Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Taylor & Travis engaged, Twitter-viral 'Tallow' restaurant scandal + MrBeast vs. Caleb Hearon

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Taylor & Travis engaged, Twitter-viral 'Tallow' restaurant scandal + MrBeast vs. Caleb Hearon · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
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  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
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  everyone. OK, so I complained of a light
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  Newsday on Tuesday, and we woke up yesterday morning to the news
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  that Taylor Swift was engaged, which could not be bigger pop
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  culture news if I tried. So we're just getting right into
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  it. But before I do, Please remember
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  to rate, review and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
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  It helps us so much. It helps us grow.
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  Leave us an Apple review, buy us a coffee if you feel so
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  inclined. All of that good stuff.
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  All right, so yes, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey are engaged.
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  The two announced it on Instagram with photos of Travis
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  proposing in a secret fairy garden.
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  And the caption, your English teacher and your gym teacher are
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  getting married. OK, so this garden was
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  definitely paying homage to the lover garden from that era.
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  It looked so similar. The whole thing felt very Taylor
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  Swift, like the garden, the ring, even what she was wearing.
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  It seemed very her. My theory is that these were
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  staged photos. I think she looks way too chill
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  in them for this to be like the real proposal.
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  Like from what we know, Taylor Swift is such a romantic.
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  Like, she's such a lover girl. Like she wasn't crying.
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  She wasn't even really smiling that much.
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  I feel like this was the staged announcement photo shoot that
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  she had a bit of a hand in, especially with like the garden
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  situation, I feel. And maybe they got engaged, you
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  know, secretly, privately, like before this.
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  Now there are a lot of people criticizing the timing of this
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  announcement. So taken it back to when Taylor
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  announced her new album, Life of a Showgirl social media since
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  she announced that because that was basically her like coming
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  back post eras tour, right? So since she kind of came back,
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  went on the podcast, announced the album, people have been
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  criticizing her on social media for how she refuses to use her
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  giant platform to speak up about Gaza or other social and
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  political causes. And a huge part of this argument
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  is when she released the Miss Americana documentary in which
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  she made it clear that she wants to be more politically and
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  socially responsible with her platform.
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  You know, right after that she has wasn't really done or said
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  very much so online right now since she announced her album
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  and kind of made her official like return post errors tour,
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  there's been so much criticism of Taylor online, including
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  Swifties. Like people are criticizing her
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  a lot and saying she stands for nothing and that's what it feels
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  like. So the theory now is to drown up
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  some of that criticism. They've announced their
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  engagement. I honestly don't think the
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  engagement announcement is in response to the backlash.
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  I think, like, in the scheme of online backlash that Taylor
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  Swift has received, this has not been as loud as I think it needs
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  to be for her to like, try and veer off course or like change
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  the narrative. I think it's a lot more likely
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  that this announcement was planned in the lead up to her
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  album because she wants all of the press headlines in the next
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  six weeks leading up to her album to be about her, to drum
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  up buzz for the album as if she needs that.
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  But I think that's part of the PR plan.
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  But can I just say the fact that Taylor Swift is marrying a
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  football player with a podcast is so like American ordinary?
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  And I just feel like the Taylor Swift that I thought that I
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  knew, not that I'm like super parasocial with her, but like,
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  you know, the Taylor Swift that I feel like I was being served
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  up pre Travis Kelsey era. I feel like she would be unwell
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  hearing this. I don't know.
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  What do you guys think? I was like, Oh my God, I can't
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  believe this. I thought that this was like a
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  rebound for her. I'm just surprised.
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  But also, they're both 35. You know, if she wants to have
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  kids soon. He obviously is very supportive
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  of her and they do seem to love each other a lot.
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  So like, I'm not shitting on it. I'm just surprised.
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  OK, Let me know what you guys think about that.
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  OK, The next story that I have for you guys, one of you guys on
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  YouTube with the username Soggy Broccoli, which is so funny.
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  Mention this in the comments section of our episode on
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  Tuesday. So I had to drive right in.
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  I was like, let's go. We are going full down the
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  rabbit hole on this one and I'm so glad that I did.
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  So we're going to be talking about this restaurant called
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  Tallow in Philadelphia, how they've gone viral on Twitter
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  for a failed attempt basically at like pity marketing.
