Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Olivia Rodrigo babydoll dress discourse, Anthony Festa solidcore ban + Dua Lipa vs. Samsung

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MINI SCROLL: Olivia Rodrigo babydoll dress discourse, Anthony Festa solidcore ban + Dua Lipa vs. Samsung · Mini Scroll

0:00
Coming up today on Mini Scroll, Olivia Rodrigo's baby doll dress
0:04
backlash, Anthony with the Meta glasses claims he's now banned
0:08
from Solid Core and Dua Lipa sues Samsung.
0:13
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
0:17
daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
0:20
from social media, the creator economy and the digital space
0:23
Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
0:26
I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the Australian
0:29
youth digital media brand Centennial World.
0:33
And thank you so much to our sponsor for today.
0:36
This episode of Mini Scroll is brought to you by The Commons,
0:40
Australia's premium Co working space.
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The Commons is truly a main character in the Centennial
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World cinematic universe, as the Chippendale location in Sydney
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has been our home for over 5 years and it's where we record
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this podcast every single day. Whether you're a creative
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escaping the Home Office or a business owner looking to scale,
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The Commons offers beautifully designed spaces and a genuine
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sense of community across Sydney and Melbourne.
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And while the spaces are stunning, it's the team that
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really makes a difference. Their support for growing
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businesses has enabled Centennial world success and
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sometimes survival over the years.
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If you're looking for a Co working space that feels
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considered, is community led and actually backs the people
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working there, head to thecommons.com dot AU.
1:25
Welcome back to mini scroll everyone.
1:27
OK, I have the funniest story for you guys today.
1:29
It is Australian Fashion Week this week and I was invited to a
1:32
couple of shows and then like two hours ago I got an e-mail on
1:36
inviting me to the show that I was supposed to go to today
1:40
because I guess like more important people RSVP D that
1:43
they wanted to come. And so they gave my ticket away
1:46
and I was like, this is the most Centennial thing to ever happen.
1:52
Like this industry keeps us humbled.
1:56
It keeps us down. It's like you are the underdogs
1:59
and there is no way up for you. I was like, this is the most
2:02
Centennial world thing ever to happen.
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I am supposed to go to a show tomorrow, so we'll see if they
2:07
keep my ticket for me. OK, before I get into it, we
2:11
have close friends on our newsletter coming up.
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I believe it's going on Monday. So that's our like content club,
2:16
kind of like a book club where we get your opinions on
2:18
different types of content. So I will play the TikTok that
2:22
Annabelle is going to be covering at the end of this
2:25
episode and I will also link it in the description.
2:27
So please give us your take on that TikTok and your opinion
2:30
could end up in close friends. All right, let's get into the
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stories for today. So the first story that I have
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for you guys today is Olivia Rodrigo is facing backlash over
2:43
her most recent outfit choices. So over the past several months,
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Olivia Rodrigo has been sporting baby doll dresses as she's
2:51
promoting her new album. You seem pretty sad for a girl
2:54
so in love. And this style choice has
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sparked a lot of debate. So she first wore a micro baby
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dress in her Drop Dead music video last month and then again
3:03
wore it this week while she performed at the Spotify
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Billions Club live show in Barcelona to celebrate a billion
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streams, I believe it is. And she was wearing this like
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puffed sleeve generation 78 top that she actually wore as a
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micro baby doll dress. She paired it with knee high Doc
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Martens and no pants. Aside from these two instances,
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she's been stepping out and doing press and looking very
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like cutesy girly frilly baby doll vibes.
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So a lot of people are concerned that this look veering into the
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territory of her trying to like, intentionally look like a
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toddler or infantilize herself. But the baby doll silhouette
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itself has a really long history that actually has not a lot to
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do with actually looking like a quote, UN quote baby doll.
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The style first appeared during World War 2 when fabric
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rationing LED designers to experiment with looser, shorter
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shapes. In the 60's, the style actually
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apparently was more of a symbol of woman's liberation as the
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look was a move away from restrictive, cinched waists and
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tons of fabric to keep women looking quote UN quote, modest.
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And then in the 90s, it became the staple of like, grunge
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fashion. So rock stars like Kourtney Love
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and Kim Gordon, they wore these looks as a wage, almost like a
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subvert the cutesiness of what you would associate with a baby
4:22
doll look. And Olivia has said she is
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inspired by that punk rock side of the silhouette.
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And she's wearing it typically with, like, tougher accessories
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that kind of echoes how past artists mix the softness with
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edge and kind of this playful rebellion.
