Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Olivia Unplugged explained, MrBeast burning building video backlash + LGBTQ+ creator monetisation

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MINI SCROLL: Olivia Unplugged explained, MrBeast burning building video backlash + LGBTQ+ creator monetisation · 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, some exciting news.
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  Some of you guys might know because I've talked about it
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  here and there, but we do some behind the scenes consulting for
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  brands who want to bring in house podcasts to life.
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  So these are not podcasts that live on our network.
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  This Is Us consulting from like a production editorial scripting
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  perspective. And one of our clients, their
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  podcast is launching tomorrow. It's been quite the labor of
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  putting it together. It is a 10 episode founder new
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  And the podcast is called the Anti Work podcast because it's a
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  podcast about avoiding burnout and how to set boundaries as a
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  founder, the mental health toll that being a founder and
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  building a business can take on you.
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  So if you guys care about that kind of content, I'm not in the
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  podcast, Annabel's not in the podcast, but obviously we have
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  very much touched the podcast. So I will put a link down below
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  episode is going up tomorrow and I'm very excited.
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  It's a been a really cool project for us to work on.
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  All right, before we get into the stories for today, as
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  always, please rate, review and subscribe.
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  Please Spotify star rate US. We're still trying to get to
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  OK, the first story that I have for you guys is there's this new
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  viral TikTok creator called Olivia Unplugged.
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  And it's been revealed that she is actually a brand account.
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  So Olivia Unplugged is this new creator and she's been, I mean,
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  at least all over my For you page.
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  I'm sure some of you guys have seen her as well.
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  It's a creator named Olivia. And her most viral or like
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  famous videos are her standing in front of this green white
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  board where she explains topics to the camera.
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  The content that she's explaining is usually centered
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  around mental health and scrolling culture.
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  But the way that it's presented like really fits in with the
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  zeitgeist right now, right? Like that whiteboard explainer
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  content. It's so popular.
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  It's way more popular than like a TikTok green screen.
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  I would say at this point. Anyways, after the account
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  garnered over 100,000 followers and millions of views since it
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  launched just at the end of June, so just a few months ago,
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  it has now been revealed that Olivia Unplugged is actually a
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  brand account for the app Opal, which helps users focus.
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  It's not that this account was hiding that.
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  I wouldn't say they were hiding it at all.
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  Like she mentions Opal Opal here and there in the content.
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  If you go to their page, it says powered by Opal and then you can
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  like Click to download in the link.
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  So they're not hiding that. It was like a brand account, but
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  there was no overt branding like the profile picture, for
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  example. It wasn't the logo.
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  It's Olivia. There's no like product
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  placement, things like that. So Rachel Carton of the Lincoln
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  Bio newsletter, she interviewed Olivia about the account and the
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  strategy behind it. So Olivia is a real person.
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  By the way, it is her actual name.
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  She is a social media manager for Opal and it seems like this
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  concept came to life partly through her and in collaboration
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  with other people on her team. This is what she said to Rachel
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  Carton quote. When I applied for the role, I
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  submitted a video essay alongside my application sharing
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  how Opal changed my life and what I do with their socials.
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  TikTok has always been a space I've loved, so she encouraged me
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  to return to what felt natural storytelling straight to the
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  camera. We decided to test it out as
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  brand owned account and I challenged myself to post
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  everyday for 30 three days. My very first video was about
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  starting a quote UN quote cult, have people obsessed with focus
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  and reclaiming their time and that is still the same message
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  in every video. The infamous green board.
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  The funny thing is we never even bought it.
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  It was literally sitting on the street in Paris after a
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  neighboring VC fund moved offices and somehow we got the
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  heavy thing into ours. It's objectively a terrible
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  board but somehow it has magic. I first used it after seeing a
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  video I loved that was concise, educational and compelling and
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  thought, why not try it? I didn't expect it to resonate
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  in the way that it did, but it makes the message feel instantly
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  digestible, even if you can barely read what I'm writing
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  now. We even get comments like my
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  show is on because people recognize the green board and
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  know exactly what's coming. And yes, it definitely came out
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  of experimentation. I had already posted around 40
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  videos before that one took off. And it's proof that persistence
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  pays off. OK, Yeah, I love this.
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  I love that it shows that experimentation and trying new
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  things pays off. That's something that Annabelle
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  actually was saying about me recently as we were talking
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  about like, what is a superpower that we each have when it comes
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  to like working in startup culture?
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  And she was like, you're never married to an idea.