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  So this saga starts when Tallow Restaurant owner Abe tweeted
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  from his restaurants account that his restaurant was
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  struggling. He wrote.
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  For the last seven months I've been doing all I can to make
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  this restaurant successful. Maybe our food isn't good, but
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  we bring in around $50.00 to $125 per day being open for 7 to
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  8 hours. He said he was $30,000 in debt
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  and didn't know what to do. So initially people felt
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  sympathy for him and his post went quite viral.
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  But then users started looking into his business, his
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  marketing. They started going to his
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  restaurant to see it for themselves and the sentiment
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  turned within like literally 24 hours.
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  His thread has been deleted because of kind of the backlash
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  and conversation around him. But in the initial thread, he
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  was sharing some of his business values, which people felt like
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  initially were red flags because they were very Maha adjacent,
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  like make America healthy again, no seed oils, everything from
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  scratch. And whether you are into that or
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  not, people were also saying from like a marketing
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  perspective, that doesn't really work in a city like
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  Philadelphia. I don't know.
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  I'm not American. I've never been to Philadelphia.
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  But people were saying, OK, maybe this would work in, like,
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  LA or, you know, one of those kind of cities that are more
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  like health conscious and into, like, expensive, healthy,
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  organic food. But like, Philly's not the place
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  to open a restaurant like this. Then it was revealed that
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  despite his restaurant being called Tallow, they actually
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  don't serve any beef. They serve their fries, I guess,
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  in beef tallow. Like they cook them in beef
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  tallow, but they only serve chicken tenders.
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  And it turns out as well that the restaurant is also not
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  really a restaurant. It's just like a stand, like a
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  food counter, like a fast food counter, I guess inside of a
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  budget grocery store. Then the people who went to this
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  restaurant were even more surprised when they arrived and
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  they couldn't find it. And that's because the logo and
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  branding, like the signage above the restaurant above the counter
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  is from the old company, the old counter that used to serve food
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  there. So it has like completely wrong
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  branding and when you actually go up to the counter, you can
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  see like the tallow logo and you can see their menu like
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  underneath the awning of the old signage.
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  So like they didn't even he didn't even take off the old
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  signage. OK.
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  Plus the grocery store that Tallow is inside of, right?
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  So tallow is like a counter in this grocery store.
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  That grocery store is inside of a Plaza and that Plaza has three
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  other chicken tender like fast food chains that are apparently
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  cheaper than tallow. Other issues that people found
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  found was that the counter was only open from around 11:00 AM
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  to 6:00 PM-ish. So like when it's peak
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  dinnertime, they're closing. So all of these issues and there
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  were others there were like random things with his website.
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  All of these issues people were discovered by people on the
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  Internet and they were brought up to the owner on Twitter as
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  he's posting about the fact that he's like not doing well and
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  that he can't figure it out why. And so then plot twist, crypto
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  comes into the picture, OK, part of this red.
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  He was basically saying like, I'm trying to change the fast
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  food industry with healthy ingredients.
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  Like no one's appreciating what I'm doing.
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  I'm doing what people want. Like I'm giving them healthy
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  fast food options. That's what people always say
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  they want. Why is it not working anyways?
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  And then he's like, if you want to support me and help me out,
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  and he puts a link and he says, donate Bitcoin to me here.
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  What? It's so bizarre to start with.
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  But Bitcoin also goes up and down in value.
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  Like, I don't know. That is not a stable way to
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  collect donations if people are trying to help you.
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  OK, So TikTok creator named Rinna, she did a breakdown of
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  the situation on TikTok. And here is what she had to say
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  about it. And I feel like it just
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  encapsulates like the general sentiment of how people thought
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  about this situation. Overall, this is just a huge
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  wake up call and a huge spotlight on 2 huge problems
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  with starting a business. The 1st is you cannot have the
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  world's worst marketing ever and then when that doesn't work,
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  inevitably switch up to pity marketing because the Internet
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  is full of detectives. And they will find your
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  business, your strategies, your reviews, your location, and tell
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  you all those things you're doing wrong before they just
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  succumb to your sob story. Second, you cannot base your
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  entire business model off of a politicized fad.
