Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
media, the creator economy and the digital space.
Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to mini scroll,
everyone. All right, let's just get into
the stories for today. But as always, Please remember
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OK, I have a really big first story, so we just need to dive
right in. Ultraviolet has recalled their
product after SPF testing scandal situation.
I'm not really sure how to describe this, but it's
official. The TGA here in Australia has
recalled Ultraviolet lean screen sunscreen and Ultraviolet has
removed it from shelves. So I did speak about this
situation when it first came out in June, but I am going to
rehash this story and provide a bit of a comprehensive timeline.
I know this story is maybe feels a little bit outside of Internet
culture, but there is a big influencer tie in and there's
also just a big, big like social media component tie in to this
story. Also, Ultraviolet is an
incredibly buzzy like luxe sunscreen brand here in
Australia. So this is a huge deal.
This is like a Roman Empire for me.
This story, I'm not even joking. OK, so the timeline breakdown
was inspired by one of my besties, Crystal Andrews.
She runs Z Feed, an independent publication.
She did a full timeline breakdown in her weekly
newsletter on Sunday. I will link it in the show notes
for you guys. You should definitely subscribe,
but reading her timeline put a lot into perspective for me.
So I wanted to give you guys that context and that
perspective as well. So know that this timeline and
link the inspo for it came from her.
OK, so in February, the consumer advocacy group Choice tested 20
popular Australian sunscreen labeled as SPF 50 plus.
The testing was carried out at Eurofins Derma Test Lab in
Sydney and each product sample was decanted into amber glass
jars and tested within one hour. Results showed that 16 of the 20
products fell below their claimed SPF.
The worst result was Ultraviolet's lean screen, which
came back with an SPF rating of four.
The next lowest product that was tested in this study was SPF 24,
so that tells you how big of a discrepancy there was there.
Choice alerted Ultraviolet to the results and advised that the
product undergo a second round of testing at a different lab.
In April, Ultraviolet commissioned its own testing at
Princeton Consumer Research PCR in Manchester, England.
PCR reports an SPF of 61.7 for lean screen.
In May, Choice sent the product for further testing at Normick
Shonder Institute lab in Germany.
This test also returned a low result SPF 5.
S Choice got SPF four and SPF 5, whereas Ultraviolet got SPF
61.7. In June, Choice published the
results. Mainstream media and social
media platforms quickly picked up the story.
And obviously the particular attention was on Ultraviolet's
SPF of four. Because if you know anything
about the Australian side, if you are from Australia, if you
have been here or you just know anything about it, our son is so
extreme here and there are such high rates of skin cancer here.
So SPF testing in this country we have, I mean, as far as I
know, like I've been here for almost 10 years, have always
been told that they are so incredibly strict with it.
And like SPF, like everybody that I know wears SPF 50 all
over their body every single day.
Like it is absolutely necessary even in the winter, like you
just have to. So this was like a huge deal for
people that have been using ultraviolet SPF, like lean
screen thinking they were getting SPF 50.
A lot of people using it every single day because it's a facial
sunscreen. And really these results were
very shocking. So off the back of Choice
publishing their results, the TGA, which is like the
regulatory body responsible for sunscreens in Australia, issued
a statement saying that they will investigate and quote, take
regulatory action as required. I do want to note too, there's a
lot of information. I don't know if it's like
misinformation or disinformation, but there's a
lot of like noise about how choice, you know, was like shady
and how they published this. I think there's some confusion
around how we received this messaging.
People are blaming choice for those like sensationalized click
baity headlines when really they just published the the results
for the most part and it was, you know the media that picked
that up. OK so then right after
Ultraviolet post a statement on its website which was later
deleted. But my friend Crystal did link
it. I believe it's archived online.
They called the SPF 4 result quote scientifically impossible.
The brand suggested that Choice mishandled the product, tested
the wrong item, or used an insufficient sample size.
They also said they've never received a substantial amount of
consumer complaints of like sunburns or anything that would
indicate that their SPF was not up to par.
