Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: KATSEYE Manon update, Staples Baddie acknowledged by brand + TikTok Selena Gomez conspiracy theories

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MINI SCROLL: KATSEYE Manon update, Staples Baddie acknowledged by brand + TikTok Selena Gomez conspiracy theories · Mini Scroll

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  This episode of Mini Scroll is brought to you by The Commons,
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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 of the founder of the youth digital
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  media brand, Australian youth digital media brand Centennial
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  World. Welcome back to Mini Skull
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  everyone. OK, for anybody watching this
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  door on our cabinet that sits right beside me, she's broken so
• 1:15
  you don't need to let me know that she's open 'cause I know
• 1:17
  and it's really annoying. It's bothering me more than is
• 1:20
  bothering you, I promise. OK, before I get into it, I
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  wanted to remind you guys that on Friday we have our close
• 1:26
  Friends newsletter going out. So close Friends is our addition
• 1:29
  once a month. And it's kind of like a content
• 1:31
  club. It's like a book club before
• 1:32
  like Tik Toks and articles and stuff that's going viral.
• 1:36
  So this week we are going to be doing a TikTok.
• 1:39
  So I'll put the TikTok that we're going to be analyzing at
• 1:41
  the end of this episode. And if you just comment on
• 1:43
  Spotify or YouTube or send us Adm your opinion on this topic,
• 1:47
  then we might include it in the newsletter.
• 1:49
  We probably will include it in the newsletter.
• 1:51
  I'll also put a link to this TikTok in the description so you
• 1:54
  guys can watch it yourselves if you want.
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  All right, I have two updates for you guys today and then one
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  story about the Selena Gomez Justin Bieber baby conspiracy
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  theory that is going all over TikTok, and I have some thoughts
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  as to why that's happening. So the first story that I have
• 2:11
  for you guys today is an update on the Cat's Eye situation.
• 2:14
  So Megan, who is a member of Cat's Eye, has posted and
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  deleted an Instagram story that fans believe was a show of
• 2:21
  support for Mana. So if you need more of a
• 2:24
  background on what's been happening with Cat's Eye and
• 2:27
  their member Mana, I did a full breakdown on it yesterday and
• 2:30
  actually ever since I posted that episode, like it was only,
• 2:33
  I don't know, 12 hours ago. No, not 1224 hours years ago.
• 2:36
  There's been so many more news articles coming out about this
• 2:39
  whole situation and a lot more context that people are sharing.
• 2:42
  So you can definitely find a lot of resources on that.
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  So far, none of the group members have actually said
• 2:48
  anything. However, Megan just reposted a
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  video from the cut to her Instagram story with the
• 2:54
  caption. I love the cut.
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  So it was a clip of them like they did a cover, I guess, like
• 3:01
  a digital cover for the cut and they did some social content
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  around it. So it was a of that, OK, but she
• 3:07
  quickly deleted this Instagram story minutes later.
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  And the reason why people think that this was her showing
• 3:13
  support for Mana was, first of all, fans have been saying that
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  they've been noticing Mana liking and unliking posts that
• 3:20
  are hinting at her label mistreating her.
• 3:22
  That's obviously not verified, but regardless, that's what some
• 3:26
  fans are saying. And then The Cut released an
• 3:28
  article about Manaj's hiatus and it covered the mistreatment of
• 3:33
  black girl group members. So people believe that Megan
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  posting I love the cut on her Instagram stories was a show of
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  support, the first show of support, it seems for Mana
• 3:43
  amongst the group. And then she quickly deleted it.
• 3:45
  So some people speculate that that's also a sign that they are
• 3:50
  not allowed to talk about it. Or it could be that she actually
• 3:53
  is just on a hiatus and she will be coming back.
• 3:56
  And I've seen the theory that she will be returning for
• 3:59
  Coachella and that will be like her first kind of performance
• 4:02
  again with the whole group. OK, the next story that I have
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  for you guys today, here's another update.
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  This is a really quick one, but Staples has officially
• 4:10
  responded, acknowledged, I suppose Staples Batty.
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  I also do need to make a correction.
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  I feel like this is an important correction.
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  When I reported on Staples Batty, what was it like last
• 4:20
  week or the week before, I said that she calls herself Staples
• 4:24
  Batty and I didn't realize that the community calls her Staples
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  Batty. And I was corrected about that a
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  lot on TikTok and I really hate when I get those small details
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  wrong. So please, no, she didn't
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  initially call herself Staples Batty, but obviously now she's
• 4:36
  the Staples Batty. OK, so we know Staples Batty,
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  right? She's going viral everywhere.