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  You're really like agile. And I'm really open to trying
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  different things. And I hadn't really considered
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  that, but it's so true. And like, that's what you have
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  to do, especially when it comes to content, right?
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  When you're trying to build a presence on any social media
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  platform or figuring out your content style, whether you're a
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  media brand or, you know, just like a brand brand itself.
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  I mean, I guess a media brand is also a brand, but you know what
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  I mean? Like a company that sells a
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  product or whatever, or even a service.
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  So yeah, I think it's so important.
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  And you will never know what works unless you try a bunch of
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  different things. I also very much subscribe to
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  that mentality when it comes to like careers.
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  That's what I tell the girls all the time because all the girls
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  that work for me for the most part are in their like, early to
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  mid 20s and they're always like, I don't know what I want to do
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  with my life. I'm not sure what's going on.
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  And I'm like, you just have to try a bunch of different things.
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  I had like 100 lives in my 20s and it led me to Centennial and
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  realizing that media, you know, at least for what I presume will
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  be the foreseeable future, is the place that I'm meant to be
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  in my career. And it's something that I love.
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  And you won't know that until you just try a bunch of
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  different shit. OK, The next story that I have
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  for you guys. Well, I'm sorry.
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  I know that people are always like, stop talking about Mr.
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  Beast, OK? I haven't talked about him that
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  much. Maybe in the second-half of this
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  year. I know that there were like,
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  honestly, at one point, like weekly updates about him.
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  But this is a pretty big story. It's made it everywhere.
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  Like, the BBC is covering it. Like everyone is covering it.
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  So Mr. Beast is facing backlash for trapping a man in a burning
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  building in a new video and then defending that decision.
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  Mr. Beast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is no stranger
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  to posting videos that rely on spectacle, and he seems to just
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  be pushing it further and further. 2 days ago, Mr. Beast
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  posted a video titled Would You Risk Dying for $500,000.
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  In the video, the contestant, whose name is Eric, had to get
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  through a variety of death traps to win the money.
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  Side note, Eric is also a professional stuntman.
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  In Jimmy's words Quote, he could win $500,000 if he completes 7
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  fire traps, including getting shot out of a cannon into fire,
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  jumping through death defying rings of fire and surviving
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  massive fiery explosions, and so much more.
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  The video begins with Eric having to pull bags of money out
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  of a room that is entirely set on fire, which obviously is
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  intense to say the least, and at some point he even catches on
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  fire. He completed the challenges with
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  a haul of $350,000. Now naturally there was a lot of
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  backlash to this video, mostly out of safety concerns, and
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  Jimmy has since responded to the backlash.
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  So in a comment underneath the video he wrote in case there's
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  any concern about the safety of the stuntman contestant.
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  I just wanted to mention that we take safety extremely seriously.
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  Every challenge was tested by multiple stuntmen.
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  We have a full rescue team on standby with firefighters, EM,
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  TS, and drivers equipped with an ambulance and fire truck.
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  We also had a pyro team controlling the fires and
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  multiple fire suppression methods on every challenge to
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  ensure we could essentially turn off the fire if there was ever
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  an issue. But our stunt coordinator did an
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  amazing job as always and none of these systems were ever
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  needed. Just wanted to be transparent
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  with you all since I saw some concern and then like I said,
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  this started to get mainstream media attention.
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  So then he took to X and he wrote this blew up.
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  If you're curious. Obviously we had ventilation for
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  the smoke and a kill switch to cut off the fires.
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  We had professionals test this extensively, and the guy in the
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  video, as stated, is a professional stuntman.
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  I take safety more seriously than you could ever imagine.
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  OK, if this is a professional stuntman and there's all of
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  these things in place to, you know, prevent it from actually
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  being that dangerous, my first question is like, why?
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  Why even make it then if if this is actually not a dangerous
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  video to make, why would you even make it?
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  What's the point then? I guess you think if you think
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  about his target audience, OK, the point is actually because 6
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  year olds will watch this and be interested in it and not fully
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  understand what's going on. And then when you think about it
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  from that perspective, you're like, Oh yeah, that's why people
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  hate Mr. Beast because he's posting these videos and he's
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  branding himself as just like a regular Jaguar YouTube guy and
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  he's making these crazy stunts that are super dangerous.
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  And we saw what happened with Jeff Wittek in the vlog squad,
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  right? With his accent, with the
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  excavator, Like we have seen how these stunts for views and
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  engagement can go horribly wrong.
