Scott Galloway: Google's Umbrella

This week’s first winner is the U.S. Postal Service, which delivers an estimated 40% of Amazon packages annually. While Amazon pays the USPS only half of what it pays UPS and FedEx, all packages are delivered pre-sorted and tailored for delivery routes. Plus, USPS needs all the help it can get, having lost $46 billion since 2007.

Google could also be either a winner or a loser with its new conglomeration strategy. Alphabet feels like an opportunity to create multiple titles, the way some agencies have a half-dozen chief digital officers. It could also be the beginning of a good bank/bad bank strategy where they split off money-losing operations – i.e. everything but Google.

A less ambiguous winner: Arby’s. The chain bought a 60-second spot on Jon Stewart’s last Daily Show thanking the host for being a friend — sort of. The ad featured all the times Stewart mentioned Arby’s, which he repeatedly portrayed in a less than flattering light (sample comparison: “Shock and awe for your bowels”). However, it seemed to impart a different message. In the hour following the show, tweets about Arby’s spiked significantly. Most of them were positive.

Episode 42

[davidberonja]

One key thing to note about the USPS losses... "The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was passed on a voice vote by a lame duck Republican Congress in 2006.  The mandate required the Postal Service, over 10 years, to pre-fund healthcare benefits for the next 75.  This unique burden costs USPS $5.5 billion a year. The new law also restricted the Postal Service’s ability to raise postage rates, or to provide “nonpostal services” that, in an e-diversion era, could be key to its future."