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So I think this makes sense. Olivia has always had this like
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rock edge to her her even in how she presents herself as a
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celebrity. Like Olivia consistently
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supports women's reproductive rights and has been really vocal
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about political and social causes that honestly, a lot of
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artists in today's day and age are too scared to address.
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And that is what I don't know if punk rock is right word, but
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that is like what punk rock is all about, right?
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Like going against the grain, standing up to the man, like
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standing for something bigger. And I feel like Olivia actually
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does walk the walk with that. So I think it makes sense that
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she would feel inspired by this style if she understands its
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history and its symbolism and women's liberation.
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The baby doll dress was also super popular in the Tumblr era.
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Like indie millennial Twi aesthetic.
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Like this is not a new style and I understand why people are
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hypersensitive to this. Like on the heels of the Epstein
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files and with the rise of conservative values and trad
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wife content, like the infantilization of women and the
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exploitation of girls, feels like it is running rampant right
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now. But I believe looking at
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Olivia's look right now with this puritanical lens, it's a
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slippery slope. This is one of the most popular
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comments going viral right now about this discourse.
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It's from somebody named J Plot, and they wrote no baby doll
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dresses, no rompers, no pigtails, no hair clips, no
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glitter, no bare faces, no Mary Jane's, nothing frilly.
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Do you see how slippery this slope is?
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I also feel like the aesthetic may come together.
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Her album comes out June 12th, so maybe her whole vibe is like
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being in love makes you have this like sense of innocence,
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makes you feel like a little girl again.
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Like maybe it will tie in to the message of the album.
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I imagine it will to an extent. But regardless, I don't think
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that this is a far stray from Olivia's style that we have seen
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in her past two albums and who she is.
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Like she is a rock girl and this is kind of punk rock.
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All right, the next story that I have for you guys today, there
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is an update you guys on the Solid Core influencer drama that
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we reported on back in December. So Anthony Festa, who went viral
6:39
last year after he filmed himself at Solid Core in his
6:42
meta glasses, has apparently been banned from the workout
6:45
studio nationwide. OK, so over American
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Thanksgiving, which I think is in November, Anthony took a
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solid core class and he was the only one who had booked the
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class. He vlogged himself, basically
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giving himself like his own private class.
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And then the instructor walked in halfway through and he was
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vlogging this whole thing again through his meta glasses.
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So this video blew up because obviously, like, that's pretty
7:08
egregious given how expensive those classes are.
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The fact that like the instructor just didn't show up
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till halfway through. He posted this on December 1st
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and then that resulted in a feud between him and Solid Core.
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So he claimed the studio and instructors were trying to
7:22
pressure him to take the video down because it looks bad on
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them and it will threaten the standing of their studio with
7:28
Global. He also said at the time that
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they contacted one of Anthony's friends who goes to Solid Core
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to try and get Anthony to take the video down saying that they
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may have to revoke his membership.
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Now, the other side of this at the time was that apparently the
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class he attended was cancelled because there was no one signed
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up, but there had been a glitch in the system which allowed him
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to sign up right before the class started.
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It was like a 6:00 AM class. So he signed up allegedly like
7:52
550 or whatever. And people said in the original
7:55
video you can make out that he's getting like missed calls and
7:59
texts from the coach. So people are saying he signed
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up and the coach was probably notified and then was trying to
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say like what's going on this class was supposed to be
8:09
cancelled I'm on my way type of thing now.
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At the time someone on Reddit posted this claiming that this
8:15
behavior is not new for him. They said quote.
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I take classes at this studio and have seen this behavior
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multiple times. This isn't a one off situation.
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He often doesn't follow the rules, shows up without being
8:24
registered, takes other people's machines and records during
8:27
classes even after being told not to.
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I've seen him walk out mid class after doing his own routine
8:32
which disrupts everyone else. Now interestingly this is
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seemingly what he has been banned for is what this redditor
8:39
6 months ago wrote. So now he is saying he has
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received this national ban from solid core after he was told by
8:46
corporate that he could not wear the meta glasses anymore because
8:50
they record. And then another part of this is
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he said that he was doing like his own routine, like
8:54
modifications I suppose he called it and they didn't like
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that. So there are multiple parts to
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this and some of it is vlog footage and some of it is him
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talking. I will share a couple clips from
9:03
this. I am nationally banned from
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solid core. This is going to be hard for me
9:10
to do, but I don't want to hide anything from you guys.
9:14
Things all came to a fiery climax two weeks ago.
