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The $50k Influencer Fragrance Fallout · Outspoken the Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
0:06
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
0:10
Speaker 1: Kate Torber. And I'm Amy Torber. And coming up on
0:13
Speaker 1: today's show, drama explodes as an influencer leaves a small
0:17
Speaker 1: fragrance brand high and dry. Coachella 2026 divides opinions and
0:23
Speaker 1: Veruca Salt's mystery baby daddy. But first, Kate, did you
0:26
Speaker 1: manage to get your hands on any of Molly May's
0:28
Speaker 1: Adidas shoes? This is a bit of a sore point
0:30
Speaker 1: for me and rather embarrassing because I actually forgot they
0:33
Speaker 1: were on sale, even though I was so desperate to
0:35
Speaker 1: get them. Well, and despite talking about them on the
0:37
Speaker 1: podcast that day. I know. Well, this is mum life
0:40
Speaker 1: for you. I was rushing around all day. We actually
0:42
Speaker 1: were at a barbecue at your house. I was like,
0:43
Speaker 1: oh my God, they've been on sale for three hours.
0:46
Speaker 1: And it appeared they had sold out, but that actually
0:49
Speaker 1: wasn't the case. There was a headline saying that they
0:51
Speaker 1: sold out within, I think it was four minutes.
0:53
Speaker 2: Yes.
0:54
Speaker 1: Well, the whole thing was really confusing because Molly May
0:57
Speaker 1: and Adidas collaborated on a post to promote the fact
0:59
Speaker 1: that the shoes were available. But I was really surprised
1:03
Speaker 1: because Molly didn't actually post any stories. So she didn't
1:06
Speaker 1: directly link her followers to the shoes. Now, Adidas shared
1:10
Speaker 1: a couple of stories that linked directly to their UK
1:12
Speaker 1: stores and all of the shoes were sold out there. However,
1:16
Speaker 1: there were still some larger sizes available at JD's, ASOS
1:20
Speaker 1: and Office. So It was confusing because people were getting
1:24
Speaker 1: this message that they were all sold out. And then
1:25
Speaker 1: a lot of her followers were saying, actually, no, you
1:28
Speaker 1: can still find some at the other stores. You could
1:30
Speaker 1: also purchase them in person at six Adidas stores in England.
1:34
Speaker 1: I saw Molly's sister Zoe Ray put up this TikTok
1:37
Speaker 1: about how they shut down the Adidas Manchester store for
1:41
Speaker 1: her friends and family to go to. And the shoes
1:43
Speaker 1: just looked so cool. Like I got swept up in
1:47
Speaker 1: all the hype. I would have taken any of the shoes. Well,
1:49
Speaker 1: apparently people have been on selling them online. I said
1:53
Speaker 1: that on Friday people would be doing that.
1:55
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:56
Speaker 1: Well, I have a little glimmer of hope we potentially
1:59
Speaker 1: could get our hands on them at some stage because
2:01
Speaker 1: Adidas has revealed the shoes will be available outside the
2:04
Speaker 1: UK soon. So I'm guessing that they did a limited
2:06
Speaker 1: drop to create hype and that they're going to be
2:10
Speaker 1: selling a lot more of the shoes in the future.
2:12
Speaker 1: It's actually crazy how much interest there is in these shoes.
2:15
Speaker 1: There was a stat I read recently that said The
2:18
Speaker 1: search terms containing Molly Mae and Adidas grew by over 2,600%.
2:22
Speaker 1: This actually reminds me of back in 2015 or 2016
2:27
Speaker 1: when Kylie Jenner did a collaboration with Puma and suddenly
2:31
Speaker 1: Puma was cool again. I think Adidas has already had
2:35
Speaker 1: quite a resurgence with their Adidas originals. I've seen everyone
2:38
Speaker 1: wearing their track pants. And I think this is only
2:41
Speaker 1: going to help the cause.
2:44
Speaker 3: Guys, I'm about to give you some juicy gossip.
2:48
Speaker 1: Veruca Salt has revealed she had to do a paternity
2:51
Speaker 1: test to determine who the father of her twins is.
2:54
Speaker 1: The pregnant influencer told her 1.5 million TikTok followers that
2:59
Speaker 1: it was a toss-up between two men she's been casually seeing. Now,
3:03
Speaker 1: this video went off. It's already had 3 million views,
3:07
Speaker 1: and she admitted in it that the process of determining
3:09
Speaker 1: the fathers was not going well. So quite surprisingly, she
3:14
Speaker 1: was actually happy to name both the men. So the
3:17
Speaker 1: first guy's name is Mike and she described him as
3:21
Speaker 1: a perfect angel male who is dealing with his responsibilities.
3:25
Speaker 1: As for the other man, things aren't so great. His
3:27
Speaker 1: name is Charles and Veruca described him as the devil
3:31
Speaker 1: walking among us. She also called him a, see you
3:35
Speaker 1: next Tuesday, a monster and a effing psychopath. Let's listen
3:40
Speaker 1: to more of what Veruca said about Charles just to
3:43
Speaker 1: paint a further picture for you.
