dive into what it takes to lead a major company, make tough decisions, and continually grow both personally and professionally. Timestamps Note: Timestamps will vary on individual devices due to dynamic advertising run times. 0:00 - Introduction to David Novak and his leadership background 6:17 - David's personal journey and learning framework 11:25 - Importance of listening to feedback in decision-making 17:31 - Impact of frequent childhood moves on David's adaptability 23:32 - Identifying and focusing on what brings joy in life and work 29:26 - Value of learning that leads to action 35:58 - Overcoming challenges by reframing your approach 42:20 - Learning from mentors who have succeeded in your field 48:35 - Criteria for board membership: contributing and learning. 54:47 - Building a high-performance culture at Yum! Brands 1:01:02 - Mapping out learning needs for project success 1:07:25 - Gaining confidence and skills for leadership 1:13:23 - Maintaining integrity and taking the high ground 1:19:03 - A mentor relationship that shaped David's leadership 1:26:02 - Evaluating what successful companies are doing right For more information, visit the show notes at https://affordanything.com/episode534 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the dog days of summer, so cool off with our most bubbly and refreshing episode ever!! In this ediion of Snack Attack! we revisit four sodas that quenched our thirst in the 80s, 90s, and 00s: New Coke, Crystal Pepsi, Surge, and Pepsi Blue!

How can leaders continue to improve and maintain a commitment to lifelong learning? Come along with me in this episode as I dive into the world of leadership learning with David Novak, former CEO of Yum! Brands. David shares his unique idea collection system and dives deep into why maintaining focus is crucial for long-term success. We'll explore those moments when leaders hit a learning slump and uncover effective strategies to reignite that curiosity. You'll also discover the transformative power of recognition, gratitude, and having truth-tellers in leadership—all while hearing captivating stories like the journey of Crystal Pepsi and Cool Ranch Doritos!David's book listThe BibleGood to Great by Jim CollinsHow to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale CarnegieO Great One by David NovackGet more info at David's website! Follow David on Instagram and LinkedInSign up for my newsletter, Try This!Follow me on GoodReadsBook me to speak at your event or to your team!I'm also on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.My new book All It Takes Is a Goal is available! You can grab a copy from your favorite bookstore or at atgbook.com.Pick up your copy of the Finish Journal in Fox Red or Navy today!

Welcome to our '90s Soundtrack Flashback mini-season! We're ranking the soundtrack albums from four legendary 1990s movies, starting with grunge-adjacent rom-com Singles. We waded into the great plaid middle of this disc to talk about the insouciance of Cameron Crowe stories, when it's okay for grunge gods to laugh, the conversation between this genre and punk (and Zep), and "hard rock for the school bus." Grab a Crystal Pepsi and a flannel buttondown and join us! Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne; interstitial music by Alice In Chains. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas. SHOW NOTES Where to watch Singles This one didn't make the Poppy-Fields Couch of Fame...but Almost Famous did Episode 239: The Replacements, "Alex Chilton" (with Taylor Cole) "The hell are cross tops?" MB and SDB talk Mark Yarm Mark Yarm talks Hozier for the New York Times N...ot the Melrose soundtrack MB meant

Fill that bag up with Crystal Pepsi. Subscribe, now. Listen, now. Comment, now. Like, now. LFG! https://suno.com/@one_graham_army One time donations of any amount available at https://ko-fi.com/onegrahamarmy Consider supporting the Global War On Coherency at   / onegrahamarmy   Google “One Graham Army” for socials and more Go shirt yourself with Shirt Caviar! https://shirtcaviar.com/ Tweet

FULL EP HERE: https://www.patreon.com/slopquest O'Neill finds out that Japan has a racoon problem and perhaps art imitates life. Then Andy phones O'Neill with a killer idea for the opening scene of Killer Kops. Then Andy tells O'Neill about the secret government Cheese Caves and O'Neill is dubious about it. Then they talk about Crystal Pepsi and come up with a business plan to get guaranteed HJs from a Yoga Instructor.

We. Are. BACK, baby! That's right, season 4 is here with a SPLASH. And what is that liquid splashing all over your crop tops and muumuus? It's none other than the one, the only, Crystal Pepsi. We do all this with the mastermind behind the Half-Assed Podcast Network, Drinks w/ Ron!Not only do we talk about the glories of Crystal, we follow the breadcrumb trail of the clear cola all the way to the siege of Stalingrad and of the man responsible for stopping the Nazis invasion of the USSR: Georgy Zhukov.Make sure you stay til the end where you'll hear Out of this World by Black Magic Noize. Links to the song and video below. And make sure you check out all the podcasts that Ron produces and co hosts, all available in the Half Assed Podcast Network feed. Links below as well.Black Magic Noize - Space BassOut of this World - Music VideoSomething About You - Araless (Vinyl Release)EtsyPatreonLinktreeInstagram:@ruining_your.childhood@feral_williams@aralessbmn@strangeloopanimation@celinafloresphotoFind us on twitter:@nostalgiapit@madshroommc@thehashtronaut@araless