Then one of the Co founders, Ava posted on TikTok saying I put
lean screen on my children and I still would tomorrow.
Basically defending the brand, defending the product and the
brand was very much defending itself in the comments section.
Then Choice released a follow up statement standing by its
results, explaining its testing methodology and publishing
reports on all 20 products tested.
OK, this is a part of the timeline that I feel has been
missing. So people kind of got over this
story. So like a couple weeks after the
initial bombshell of SPF four and like the media craze around
it, the ABC on July 4th published an investigation into
PCR, which is the lab used by Ultraviolet.
Again, I think that this is the piece that a lot of people are
missing. Industry experts told the ABC
that PCR results for lean screen appear unusually consistent,
with one saying he had, quote, never seen results like PCRS in
his entire career. Half of the brands that failed
the choice test also relied on PCR for their own certification
testing. A couple days later, the
Australian Financial Review published an article that
essentially claimed that PCR like falsely claims results on
products. And this story also revealed
that Ultraviolet does not formulate lean screen
themselves. The sunscreen is manufactured by
Wild Child Laboratories in Perth.
And then about a month later on Friday, Ultraviolet announced
that it is pulling Lean Screen from the market after additional
testing showed in consistencies. The brand also confirmed they
are no longer using PCR for testing or Wild child
Laboratories for manufacturing. So this is a snippet of their
announcement. They say, you know, we
prioritize your skin in your health.
Before we go further, we want to make it clear that this only
concerns the performance of Lean Screen.
We had multiple independent labs conduct new tests of Lean Screen
this week. We received results from those
tests that demonstrated significant and candidly a
typical variability across 8 different tests.
Lean Screen has now returned SPF data of 4102120633, 6061 and 64.
That wasn't good enough for us and it isn't good enough for
you. Given this pattern of
inconsistency and testing, we have decided to withdraw Lean
Slash Velvet Screen from the market effective immediately.
And then they had a tile where they explained all the different
things that they were going to do to, you know, rectify this
situation and they are going to give customers refunds.
Now Mecca, which is Australia's basically biggest beauty
retailer, is reportedly pulling another buzzy Aussie skin care
brand, Naked Sundays, from its shelves as they apparently use
the same lab for their SPF products.
There is a lot of debate online right now about the brand's
initial reaction. And they're kind of like, quote
UN quote transparency now. But I don't really want to open
that kettle of fish, OK? What I wanted to focus on was
the influencer side of things. As someone who used to work in
the Australian beauty media industry, I can tell you it is
like a cult. And there were so many
influencers and beauty journalists alike who publicly
defended Ultraviolet and like slammed Choice.
Obviously that hasn't necessarily aged well.
And I think what we can learn from this as consumers is just
how fast influencers are to defend their paycheck because so
many of the influencers and creators and journalists that
were defending Ultraviolet and slamming Choice, they claim or
brand themselves as experts and educators in skin care, in
beauty, in that industry. So in theory, you know, their
main focus should always be on their audience, who they are
providing education and information for.
Their allegiance should be to their audience.
And obviously we didn't necessarily see this as the
case. Like I know this situation was
like confusing and bizarre. I'm not like putting the blame
on influencers, but I think so many of the biggest beauty in
skin care influencers and journalists in this country
backed Ultraviolet rather than suggesting to their audience to,
I don't know, like take a beat, wait For more information, maybe
find another SPF in the meantime until we got more information.
I think the entire PR slash like communications around this
entire situation was a bit of a mess.
It was hard to watch. I don't know if this is going to
be totally the end of it. I think there it's possible that
there's more brands that come out that need to be recalled,
but it's very scary. SPF 4 wearing SPF 4IN Australian
sun as your daily sunscreen is honestly horrifying.
I hope we don't get any more information like this.
Like I hope that this is the end of it.
And I also do want to say like, these are female founders and I
cannot imagine what they have been going through.
