The Best One Yet
🐸 “Find Your Muppet” — Sesame Street’s Cocomelon threat. Saratoga’s viral facial water. Signal’s user error.
Thu, 27 Mar 2025
A gym-fluencer did a 3:52am sparkling ice facial… and Saratoga Water’s stock jumped 6%.Sesame Street is facing 3 major threats… Bluey, Cocomelon, and Ms. Rachel.The Atlantic’s journalist shared more screenshots… but we got curious about the chat app, Signal.Plus, one movie Director spent $11M of Netflix’s budget on Ferraris, mattresses, & crypto…$PRMB $WBD $NFLXWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Goldfish Crackers 🧀 Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Susper Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What caused Saratoga Water's stock to jump 6%?
And that ice bath facial, that premium ice bath facial, was viewed by 741 million people just on X. Jack, let's call this the Saratoga Splash. And what was the wildest part about this gymfluencer doing the Saratoga Splash? That three-second cameo from Saratoga Waters boosted the company's stock by 6%. Besties, the parent company here is Primo Water. That's whose stock jumped 6%.
It's a little-known company, but we actually covered it last year on The Pot. We covered it because it happens to be the biggest water company in America. It's got a $6 billion valuation. It's bigger than Lyft. They own a bunch of bottled water brands, including Arrowwood, Mountain Valley, Deer Park, and they have five-gallon jugs that you can refill at every grocery store.
Saratoga is like the crown jewel of their water offering. Like if LaCroix has got a beach body, then like Saratoga is a ballerina, Jack. Upstate New York. Yeah. I mean, where's there better water than that? Founded in 1872, Saratoga is basically America's Perrier. It's pronounced Perrier. But the 6% stock jump, I mean, Jack, that added $360 million in market value just from one viral post.
But that viral post wasn't a paid ad with Saratoga. No, it wasn't. Saratoga Water had no prior knowledge that this post was going to happen. The way Jack and I like to think of this is this was accidental influence. But it doesn't matter. This one gymfluencer accidentally influenced 740 million pairs of eyeballs to look at a blue bottle of Saratoga water.
Like we said, advertising, that's what you pay for. But publicity, that's what you pray for. Although, let's be honest. Nobody was looking at the bottle of water. They were looking at his abs. All five million of them. But the bigger drama yet is, is that Saratoga hasn't said a word about it since. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our water buddies over at Saratoga? Don't enter the chat.
Yetis, this was Saratoga and Primo's biggest marketing moment in 153 years of tap and water. They got so many new mentions, they probably thought their socials got hacked. And Jack, how did Saratoga respond to all this sudden viral attention? Chill. Yeah, they were chill about it. And we think that was really powerful.
Saratoga Waters basically winked to Ashton by posting a bottle of Saratoga beside a bowl of ice. And then they said, this is the pairing we never knew we needed. Basically, they didn't text the chain. They hearted the message. It was subtle. And that move reminds us of a story we did last week on brand nicknames. Yes, it does. Consumers hate it when brands start using their nicknames themselves.
Yeah, studies show that when Target tweets the nickname Target, it actually leads to less engagement. And it's the same concept, we think, with an unexpected viral moment. If the brand engages, the moment loses its authenticity. Yeah, Saratoga did say something. It'd be almost absurd if they stayed totally silent, but they really barely said anything.
Because as soon as a brand enters an internet conversation about it, it's over. The conversation's over. That's why we like to say, don't enter the chat. For our second story, the Signalgate scandal escalated yesterday as full attack plans on a terrorist group were revealed publicly from a group chat. So we have to tell you about Signal and the dude behind it.
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Chapter 6: Why is Sesame Street facing competition from Cocomelon?
It would have been harder to add the wrong person to the Situation Room. Because someone would tackle them. But Signalgate is a reminder that the system is only as secure as the person using it.
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For our third and final story, Elmo is seeing red, literally. Sesame Street is facing a perfect storm of problems as their deal with HBO ends. Because Cookie Monster is facing competition from Cocomelon. I'm sorry, Jack. One second. I'm just a little lost here. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? For the last 10 years, Nick, you've had to take the HBO tunnel. That's right.
And why is that, Jack? In 2015, HBO began paying Sesame Street $30 to $35 million a year for the rights to the show. Jack, I think it was $30 million, $31 million, $32 million. Well, unfortunately, that lucrative deal with HBO is ending. And Hollywood is completely different in 2025 than it was in 2015. Back then, profits at streamers didn't matter. Profit schmuppets.
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