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. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
OK, so I just went to a brand event.
It was a berries class and I had to quickly shower and like run
upstairs to do mini scroll. Oh, I have hair like all over my
hand because I had to brush my hair with my fingernails because
I forgot a hair brush. So my hair on camera, Hopefully
these big headphones are like covering it, but it is looking a
little unwell as a blonde. I forgot my K18 oil.
I forgot my proper shampoo and conditioner.
I forgot my hair brush. So she needs a little help.
Anyways, let's just get right into the stories for today.
So I have two stories for you guys.
The 1st is I wanted to quickly cover the underconsumption trend
going on on TikTok. So over the past couple of
weeks, a new trend has emerged on TikTok called
underconsumption core or normal consumption core.
As Crystal Andrews writes for Z Feed Quote, it's pretty
straightforward. Users are sharing the mundane,
normal things in their homes and lives that they use over and
over again. Dirty sneakers they've been
wearing to the gym for years and years.
Showers that contain only supermarket brand shampoo,
conditioner and body wash. A kitchen shelf of mismatched
glass jars, A2 step skin care routine and a crusty bronzer
compact. The focus is on well used, even
worn items in low quantities. But the most crucial part is the
presentation. There is no attempt to showcase
these things in an aesthetic way.
It's simply what normal life looks like for the vast majority
of people. So I'm sure you guys have seen
these videos. They're essentially like in
response to, I would say overconsumption and how social
media, particularly influencers, really push the overconsumption
of like beauty, lifestyle, fashion, all of that, even tech.
I would say it's also in response to the like restocking
or collection videos, you know, like Stanley collections.
Those were so, I mean, they're still really popular, but they
were so popular last year at one point, everyone showing that
they had a Stanley color for like every type of output they
could possibly have, like shelves and shelves of Stanleys.
And there's just a few different items like that that just kind
of end up like going viral and people get really obsessed with
collecting them. It reminds me of like 2015, 2016
beauty YouTube. And I definitely fell victim to
that. I still have this giant glam
station at my house, but it's literally just all those IKEA
drawers with like a giant mirror with the glam lights around it.
And I love getting ready there. And I think I will always have a
glam station. Like it is truly like where I
feel my happiest is doing my glam at my big glam station.
But my drawers like I have, I don't know, maybe 10 drawers,
like big wide drawers and they are just filled with makeup and
some of that makeup I have literally had for probably 10
years. So I don't really buy makeup
anymore because I don't really need to.
Like I buy mascara and foundation things I like go
through that I use all the time. But like eyeshadow and stuff I
never buy because I still have so much.
And I think that's kind of where we're headed now anyways,
especially with cost of living and just just we're in a
different time period than the mid twenty 10s.
So it is kind of interesting that overconsumption and
collections and halls and all of that got really popular on
TikTok for a little while. It's not to say that they're not
still really popular because they absolutely are.
But I do think that this trend, this underconsumption trend is
showing that tides are shifting and it's such a positive trend.
Like watching these videos, it's just like a warm fuzzy feeling
inside. You're like, Oh my God, that is
what my shower looks like. Or, Oh my, that is, you know
what my pantry looks like, what my kitchen looks like.
All of this stuff, it's so nice to see, just like normal life.
But Crystal's article also has a very interesting angle, and I'll
obviously link it down below. But it explores how this trend
could be a gateway to a person's deeper interest in things like
sustainability and economic justice.
It's not single handedly going to lead people down that path, I
don't think. And she kind of came to that
conclusion as well, but it could open the door for that.
But in general, I think this is just kind of like a feel good
trend. And I was actually going to talk
about how I think brands can jump on it.
But I think that's like the complete antithesis of the
trend. So maybe that is like something
for you guys. I know a lot of marketing
managers listen to the pod for you guys to take with you.
This trend is popping off. If there is a way to
organically, you know, put it into the brand that would make
sense, go for it. But I don't think I'm going to,
like necessarily encourage that because I do think that's kind
of the opposite of the trend. OK.
And the next story that I have for you guys is that Mister
Beast has been exposed by an alleged former employee.
Literally just yesterday, I said people are starting to turn on
Mr. Beast and, like, speculate that Mister Beast has a downfall
coming. And I didn't even know that it
was basically already happening. So I spoke about that in
reaction to Rosanna Pansino's Tik Toks, where she's been kind
of exposing what it's like behind the scenes of Beast
games, I think is what they're currently filming.
And she's getting a lot of messages and stuff because she
spoke out last year about how like what her experience was
being on one Mr. Beast competition show.
So she's been getting a lot of messages and stuff from people
who are currently competing. However, this is not related to
that, but it's kind of like all coming to a head together.
So this YouTube creator last week, he goes by Dog Pack 404.
I I've heard like some videos I was watching about it like
Philip Defranco's video and stuff said that his name was
Dawson. I don't know if that's his first
or his last name, but he started a YouTube channel and he posted
like his first video was a 53 minute video where he talks
about how he worked for Mr. Beast and he thinks he's a
fraud. And the video has over 6,000,000
views, like, it has just exploded.