Notice the unnoticeable! Weird facts about things that are clear and invisible. Learn about the secretive clear cola that came decades before Crystal Pepsi. We've all probably tried the ol' lemon juice invisible ink before, but can it help you outsmart and rob banks? "Before & After" hidden word game, and can you see right through Karen's crystal clear quiz? And yes, there is a real John Cena cameo in this episode. For advertising inquiries, please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're Makin' It, we've got the chance and we're takin' it. Come on, come on!We rewind to Wine and Cheese at Lum's and Essex Funk Collective at Village Hall. We're looking forward to Django a Gogo, First Fridays at the Elks with Crystal Pepsi and the Zimas, River Day, Small Wonder Marketplace, Cinco de Mayo at Village Hall, Spring Birding Migration, Richie Furay at SOPAC, Hometown Movie Stars of CHS, Get Twisted in Meadowland Park, Maplewood Garden Club Plant Sale, and art opening at Green Door Studio. Plus a teaser for next week's interview with Jay Stevenson about Beethoven's Wrong Note. Phew, that's a lot!Three Things with a blood drive, Mychal Threets, Maplewood Pool Pals, Mother's Day gifts at General Store Shops and Cafe, Perla Oysters brick and mortar, Maplewoodstock (Thanks Danny Goldstein!), and Treelicious CSA at the Co-Lab.And if you know what happens to time when approaching a singularity, please let us know!If you like this sort of thing, give us a rating and a review on the podcast platform of your choice. Also, to hear all the juicy bloopers and other extra content, become a Patreon.LINKS:Makin' ItMychal Threets virtual eventMaplewood Pool Membership and Pool Pals SubsidyNo NJ City Is Doing Dining Better Than Maplewood Right NowMaplewoodstockTreelicious CSA

Open The Gate by No Doubt playsIt's our first ever music fandom episode! And like many others in the music fandom, we've decided to sort our music by decade. So welcome to 90s Music Gateleapers, pour yourself a Crystal Pepsi, try not to have a cow, and enjoy our leap into a fandom that's literally so last century.Cast member regulars Audra Stephenson and Aaron Randolph were joined by radio DJ Xanthus (aka CJ) and alternative rock artist Mexigun!In this episode players must guess the next lyric, complete 90s music themed tasks, unpack snarky reviews and know their state-sanctioned pop groups.Listen to Per Severance by MexigunListen to CJ on radio-airwavesRead ThaneListen to BFYTWWe are an ad and listener (mainly listener) supported podcast. Consider checking out patreon.com/gateleapers to sign up and support us. We release bonus monthly episodes, as well as fully captioned video versions of our episodes.Music: BoucheDag by Alexander Nakarada (serpentsoundstudios.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quench your podcast thirst by listening back to this Season 1 favorite all about the little soft drink that couldn't - Crystal Pepsi!~~~Right Now! You're reading a description for this week's episode, Crystal Pepsi. Right Now! This particular episode is a little different, let's be CLEAR. Right Now! Crystal Pepsi was a flash in the CAN (and bottle!) and we're going to teach you all about it! Right Now! They also ran a Super Bowl commercial for it that featured a Sammy Haggar lead Van Halen, singing their hit song, “Right Now!” Right Now!Crystal Pepsi was released to the public in 1992 and (SPOILER WARNING!) was off of store shelves by early 1994. It was part of the “Clear Craze” trend of the early 90's. Consumers were introduced to all sorts of products that you could see right through… Including Zima! Such innovation!This week Ray teaches Rob all about the history of Pepsi Cola, how rival Coca Cola tried answering back with Tab Clear, why they spent $40 million on the ad campaign, and how Pepsi wasn't happy with SNL's “Crystal Gravy” commercial parody.Crystal Pepsi – You've never seen a taste like this!If you like what we're doing, please support us on Patreon, or you can subscribe to our bonus content on Apple Podcasts. And we'd love to find even more listeners, so if you have time, please leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you have any other thoughts or feedback you'd like to share with us, we'd love to hear from you - feel free to email us or send us a message on social media.TEAMRay HebelRobert W SchneiderMark SchroederBilly RecceDaniel SchwartzbergGabe CrawfordNatalie DeSavia WEBSITESCrystal Pepsi Product Information ARTICLESABC NewsBloomberg

And now a word from our sponsor…It's BREAK TIME! – A micro-pod from The Saturday Morning Podcast. On this station break in the 90s, we look at CRYSTAL PEPSI!Buckle up, the pop culture is about to POP! Find all of our things here:Linktr.ee/SatMornPod

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 16:00:00 GMT http://relay.fm/ungeniused/204 http://relay.fm/ungeniused/204 Crystal Pepsi 204 Stephen Hackett and Myke Hurley It was like Pepsi, but clear. It was like Pepsi, but clear. clean 723 It was like Pepsi, but clear. This episode of Ungeniused is sponsored by: Hullo: A simple, natural pillow designed for comfort. Try it for 60 days. Links and Show Notes: Support Ungeniused with a Relay FM Membership Submit Feedback Crystal Pepsi - Wikipedia Clear craze - Wikipedia The iMac G3 Project – 512 Pixels Clearly Canadian - Wikipedia Snapple - Wikipedia Ungeniused #203: OK Soda - Relay FM Tab Clear - Wikipedia Winging It - Fast Company (vi

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 16:00:00 GMT http://relay.fm/ungeniused/204 http://relay.fm/ungeniused/204 Stephen Hackett and Myke Hurley It was like Pepsi, but clear. It was like Pepsi, but clear. clean 723 It was like Pepsi, but clear. This episode of Ungeniused is sponsored by: Hullo: A simple, natural pillow designed for comfort. Try it for 60 days. Links and Show Notes: Support Ungeniused with a Relay FM Membership Submit Feedback Crystal Pepsi - Wikipedia Clear craze - Wikipedia The iMac G3 Project – 512 Pixels Clearly Canadian - Wikipedia Snapple - Wikipedia Ungeniused #203: OK Soda - Relay FM Tab Clear - Wikipedia Winging It - Fast

Grab a water, coffee or bottle of Crystal Pepsi and join Boris Aguilar and Matt Ederer as they discuss: The no good, very bad, unfortunate Edmonton Oilers NFL Week 10, and the nerdy charm of Miami Dolphins' coach Mike McDaniel The NBA in-season tournament The 1990 coming-of-age tale Pump Up The Volume, starring Christian Slater & Samantha Mathis And IN THE MAIN EVENT aka ‘rasslin talk, the fellas chat Mariah May's AEW debut and character, and chat some NJPW Lone Star Shootout (airing Friday, Nov 10)

