Happy Saturday,

Back in 1989, basketball coach Pat Riley trademarked “Three-Peat” when his Lakers were chasing their 3rd straight title. Although the Lakers failed to three-peat, Reilly won the trademark — That means every time someone slaps “Three-Peat” on a hat, hoodie, or hot dog stand, Riley gets a cut of sales.

So Pat Riley’s rooting for Pat Mahomes — if the Chiefs win, he’s expected to earn million-dollars thanks to a reported licensing deal with the NFL. Riley won’t need a parade—just a wire transfer.

🎥 The Super Bowl Commercial Curse

Super Bowl commercials aren’t just ads—they’re a tech time capsule. Every year, the tech industry drop millions to flex their latest innovations. But Super Bowl ads might actually be cursed. And this year, AI could be next.

• 2022: The Bitcoin Bowl 💸 – FTX, Coinbase, and Crypto.com all ran Super Bowl ads. But months later? FTX collapsed harder than Mark Sanchez on the Butt Fumble.

• 2023: The Betting Bowl 🎰 – the first Super Bowl hosted in a state with legalized sports betting saw FanDuel, DraftKings, and MGM bet big on commercials. Sports betting is still hot… but the hype cooled faster than an abandoned parlay.

• This year: AI enters the chat 🤖 – OpenAI and Google are making their Super Bowl ad debuts. Could this mark a high point for AI?

• Side Note: Google’s AI ad actually had a factual mistake about “gouda cheese” (ironically) made by AI… so they had to redo the ad.

Meanwhile, Super Bowl viewership is expected to hit 117M—an all-time high.

The Takeaway: The only thing all of America still does together is watch the NFL.

The NFL owned 72 of the top 100 broadcasts in 2024, making it the last true mass-audience event (besides political debates and the Thanksgiving Day Parade). Super Bowl ads are unskippable, apolitical, and the only ones viewers want to see. That’s why Fox sold 30-second spots this year for $8M, up 15% from last year’s record. So despite the demise of cable, the only thing all of America still does together is… watch the NFL.

🧾 Kendrick Lamar Is Getting Paid Minimum Wage for the Halftime Show

Yup, Kendrick Lamar is basically doing the Super Bowl Halftime Show costs for free, just $15/hour—the same as a barista on Day 1. Why? Allow us to introduce… The Economics of the Halftime Show:

• Apple Music pays $50M to sponsor

• $35M of that goes to the NFL

• The artist gets $15M, But it’s not a paycheck, it’s for production.

• The artist has to pay all costs of production, including dancers, costumes, fireworks, set design, rehearsals, and ~3,000 part-time workers.

• Get This: In 2021, The Weeknd paid $7M out of pocket because even a $15M budget wasn’t enough for that set design.

The Takeaway: It’s the ultimate unpaid gig—that’s worth every penny.

A 12-minute Halftime Show is equivalent to 24 Super Bowl commercials—$150M in ad value. It’s the most expensive free performance in history, but that incredibly valuable exposure boosts every element of the artist’s business.

• 🔥 Usher’s ticket prices soared 40% after his 2011 Super Bowl performance.

• 🎵 Justin Timberlake’s streams spiked 500% after his 2018 show.

• 💄 Rihanna gained 3M Instagram followers, and Fenty Beauty searches surged 800% after 2023 (the pregnancy reveal helped).

For Kendrick: It’s the best marketing investment of his life. He just announced a new tour starting April 2025 and a new movie with the South Park guys. So this "free" Super Bowl performance? It’ll do more for ticket sales than any ad campaign ever could. (sorry, Drake).

🤑 Financial Trickshots:

A low-cost, high-return strategy for maximum impact with minimum effort.

For Super Bowl Viewing: The Elite Taco Draft 🌮 Forget the sad potluck—upgrade to the Taco Draft: each person drafts 1 premium taco ingredient—so you get legit variety without ending up with 5 bowls of shredded lettuce and no meat. Pro tip: The person who drafts ‘guac’ wins every time.

👯‍♀️ Tell a Bestie:

These are the headlines from our “Headline Hammer” of potential stories for the show each morning that we couldn’t fit on the pod.

• 🎤 Taylor Swift Super Bowl prop bets. Vegas these days…

• 📺 Super Bowl advertisers– Meta, Budweiser, Uber Eats, and Hellmann’s are all in — expect fewer car commercials, more kale propaganda.

• 🎟️ Super Bowl ticket prices are down 60%—Grab a plane.

• 👨 ChatGPT users are 85% male. BroGPT that is.

• 💤 23M Americans will call in sick on Monday – The real national holiday isn’t Sunday, it’s the day after.

• 🏎️ Ferrari gets angry if you customize, so it created a blacklist of customers who pimp’d-their-rides

• 🤑 ½ of American workers now have 401Ks at work - that’s an #ATH

• 🍗 Lab-grown meat for pets - the 1st one just hit the market

• ⏰ Happiest time of day discovered by scientists – What’s everyone doing at 2pm?

• Plus, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel’s LinkedIn update is 👌 

The Best Idea Yet 💰

🎩 Monopoly was invented as a critique of American capitalism—but it became the best-selling board game of all time instead. #Irony

And why did the original inventor almost not get credit for it? That’s the latest episode our new show, The Best Idea Yet.

This weekend, listen to the untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with… New 45-minute episodes drop every Tuesday… it’s simply The Best Idea Yet.

And one more thing. For the Super Bowl, Jack’s in full backup QB mode—identifying the defensive schemes, offering free spiral lessons, and with a strong stance on what color the Gatorade Shower will be (purple-or-die). Nick’s here for the commercials and the all-star lineup of dips (guac & ceviche, obviously). In this economy? Everything’s already extra.

Enjoy the game, the ads, and our latest TBIY episode on Monopoly 🃏. And tell us—what’s your go-to Super Bowl snack, and why is it seven-layer dip? 👀

See you Monday… unless your 'flu' symptoms include buffalo sauce and regret.

— Nick & Jack