⚡️ Comic-Con Correspondents Eric V and Kurt Ho join Rick and Rick to talk San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Get the lowdown on the year's cosplay crazes (looking at you, Deadpool), buzziest announcements (looking at you, Robert Downey Jr), exclusive collectibles, brand activations, and more from geekdom's largest annual event. Plus: A Comic-Con edition of Loaded Questions!

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IN THIS EPISODE

😎 The Ricks catch up during a first-ever summer hiatus (at 01:01)

🤩 Did the Ricks make the cover of the official Comic-Con program? (02:40)

💥 Welcoming Kurt Ho & Eric V back to the show (03:21)

🎪 Nearly 20 years of Comic-Con memories and a friendship double that (0:3:580

🧲 Crowd control as attendees hit peak capacity (04:30)

✅ The new rules of scoring Funko, Hasbro exclusives (06:40)

🤖 Fembots, Optimus Prime, Mirror Uhura, and "Marvel Jesus" (07:37)

🎰 Is Comic-Con leaving for Las Vegas—or LA Convention Center? (11:55)

👩🏾‍🎨 Fandom: Catching comics creators and actors while you can (12:46)

📺 X-Men 97, Batman, Star Trek, Green Lantern, and more (13:45)

🥤 Brand activations from Mt. Dew, Google Play—and a Guinness-winning Galactus (15:00)

🚀 Hunting artwork: Transformers, GI Joe, and the Space Battleship Yamato (16:14)

📣 The Hall H Buzz Machine: From the Fantastic Four to Secret Wars & Beyond (18:20)

🎬 Doom patrol: Recycling Marvel actors—good, bad, or WTF? (19:01)

🍿 Rick M joins Kurt and Eric for "Deadpool and Wolverine" (21:20)

🧛🏿‍♂️ Blade beats Wolverine for a World Record (or two) (22:27)

🐧 The Boys, Thor Transforms, the Penguin rises, Avengers & more (24:02)

🐙 "Batman: Caped Crusader" busts up a storm—but is Robin toast? (25:40)

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ERIC V AND KURT HO

Approx. 27 minutes, 13 seconds. For US audiences. Review cookie and privacy policies for iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and all other streaming services.

Think digital advertising is seeing the biggest increase in marketing budgets this year? Think again. Meanwhile, is e-commerce up, down, or sideways relative to pre-pandemic levels? And who's raking it in if Amazon isn't? Plus: Oscar Mayer's "Meat Fleet" is getting a rebrand. So what are they calling the 87-year-old Wienermobile now?

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IN THIS EPISODE:

📫 What's growing fastest: digital ad spend or…? (at 00:50)
🌭 What do you call an 87-year-old Wienermobile? Cybertruck? (at 03:05)
🏪 Is e-commerce getting old? Or just the online-only variety? (at 04:11)
📊 Are e-commerce sales ⬆️, ⬇️, or ↔️ vs. pre-pandemic levels? (at 04:57)
🛒 Is BOPIS eating the e-commerce giants' lunches? (at 05:18)

Approx. 6 minutes, 30 seconds. For US audiences. Review cookie and privacy policies for iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and all other streaming services.

🔮 In the conclusion to their 2023 Trend Watch, the Ricks discuss the waning influence of influencers. Brands recommit to experiential marketing. Home automation sees new adoption. And while Rick M. has trouble with pronouncing "2023 Trend Watch" while Rick W. struggles with the name of Pantone's Color of the Year. From February 22. 

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IN THIS EPISODE

🤩 Influencer marketing loses altitude while community gains new clout (at 0:40)
🐣 The rebirth of Experiential Marketing—no consumer devices required (at 2:26)
🛠️ Home automation and its use cases rev up, but we may not even recognize it (at 4:44)
🔕 Memo to brands: easy-to-manage notifications, please (at 8:18)
🫣 Consumer sentiment, ethical AI, and other CMO concerns for 2023 (at 9:41)
🛍️ From Metaverse to AI: What's hot or not to retailers in 2023 (at 11:01)
🎨 And Pantone's Color of the Year is … easy for you to say (at 11:34)

Approx. 13 minutes and six seconds. For US audiences. Review cookie and privacy policies for iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and all other streaming services.

🎯 The Joker steals the show at the Venice Film Festival. KFC's new dating simulator game seems seriously creepy. The very different Coke Challenge could land you in jail. And is it time to say, "Oh, Thank Heaven for iPhone 11?" Plus a whole lot more.