When you think of health and wellness, do you think…clear soda? One Pepsi executive in the 90s was determined to capitalize on the healthier soda trend by releasing Crystal Pepsi, a clear, caffeine-free, lower calorie soda with the same great taste of regular Pepsi. The only issue? It didn't taste anything like regular Pepsi. Dulcé Sloan (The Daily Show) joins Misha to digest one of the most infamous flops in pop culture history, AND to uncover Coca-Cola's secret shocking plan to sabotage the whole campaign.Follow The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Crystal Pepsi, anyone? What about Zima? In this episode, Jamie gets his hands on some Clearly Canadian samples, sparking a nostalgic trip back to the 90s and the clear beverage craze that once swept the nation. Don't miss out on this refreshing journey through the history of clear beverages from the 90s. For More from the 80s and 90s visit Web: the80sand90s.com    Instagram: @The80sand90sCom  YouTube: The 80s and 90s Overlooked If you enjoy this episode, don't keep it a secret, tell a friend and/or share it on social media so others can experience it as well.

  2:33:20 – Frank in New Jersey, plus the Other Side. Topics include: Mr. Canoehead synchronicity, The Frantics, new album Hackney Diamonds by The Rolling Stones, Sonic Superstars, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Serendipity Interloper, chewing gum review – Grenades Gum (Super-Uber Mint, Wild Spearmint, Peppermint Bang), 1994 Cinetropolis article, Crystal Pepsi, PlayStation Home, Dr Pepper Ten, new […]

2:33:20 – Frank in New Jersey, plus the Other Side. Topics include: Mr. Canoehead synchronicity, The Frantics, new album Hackney Diamonds by The Rolling Stones, Sonic Superstars, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Serendipity Interloper, chewing gum review – Grenades Gum (Super-Uber Mint, Wild Spearmint, Peppermint Bang), 1994 Cinetropolis article, Crystal Pepsi, PlayStation Home, Dr Pepper Ten, new Eddie […]

Episode 61 - MC Babycrusher discusses his visit to the museum of failure and guides us on the epicness that was contained within. Would you like a Crystal Pepsi with that Trump steak while you kick back and watch some laser discs and listen to your Zune?? Also, an Aversion X shirt found in the wild! Join us on pottymouthrecords.rocks on the insta @pottymouthrecords or on the facial at Potty Mouth Records

Its been over 30 years since Crystal Pepsi has hit the market.Its time to look back at an extremely thorough look at every single release, version and variation of this nostalgic, loved and hated Pepsi drink.You've never seen a taste like this!Industrial Industries World Radio Songs and Skits of Seasons 1 & 2 now available everywhere you download and stream music!Check it out today!Support the show

