Quote · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Anthropic's Insane Valuation + The Future of Marketing
Where this was said
Q2: Is an Advertising Degree Worth It in 2026?
At 11:51 · chapter starts 10:40
Mark asks about his daughter's advertising major. Scott declares broadcast advertising in structural decline, traces it from Steve Jobs to Google/Meta, and points to event marketing as the growth opportunity. [1] — Scott Galloway "Steve Jobs took $6B out of broadcast advertising and built 550 Apple Stores instead. That move crystallized what was already happening: Ame…" 11:30 [2] — Scott Galloway "RBC spent $2–3M on a 36-hour client event. Dreamforce budgets hit $10M. Netflix takes over chalets at Cannes Lions. Physical activations ar…" 15:40
The word 'advertising' is the problem — the actual skills (communication, storytelling, figuring out what moves people) remain valuable. Pivot to events, activations, and direct customer engagement. The ad agencies that were once masters of the universe are now running Irish bars at Cannes.
Steve Jobs took $6B out of broadcast advertising and built 550 Apple Stores instead. That move crystallized what was already happening: Americans no longer sit in front of three TV channels for five hours a day, and broadcast advertising's pricing power has inverted — costs up 5x, audiences down two-thirds.
Steve Jobs redirected $6 billion out of broadcast advertising into Apple's retail stores, marking a pivotal shift from pre-purchase branding to distribution investment.
Claude Pro/Max is sold at $200/month but costs Anthropic roughly $5,000/month in compute to deliver, meaning they're massively subsidizing growth.
The cost to advertise on the Academy Awards has gone up fivefold even as its audience declined by two-thirds, illustrating broadcast advertising's broken value equation.
The majority of high-margin brands do one of two things: make you feel closer to God, or signal that you'd be more attractive to a wider selection of mates. Ferrari doesn't sell cars — it sells the fantasy of desirability.
RBC spent $2–3M on a 36-hour client event. Dreamforce budgets hit $10M. Netflix takes over chalets at Cannes Lions. Physical activations are where brand money is flowing as broadcast collapses.
