Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: E.L.F. addresses Matt Rife backlash, Sweet Loren's viral rebrand + Sylvanian Drama lawsuit update

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MINI SCROLL: E.L.F. addresses Matt Rife backlash, Sweet Loren's viral rebrand + Sylvanian Drama lawsuit update · 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 like
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  today. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  OK, I've definitely come down with Annabelle's sickness.
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  I didn't want to leave you guys hanging, but the stories that I
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  have today for the most part are like updates because I just
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  needed something easy and quick. I'm not feeling the best, I'm
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  not feeling the worst. So I'm hoping that if I can just
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  like rest all weekend, I will nip this in the bud.
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  So let's get into the stories for today.
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  Oh, actually before I start, our newsletter went out this morning
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  with your opinions in it. So go subscribe.
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  The link is always in the show notes.
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  Go subscribe to keep scrolling for our newsletter and you guys
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  can see which opinions we use. OK?
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  The first story that I have for you guys today is that elf
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  Cosmetics has addressed the backlash around their Matt Rife
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  campaign in both an Instagram statement and also in a
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  statement to the business of fashion.
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  OK, so this is what they put on Instagram.
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  You know us, we're always listening and we've heard you.
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  This campaign aimed to humorously spotlight beauty and
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  justice. We understand we missed the mark
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  with people we care about in our elf community.
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  While Alfino and Charms, which was like the the name of the
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  fake law firm that was in the campaign closes today, will
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  continue to make the case against overpriced beauty.
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  OK. So a lot of people have noted
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  this isn't necessarily an apology.
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  I mean, they said they missed the mark with the people that
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  they care about in their community.
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  But you know, they didn't really.
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  They still kind of like somewhat doubled down, OK.
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  And then their global Chief Marketing officer, Corey
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  Marshasato said this to the business of fashion.
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  We are very much known for operating in real time.
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  That's what it means to be in the cultural zeitgeist.
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  So we're not looking in the rearview mirror when we're
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  operating the real time marketing machine, OK.
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  So I would argue that being in the cultural zeitgeist,
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  operating that way also includes understanding what has happened
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  around, in this case, the ambassadors that you're choosing
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  to promote your brand that you're paying presumably tons of
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  money to and promoting to your customer base.
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  That's part of being part of the cultural zeitgeist is
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  understanding what is happening in the conversations around
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  those figures that you're choosing to represent your brand
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  and how that fits in to your customer base and how they might
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  interpret that and how the Internet is going to react to
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  things. Say this all the time, but like
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  This is why brands need like genuinely like chronically
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  online consultants. Like if you are going to be
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  running big campaigns like this, you need people who are like
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  tapped in to the progressive online zeitgeist to understand
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  how your marketing campaigns and activations like this are going
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  to land. You do need to look in the
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  rearview mirror, like you need to understand the decisions that
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  you're making in the cultural context that they exist in.
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  And I would argue that that is being in the the cultural
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  zeitgeist. So I think this statement makes
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  no sense. Saying that you operate in the
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  cultural zeitgeist, but saying so you don't look in the
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  rearview mirror in terms of understanding the context in
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  which your decisions are being made are two statements that
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  essentially cancel each other out, in my opinion.
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  OK, the next way that I have for you guys is that sweet Laurens
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  has gone viral for a quote UN quote accidental TikTok name
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  change. So healthy cookie brand Sweet
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  Laurens went viral this week after their social intern Social
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  intern. Presently it changed the account
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  name to their own name, Ryan, allegedly.
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  OK, we have no idea if this was actually planned.
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  I mean, I'm going to say it probably was, I think if you are
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  genuinely working in social, like you get an OK, they this is
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  what they claim. So they say that they were
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  trying to log into another TikTok account.
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  So when you're on the TikTok like account page, right, you
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  can click like the down button and you can go to different
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  profiles. So they claim that they were
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  trying to log into, I guess their personal profile Ryan and
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  they typed in Ryan and then it changed the name of the brand
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  account and you can't change those names back after seven
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  days. I have changed TikTok account
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  names multiple times. When you do that, it gives you,
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  you know, like a pop up button that says, Are you sure you want
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  to change the name? You will not be able to change
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  it back or change it to something different for seven
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  days. So do I think this happened
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  accidentally? No, I don't.
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  But this is an interesting case study and kind of like this like
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  faux marketing faux pas where the brand is saying like, look
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  at us like we're so cool and like we just lent in.