This week Bryan gets called out at the U.S. Open for having RBF. Erin talks about the Crystal Pepsi-style rebrand for the GOP trying to shake the label "pro-life" to win back alienated voters, and Bryan speaks in support of Dylan Kaercher aka Roxi Manacoochi who was banned from the Mower County Fair in Minnesota after years of calling Bingo due to conservative pushback. Join us on the Road to 3,000 Patreon subscribers! Once we hit our goal a new season of Groceries will begin and all our current tiers will be plussed with new content each month! www.patreon.com/attitudes Visit our Discord each Wednesday night at 6:30pm PT to watch our Columbo and Dateline viewing parties before our Recap episodes drop! https://discord.gg/ECgCxPhcx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Justin McElroy, who you might know from his work on the podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me or The Adventure Zone.Wednesday will mark a shocking milestone: As of September 13, the Chicken Sandwich Wars will have gone on longer than the armed conflict of the American Civil War. Yes, the conflict between quick-service restaurants over who has produced a desirable chicken sandwich offering began in August 2019, what feels like a lifetime ago, and nobody has covered this more persistently than McElroy on his Munch Squad podcast within a podcast.I'm a big fan of his work, and in addition to this devastating conflict we also chatted about increasingly unhinged limited time offerings, his multiple bestselling comic books, and the current “Steeplechase” season of The Adventure Zone.All this can be found at TheMcElroy.family.This interview has been condensed and edited.Justin McElroy, thank you so much for coming on.Thank you for having me in this important journalistic endeavor.This is a critical moment. We find ourselves at the week the Chicken Sandwich Wars will have gone on longer than the American Civil War. You have been on the ground covering this day by day, hour after hour.At what point do we just recognize that this is the second American Civil War? I mean it's all the bad blood, brother versus brother versus colonel. It's got everything.Why don't you take us back to the beginning? Munch Squad, a podcast within a podcast on My Brother, My Brother and Me, has been dedicated to covering the latest and greatest in food offerings, as you'll go on to explain. Chicken Sandwich Wars have been dominating this for years now at this point. How did this start?I have always been, and I think I got this from my dad, I've always been sort of a sucker for— I mean, I don't know how to say it other than just marketing. I'm like an absolute sucker. A lot of that is me being willing to just sort of go with it, and finding that I'm happier if I'm not fighting the thousands of advertising messages that are being sent to me on a daily basis. I just kind of go with it. I love to try new consumer products, and I know that's goofy, but whenever you would go to Columbus, Ohio, it's a popular test market for new products so you'll see drinks you hadn't heard of before, whatever. Dad would always do that when we were kids. Any new drink, he would come home with a 12-pack like, "All right, guys, this is the new Crystal Pepsi, they're calling it, so you guys have got to try this."Yeah, anytime I see new stuff like this, it comes from a genuine place. I genuinely think it's fascinating. What I love, though, is when I find out that these companies have to put out press releases for these dumb products. No matter how dumb the thing is, they've got to let people know about it and someone is tasked with the job of writing the press release for something that is a sentence.I mean it's always a sentence, right? "We now have a chicken sandwich." "We are Dunkin' and we put beer in coffee, and you can buy it at the store. Please go buy it." I did one a few weeks ago that was like, "Extra gum has a new pink lemonade flavor. Here's the press release." It's like, how would anybody know that's even a new product? If I saw that, I'd assume they've sold it for 20 years. It's just wild and I think that that's really funny.The first one I did was Taco Bell doing the naked chicken taco, which is when they made a taco shell out of a chicken breast, and it's so vulgar.Everything about it is vulgar! It makes me want to be a vegetarian. It's a vulgar exercise, and I was like, "This is too great. I've got to share this with people." That was back, I don't know, 2016, around there or something like that, and we just kept going with it because the press releases just kept getting wilder.It slows down sometimes. But there's always new stuff to make fun of, and I just think that it's great. It feels like when you're somebody who cares about doing comedy that doesn't specifically target people, especially marginalized groups or just anybody specific, anybody individually; we really try to be upbeat. I feel like making fun of not just corporations, but marketing for specific consumer products is as near to a victimless crime as you can get. Even the people writing these things know like, "Yeah, this isn't going to get me my Pulitzer. It's all in good fun." But yeah, that is the Munch Squad.Yeah. Limited time offerings, they've always existed, right? There's always been the McRib, there have always been things like that. They are increasingly unhinged and I don't think anybody's been following that quite like you.Yeah, I do. I have exposed myself to a wide variety. Sometimes, the product will be wild, but there's just nothing. They don't have the press release. I've got to have the press release. I've got to have the news. I have to have someone reporting it journalistically who is also paid by Pepsi or Taco Bell or whatever, and it was the same company, but you know what I mean. Yeah, I have followed the space very closely.Yeah, it's been just genuinely a pleasure to listen to. Again, you've developed this form of taste, I think, among these sorts of products. You've been able to clock if they're only in one restaurant for one hour in Anchorage, Alaska.I'm glad you're bringing that up. Thank you. That does make me very angry and that is something that has happened in later Munch Squad and almost kind of put me off of it, is you start to see these companies that are just doing it for the bit. If they're doing it for the bit, it's a lot harder for me to do jokes about it because they already know that it's dumb. Pepsi did Peeps-flavored Pepsis and you had to get them from a contest or whatever, and it drives me crazy.Just have the strength of your convictions to make your dumb soda and let the market sort it out.I don't even think this is on Munch Squad; it's something we talked about on my cereal podcast, the Empty Bowl, but Carvel, the ice cream cake people, they made a "cereal" that was just the crunchy chocolate bits that go in the middle of the ice cream cake with the fudge sauce. You know what I mean? They made a cereal out of that, but they're in little tiny boxes and they only sold them for one day at their stores.It's like, just make it or don't. You know what I mean? Cowards, everybody. I don't like that stuff. Make a product, put it out there for everybody. Don't do like the CurderBurger where you only do it for one day. I did talk about the CurderBurger because it was a burger with a loaf of cheese curd on it in Wisconsin. That was pretty good. But by and large, wide release or nothing. That's what I say.You can't not talk about a CurderBurger.Yeah, and people could go buy that. You could go buy it in the store. It's usually my cutoff. I prefer a wide release, but still.You've been covering this for a while. Again, I can't imagine the amount of time that you spend on QSR magazine.A lot.A lot?Paper and digital.Oh, you get the print? You get the dead tree edition?Some fun-time jokesters signed my P.O. box up for a subscription to that. I get lots of them. Someone signed us up for horse magazines. Thank you. That's great for recycling. Someone signed us up for the gas station mag — they have a publication for new gas station convenience offerings — so I try to track the sources wherever they are.That's incredible. Again, your history is journalism. You founded Polygon. I've always enjoyed that element of Munch Squad where it's like, "Clearly, this is something that's going on." And I'm glad that you alluded to, again, your father has roots of journalism as well, that this is a trade that you've been applying for quite some time.Yes, that was my first job outside of retail. It was in my mid-20s. I got hired to be the news editor at a small paper in Ohio, and I was desperately underqualified, but I just sort of kept scamming my way up and pivoted over to video game coverage, mainly. I know enough journalism to know how to pretend I'm doing journalism in the Munch Squad, so that's about where my skillset is at this moment.Do you have any favorites that come to mind? Any specific limited time offerings or press releases that just really kind of made a dent in you?Let me think. Taco Bell did a naked egg taco. You know when they did the chicken, but this was a gigantic fried egg that they folded up into a taco shell and made a breakfast offering? That's unacceptable. That's simply not a product that anybody should be consuming.Burger King, the Nightmare Burger where it was black for Halloween, remember that? It gave everybody black poops. That was a fun time to be in the business. Yeah, Burger King will dye their buns sometimes and it ruins people's bowel movements.Man, Chris Angel had a restaurant. Do you remember? I had to look up the acronym. Chris Angel made or opened a restaurant, it's spelled C-A-B-L-P. It's Cablp, and that is short for, of course, Chris Angel Breakfast, Lunch, and Pizza. They call it Cablp. I don't even know if that's still open. That was back in 2021, but Cablp. Oh, God, that still hits. Cablp.The Chicken Sandwich Wars were obviously launched into devastating effect in August of 2019. Where do you see that going? For a while, there was quite a bit of activity and now it's been, kind of they're in the long haul, I've got to say.From your view, where are the Chicken Sandwich Wars at?At this point, I feel like a lot of us have moved on from the war part of it. I feel like what we're seeing now is we're entering a phase where we're all sort of culturally accepting that every place has a chicken sandwich. This is what's weird about the Chicken Sandwich Wars, if I may.You may.These places all had chicken sandwiches.That's the thing that people forget, right? They had chicken sandwiches. They were bad.The only one people liked was Chick-fil-A, and they turned out to be a little bit questionable on some of the donations of groups they're giving to, a lot of anti-LGBTQ places, so people stopped eating the chicken sandwich.For me, that's the beginning of the chicken sandwich. That was the only good one you could get. They turned out to be some nasty dogs over there, maybe, and so nobody's going to eat that chicken sandwich anymore. Somebody had to step in.As long ago as 2005, McDonald's came at the crown. They came for true at Kathy's Kreations, which, they still insist that they made the first chicken sandwich, and that just seems wild to me. It's a fried breast between a bun. Come on, nobody can invent that. It just is. It just exists as these two products are created. As soon as we had bread and chicken, somebody was like, "Wait, I got it. Hold on. Step back." So I don't grant that to Kathy or Popeye's, to be fair, that both of them claim to have the first chicken sandwich.Anyway, so McDonald's in 2005, they had a Southern-style Chicken Sandwich, and that was it. That was straight up. We got a potato bun, we got two pickles, we got pickle-brining, let's go. It had a good run. I think it was a decade that it continued. Even they were in the game.Then when Popeye's decided like, "Hey, why don't we try? Why don't all of us other restaurants try to make a good one instead of making a forgettable option for your cousin that doesn't like hamburgers? We'll actually try,” then you started having more and more people come out.Walter, do you know — this is true — between the beginning of 2019 and the end of 2020, do you know how much sales of chicken sandwiches increased?I do not.It's really easy to remember this statistic because it is 420 percent.That's a memorable statistic.It's a memorable statistic. It's how I remember that my daughter was born at 4 p.m. and 20 minutes. 