In This Episode:

🏖 One Rick gets to enjoy "Rio" … (at :45 sec)

💣 … While the other Rick gets a "View to a Kill" (at 1 min :30 sec)

🤖 Weekly poll: "Terminator: Dark Fate" vs. "Zombieland: Double Tap" (at 2:16)

🃏 No fooling: "The Joker" takes Venice—is he gunning for an Oscar next? (at 3:45)

🍎 Eleven sent: The iPhone's goes bionic (at 5:30)

👃🏻 A very different kind of Coke Challenge is nothing to sneeze at (at 7:26)

🕹 From the WTAF Dept: The new dating simulator game from KFC (8:48)

🤡 BK's new AR game helps you "Escape the Clown" (at 9:30)

🍺 Now you can own your Bud Light Victory Fridge (at 10:45)

🍗 Popeye's goes BYOB: Bring Your Own Bun (12:00)

😶 Quick: Name the latest brand to 86 its logo (at 13:35)

🎾 Mercedes serves up voice and AR tech to score big (at 14:58)

Or Listen Here 🃏

Approx. 17 minutes

For US audiences. Review cookie and privacy policies for SoundCloud, iTunes, and all other streaming services.

Just when you think Burger King can't top the crowning glory of last year's Whopper Detour campaign promoting its mobile app, it pulls off a battle royal from within its chief rival's own stores. 

Last year, BK won countless awards for geo-targeting offers for a 1-cent Whopper to customers who come within 800 feet of a McDonald's (see the success story below). But BK Germany may have upped the ante—again. 

In a cross promotion celebrating the release of "It Chapter Two," Burger King is using advertising on Facebook and Twitter to invite consumers to download its mobile app and scan a review of "It" within a movie magazine McDonald's distributes in-store.

According to The Drum, when consumers download the app, they're able to play an augmented reality-enabled mobile game that displays a "flee and run" route to the nearest BK. If they make it there within a certain amount of time, they're able to buy a Whopper for just one cent. 

It's just the latest in the kind of inventive campaigns that helped BK clean up at this year's Cannes Lions Advertising Festival—and at the cash register. And in truth, BK's unorthodox philosophy about marketing has been on display as far back as its work with CPB Group.

With this brilliantly devious cross-promotion, the QSR might just win "Creative Brand of the Year" for a second year in a row. 

Inside Mary Meeker's 2019 Internet Trends Report. Grand Prix Winners from this year's Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Miller Light turns a beer into a game controller. Plus, all the coolest Funko toys headed to San Diego Comic-Con, and a whole lot more.

IN THIS EPISODE

🕷    'Spider-Man: Far from Home' arrives just in time (at :48 sec)

🦇    Poll about best Caped Crusader leaves out Adam West, fans go batshit (at 1:26)

🍻    Miller Lite turns a beer can into a game controller, and we'll drink to that (at 3:39)

👍🏻      Who's a better Internet role model: Keanu Reeves or Mark Hamill?  (at 6:20)

🤡      Chuckles, Krusty, or Pennywise? Funko's funky Comic-Con line up (at 8:32)

📱      Key insights from Mary Meeker's 2019 Internet Trends Report (at 10:20)

🏆      Grand Prix winners at the 2019 Cannes Lions Advertising Festival (at 19:08)

⭐️     Holy Hollywood icons: Look who's getting a star on the Walk of Fame (at 22:03)

🦁     2019 Cannes Lions' Buzzword Bingo (at 22:40)

🦸🏻‍♂️    More special edition toys coming to San Diego Comic-Con (at 24:04)

Approx. 27 min.

(For US audiences. Be sure to review privacy and cookie policies for SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify and all other streaming services.)   

Pearl Jam's out to party like it's 2062. Booze wants to be the new wellness drink. Gillette's "First She." Man-size Kleenex and more.

In this Episode:

🚀 "Space" Jam: Pearl Jam's New Space Needle Time Capsule
(at 1 min, 30 sec)

💥 ComicCon: Marvel & WB Pull Out of Hall H
(at 4:27)

🍸 Booze is the New Wellness Drink?
(at 5:57)

🧔🏽 Gillette's "First Shave"
(at 8:38)

⛑ Shocking Los Angeles: "Mass Shooting Insurance"
(at 10:30)

🏞 One Outdoor Brand's Search-Jacking Jumble
(at 12:33)

🤧 Inclusion: "Man-size Kleenex"
(at 14:18)

(Approx. 15 min, 40 seconds)

For US audiences. Review cookie and privacy policies for Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify and all other streaming platforms.

