Key Takeaways
- Planet Money hosts held their first Pop Culture Draft focused on the year 1999.
- Each host selected a movie, song, and wildcard pick with economic relevance from 1999.
- Picks explored themes like corporate ethics, viral marketing, and digital economy shifts.
- Wailin Wong's team was ultimately declared the winner by listener vote.
Deep Dive
- Each host selected a movie, a song, and a wildcard item from 1999, all requiring an economic connection.
- Movies were restricted to the top 100 domestic grossing films of 1999.
- Songs had to be from the Billboard Hot 100 singles of that year.
- The wildcard could be any 1999 pop culture item with an economic link, subject to host judgment.
- Wailin Wong chose 'The Insider,' a 1999 film about a corporate whistleblower in the tobacco industry.
- Kenny Malone picked 'The Blair Witch Project,' citing its massive profitability.
- The film cost between $30,000 and $70,000 to shoot, grossing $248 million for a 250x return.
- Its innovative viral marketing campaign was noted as a precursor to modern virality.
- Jeff Guo selected 'Pokemon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back,' released in America in 1999.
- Its box office performance surpassed 'American Beauty' and 'Eyes Wide Shut.'
- The film's significance as a cultural export and gateway to Japanese culture was highlighted.
- Its franchise success, including video games and trading cards, was compared to 'The Matrix.'
- Jeff Guo picked 'I Want It That Way' by the Backstreet Boys (1999), connecting it to the 'boy band economy.'
- The song illustrates the economic principle of comparative advantage.
- This principle is defined by focusing on what each person does best relative to their own skills, using AJ and Brian as examples.
- This concept is linked to corporate strategies for assembling groups like K-pop bands to maximize unit success.
- Kenny Malone chose Destiny's Child's 'Bills, Bills, Bills' (1999) for its theme of financial responsibility.
- The number-one song became relevant with the rise of credit card accessibility for young adults in 1999.
- Wailin Wong selected TLC's 'No Scrubs' (1999), linking it to research on relationships and money.
- 'No Scrubs' represents women's economic decisions regarding relationships and risk avoidance.
- Wailin Wong's wildcard pick was the television show 'House Hunters,' which premiered in 1999.
- She argued the show significantly altered the cultural relationship with the real estate economy.
- In 1999, mortgage rates were approximately 6.9%, notably higher than recent years.
- The show reinforced the American dream of homeownership without always highlighting financial pitfalls.
- Kenny Malone selected the dot-com bubble, represented by a 1999 commercial for Flues.com.
- Flues.com was a digital currency company allowing online purchases with 'fake internet money.'
- The company, partnered with Whoopi Goldberg, declared bankruptcy after a scam involving stolen credit card numbers.
- This served as an example of the dot-com bubble bursting.
- Jeff Guo's wildcard was Napster, chosen for representing a significant economic shift in 1999.
- Napster democratized music and software production, influencing the music industry.
- Its emergence paved the way for modern streaming services like Spotify and the iPod.
- Jeff's overall team included 'Pokemon: The First Movie' and 'I Want It That Way.'