4:20 is when my kid was born. 420 percent. That is how much chicken sandwich sales increased.Everybody's just like, "Hey, restaurants are selling good chicken sandwiches now. We should probably go get them." But the wars, I don't know why it had to be a war.Everybody in the war, by the way, always shouts out all the other people in the war, which is wild because that doesn't seem to be a good marketing strategy to just be like, "Here are some other places that have done this and now we're doing it too." But I think it's also the Chicken Sandwich Wars, I think what that is is directly connected to Munch Squad.Because I think it is someone that had to do a press release about a chicken sandwich, and they're like, "It's got to have some kind of angle. I don't know what the first line of this press release is going to be. Maybe wars; I keep talking about the wars that are going on that everybody seems to be so hot on," and that was just like the angle. It's solved. If you have a chicken sandwich and you're writing a press release about it, you've got to mention the wars.And the more belabored it gets, the better for a lot of these. It's like, "We're finally strapping on our chicken rifles and wading into the trenches to blow the other sandwiches straight to hell. We're going to make some chicken sandwich widows out here. Let's go," and it's gross. Just say it's a good sandwich or bad.For years, we've maintained neutrality, but today, that is enough.Right, and neutrality, I have to be clear, is a bad chicken sandwich! It's not like no chicken sandwich. It's just, let's try to make a good one.Yeah. It is really funny that you can draw a fairly direct line between the success of the gay rights movement and a 420 percent increase in chicken sandwich sales.It's beautiful. It's a story of love and acceptance. I mean really, war is such a misnomer. It should be a cultural shift of people unwilling to accept lesser treatment by buying evil cursed chicken sandwiches.To show you how seriously these places took it, in Huntington, West Virginia, where I live, they opened up a Bojangles — which is like lower-tier Popeye's, it's a mid-tier Popeye's — but it was huge in Huntington, so much so that they had to reroute traffic on Route 60 around the line for Bojangles.It got so bad, KFC, there's another KFC down the road about a mile, and they put up a sign that just had a big picture of the Colonel and it said, "We make chicken around here." Outside the Bojangles, the KFC put up like a, "Hey, not in our town. This is a KFC town," and hey, hand to God, that Bojangles closed. I don't know what the Colonel was working over there, but it worked. They're back to the only chicken on Route 60 as far as I know.Listen, you start a battle? Send in the Colonel.Yeah, if you're going to come for the Colonel's crown, you best come for the bow tie. You've got to come correct. No way. Is it the bolo? What would you call that? It doesn't matter.I would call it a bolo.You get the idea. Bolo? Yeah.I want to talk a little bit about this current season of The Adventure Zone. You have been the game master for it. I've really, really enjoyed it. I've dug it a lot.Thank you.I really mean that. Yeah, it's a phenomenal season. I think the setting is excellent and I want to talk a little bit about that because it is very theme park, Disney inspired, I would say. I think that that ties in decently well with Munch Squad in the sense that there is a commentary about commercialization, but nevertheless identity-bound to American pop culture. I guess I'd love to ask you a little bit about where some of that season came from and where that setting came from.Yeah. Everybody else in my family had run the game. Oh my gosh, my Arby's big cheddar bowling shirt just got delivered. What a delight. Remind me when we're done, I'll make sure to grab it so you can see, it's going to be a wonder.I hadn't done the game master thing yet. It always seemed kind of overwhelming and I waited, and I put it off as long as they would let me, because I didn't think I'd be very good at it. I finally was kind of forced into it and we found this game, Blades in the Dark, that's about theft and heists, and I liked that kind of thing. I think that that kind of thing is cool and a nice change of pace from murdering your way through caves or whatever happens in others.I am a huge theme park nut, I always have been. I think that they are fascinating. I think I even like reading and understanding and learning about them more than I like actually being there. It's more like a hobby. No, I'm the most annoying person to walk around Disney World with. You do not want to look every f*****g four steps at some other dumb thing I've got to point out. I love that kind of stuff.So I was like, "Well, okay, if I were going to make a world that could incorporate all this junk in my brain, then I would make a giant park like that on a grander scale." So the theme worlds, in this park I called Steeplechase, the theme worlds are layers stacked on top of each other, and each layer is a completely immersive sim. I love immersive stuff like that, too, like Sleep No More, things like that where it's bringing you into the experience, so I thought this would be amazing.I kind of made my dream place to go to, and then the show, as we've gone on, has really been about me wrestling with these ideas of a society obsessed with entertainment and obsessed with distraction. I'm not coming out as a cultural critic, because I'm very much lumping myself in with that, this idea that you lose yourself so deeply in distraction and entertainment that you lose contact with the world around you or forget what you would consider your actual or real life.That has been the thing that I've been sort of exploring with it, is what is the impact of that? What kind of obligation do you have to the real world and the people around you versus losing yourself in it in a fiction? Very aware, the whole time, that we are making an escapist fiction at the same time as I'm talking about this, so it is a little bit of an ouroboros, but yeah, that's what it's been.Also, that's a very highfalutin way of describing it, and I'm terrible at describing stuff in ways where people would actually want to listen to it, but I swear it's a lot more fun than that. There's a layer that's like a noir crime kind of deal, so I watched a bajillion, every noir movie I could get my hands on to really tap into that aesthetic. There's a fantasy layer where we've incorporated elements from previous Adventure Zone shows. There's a reality show dating kind of thing.But that's the idea. Every layer is people pursuing their fantasies while these three creeps try to rob them blind, so it's been a lot of fun. We're heading toward the end, I think. The next few episodes, probably, it's finally wrapping up, it'll be somebody else's problem, but I feel really good about what I've been able to do.When I started, it seemed so overwhelming until I realized it's just like eating an airplane. You start, you've got to take it into really small chunks, and then eventually, you're halfway through the wings.It's a really fun listen.Thanks.Again, you have some really exciting ideas in there.I read no internet feedback at all. No Reddit, Twitter, nothing about it, so when someone does tell me that they like it, it is a genuine delight because I'm basically in a vacuum, and my wife won't listen, so I don't know.It's very fun on the ground, like you were saying. It is three interesting people stealing interesting stuff from a cool place. There is just something that you were talking about when it comes to escapism where it's just, escapism as a genre is a reflection of the society from which you're trying to escape, right?Right.I think that you're pulling out some interesting strings in the show when it comes to how creative work is valued, how it's not, how people engage with it, how it's not how people engage with creators. I'd love to hear a little bit more on how you feel about that.What specifically?I can't help but notice that at the time that AI is attempting to replicate a lot of the creative efforts of people who really try at making art, you have an element of the show that's talking a little bit, I think, or at least reflecting a little bit of some of that subtle change.It's weird, right? That was not a conversation when it started. It's moving very rapidly. The idea that a computer could do a reasonable facsimile of me, Justin McElroy? I'm not exactly like a once-in-a-generation talent. I'm like a bunch of SNICK and Pee-wee's Playhouse, and then I had an acting major, and you stir all those together. I'm not one of the A-listers there. I feel like a computer could get me pretty quickly, honestly, but seeing that start to take place, that's been tough, right? Because I didn't ever think that would happen to me. I still don't for me, specifically, but there's definitely a future where this stuff is algorithmically generated. It's scary. It freaks me out.I have AI characters in the story and a lot of those AI characters, we call them “hard light,” and it's basically a hologram that has feeling, that can feel things, tactile, and they're very much having conversations about sentience and what it is to be alive. We have a few different characters and classes of people who are trying to break out of that idea, that if you have been created by someone else, are you devoid of creative energy? Can creative energy exist being created by a computer? Again, there's a nice thing about this: I don't have any answers. I'm just doing a role-playing podcast. You can think about it all you want in your own time. I've just got to fill 60 minutes and then I'm out.A computer doing a reasonable facsimile, like animatronics, are a fundamental element of the history of theme parks.Yeah, and those have continued to improve. When you look at it, Lincoln was the first one, and that was very much a Walt Disney passion project, wanting to create a Lincoln that could be entertaining on its own.There was so much work that went into that, and such a big valley between the real and the fake, and that valley obviously has continued to shrink. Animatronics were a big part of what I was thinking about with Steeplechase. Specifically, the Carousel of Progress is an attraction at Disney World, and it is the only attraction at Disney World, as far as I know, that was directly worked on by Walt Disney, because it was created for the '64 World's Fair and then it was adapted to the form it finds itself now in Walt Disney World.It is the stage show that has had the most performances of any show in America. It's about a family through the generations, and basically the stage is split into a four-quadrant pie and the audience is in a big ring that moves around to the different quadrants, which is the same family in different eras.I started thinking about how these animatronics have done this show more times than anybody on earth. If you start to let your imagination go a little bit, especially with the AI stuff happening, you're like, "Well, what if they realize that?"You know what I mean? What happens when they're like, "Wow, I'm tired of doing this show over and over again"? And I find that a really interesting thing to think about.That's really fun. Again, it's definitely worth checking out. It's a good entrance point, I think, if folks are interested in checking out the podcast.Yeah, all of our arcs are sort of self-contained. “Steeplechase” is a fine place to start if you can deal with me shaking off the jitters for the first three episodes.It's great stuff. Last thing I wanted to throw on the table is that you've been doing graphic novel adaptations of the first The Adventure Zone arc, Balance. How's that been? You just have a new one out this year. I think there's a new one coming out next year.Usually, about one a year.How's that experience been?It's amazing. Honestly, it's a weird project where so much of me is in it from where we did The Adventure Zone, but it's such a team project. Obviously, Carey Pietsch, she's the artist for the series, she's bringing so much to it and creating so much of the visual language of that world. My dad, Clint McElroy, has been a comic book writer for many, many, many years, so he's really taken the lead on it, and I'm mainly tweaking the dialogue from my characters, putting in more boner jokes and stuff.It's funny because they were so wildly successful. I think the first two or three were number one New York Times bestsellers on a specific chart, like a pretty specific chart, which no one ever puts on the book jacket, right? New York Times bestseller in self-help paperback trade version number eight. No, but this is a number one, I could say; yes, I'm a number one New York Times bestselling author, and what I did was I told my dad to make these few jokes better.That is why in my freaking obituary, it'll say number one New York Times bestselling author, because I told my dad that "Kenny Chesney might be a funnier reference here than Jimmy Buffett. Why don't we do Kenny Chesney?" Okay, great. Here's your bestseller plaque. No, but they don't send you bestseller plaques. My dad made one for me for Christmas. It was beautiful. I have it hanging up and I can tell people like, "Yeah, I punched up my dad's jokes. No problem."Wow. Justin McElroy, New York Times bestselling author.Number one. Sorry.Number one.Sorry. Thank you. You don't want to be that guy, but...I apologize. Justin McElroy, number one New York Times bestselling author on a specific chart.Several-time number one. No.Five-time.Five-time.Where can folks find you? Where can they enjoy more of your work?My manager gets mad at me because I always give people the wrong address, but it's themcelroy.family. If you go there, you'll find all of our stuff. Tours are there. We got a few more shows this year. Videos, podcasts, whatever you like, it's all there waiting for you.Well, hey, thanks for coming on.Hey, thanks for having me, Walter.If you have anything you'd like to see in this Sunday special, shoot me an email. Comment below! Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for supporting Numlock.Thank you so much for becoming a paid subscriber!Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news.  Get full access to Numlock News at www.numlock.com/subscribe