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  She's gone viral so many times making content about how much
• 4:43
  she loves her job and showing all these different things you
• 4:46
  can do at Staples. She's literally reviving the
• 4:48
  store like a single handedly. Everybody wants to go to
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  Staples. Now she's making it cool for
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  Gen. Z.
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  Like it's such a cool thing to see.
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  And so Staples has been in her comments, like they've been
• 4:57
  reposting stuff. They were in our comments when I
• 5:00
  posted about this on TikTok. You know, they are acknowledging
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  her obviously on TikTok, but people were like, what are they
• 5:05
  going to do for her? Like, are they going to promote
• 5:07
  her? Are they going to do a campaign
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  with her? Are they going to do some paid
• 5:11
  sponsored content with her? Are they going to like, what are
• 5:13
  they going to do? And now it seems what they have
• 5:15
  done is they sent her APR package of like staples baddie
• 5:20
  branded Staples stationery stuff.
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  Humans worked today in Staples and sent me a packet to open up.
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  So I'm going to do that while I'm here.
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  So they sent me a custom box. They say Staples.
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  We we branded we we bring the redo.
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  OK, let's see. We got a letter.
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  This is Kaden. The staple is Batty at the
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  staples queen. You're showing up as your
• 5:50
  authentic self and have captured the attention of million clocky.
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  You're bringing a certified mean character energy to our stories
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  in a way that's completely you effortless mad magnetic low key
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  legendary. Every disease queen deserves her
• 6:07
  crown, and in your case, I'm a custom drip to match just a
• 6:10
  little something to celebrate you and everything I've had at
• 6:12
  your staples. Yeah, if it's Oh my God, y'all,
• 6:22
  it is a branded care package. We got some we got some we got
• 6:26
  some Sundays lilies. Oh, serving deeper down and
• 6:32
  we're yeah, I a custom cheer staples queer way branded mug
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  branded mug Wow custom sticker sheet.
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  Yeah, I got my blank at Staples. So people are excited to see the
• 6:56
  creator Oblivion get APR package, obviously, and get this
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  official acknowledgement. But people are like, OK girl,
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  like this is not enough. Like we need to have her in a
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  campaign. She needs to be the face of
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  Staples in a digital campaign. She needs to be getting a fat
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  bonus check. She needs to be getting a paid
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  collaboration. And I am hoping that is in the
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  works. It probably is, honestly.
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  It probably is at this point, but I'm hoping it's in the
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  works. People are honestly upset to see
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  that this is the first major thing that they've done to
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  acknowledge her officially, like in real life outside of just the
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  comments section. And that is basically just like
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  stationary. OK.
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  And the last story that I have for you guys today, this
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  episode, you know, every once in a while, I mean, given we do a
• 7:41
  podcast like 4 to 5 * a week, like it makes sense that we're
• 7:43
  going to have episodes where it's like, OK, these are updates
• 7:47
  or these are random stories or it was really hard to find
• 7:50
  stories. And I feel like today is one of
• 7:52
  those very, like random episodes where I feel like there's not
• 7:57
  one story that really anchors us.
• 7:59
  If it was going to be 1, it's this one.
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  But I still feel like it's not really a real story.
• 8:04
  I mean, you'll understand why. OK, So there are conspiracy
• 8:08
  theories going around all over TikTok about Selena Gomez.
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  It's been happening for probably the past two weeks.
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  A few very weird conspiracy theories.
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  Initially Annabelle and I were trying to trace this and we
• 8:21
  thought it was one major conspiracy theory because that's
• 8:24
  kind of how people are covering it.
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  We have since realized there are several, but it seems to be two
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  like main ones, and they're all similar.
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  And I think most people online think they are sharing the same
• 8:37
  conspiracy theory like that. There's not multiple theories
• 8:40
  going on, but they're very disjointed and they don't make
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  any sense. OK, first of all, like, let's
• 8:46
  get that clear. Let's get that out of the way.
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  They don't make sense. Which OK fair enough, but
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  there's also like more than one going around but I think people
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  think it's all the same one. OK so before I get into it
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  though, I wanted to make it clear I am not covering this to
• 9:01
  break down the conspiracy theory.
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  I do not believe in entertaining conspiracy theories, especially
• 9:06
  when they involve real people. And like, there are some
• 9:10
  celebrity conspiracy theories that are maybe funny or
• 9:12
  unserious. Lea Michele not being able to
• 9:15
  read, but I will get into this. But this one involves sensitive
• 9:19
  issues like fertility, health, and I mean, of course, the
• 9:22
  incessant bullying of Hailey Bieber, Justin Bieber, Selena
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  Gomez. So I wanted to cover this story
• 9:27
  more from the perspective of why social media users are so
• 9:31
  obsessed with it and how this spiraled because you guys, like,
• 9:35
  people believe this. I don't know how else to
• 9:37
  articulate that Like people believe this.
