Guest

Alex Walser

1 indexed appearance on the show — AI, Paid Media, Creative, Consumer Trends, Founder & Team

Appearances

• Google I/O Domination2026-05-21 · Chris Hall and Colin cover Google I/O announcements including Gemini's new video-editing model and Ray-Ban smart glasses, debate why Meta ad…

Takes from the episode

Extracted from the full conversation — a take may be the cowboys’ or the guest’s. The clip link settles it.

1. 2026-05-21 AI

   Claude's recent output quality has declined, becoming slow and over-engineered compared to before.

   I've been perturbed with Claude as of recent to be so honest with you... it's over-engineering the answers... it's getting really finicky right now.

2. 2026-05-21 Paid Media

   The real reason Meta ad scaling gets harder every year is that ad impressions/ad load have grown far faster than the user base, not that targeting has gotten worse.

   Meta serving 200% the ads it served in 2020, yet users have only grown 38%... This is the real reason scaling on Meta gets harder every year.

3. 2026-05-21 Creative

   Nike's Drake x Kevin Durant shoe-reveal ad works because the two goofy decoy shoes comedically anchor the audience so the real shoe reveal lands harder.

   You throw two decoy shoes out there to make it even funnier and then when you throw out the real shoes it's like oh obviously those are sick cuz the other two are so goofy. So you just were anchored to these other goofy two shoes.

4. 2026-05-21 AI

   Most commentary is judging Google's Gemini Omni model on the wrong axis by comparing it to Sora, when its real breakthrough is video-editing capability rather than raw generation.

   I think many are focusing on the wrong aspect of the Gemini Omni model when comparing it to C dance 2.0... This is a model for editing videos like Nano Banana, like we've never had before.

5. 2026-05-21 Paid Media

   Brands should hope for and lean into other ad platforms (AppLovin, TikTok Shop) rising in targeting capability as an alternative to over-reliance on Meta.

   Other platforms continue to rise in their capabilities for accurately targeting and netting you new customers... It's happening with app 11. It's happening people are finding their way on TikTok shop.

6. 2026-05-21 Consumer Trends

   A next-generation GLP-1 drug (retatrutide, in phase-three trials) will be the one that truly transforms the weight-loss/GLP-1 economy.

   There's one in clinical trials right now from Eli Lilly. It's in phase three right now. It's called retatrutide... This thing is going to This is going to change

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