Like a lot of other nerds, the Scrubs are getting into Baldur's Gate 3 right now, but first we had to talk about broken feet and Lorcana and Crystal Pepsi. Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/92WJYpz

This episode is a part of our "When Marketing Fails" segment where we deep dive into the captivating world of marketing disasters and uncover the valuable lessons they have to offer. In this episode, we take a closer look at the saga of Crystal Pepsi, a product that seemed destined for greatness but ultimately ended up as a cautionary tale. Join us as we uncover why this clear cola experiment by Pepsi ended in failure. From the backdrop of the intense cola wars between Coca Cola and Pepsi to the elaborate marketing campaign that created immense hype, discover the reasons behind Crystal Pepsi's downfall. -=-=-=-=- BONUS RESOURCES + FREE DOWNLOADS If you're a fan of the podcast, here are some FREE online marketing resources from my blog, 99signals, to help you level up your marketing skills: ⁠⁠⁠The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit⁠⁠⁠ (⁠⁠⁠https://ebooks.99signals.com/blogging-toolkit⁠⁠⁠) - This eBook features 75+ marketing tools to help you blog better and boost your traffic! ⁠⁠⁠The Ultimate Guide to Link Building⁠⁠⁠ (⁠⁠⁠https://resources.99signals.com/link-building-ebook⁠⁠⁠) - Learn 25 powerful strategies to build high-quality backlinks, improve search engine rankings, and drive targeted traffic to your site. ⁠⁠⁠The Essential Guide to Link Building with Infographics⁠⁠⁠ (https://resources.99signals.com/infographic-backlinks-pdf) -  Did you know you could build high-quality, authoritative backlinks with well-designed infographics? This PDF guide will show you how you can easily design an infographic and quickly build high-quality backlinks to supercharge your SEO. ⁠⁠⁠Top-rated articles at 99signals⁠⁠⁠ (⁠⁠⁠https://www.99signals.com/best/⁠⁠⁠) -  This page contains a list of all the top-rated articles on my blog. It's a great place to get started if you're visiting 99signals for the first time. -=-=-=-=- Visit ⁠⁠⁠https://www.99signals.com⁠⁠⁠ for more insights on SEO, blogging, and marketing. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sandeep-mallya/message