• 9:40
  The two main conspiracy theories both seem to believe that Selena
• 9:44
  Gomez is no longer with us in one way or another.
• 9:47
  Most of this comes from people comparing Selena now to clips or
• 9:51
  content of her as a teenager, a younger adult, and many people
• 9:55
  are in disbelief that it is the same person.
• 9:58
  The majority of the conspiracy theories allege that Selena
• 10:01
  Gomez is no longer with us because she had to sacrifice
• 10:04
  herself to keep her baby with Justin Bieber.
• 10:07
  This theory doesn't necessarily believe that she died then and
• 10:11
  there, but that she quote UN quote sold her soul, whatever
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  the fuck that means. OK?
• 10:18
  Social media users believe that the baby is who we now know as
• 10:23
  Rain Disick, Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick's baby, their
• 10:28
  son. What?
• 10:29
  They speculate that because of that situation, Justin Bieber
• 10:35
  went off the rails around the same time.
• 10:38
  The 2017 is like the timeline, OK?
• 10:41
  An offshoot of this theory is that Selena ended up getting
• 10:44
  pregnant years later and had a miscarriage.
• 10:46
  And this was after her kidney transplant, which was in 2017,
• 10:50
  which I will talk about shortly. People who believe this
• 10:53
  conspiracy theory buy into the story partly because of a blind
• 10:56
  item that was allegedly about Justin and Selena, which said,
• 11:00
  quote, an A list foreign born singer, as in he's Canadian, I
• 11:03
  guess, confessed to a church meeting that he tried to kill
• 11:06
  himself after he lost a baby because his girlfriend suffered
• 11:09
  A miscarriage. Anyway, from here, some users
• 11:12
  have come to the conclusion that she actually passed away when
• 11:15
  she got the kidney transplant back in 2017 and that she has
• 11:18
  been quote UN quote replaced. She shared publicly that she had
• 11:22
  gone through a kidney transplant in September of that year, as we
• 11:24
  know. And the quote UN quote proof
• 11:27
  that she had passed away comes from an alleged e-mail from the
• 11:30
  Epstein files that named Selena Gomez.
• 11:34
  We found this e-mail. We found it on J mail.
• 11:36
  But media outlets reporting on this whole like conspiracy
• 11:40
  theory are saying that this e-mail is unverified and calling
• 11:44
  it an alleged e-mail. So I will note that.
• 11:46
  So in this alleged e-mail, Jeffrey Epstein is allegedly
• 11:49
  emailing someone that says story you would have had fun.
• 11:52
  He has die sided on Selena Gomez and he spelled it like decided,
• 11:56
  but he spelled it like die D i.e. and then sided.
• 12:00
  People are taking this as code that she's passed away and
• 12:02
  that's somehow like Epstein and the Hollywood elites were
• 12:05
  involved again, which is why they had to give up their baby
• 12:08
  because people just keep saying well, like because Hollywood's
• 12:10
  weird they had to give up their first born child.
• 12:13
  Like what does that mean? OK, so this e-mail was allegedly
• 12:16
  sent July 2017. So two months before Selena
• 12:20
  shared that she had a kidney transplant.
• 12:21
  Can I just say that if you have seen any of the emails, I
• 12:26
  haven't like combed through them, but of course I'm coming
• 12:29
  across them. I'm seeing some of them.
• 12:31
  There are typos everywhere. There are typos everywhere.
• 12:34
  This man, he was just typing and going OK, like decided.
• 12:39
  And many people who are more sane right now and looking at
• 12:42
  this e-mail are saying if this is a true e-mail.
• 12:45
  It sounds like basically he was emailing somebody who was up for
• 12:49
  a role and the the director or whatever decided to go with
• 12:52
  Selena Gomez instead. OK, more quote UN quote proof as
• 12:54
  to why people believe that something horrible happened to
• 12:56
  Selena is coming from this one performance that Justin did back
• 12:59
  in 2021. Users believe that he like
• 13:02
  basically crashed out while performing the song Ghost at the
• 13:05
  2021 VMA's. And Ghost is obviously a song
• 13:08
  where he's singing about how he can't be with someone.
• 13:10
  So he's like with their ghost. OK, so do you see how, like,
• 13:14
  obviously none of this makes any sense.