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  Just because these buzzwords around food fast foods like seed
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  oils and processed foods and processed oils and beef tallow
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  are a popular thing online does not translate to instant success
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  in the real world. It really is a cautionary tale
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  in pity marketing. Like, you better have all your
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  ducks in a row before you take the Internet and tell them that,
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  like something about your business or about your situation
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  is unfair. Because as you know, Internet
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  users, they will take that and they will poke as many holes in
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  it as they can to prove that actually you're the one that's
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  wrong. Anyways, despite this debacle,
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  though, Abe has been tweeting and posting that they're selling
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  out. People are like going to this
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  store now, obviously to this counter, this beef tallow place
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  that doesn't sell beef to check it out.
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  So it's definitely getting him some traction, even though he's
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  getting a lot of hate. OK, And the last word that I
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  have for you guys, Mr. Beast has called out Rolling Stone
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  Magazine for putting Caleb Herron ahead of him, comedian
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  Caleb Herron ahead of him on the most influential creators list.
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  So Rolling Stone has released its list of the 25 most
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  influential creators of 2025. And Mr. Beast is not happy that
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  he didn't make it higher on the list.
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  He came in at #7 in a really crazy tweet after the list was
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  released, he asked who he pissed off at the publication to have
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  comedian Caleb Peron, who has significantly less followers
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  than him, come in ahead of him at #6 So he tweeted a picture of
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  Caleb. OK, Like the the card picture
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  that they post in the article that says like Caleb peron #6 he
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  posted a screenshot of that and he wrote, according to this
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  list, a guy with 1,000,000 followers is more influential
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  than me. What did I do to piss off The
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  Rolling Stones? First of all, The Rolling Stones
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  and Rolling Stone magazine are two different things.
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  Mr. Beast Jimmy, OK, this is a huge mask slip moment for Mr.
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  Beast because it proves everything that we have been
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  saying on this podcast for years.
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  When it comes to him, all he cares about is power.
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  Like there is no creative or community building motivation
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  behind his career. And like, in theory that's fine.
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  Like I'm sure there's lots of creators, lots of influencers
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  who are doing it for the money and the fame.
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  They don't really care about like the creative outlet that
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  content creation brings them or whatever it is.
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  However, the difference with Mr. Beast is that he brands himself
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  as this like altruistic change maker and he's using this power
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  to exploit others. He is using it to exploit people
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  for content, for his content so that he can make money.
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  And then he has Beast philanthropy that he's able to
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  say like, but no, look, I give back yeah, OK for content so
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  that you can be like, look at me, pat myself on the back like
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  I'm doing something good. He's rubbing elbows with all the
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  billionaires and he's like just as exploitative in different
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  ways. Getting the most followers and
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  the most views does not translate to influence.
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  Mr. Beast is not really that influential from an audience
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  perspective beyond the like millions of 6 year olds that
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  watch his videos passively while while they're like playing video
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  games or whatever. Like that is who his target
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  audience is. Like that is literally who
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  watches Mr. Beast videos. I've said this so many times on
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  the podcast, but I am certain that if I polled my friends who
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  are not chronically online, a ton of them would say they do
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  not know who Mr. Beast is despite him being one of the
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  most followed creators on the entire Internet.
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  And that is because he is just straight up not that influential
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  with audiences. He has been influential in terms
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  of, I guess the direction of youth content creation and like
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  what was going viral on algorithms on YouTube and all of
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  that. But like from an audience
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  perspective, he has not really built any connection with his
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  audience. He hasn't made a real impact on
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  anyone outside of these like isolated charitable things that
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  he does again for content. He has no purpose outside of
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  being the most viral and virality is not influenced.
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  It is so wild to me that after all of these years he still does
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  not realize this. Mr. Beast wants power and he
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  sees mass reach as his pathway to power and that is it.
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  And no offense, Mr. Beast, but why is a straight man trying to
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  be an influencer? Go build a house or something.
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  Not for content. Don't film it for YouTube.
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  Just go like do something else. Touch grass.
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  Stop trying to be an influencer. Influencing is for the girls,
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  the girls, the gays and the vase.
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  Leave us alone. OK, that was a joke.
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  Don't call me sexist, that was a joke.
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  All right. Anyways, guys, that's it for
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  mini scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe and I will talk to you tomorrow for a Friday mini
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  scroll. Bye.