I am joined once again by DANK DELEUZE aka Dorian Z Bell to discuss the the recent attempt to make Virtual Reality cool again. Topics include: My Bad Dreams. The Return of Virtual Boy & 'Cyber Sickness'. Virtual Reality as Social Control vs. Virtual Reality as Crystal Pepsi. The Dark Renaissance vs. Hegemonic Minecraft. VR's Last Stand/Last Rebrand. The SimLarping of TikTok & Our Undeniable Dystopia. Beach Bum Prophecy. Peak Dopamine. From VR to AppleHousing. Hypeobjects, etc. Join Dorian's Workshop: https://www.patreon.com/Truncata GET EVERY EPISODE EARLY + BONUS EPISODES BY BECOMING A PATRON

Follow The Big Flop wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.The most expensive musical in Broadway history goes belly up. A theme park turns deadly. And a country megastar goes emo... all with catastrophic results. Join us each week as we dissect the most deliciously disastrous flops in recent history. On Wondery's new comedy & pop culture series, host Misha Brown unpacks epic fails from Quibi to Crystal Pepsi with the help of guests like Sasheer Zamata, Chris Gethard, Matt Bellassai and more.From Wondery, the makers of the hit series Scamfluencers and Even the Rich, and At Will Media comes THE BIG FLOP. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into a major fiasco, and try to answer the age-old question... Who thought THIS was a good idea?!New episodes of THE BIG FLOP come out every week.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For over 20 years Matt Wertz has been in the fellas' inner circle. And with the recent announcement of his impeding fatherhood, it's time we all welcome Mr. Wertz to Dadville. No brag sheet needed for this one as the trio discusses and reflects on the early days of fatherhood. Bonus at the end for the Crystal Pepsi fans out there. Thanks to our Sponsors! Spotify for Podcasters - Download the Spotify for Podcasters app or go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://spotify.com/podcasters⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get started. Simple Modern - Go to www.simplemodern.com/dadville and by sharing your email you'll get a unique discount code just for you or bundle and save for back to school. BetterHelp - Visit ⁠http://betterhelp.com/dadville⁠ today to get 10% off your first month. Hatch - Hatch is offering our listeners up to 15% off your purchase of a Hatch Rest and free shipping at ⁠http://hatch.co/dadville Methodical Coffee - Visit ⁠http://methodicalcoffee.com⁠ for more information and use the discount code dadville for 10% off your first order.

