Slate Memo

The business stories hiding in plain sight.
Money, brands, power & the people behind them.

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

McConaughey wanted the bourbon bottle to look more expensive than the price tag.

“The shoulders and hips on our bottle, I'm a big fan of”
he said, describing a design meant to signal a higher price point than what's actually on the shelf. But he also draws a hard line:

“You still better have the damn product once you open it up.”

That was the balance: make the outside interesting, keep the message simple, then make sure the bourbon earns the attention.

Bookmark it ⚕︎ and see how Clooney put $600,000 apiece into a tequila that was only supposed to be for friends ↓
https://t.co/a1gj3MJZJL

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

@shevaxgod He laid out a condition in advance: if the $1 retained does not generate at least $1 in value for shareholders, the money must be returned. This is already a proven rule

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

McConaughey built a tequila campaign around going pantless.

“Everything you can do pantless.” That's the Pantalones campaign. He says “the pixels are our friends” and argues that once people love a product, pushing it too hard can actually get in the way.

This is him explaining why he thinks you can oversell a brand, why he deliberately leaves space around the message, and what he means when he says, “When you love a product, you don't have to sell it.”

Watch & save it → then see how the other celebrity deals worked ↓
https://t.co/a1gj3MJZJL

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

@0xMavian The craziest thing is that Arnold was only 32 at the time

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

88 bourbons in, McConaughey had a favorite.
His wife picked the same bottle blind.

He and Eddie Russell spent two years sending batches back and forth before Longbranch existed. McConaughey says he went through 88 versions, describing flavor “like talking music.”

For the final test, Camila tasted four samples without knowing which was which. “This is the one,” she said. It was the same bottle McConaughey had already chosen for himself.

Bookmark it ⚕︎ then see how another celebrity first created the product itself and only later discovered that there was a company behind it↓
https://t.co/a1gj3MJZJL

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

Wild Turkey wanted Matthew McConaughey's face.
He wanted his hands in the clay.

This is him explaining why he wanted to be involved in the making of the product, what he saw in a family that had been distilling for 62 years, and why he was willing to say:

“We're not going to be for everybody.”

Instead of taking a standard spokesman deal, McConaughey wanted creative control over how the story was told. He spent time with the family behind Wild Turkey and came away convinced there was a story worth telling.

Watch the clip ⚕︎ Bookmark it - then see how Jordan, Rihanna, Reynolds and the others structured their deals → read below ↓
https://t.co/a1gj3MJZJL

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN

[Joe Pompliano @JoePompliano]

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney paid $2.5 million for the world's third-oldest football club.

But the team is in the 5th division of the English football pyramid and has almost no chance of making it to the Premier League.

Still, it was a genius move.

Here's why 👇

[Tokyo @Tokyo_pi1]

Matthew McConaughey says he witnessed the most Miami thing ever.

Matthew McConaughey: “I see this guy posing on a purple and pink Lamborghini under a palm tree. I’m thinking, ‘Wow, nice car.’”

Guy: “Nah, man. I rented it for the day.”

Matthew: “For what?”

Guy: “My Tinder cover photo.”

A few minutes later…

Another guy: “Hey, can I use your Lamborghini for my Tinder pic?”

Guy: “Sure. Fifty bucks.”

Matthew: “Wait… that’s not your car, and you’re charging people to fake like it’s theirs?”

Guy: “Yep.”

“He wasn’t embarrassed. He was proud of it.”

Miami is a different planet.

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

@kobaHUB That's what always stands out about Lynch. He made Chrysler Magellan's largest holding when almost everyone had already written the company off

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

@chasedownleads Smart move: I bought a dishwasher, filmed a video, returned it, and now I'm selling a business course to people

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

@thesamparr This is a psychological trap: the brain quickly adapts to a new level of income, and yesterday’s ��affluence” becomes today’s norm

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

@katsuxbt $6,000 for your own body is crazy, but when $60 million is at stake, it seems like a pretty good investment

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

50 Cent spends millions on lawyers.

He has said he keeps legal counsel year-round, and that the bill has eventually passed $21 million. His reasoning goes beyond lawsuits:

“Appear not to need anything. Because everybody will do you a favor when you don't need one.”

The interesting part isn't the legal bill itself. It's the position he's describing: don't wait until you need leverage to start building it.

Bookmark this one ⚕︎ then see how the other celebrities got paid ↓
https://t.co/a1gj3MJZJL

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

50 Cent was buying Vitaminwater from its employees.

Not the company.

Their shares.

Some Glacéau employees had stock options. 50 Cent started offering them cash for their positions.

He was building his stake one employee at a time.

Which makes his original deal sound even more deliberate.

Glacéau wanted him for $5 million cash.

His answer:

“I didn't need the money.”

He wanted equity instead.

Coca-Cola eventually bought the company for $4.1 billion.

That's what happened when a celebrity stopped acting like an endorser and started acting like an investor.

The next celebrity deal gets even stranger ↓
https://t.co/a1gj3MJZJL

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

@LegionHoops People even with vastly different incomes may have vastly different priorities

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

50 Cent made $100 million from one deal. Then he went bankrupt.

That's not the part of the story people remember.

After the Vitaminwater payday, his wealth didn't make him immune to bad financial decisions.

He later described the setbacks in much simpler terms:

“When there are setbacks, there will be get-backs.”

And years later, he wasn't even chasing the next number everyone expected.

“I'm not sure I'm in a hurry to reach that.”

Billionaire status.

He said he'd already bought every car he wanted “two or three times.”

That's the uncomfortable part of celebrity wealth:

A huge payday can change your life without changing how you manage money.

And one of the other deals in this story went the other way:
$600,000 in. Billion-dollar exit ↓
https://t.co/a1gj3MJZJL

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

@drakefomo The funny thing is that he didn't buy Bitcoin as an investment at all. He bought it for $27 just for a school assignment

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

“I want to sell water.”

That was 50 Cent's business idea.

$2.89 for a gallon. $0.59 for the same thing one aisle over.

“Poland Spring has conditioned us to spend more for their brand.”

He told his manager.
“To who?”

“Everybody need water.”

Then Coca-Cola bought the company for $4.1 billion.

Ask 50 Cent how much he made.

“I can show you all my teeth.”

The internet has been telling one version of this story for years

The real deal is stranger ↓
https://t.co/a1gj3MJZJL

[Slate Memo @slate_memo]

https://t.co/MccLCu2QLN