• 13:16
  But it also was so disjointed because there's one camp of
• 13:20
  people that believe that they had a secret baby and Selena
• 13:24
  sacrificed herself for the baby to continue living.
• 13:27
  And that baby is now Reign Disick.
• 13:30
  And then the other group of people think that there was no
• 13:32
  baby that was ever born. And all of this ties into the
• 13:35
  fact that they believe Selena Gomez has been replaced with a
• 13:39
  clone. And somehow they believe that
• 13:41
  the clone is Geena Davis, the actress.
• 13:45
  You guys, I don't even know how else to explain this.
• 13:47
  Like, it sounds like I'm missing giant chunks.
• 13:50
  And I promise, I like Annabelle and I sat here for hours this
• 13:53
  afternoon trying to piece this together.
• 13:55
  OK, We did our best. Maybe you guys know you know
• 13:58
  more than we do. You can let us know in the
• 14:00
  comments for sure if there's anything that like we're
• 14:02
  missing. And I wasn't.
• 14:03
  I'm not trying to go into the details of this because it's
• 14:05
  obviously super harmful. Selena has publicly said many
• 14:09
  times that she cannot carry children because of her medical
• 14:11
  issues. So the fact that people are
• 14:14
  talking about her like alleged child and all of the like, it's
• 14:18
  just horrible. Like her fertility issues, like,
• 14:20
  it's just honestly horrible. It's so disgusting.
• 14:23
  And like, please, we need to leave these three people alone.
• 14:26
  What is wrong with us? I can't get over it.
• 14:30
  OK? The reason why I think so many
• 14:31
  people are believing this, and keep in mind this is not people
• 14:34
  who are like 12. You know, a lot of times when we
• 14:37
  report on stuff that's like going viral and conspiracy
• 14:39
  theories and, you know, people believing things that they
• 14:41
  shouldn't and stuff online, it's a lot of times it's like really
• 14:44
  young people, Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber and Justin Bieber
• 14:48
  fans are like in their mid 20s now.
• 14:51
  You know, and the people making this content like perpetuating
• 14:53
  this and putting this out there are like full blown adults.
• 14:57
  At least they look to be on TikTok.
• 14:59
  So I believe possibly what's happening here is, aside from
• 15:02
  the things that we already know about how TikTok so easily
• 15:06
  perpetuates conspiracy theories and groupthink and mass
• 15:09
  hysteria, I believe that this has taken on such a life of its
• 15:13
  own because of the Epstein files.
• 15:16
  Since forever, we have heard about how dark and twisted and
• 15:19
  fucked up Hollywood is. And we've also seen examples of
• 15:22
  how the industry has beaten down and abused so many of our
• 15:25
  favorite stars. And Justin Bieber, of course, is
• 15:27
  on that list to some capacity. But the alleged abuse within
• 15:30
  Hollywood has also, I would say, remained like relatively hush
• 15:34
  hush. Of course there have been
• 15:35
  historic movements like Me too that have exposed a lot of that
• 15:39
  underbelly, the Diddy case and the documentary.
• 15:41
  Like there are things that have been happening over these past
• 15:44
  few years that are exposing this.
• 15:46
  And I think with the Epstein files coming out, I do believe
• 15:50
  it was almost like the cherry on top of all of this stuff that's
• 15:55
  been kind of brewing and that we've been hearing about for the
• 15:57
  last on the Nickelodeon documentary.
• 15:59
  Like these are just top of mind things.
• 16:00
  But like things that have been kind of brewing and coming to
• 16:03
  light over the past maybe like 20 years, things that we would
• 16:06
  have never known about before. Like social media has really
• 16:09
  allowed this stuff to come out. And because we hear, like,
• 16:12
  Hollywood is so dark and everyone in LA is so fake, and
• 16:15
  everyone uses each other and we see these examples and we get
• 16:18
  these little bits and pieces of media idea that tell us about
• 16:21
  what's actually happening, I think our minds are primed to,
• 16:24
  like, run wild. I think there's a lot of belief
• 16:26
  that, like, the most horrific things ever in Hollywood can
• 16:29
  happen. And then I think it's possible
• 16:31
  that because the Epstein files confirmed some of those darkest
• 16:36
  thoughts about Hollywood, it almost validates this type of
• 16:41
  thinking for Internet users because what's been exposed in
• 16:44
  those files, some of it is so much worse than what a lot of us
• 16:48
  could have ever imagined. And I feel like that has
• 16:51
  validated a lot of this conspiratorial thinking for
• 16:54
  people because they're like, look, it's happening.
