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by Bukhmanizer 1303 days ago
It’s weird that the “message from Warren Buffett” is an ad for Geico and a jewelry brand. I get that they’re subsidiaries but still.
4 comments

It's very on-brand for Buffett if you follow his stuff. He's always kinda hawking the stuff he owns. You'll see the can of Coke on the table at the annual meeting, you'll see him eating See's Candies, he'll talk about the brands he owns, etc.

It's not pushy or overly sales-like, but he is into a lot of the stuff he owns. The message about GEICO is really frank: different insurance carriers vary in their underwriting judgments, but he estimates that GEICO will offer the lowest rate for 40% of people which is more often than any carrier. Go to the website and see if you can save money.

For some of the businesses, it can be a bit personal. He bought Nebraska Furniture Mart over a handshake from someone he'd known for a long time.

It is a little weird, but it's certainly on-brand for him.

I assumed this was a fake website that was trying to get people to buy dodgy insurance "because Warren Buffet recommends it".
He really is the world's best door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.

His advice on how to make money is basically that you should give some to him. Sometimes you just have to stand back and clap.

Why? He owns those companies.
I guess it would be like Bill Gates advertising for Windows and Xbox at the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Like I get the incentive but it doesn’t seem like the right place for it
They’re not Buffet’s side hustle. They’re Berkshire subsidiaries. It’s more like Microsoft’s website having an ad for an GitHub or LinkedIn on it.
To be clear I think the weirdnesses is in the pseudo-personal tone of it. This isn’t your uncle trying to sell you on his new business during thanksgiving dinner.

This is a billionaire trying to sell low low prices to presumably investors.

That’s kind of Buffet’s thing.

“Value” is a big philosophy of his, in investing and in business strategy, and many of his followers believe the same.

Or like Google's home page advertising Chrome (which they did early on in its life, which was surely a big factor in how they grew their market share so fast).
They still do it.
I just visited to check before posting, and didn't see it, but I guess I shouldn't assume that one visit to google.com is typical.
No, it is like Microsoft advertising Linkedin on their website. They own it.