9:18
This all picks up basically right after that woman told me
9:21
that I smelled. I got an e-mail from one of the
9:24
heads of a department at corporate and here it is.
9:27
So this guy basically reached out to me like right after that
9:30
woman told me I smelled and I'm sorry.
9:33
I don't think I'm in the wrong in that situation.
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This woman clearly came for me and was trying to humiliate me.
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I'm not going to be like, oh, OK, it's OK, babe.
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Like, yeah, you're right. I do smell like I'm going to go.
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No, I'm going to defend myself and stand my ground.
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And he's like, your behavior has been distracting and this that
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the other thing. And he told me that coaches were
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saying that I was swearing at them and stuff like that.
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None of that ever happened you guys.
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Since I went viral for the solid core saga back in December,
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corporate has been on my ass. But only after they realized
10:09
that like they couldn't milk me anymore for whatever.
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Like when I walked across those reformers and was like I got the
10:15
mad again. They never reached out to me
10:18
about any of that stuff. They only started really
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reaching out after I like jumped off the reformer where I was
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like singing like if you want to take a rabbit.
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A bad bitch also said to that guy from corporate.
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What about all the other people that have been posting Solid
10:32
Core videos inside the studio that I've been seeing?
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Are you reaching out to them too to tell them to stop doing that
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or is it just me? So a couple weeks later, I got
10:40
another e-mail from a director at Solid Core Corporate who's
10:44
telling me that there was an issue in the Monday 5:00 AM
10:48
class. This is the e-mail that he sent
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me and said that I was doing something on the machine that I
10:56
wasn't supposed to do. But in his first e-mail, he said
11:00
the Monday class at whatever. At this time, I realize the
11:05
teacher of that class is Jayden, the main star of the original
11:10
Solid Core saga. And I was like, OK, I'm sure
11:15
there's a conflict of interest here.
11:18
Though. Apparently Jayden reached out to
11:20
corporate and told them that she had a problem with me in her
11:22
last week's Monday class and that she came up to me and told
11:26
me to like, stop doing something or I don't even know.
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I just, I'm really curious to find out what that problem was.
11:32
I don't remember there being a problem.
11:36
Jayden, Jayden, Jayden. I hate Jayden.
11:48
I literally hate Jayden. She was such a little brat when
11:52
I just. Talked to her.
11:55
She was like, yeah, I said, you can't wear the glasses.
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And like, well, these are my real.
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Glasses, so that's impossible. Like I'm so done with her.
12:05
She's such a fake bitch honestly.
12:09
Like I left class early. I left class early because I'm
12:13
not comfortable with that girl. Why?
12:15
I'm sorry, how is she? How is she still working here?
12:19
I just wanted to give you a little more clarity on the vlog
12:23
that I just posted. So I showed up to solid core
12:26
early per usual. The door wasn't even open yet.
12:29
The she wasn't even there future ends up coming.
12:32
I like rolled down my window. I'm just like, hey, Jayden,
12:35
like, you know, like trying to ask like I was going to ask like
12:38
why is corporate reaching out to me?
12:40
Like what's going on before class starts, I go up to her and
12:43
I'm like, hey, like, just want to let you know, like got this
12:47
e-mail from corporate. She was like, Oh yeah, you can't
12:50
wear the glasses like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
12:52
blah. Which by the way, like before
12:53
this video, like I wasn't filming in class wasn't wearing
12:56
the glasses. I was just like filming myself
12:59
entering the class in the mirror with nobody in the background,
13:02
which is no different than somebody else taking a selfie.
13:04
A lot of people do that. And I'm like, OK.
13:06
She doesn't even remember what she reached out to them about.
13:09
And Jaden, they didn't reach out to me about the glasses.
13:11
They said that I was doing something You told me to stop,
13:16
like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
13:17
She's like, you were. Yeah.
13:18
Oh, yeah, Yeah. You were doing, like, an upper
13:19
body. Like, you can't do that.
13:22
Like, yeah, this not the other thing.
13:23
You're not supposed to do that. I was just like, OK, So what are
13:26
you trying to do here? Like, are you trying to get me
13:29
kicked out? Like, what is the purpose of all
13:31
this? Like, do you just want me gone?
13:32
OK. So then these are the emails he
13:34
claims happened between himself and Solid Core.
13:37
So apparently from Solid Core. Hey Anthony, I'm reaching out to
13:40
schedule a phone call to connect about recent behavior of yours
13:43
that have been reported at our studio in Darren or something by
13:46
Darren, I'm not sure. Please let me know if you're
13:48
free to hop on a quick phone call at your earliest
13:51
convenience. In the meantime, your membership
13:52
privileges have been temporarily suspended at all solid Core
13:56
studios. He says hi, whatever.