• 16:56
  It's real. And I'm not saying that some
• 16:59
  really horrific stuff has not happened to Justin Bieber and
• 17:01
  Selena Gomez. I'm just saying in the case of
• 17:03
  these conspiracy theories, people are unwell, people are
• 17:07
  being unwell. None of it makes any sense.
• 17:09
  What do you mean Rain Disick is actually Selena Gomez and Justin
• 17:13
  Bieber's baby. What do you mean Selena Gomez is
• 17:15
  actually a clone? Like this is a woman who has
• 17:19
  health issues and we have known about these health issues for a
• 17:22
  very long time. She has mental health issues as
• 17:24
  well. She's made documentaries about
• 17:26
  it. Like I just people need to leave
• 17:29
  these people alone. And I know I'm probably not
• 17:31
  helping by sitting up here and talking about this, but you
• 17:34
  know, I wanted to come at it from that perspective.
• 17:36
  Like none of this makes any sense.
• 17:38
  There are so many like wild conspiracy theories going on and
• 17:41
  like we need to leave these three people alone.
• 17:43
  And maybe honestly, after this, maybe I will, maybe I will stop
• 17:46
  talking about them because that is like constantly I feel like
• 17:49
  my message is like, we need to leave these people alone.
• 17:52
  And so I'm probably not helping it.
• 17:53
  Anyways, guys, that's it for many scrolls today.
• 17:55
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 17:58
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 18:00
  Annabelle will talk to you guys tomorrow and then I will talk to
• 18:02
  you on Thursday By Centennial World Podcast Network operates
• 18:06
  on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
• 18:08
  Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
• 18:12
  land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.
• 18:15
  Has anyone else noticed this specific brand of creator where
• 18:18
  you can't really tell who they're making videos for but it
• 18:21
  kind of feels like they're trying to sell you something?
• 18:23
  I called them billboard creators and I'm curious why these
• 18:26
  accounts exist and why they're so extremely really popular.
• 18:29
  I think Dixie is sort of the first modern variant of the
• 18:32
  Billboard creator because she was thrust into a really unique
• 18:35
  situation, having to find a talent after she was already
• 18:38
  massively famous. But ultimately it seemed like
• 18:40
  the public was not willing to forgive her for experimenting
• 18:44
  baby cringe, so her team retreated back into the very
• 18:47
  profitable realm of advertising. Since then, Dixie has posted
• 18:51
  basically nothing except her ads, but millions of people
• 18:54
  still watch them, which makes me think her main appeal has less
• 18:57
  to do with the content she's creating and more to do with the
• 19:00
  sensational level of fame. She for some reason, Fats Hailey
• 19:03
  Poole, also known as Hailey Bailey, is kind of another
• 19:06
  blueprint for this. She aggressively follows trends
• 19:09
  and is an expert on making you think she thinks what you think.
• 19:12
  And she's had huge success by capitalizing on the offense or
• 19:15
  people that the masses are paying attention to.
• 19:17
  This is danger as a sort of pop culture very like you know,
• 19:20
  something has entered the mass cultural consciousness once
• 19:23
  Hailey Bailey makes a video about it.
• 19:24
  Most often her videos are skits recreating viral moments or
• 19:28
  typing head videos regarding the predominant opinions you'd find
• 19:31
  on any viral post comment section.
• 19:33
  Nick Lunk and her boyfriend same guys are proud examples of this.
• 19:36
  They do trend videos, they hardly ever speak to the camera,
• 19:39
  and they always look extremely beautiful and put together.
• 19:42
  Despite having 45,000,000 followers, it's difficult to
• 19:46
  discern what type of person Brooke is on TikTok other than
• 19:50
  relatable. In fact, it seems like being
• 19:51
  relatable is the core objective of all non sponsored content.
• 19:55
  Building a fan base off of impersonal content that
• 19:57
  encourages your audience to project onto it makes it
• 20:00
  extremely easy for brands to slot in and use you as a
• 20:03
  billboard. They can borrow your followers
• 20:05
  because those followers have no consistent expectations of value
• 20:09
  communication. The sensation of it all, the
• 20:11
  fame that these smiling, friendly people hold is what
• 20:14
  keeps the audience interested in them.
• 20:15
  But when you really think about it, these billboard creators
• 20:18
  aren't selling their own personal brands to connect with
• 20:20
  sponsors, they're actually selling you their followers.
• 20:24
  It's extremely similar to how social media companies started
• 20:27
  selling their users attention. To the highest bidder, Hill
• 20:30
  board creators grow their following for the same reason
• 20:33
  that social media platforms grow their user base, because more
• 20:36
  followers equals more dollars.