So I wanted to talk about some of the kind of main points that
he brought up. And there was a lot, as you can
imagine. So I can't go through
everything. But the number one thing he says
is Mr. Beast really manipulates children's minds for profit.
And he claims that he does this in three ways.
So he said step one is getting the viewer to associate the
brand with trust and authority. He says, quote, Mr. Beast videos
are real and he's a great guy that gives away big rewards to
his loyal followers. As in, like, that's what they
want you to think, right? They want you to believe that
Mister Beast's videos are real. He's this great guy.
I mean, we've talked about that so much on this channel, like
the public image of Mr. Beast and how that's so much more
important than what he's actually doing on his channel.
So step two, he says, is showing people that when they interact
with Mr. Beast in the way that he tells them to, they are
rewarded. And he says step three is
calling on the viewer to act in a certain way that benefits Mr.
Beast with big rewards. And he kind of debunks some of
this by saying that you know, you won't win some of his
competition shows and the things that he puts on his channel
unless your friends or family with Mr. Beast, he claims that a
lot of the random subscribers or like random people, quote UN
quote that he gets to compete in his videos are actually his
staff friends or family or the friends and family of his staff.
So that was kind of the one big claim that he also said in there
that some of his videos are like sensationalized and they use CGI
and stuff, which I don't think that necessarily matters.
Like a Mr. Beast is making entertaining content for a young
audience. I think that's to be expected
that some of the stuff he shows is not completely real.
And then the other major thing he talks about is that Mister
Beast is running illegal lotteries and framing them as
giveaways. And the target of these
lotteries are children because that is the majority of who
watches Mr. Beast. So an example of like how
they're turning giveaways quote, UN quote into illegal lotteries
is, you know, he gives examples of times when people have had to
spend lots of money, like $45 or whatever to like enter a
giveaway. So that's kind of like gambling.
So Mr. Beast personally has not addressed these claims.
I mean, it's just been it's been quite a few weeks for Mr. Beast.
He has not addressed this video, but it is gaining so much
traction and all these huge Youtubers are reacting to it and
stuff like that. But Chucky, who works on Mr.
Beast's team, he actually addressed some of these claims
on Twitter. So he wrote I want to quickly
debunk some of the info in this video since the guy who made it
was on my team. I suppose he was his manager.
It was my decision to fire him for erratic behavior.
He worked at the company for less than a month and wasn't an
employee for most of the videos he mentions to have knowledge
on. There's so much in this video
and I want to specifically address him saying our videos
are fake or staged because this is not true and I was on set for
many of these videos. He acts like he's exposing us
for using CGI to make backgrounds look cool when we
have done multiple public behind the scenes videos with skopsky
scripts ski. So I have literally no idea what
that word is. I don't know if this is like a
YouTube So Crispy. Oh my God, so crispy.
Am I OK with So Crispy showing this?
It's clearly not a secret. On top of that, we did drive
buses in that pitch and same with the train that you claim we
didn't. I mean, that's kind of what I
was saying, right? I don't think it's like that
crazy that they might be using CGI or creating kind of fake
sets and scenarios and stuff for his videos.
So in relation to the statement that the YouTube said, he said
you won't get in a video unless you're friends or family with
someone that works at Beast. So he says in response to that.
This is a wild statement that can easily be proven wrong.
There's probably hundreds or thousands of people who have no
affiliation to friends slash family of Beast employees.
Think the 456 people in Squid Game ages one to 100 etcetera.
Jimmy doesn't know more than like a dozen people lol.
So there was more to that. But I think the major thing that
people are taking away from that Twitter thread is that he didn't
actually acknowledge the lottery thing.
And Mr. Beast would not be the first YouTube who has a younger
demographic where he is kind of promoting, indirectly promoting
gambling to them. This happened with the Paul
brothers. I just like a lot of those guys,
they've, I don't know if it's been by accident or they are,
they know what they're selling to them or promoting to them and
they don't care whatever it is. But there's been a few Youtubers
like that that have gotten in trouble for that.
I think the difference with Mr. Beast is that he is promoting
like his own services, like his own lotteries, as opposed to
promoting like gambling websites or, you know, external
affiliations and companies and partners that don't actually
have anything to do with the Youtubers.
So I don't know, I highly recommend watching the video.
It is quite a bombshell. But yes I I am interested to see
how this keeps going. I think there is just like a
massive pile on right now with Mr. Beast and once I mean we've
seen this a million times once it starts it's really hard for
it to stop. If the YouTube does not come out
and make a statement I feel like it is going to keep snowballing
unless he nips this in the bud, but I feel like his tactic might
be just to ignore it. We will see.
Anyways guys that's it for mini scroll today.
Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
Please rate review and subscribe it helps me so much it helps me
grow. I love you guys and I will talk
to you tomorrow. OK, bye.