13:58
I have time to chat tonight or tomorrow after 11 AM.
14:01
Sooner the better, so I can understand.
14:02
I did leave class early today because my hamstrings were
14:04
extremely tight and I could not do some of the moves.
14:07
I was too afraid to talk to Jayden and ask for Mod and too
14:10
afraid to try anything else. So I left.
14:13
Slash sat on the machine for the move I could not do.
14:16
I didn't know what to do. I was not sure how the story
14:18
would be spun to corporate, which apparently did not matter.
14:21
And then this person said, hey, Anthony, I wasn't looped into
14:23
you leaving class early today or anything like that.
14:27
And then they say I can call you at this time.
14:28
As somebody who does expensive workout classes here and there,
14:31
you guys know Barry's just like my number one my #1 if you leave
14:35
a Barry's class early or do your own modifications like you don't
14:38
get banned for that. Honestly, this isn't me.
14:42
Bashing solid core this. Isn't me bashing Jayden, this
14:44
isn't me bashing the other teachers.
14:46
Jayden is 1 hell of a teacher. I had great.
14:48
Relationships with all. Of them before I went viral.
14:51
I love solid core it literally. Changed my life.
14:55
I really liked Brian, the CEO when I met him.
14:58
Even the guy that I was on the phone with from corporate.
15:00
He's great. It's just me.
15:02
Going viral changed everything, you know?
15:05
So yeah, I don't know if you guys could make out what
15:07
happened here, but in the vlog that was like Part 2 of his like
15:10
finale at final course series that he's posted, he showed up
15:14
at the solid core class led by an instructor.
15:17
I think it was the original instructor that he had like the
15:19
quote UN quote drama with and she doesn't want him wearing his
15:22
meta glasses. And he was.
15:24
He left class early, called her a brat and a bitch afterwards
15:28
and is now all upset that he was banned.
15:30
So Needless to say after people heard the way that he spoke with
15:34
the instructor, they are largely not on his side.
15:37
And the last story that I have for you guys today is Dua Lipa
15:41
is suing Samsung over using her face to sell TV's.
15:45
This is a random one. We don't often cover lawsuits
15:48
like here and there, I guess. But Dua Lipa super relevant, at
15:51
least to me. And Samsung also super relevant
15:54
given they have been one of Centennial's biggest advertisers
15:57
in the past, not for the past couple of years, but we did work
16:00
with them a lot. So I feel like I have some
16:01
interesting, like, takes on this.
16:03
So Dua Lipa has taken legal action against Samsung filing a
16:07
lawsuit in a California federal court that seeks $15 million in
16:11
damages. So she claims that Samsung used
16:14
a photo of her on the packaging televisions sold in the US
16:17
without her permission or any payment, according to the
16:20
complaint. The image, which was taken
16:22
backstage of the 2024 Austin City Limits Festival and is
16:25
reportedly owned by Dua Lipa. Which is important here because
16:28
there is already a lot of people saying, like, oh, Samsung's
16:31
probably using that photo from like a streamer.
16:33
Like if she had, let's say, like a documentary from this
16:37
performance and it's streaming on Disney or whatever.
16:41
Like maybe Samsung has a deal with Disney and they are
16:43
technically allowed to use this image.
16:45
But apparently, she says this image is owned by her.
16:48
So it appeared prominently on boxes for a wide range of
16:50
Samsung TV's starting in 2025. Her team first discovered the
16:54
packaging in June 2025 and apparently asked Samsung to stop
16:58
using it. But the company allegedly
17:00
ignored the requests. So the lawsuit accuses Samsung
17:03
of copyright infringement, violating California's publicity
17:06
rights laws and false endorsement.
17:08
Her lawyers say that the alleged misuse has damaged her brand,
17:12
which she carefully manages through selective partnerships
17:14
with high profile companies. And I mean, yeah, that would be
17:18
a major issue for an A Lister. If this is true, then this is a
17:22
huge problem because there are so many like non competes and
17:26
technicalities and like legalities going on in
17:29
partnerships even that we do, let alone what somebody would do
17:32
at the level of Dua Lipa. So that could put her at risk of
17:35
losing other opportunities. If brand see that she is
17:38
promoting, quote UN quote, promoting a Samsung TV, They
17:41
think, oh, she's in partnership with Samsung.