Join your flesh creatures of the APDC plus special guest Sean Walsh as they review the season 3 episode “Only Human” from the 1986 classic animated series, The Transformers!Excitingly new fleshy-forms!!! Nerd room with meme-lord Serge Bomba!!! Rock n' Roll is NOT a B-list character!! Old Snake!!! Loosey Goosey!! Crystal Pepsi!! Re-review by Fats Rimble!! What's you poison?! Stolen valor!! Synthoids!! Rodimus and Michelle… sexy possibilities?!! It's so noir!! Iconic Moments! Script Deviations!! In the Real World!! Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats YOU!!!THE NO-GAME – 17:09SHOUTS OUT – 24:16COCKTAIL – 28:22REVIEW – 38:00REAL WORLD – 1:49:00SCRIPT DEVIATIONS – 1:55:23RATE THE SCHEME – 1:57:14ICONIC JOEMENT – 2:00:00

We chatted up Rich Perlberg about legislation allowing automatic traffic cameras and whether they invite a slippery slope of government intrusion. We got lippy about implants and were less than crystal clear about Crystal Pepsi.

Dr. Samuel West is back to teach us about history's greatest food failures, from Colgate's frozen meals to the time Gerber made food for grown-ups. Plus, Massimo Montanari helps us uncover the true history of spaghetti; J. Kenji López-Alt tells us how to make the most perfect scrambled eggs; and we bake Chocolate Olive Oil Cake. (Originally aired on April 22nd, 2022.)Get the recipe for Chocolate Olive Oil Cake here.We want to hear your culinary tips! Share your cooking hacks, secret ingredients or unexpected techniques with us for a chance to hear yourself on Milk Street Radio! Here's how: https://www.177milkstreet.com/radiotipsA caller this week asked about corn tortillas. Chris's favorite flour tortillas are from Caramelo. Listen to Milk Street Radio on: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Siblings Ashley Engle and Brandon Birdwell discuss life, exotic spices from around the world, Crystal Pepsi and the most epic orchestral performance of "Tequila" that has ever been..... Let's have fun....Don't be cheugy.....

Rich and the C&R crew have fun, as they continue 'OLD SCHOOL WHEN 50 HITS,' with a great discontinued items topic! Todd Fuhrman joins the show live from Vegas to help break down the NFL's Divisional Playoff Round & NBA players take IG models to Paris! Plus, what to make of the suddenly happy comments coming out of Baltimore's front office about Lamar Jackson spending his whole career with the Ravens!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join us as our host, George Kamel, talks to David Novak. David is a co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Yum Brands Inc., a Fortune 500 company that owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. David talks about his passion for purposeful team recognition and why it is a must-have leadership skill if you want to see results in your business. We also talk about Crystal Pepsi and Cool Ranch Doritos—and that alone is worth the listen! Later in the episode, George chats with Jason Williams, the vice president of EntreLeadership. Jason shares how you can create a culture of recognition and gives some simple ways to encourage your team to recognize each other. You'll learn: •      The story behind Crystal Pepsi and Cool Ranch Doritos •      The real reason people leave companies •      The must-have leadership skills that drive results •      How to fuel your team's success Support our sponsors: •      Hite Digital: https://bit.ly/HiteDigital •      Kyro Digital: https://bit.ly/KyroDigital •      NetSuite: https://bit.ly/NetSuiteEntre •      Trainual: https://bit.ly/TrainualEntre Links mentioned in this episode: •      The EntreLeadership Podcast: https://bit.ly/TheEntreLeadershipPodcast •      David Novak's website: https://bit.ly/3ADtxZd •      How Leaders Lead with David Novak: https://apple.co/3v2JViD •      Take Charge of You by David Novak and Jason Goldsmith: https://amzn.to/3PeKKfE •      O Great One! by David Novak and Christa Bourg: https://amzn.to/3RpboV2 •      Our recent episode with Marcus Buckingham: https://apple.co/3yWVrhL •      Download 43 Easy Ways to Recognize Your Team: https://bit.ly/3HDajDh Learn more about EntreLeadership Events: •      EntreLeadership Master Series: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipMasterSeries •      EntreLeadership Summit: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipSummit   Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching: •      Elite: https://bit.ly/3tI2fN8 •      Advisory Groups: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipAdvisoryGroups •      Executive Coaching: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipExecutiveCoaching •      Workshops: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipWorkshops Listen to all the Ramsey Network podcasts anytime, anywhere in our app. Download the Ramsey Network app: https://apple.co/3eN8jNq

Dr. Samuel West is back to teach us about history's greatest food failures, from Colgate's frozen meals to the time Gerber made food for grown-ups. Plus, Massimo Montanari helps us uncover the true history of spaghetti; J. Kenji López-Alt tells us how to make the most perfect scrambled eggs; and we bake Chocolate Olive Oil Cake.Get this week's recipe, Chocolate Olive Oil Cake. A caller this week asked about corn tortillas. Chris's favorite flour tortillas are from Caramelo. Listen to Milk Street Radio on: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.