FRIDAY WRAP: The technically challenged edition, but our platform launched, Musk still sucks, AB InBev still sucks, and PFAS still suck

LIVE from ESG 2.0 headquarters in downtown Connecticut, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at June 23rd Boulevard Studios, featuring all your favorites: Ari the data queen, Jessie the money whisperer, BS-man Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: sad implosions; wealth hoarders; bratty billionaires, and ad stuff that lasts forever

Story of the Week (DR):

1. The Titan submersible imploded, killing all 5 on board, U.S. Coast Guard says

1. Now, questions are being asked about why safety concerns about the design and operation of the vessel appear to have been ignored or dismissed. While it's unclear what caused the implosion, experts have pointed to red flags about Titan's safety that were evident before the trip. Here are five:

1. The hull was made out of carbon fiber

2. Concerns over the early-warning system were ignored

3. OceanGate pushed back against calls to certify the sub

4. OceanGate staff raised safety fears, but were dismissed or ignored

5. There were previous safety incidents

2. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush said in 2021 he knew he'd 'broken some rules' by making the Titanic submersible out of carbon fiber and not pure metal: 'You're remembered for the rules you break'

3. 5

1. Stockton Rush was the founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions

2. Hamish Harding, a British businessman and explorer; chairman of Action Aviation

3. Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French maritime expert; director of underwater research for RMS Titanic, Inc., an American company that owns the salvage rights to the famous wreck and displays many of the artifacts in Titanic exhibitions; Known as "Mr. Titanic"

4. Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood; members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families.

1. The British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48; board of trustees for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute; vice-chairman of the Engro Corporation; director of the Dawood Hercules Corporation

2. Suleman, 19,

2. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agree to hold cage fight

1. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says he'll 'challenge any leader in tech to bench press' after Musk/Zuck cage fight vow

2. Musk-Zuckerberg ‘cage match’ PPV would cost $100, bring in over $1 billion: ‘This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world’: UFC President Dana White

3. We worked on Juneteenth but dedicated the entire show to Juneteenth

4. Platform launch MM AB JS

1. Nvidia board member cashes out on the chipmaker's surging stock, selling over 100,000 shares for $51 million

1. Mark Stevens

1. 3 % influence

2. 0.833 earnings but 0.543 TSR

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. Warren Buffett just donated about $5 billion of Berkshire Hathaway shares - and has now given up 54% of his stockpile 

2. Home Depot Says 85% of Lawn Equipment Sales to be Battery Powered by 2028, Saving 2 Million Tons of Emissions per Year MM DR

3. Senate Bill To Take Bonuses Back From Failed Bank Executives Clears First Hurdle JS

1. On Wednesday the Senate Banking Committee approved a bipartisan bill that would let regulators take back bonuses from executives of failed banks (SVB, Signature Bank) and hand out penalties for screwing up so badly. The bill passed 21-2 and now it goes to the full Senate.

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Canada Bread agrees to pay C$50m for role in price-fixing scheme

1. WHO RAISES THE PRICE OF BREAD??

2. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agree to hold cage fight

1. Is there anything no one wants more than this?

3. Musk Says ‘Cisgender’ And ‘Cis’ Are Now ‘Slurs’ On Twitter DR JS

4. AB InBev’s chief marketing exec calls boycott over its Bud Light beer an ‘important wake-up call’ AB

1. Alissa Heinerscheid, the first woman in Bud Light’s four-decade history to run its marketing, had devised a strategy to combat the beer’s long-declining sales by appealing to a wider swath of customers, including more women and younger adults. Parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev embraced the plan

2. “In times like this, when things get divisive and controversial so easily, I think it’s an important wake-up call to all of us marketers, for us to be very humble,” said Marcel Marcondes

3. “It’s tough to see all the controversial and divisive debates happening in the U.S. the last couple of weeks involving lots of brands and companies, including, especially, Bud Light,” Marcondes noted, saying his company was reminding itself of the need “to really understand our customers.”

4. My favorite correction ever: The musician Kid Rock posted a video on Twitter in which he shot cases of Bud Light with a submachine gun. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said he used a semiautomatic rifle. 

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. Bud Light to give away $10,000 every week as part of ‘biggest summer campaign ever’ in bid to end crippling boycott 

1. “Easy to Summer” marketing campaign that promises to be the biggest in the brand’s history- weekly cash giveaways and a new national music tour

2. “‘Easy to Summer’ will kick off with the brand’s largest media spend to date

3. To win share back, Anheuser-Busch now plans to give away $10,000 every week to help Americans “stock up for all the backyard parties,”

4. “Imagine intimate backyard sets across the country, where celebrated artists will jam out, spreading good vibes and creating unforgettable memories,” wrote Allen, who replaced Alissa Heinerschied after she was put on a leave of absence following the Mulvaney partnership

5. That campaign will include sponsoring a country music concert series with stars like Tyler Braden and Seaforth as well as commercials featuring NFL stars like Travis Kelce, Dak Prescott and George Kittle.

6. Additionally, Allen said that Anheuser-Busch plans to give away $10,000 each week, and give some lucky customers $100 to put toward their bar tabs.

2. ‘Women bear the biggest brunt of climate change,’ says climate scientist Susan Chomba DR

1. “The way climate is seen in the world, it’s seen very much from a masculine perspective,” Chomba says. For example, while male climate scientists focus heavily on developing renewable sources of energy to replace fossil fuels like oil and gas, Chomba believes they pay far less attention to the hundreds of millions of women worldwide who are burning wood for tasks like cooking. Incorporating the perspectives of women – particularly poor, rural women – would better ensure comprehensive solutions, she says.

2. “Most of the women are suffering deaths because of lack of water,” Lomariwo says. “For our family to survive, a woman [must] travel, even if it is 100km.”

3. “Feel our pain,” she says. “There is no water. Women are walking so far to get water that they are miscarrying. There is no healthcare system. Kids are drinking dirty water and getting typhoid. We are really suffering.”

3. 3M's $10.3 billion "forever chemicals" settlement is also an armor against future lawsuits MM DR

1. The fact that 3M has to pay up is GOOD news BUT they have until 2025 to half PFAS production. THIS IS CONTAMINATING WATER….WATER PEOPLE. Do a better job.

2. The settlement agreement, which 3M says “is not an admission of liability,” calls for annual payments over the next 13 years, from 2024 through 2036.

3. This is a fraction of the cost it takes to clean up our water- It would take an estimated $400 billion to remove PFAS from drinking water nationwide

4. 3M’s stock rose by 5% on news of the proposed settlement in after-hours trading

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Free Float. For releasing a thing

2. AB: 

3. MM: Patricia Russo, who no one knew before we launched Free Float Analytics’ platform, but now everyone knows how powerful she is

4. JS: ARIIIIIII. FREE FLOAT ANALYTICS PLATFORM BABY

Predictions

1. DR: We change the name of our platform

2. AB: 

3. MM: Patricia Russo is the first director to sue Free Float Analytics because now everyone knows who she is

4. JS: Ari and I make 3 sales at GreenFin next week!!! 🤑🤑🤑