Move over, Eggo Waffles: 'Stranger Things' has its own Lego Playset, now. Gen X runs for President and gets upstaged by a Millennial. Why the role of the CMO isn't want it used to be—plus a whole lot more.

IN THIS EPISODE:

🍿 'Wick' wows Wootten (at :50 seconds)

🐲 Name 'Game': 'GoT' finale and the babies named after the show's characters (at 1:42)

😡 Red Son: 'BrightBurn' reimagines the mythology of Superman (at 2:42)

🧟‍♂️ New Lego playset is one of the 'Stranger Things' we've seen this week (at 3:47)

🎮 Sony's gaming pact with Microsoft—did anyone tell the PlayStation team?(at 4:56)

💑 LaCoste commercial is a visual tour de force (at 8:03)

🤹🏻‍♀️ Meet the Chief Engagement Officer: The changing role of the CMO (at 10:48)

🇺🇸 Molly Ringwald for President? Gen X runs for office (at 14:02)

⏳ At T-minus 6 months, are you ready for the California Consumer Privacy Act? (at 15:07)

💋 The lip-lock that broke the Internet (at 16:03) Approx 17 min, 35 sec. For US audiences only. See cookie and privacy policies for SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify, and all other applicable sites, apps, and streaming services.

🍗 KFC's new 'Bucket Bangers' Spotify playlist. AR dragons dive-bomb baseball fans. Parents name their kids after 'Game of Thrones' characters. ASMR affirmations for creative directors. Plus: The secrets of CX appeal and a whole lot more.

IN THIS EPISODE: 

🎉 A shout out to special listener (at :40 sec)

🐲 SK Telecom's augmented reality dragons dive-bomb baseball fans (at 1:03)

🏰 Parents are naming their children after their favorite 'Game of Thrones' characters (at 3:15)

👟 Move over, Laurel & Yanny: How you see these tennis shoes tells you whether you're right- or left-brained (at 4:20)

🎧 Top 5 ASMR Affirmations for Creative Directors (at 6:10)

🍔 Traffic Jam Whopper: Burger King will deliver right to your car door when you're stuck traffic (at 9:30)

🎶 KFC busts a move with a finger-licking playlist with all 46 hip hop tunes that mention the brand (at 11:20)

🛒 CX Appeal: Top 4 things customers value most when it comes to a positive customer experience (at 12:57)

🚶‍♀️🚶 The high price of even one bad customer experience (at 15:53)

👩‍👧‍👦 Age-old Mom-isms that apply to CX (at 17:28)

(Approx. 19 min, 5 sec. For US audiences. See cookie and privacy policies for Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify and all streaming services.)

It's time to review what we got right, and what we got wrong, in our first annual predictions episode in early 2018. Which of our  prognostications on marketing, media, tech and pop culture turned out to be spot on? Which ones were serious misses? It's time to grade the good, the bad and the WTF predictions—one year later.

IN THIS EPISODE

🍡Pez Candy: Time for a 'Rick & Rick' Dispenser? (at 1:07)

🏛Politics: Did More Brands Take Sides, or Channel Switzerland? (at 2:07)

🏈 The San Francisco 49'ers: Touchdown? Or Fumble? (at 3:51)

🔠 Google Parent Alphabet: Playing the Name Game? (at 4:12)

🗣'The Post-Screen Internet': Are More Brands Prepping? Or Procrastinating? (at 4:36)

🍎Apple: Spit-Shined? Or Bruised? (at 7:27)

🏰Disney: The #1 Box Office Winner Every Month of the Year? (at 9:55)

😎 AR & VR: Are Brands Getting Their Goggles On? Or Playing 'Wait-and-See'? (at 13:58)

🎬Video Marketing:  ⏩? Or ⏸? (at 16:36)

🍕Brand Digital Innovation: Delivering? Or in a Ditch? (at 17:36)

🧠A.I. in 2018: Milestone? Or Reality Check? (at 18:27)

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(Approximately 22 min. For US Audiences Only. See SoundCloud's Cookie and Privacy Policies)