17:43
And also, it could put her at risk of possibly being sued or,
17:47
you know, having like, legal issues with some of her current
17:50
partners and ambassadorships because if they feel like she
17:53
didn't disclose that or if they feel like that's a competitor
17:56
brand to something else that she's promoting, but she's not
17:59
actually like being paid to promote that.
18:01
So Dua Lipa has not only filed for financial compensation, but
18:05
also a permanent order preventing Samsung from using
18:08
her likeness in this way in the future.
18:11
So she really is going to sever ties with this brand.
18:13
I mean, I don't know if they were ever going to work
18:14
together, but I it sounds like they never will now.
18:17
Now to me, this just seems crazy.
18:20
Like I know it's not the same at all, but like I said, Samsung
18:23
was one of our biggest partners in the earlier days of
18:26
Centennial and I mean I hope to work with them again.
18:29
Like they were such great partners and they are so
18:32
stringent about like partnerships and messaging and
18:34
all of that. Like truly they dot their IS and
18:37
cross their T's. This shocks me if this is true.
18:40
That's why there are a lot of people on Reddit and TikTok and
18:43
stuff saying do we really think that Samsung, a company that big
18:47
would be first of all using a photo of an A list celebrity in
18:51
that way without knowing that they were allowed to?
18:54
And also then ignoring her lawyers requests for reaching
18:58
out and like the cease and desist or whatever was sent to
19:00
them. Like would they really be like
19:01
ignoring that if they actually had done something wrong?
19:04
Like I don't know. This is just like shocking to
19:06
me. If you guys are in the legal
19:07
field, let me know what you guys think happened here.
19:09
Also, do you think then that the $15 million is what she would
19:15
charge for like a year and a half long ambassadorship?
19:18
Like if this went out in January 2025, then it's been like a year
19:22
and a half ish of the T VS being sold with her face on that.
19:25
Do you think that is her price tag because that could be T2 or
19:29
do you think she's asking for more because it's like a drama?
19:32
Anyways guys, that's it for mini school today.
19:34
Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
19:36
Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
19:39
Please give us your take on the TikTok that I'm going to play
19:41
right after this. I love you guys.
19:43
Annabelle will talk to you guys tomorrow and then I will talk to
19:46
you on Thursday. I actually have an exciting
19:47
interview for you guys on Thursday.
19:49
OK, bye. I think we're witnessing the
19:51
rise of something I'm going to call the influencer Cliff, which
19:53
is when fans or followers fall out of love with an Internet
19:56
figure they once held dear. This has to do with the
19:59
fragility of parasocial relationships, but also the fact
20:02
that influencer growth trajectories leave little room
20:04
for anything aside from selling out.
20:06
It's basically a system where you're designed to take the bait
20:08
and then record the entire dismantling for everyone's
20:11
viewing pleasure. So these breakups tend to happen
20:14
in two ways. 1 is a gradual uncoupling, but the other is
20:17
sudden and intense, as we saw in the case of Bran plagues or
20:19
Victoria Paris at Coachella. And they recognize Coachella is
20:22
now several weeks in the very distant.
20:24
Past but that festival is a pressure cooker for the unspoken
20:27
contracts we hold with public figures and what happens when
20:29
they break them. I came across this creators
20:31
video recently where she pulled her own followers and asked them
20:33
what makes them stop liking a creator.
20:35
And the number one reason unsurprisingly is when their
20:37
entire feed feels like a commercial.
20:39
But number 4 was also very much related when values don't align
20:42
with actions. And this is a kind of half baked
20:44
theory at this point, but I feel like the influencer Cliff often
20:47
takes place at this juncture when theaters try to move from a
20:50
platform level sphere of influence to viable business in
20:54
the outside world. We've seen this happen with
20:56
modern girl bosses like Matilda Girf and Alex Cooper as the
20:59
business practices and working conditions inside their girl
21:01
boss empires gets called into question.
21:04
Because at that point they've ascended from relatable and
21:06
scrappy to full on corporate entity with a team.
21:08
And people just don't root for brands in the same way that they
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root for a person. Ironically, I think some public
21:14
figures become entrepreneurs so that they don't have to do paid
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partnerships. They can just Rep their own
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brand, as we saw with notable activations at Coachella, like
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Kendall Jenner in 818 Tequila or Hailey Bieber.
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Strangely enough, I feel parasocial sympathy for creators
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trying to make it in this age of algorithmic exposure, when you
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can reconcile A favorable public image or become a profit
21:33
machine, but almost never at the same time.
21:35
Centennial World Podcast Network operates on Gadigal land.
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We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the
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traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
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elders both past and present.