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  I think one of the biggest issues though that people have
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  with this video, aside from all the safety stuff, is that Mister
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  Beast is currently facing allegations of fostering an
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  unsafe work environment and exploiting contestants during
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  the filming of his TV show, Beast Games.
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  And then coming out with a video like this is kind of like you're
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  not beating the allegations, buddy.
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  OK. And the last story that I have
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  for you guys, I've never actually spoken about this
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  creator before. I really like them.
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  But creator Brett Miller, he is a tick tock creator.
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  He makes mostly like skit content.
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  His handle is Britney Spears for anyone that knows.
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  And he's opened up about how monetizing has become
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  increasingly difficult as an LGBTQ plus creator.
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  So he made a recent video literally just a couple hours
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  ago where he starts by talking about how being a content
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  creator full time has really impacted his mental health.
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  And then he went on to explain how part of that is because
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  monetizing has become harder and harder.
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  And now, obviously, this is from a very anecdotal perspective,
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  OK, But I think it's an interesting and important
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  perspective to note and something for us to discuss here
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  is obviously like an Internet culture podcast.
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  He said that he noticed a cultural shift when it came to
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  like paying creators, like brands being willing to pay and
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  work with LGBTQ plus creators after the Dylan Mulvaney Bud
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  Light campaign. In case you missed it, Dylan
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  partnered with Bud Light in 2023.
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  Many Internet users were happy to see a company like Bud Light
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  make a move for trans visibility.
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  But right wing political pundits were quick to criticize the
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  campaign. And Dylan experienced a flood of
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  transphobic vitriol, which she later opened up about and said
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  the brand didn't really do anything to help her.
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  So Brett explains, says, like, it's not Dylan's fault,
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  obviously, but for some reason that was kind of the catalyst
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  for all of these, quote, right wingers to be really aggressive
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  in the fact that they do not like LGBT people promoting
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  products. He says from his own personal
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  experience, he has received increasingly less sponsorships,
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  even though his account has grown substantially.
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  And his comment section is filled with support.
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  And there are other creators in the comment section who are part
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  of the LGBTQ plus community validating this, saying they
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  feel this, and they're experiencing similar things,
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  too. And I think it's a really
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  important conversation right now in the creator economy that I
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  haven't really seen a lot of people talk about.
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  When I reflect back, the Dylan Mulvaney situation with Bud
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  Light actually did feel like a cultural reset, almost like a
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  culturally, very culturally impactful moment.
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  Not in a good way because, you know, it was one of the first
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  times that I think we've seen a brand, you know, align
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  themselves with a very progressive view, progressive
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  stance and then getting backlash.
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  And instead of saying like we stand by Dylan, we stand by this
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  decision. We support trans people, we
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  support the LGBTQ plus IA community, all of that.
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  They basically went back on that stance and caved to public
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  pressure and kind of like low key threw Dylan under the bus
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  publicly. And hearing from a creator like
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  Brett how a moment like that and just how things have been going
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  culturally and politically these past couple of years, like how
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  all of that is genuinely having real world consequences on the
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  people who are shaping the creator economy and shaping art
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  and culture and content and humor.
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  It's actually so horrifying sometimes.
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  I don't think brands understand how important it is, or at least
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  the people at the top understand how important it is to align
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  with progressive values and how beneficial that can be to your
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  brand, especially in the long term.
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  Because pendulums, they swing. I mean, this is like what I have
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  to believe, OK, Pendulums, they swing.
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  And we're going to remember in like 1020 years when hopefully,
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  knock on fucking wood, things have come back to more of like
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  an equilibrium. We're going to remember the
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  brands like Bud Light. We're going to remember the
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  brands that caved under that, like right wing public pressure
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  and stood for nothing basically, and went back on everything that
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  they previously said. They're fucking like rainbow
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  logos, every pride and shit. Like we're going to remember
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  that. So yeah, I just thought, I know
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  it's an anecdotal story, but I thought it was an important one
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  and I think it has a bigger message attached to it.
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  Even if a brand only cares about the bottom line, I feel like
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  kind of caving to the cultural and political pressure right
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  now. It's short sighted and I think
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  it actually will harm the bottom line in the long run.
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  All right guys, that's it for Mini Scroll today.
• 14:50
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 14:52
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 14:55
  Please Spotify star rate US and I will actually, I won't talk to
• 14:58
  you tomorrow. Annabelle will talk to you
• 14:59
  tomorrow and then I will talk to you on Thursday.
• 15:01
  Bye.