But I also feel like with great responsibility, like choosing to
produce essentially like a medical product like sunscreen,
you know, comes great responsibility, not to quote
Spider Man or whoever says that in that movie.
So I don't want to add to the pylon.
You know, I think this is a really horrible situation to
begin with. I can't imagine what they're
going through. But I think the reaction that
I've seen from honestly some of my ex peers has been
questionable. All right, the next story that I
have for you guys, Bobby Altoff has announced that she is
starting a new podcast called Not This Again.
So those of you that were like, she's not done forever, when I
announced that her podcast was ending, you guys were right.
I wasn't so sure. But no, you guys were right.
So in the video announcing the podcast, Bobby is with Drake,
which is a call back to her viral moment in 2023.
Her viral interview with him sitting on what seems to be a
bed in front of a very pretty view.
The video is basically just them trying to describe the podcast.
It's very deadpan. It's very dry humor.
It isn't exactly clear, like what each episode of Not This
Again will look like going forward.
But based on the trailer, it seems like the exact same vibe
as her old podcast. So I'm starting to think maybe
her old podcast was just dropped by its network and she just took
the concept and is, you know, moving on to a different network
or doing it independently by herself and just going to keep
the same format. But yeah, I understand the
heart. Back to the Drake episode.
But I also do think it's interesting for her to align
herself with Drake, given everything that went on with him
and Kendrick. You know, I think she is
obviously trying to kind of chase that level of virality and
buzziness again, especially for the launch of this.
But I don't know, it's an interesting choice, All right?
And the last story that I have for you guys is a very sad one.
Lil Nas X has been detained and hospitalized.
In the early hours of Thursday morning.
Last week, police in Los Angeles were called to investigate a
report of a naked man walking through the streets.
This man was Lil Nas X. The video has since been
obtained by TMZ. I'm not going to share a clip of
it just out of privacy because there is something I would say
like definitely going on with him in the video.
But you can see him walking down the street wearing cowboy boots
and underwear. Lil Nas X was subsequently taken
to hospital and also booked on suspicion for obstructing a
police officer. Pulling from statements made by
police spokesperson Charles Miller.
Quote, upon arrival, the suspect charged at officers and was
taken into custody. He was transported to a local
hospital for possible overdose and placed under arrest for
battery on a police officer. So obviously, many people are
really upset to see Lil Nas X in this situation and are wishing
him the best. There's been a lot of reflection
on his rise to fame and how he was treated by the industry that
would have led him to this point.
Quote. The amount of racism and
homophobia Lil Nas X has had to contend with while being a cog
in the wheel of these already dehumanizing record labels is
truly unimaginable. I wish him love and privacy,
wrote Matt, 14. So there has been speculation
that Lil Nas X has been dealing with addiction or just dealing
with a lot of like mental health battles over the past couple of
years. I will say that some people
thought this video was a marketing stunt for his album,
which could be a whole deep dive episode on its own, of kind of
our obsession with looking for like covert marketing schemes,
Easter eggs. Everything's a conspiracy theory
in the music industry and pop culture right now.
We touched on that a little bit in the deep dive from Friday.
But, yeah, obviously that was not the case.
But he's also been dealing with some health issues.
He revealed in April of this year that he had been
hospitalized after experiencing a sudden paralysis of his face.
So, yeah, this is just horrible. I completely agree with the fans
who, you know, are concerned about how steep his rise to fame
was, how sudden it was, the lack of support around him in that
moment. And, yeah, I can't imagine how
difficult that would be. I think it's really sick that
people are posting this clip and and you know, if you do see it,
don't give it engagement click like block user or not
interested like don't engage because that's why people are
posting this, right? They want those views.
They want the engagement. Don't give it to them like this
should be a private video. I think it's I think it's
fucked. Anyways guys that's it for mini
scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
I love you guys. Please remember to rate review
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inclined. Spotify star rate US and I will
talk to you tomorrow. Bye.