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  So they're claiming this happened.
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  They posted messages. Ryan, the social intern posted
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  text messages that were allegedly between themselves and
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  their boss saying, I was just trying to log into a TikTok
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  account and I was adding my name and it somehow switched the
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  sweet Lawrence TikTok name to Ryan and I can't change it for
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  seven days. I don't know what to do.
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  Freaking out. I just submitted a form to
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  TikTok and now the brand gets to be like, look, we lent into
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  this. So they basically allowed Ryan,
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  allowed Ryan to post about this on TikTok.
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  They changed the names of some of their cookies online to say
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  Ryan on their website, which is really funny.
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  And they also made fake merch with the name Ryan on it.
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  So here are some of the comments.
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  Just bought some Sweet Laurens today at the store after seeing
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  Ryan's earlier videos. To be honest, maybe you did it
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  on accident but if you did it on purpose, this is a genius
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  marketing strategy. This is how I found the Sweet
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  Laurens TikTok and learns you have puff pastry which I
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  absolutely will be buying so it worked out.
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  Still a good marketing strategy because I was curious on what
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  the brand was and scrolled through your page.
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  OK so their sales apparently spiked after this and they
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  gained over 10,000 followers in just a few days which is pretty
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  impressive. Like the brand only had 35, 1000
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  followers when this all started. So to get 10,000 followers from
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  35 is quite good. So the reason why I wanted to
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  talk about this, aside from like it's obviously quite funny is a
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  lot of social media managers are on LinkedIn going on about this
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  whole saga. And the main kind of theme
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  around, like, why this worked out and why this has been a
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  success is people saying that this humanized the brand, which
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  led people to buy their product. The brand already had a very
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  strong association with the founder, whose name is Lauren.
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  There's a full story around this brand.
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  It's related to her cancer journey.
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  You know, she made these cookies and these recipes from scratch
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  at home with healthy ingredients.
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  Like there is an entire brand story around Sweet Lauren's
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  already. This brand was already very
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  humanized. It's quite literally named after
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  a human. That is not why people bought
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  these cookies. The reason why their sales went
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  up is because everyone likes to feel in on the joke.
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  There is nothing more exciting to TikTok users to Gen.
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  Z than referential humor, right? And being kind of on the inside
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  of an in joke. It's fun to interact with the
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  brand right now because that means that you are in on what's
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  happening. And not a lot of people yet are
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  in on what happened here, right? It's like relatively viral, but
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  it's not like they gained millions of followers.
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  So it's like this fun inside joke that people get to partake
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  in and get to show their support of and that is why their sales
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  spiked. OK guys.
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  And the last story that I have for you, this is such good news.
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  The lawsuit against the Sylvanian drama TikTok account
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  has been dropped. So this is directly from Dexter
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  to quote. On August 9th, court documents
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  revealed that Epoch voluntarily dismissed the case without
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  prejudice, with each party to bear its own cost, expenses and
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  attorneys fees. No settlement details have been
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  disclosed following the news. The creator returned to
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  Instagram for the first time since January, telling fans she
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  would be changing the accounts name and profile picture on
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  August 19th. This is what Thea, who runs the
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  account, wrote. Hi guys, on the 19th of August I
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  will be changing the name and profile picture of this account.
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  I'm not sure what to change it to yet so please let me know if
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  you have any suggestions. I'm so happy they dropped the
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  lawsuit. I understand why it was an
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  issue. Like, I get that if she wasn't
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  doing commercial opportunities, like if she wasn't using their
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  dolls, their IP to generate her own revenue through like brand
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  partnerships with Netflix and like all of these huge
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  companies, I understand that this maybe wouldn't have come to
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  this, you know, maybe she wouldn't have ended up being
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  sued. It is really unfortunate that
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  she's going to have to change the name, possibly take away all
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  the content. Like, I'm not really sure, but I
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  am so glad that the lawsuit was dropped.
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  And I have to think that possibly the backlash, like
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  there was no indication in the news that I could find, but I
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  have to imagine that the backlash hopefully, you know,
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  from TikTok users and just the Internet in general really
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  helped that. Anyways, guys, that's it for me
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  to scroll today. Sorry that it was so short.
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  You know, usually I have a bit more opinion, but thank you so
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  much for listening. Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe. Please buy us a coffee if you
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  want to support us, you want to help keep us going.
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  I love you guys and hopefully I will talk to you on Monday where
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  I'm feeling much better. All right, bye.