3:45
Speaker 3: Like, the frustrating thing about it is, like, he's just
3:50
Speaker 3: acting like this because he's scared he's going to lose
3:51
Speaker 3: his hose. And I'm supposed to pretend to give a shit.
3:55
Speaker 4: I don't care.
3:56
Speaker 3: I don't care that you built a life of lies
3:58
Speaker 3: and there's 20 bitches out there who think that you're
4:00
Speaker 3: their boyfriend. Like, you built a life of lies. One
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Speaker 3: day the lies are going to come crumbling down. Ain't
4:06
Speaker 3: got shit to do with me, brother.
4:08
Speaker 1: Now, Veruca said, knowing her luck, of course, Charles is
4:12
Speaker 1: going to be the father of Now, last week, both
4:15
Speaker 1: men took a prenatal paternity test. Unfortunately, Veruca said that
4:19
Speaker 1: Charles was quite aggressive when he met her at the
4:22
Speaker 1: hospital to take the test and accidentally hurt her. Now,
4:26
Speaker 1: the other potential father, Mike, then joined Veruca 30 minutes
4:29
Speaker 1: later to do his test, and she said she broke
4:32
Speaker 1: down in front of him. I feel really sorry for
4:35
Speaker 1: Veruca because it's clear that she just wants to come
4:37
Speaker 1: home to Australia. I mean, she's already spoken about how
4:41
Speaker 1: bad the hospital system is over in the U.S., She
4:44
Speaker 1: got billed $ 4, 000 for two ultrasounds and a blood test.
4:48
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just unheard of here. I'm on the
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Speaker 1: side of TikTok where I'm getting served content from US
4:54
Speaker 1: women talking about the bills that they've had to endure
4:57
Speaker 1: just from having a baby. And it's absolutely wild. Like
5:01
Speaker 1: if I was Veruca, I would be heading home. And
5:04
Speaker 1: it sounds like that potentially could have been on the
5:06
Speaker 1: cards if Mike was the father, because Veruca made this
5:10
Speaker 1: comment about how Charles doesn't understand how good Australia is
5:14
Speaker 1: and she's trying to get it into his head that
5:16
Speaker 1: you might not want to be in the baby's lives
5:18
Speaker 1: at the moment, but when they're really cute and three
5:20
Speaker 1: years old, you will. And for her, that means she
5:24
Speaker 1: has to stay in the US if he wants to
5:26
Speaker 1: be a part of the kids' lives. But she said
5:28
Speaker 1: she doesn't want to take that opportunity away from the
5:31
Speaker 1: father either and take them back to Australia. It sounds
5:33
Speaker 1: like a very difficult situation that she's in at the moment. Look,
5:36
Speaker 1: this whole thing just sounds like a soap opera and
5:38
Speaker 1: I don't mean to be that person. But this would
5:41
Speaker 1: be working really well for Veruca's back pocket because she
5:44
Speaker 1: is now part of the TikTok creator fund. And these
5:47
Speaker 1: kind of storylines like, who is the father? These dilemmas
5:51
Speaker 1: of where are we going to live? It's obviously helping
5:53
Speaker 1: her out. Well, I can see why she's presenting it
5:56
Speaker 1: in this salacious way. I mean, she opened up the
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Speaker 1: TikTok with, have I got some juicy gossip for you?
6:02
Speaker 1: There was no way I was scrolling off this story
6:05
Speaker 1: when she opened with that line. So she obviously knows
6:08
Speaker 1: how to generate views. All of her videos often get
6:11
Speaker 1: millions of views. I mean, she needs the money in
6:14
Speaker 1: order to actually cover the hospital bills to have a
6:16
Speaker 1: baby in the US. Coachella content has gotten so out
6:22
Speaker 1: of hand. I went to Coachella with my family when
6:24
Speaker 1: I was like 13 years old because it used to
6:26
Speaker 1: be about like music and art and culture.
6:29
Speaker 3: And now it's like literally Influencer Olympics.
6:33
Speaker 1: Coachella is officially back dominating Alpha U page. The music
6:37
Speaker 1: festival dubbed the Influencer Olympics kicked off on Friday and
6:41
Speaker 1: is already dividing opinions. Now, Kate, before we unpack our
6:45
Speaker 1: complicated thoughts about Coachella this year, let's do a quick
6:48
Speaker 1: around the grounds on who's there from Australia. Yeah, well,
6:52
Speaker 1: let's start with Sammy Gooks because her Coachella status has
6:55
Speaker 1: been keeping me up at night since she was accused
6:58
Speaker 1: of dry begging brands for a free ticket. So on
7:01
Speaker 1: Friday's show, we said it didn't look like she was going,
7:04
Speaker 1: but we were wrong. So it turns out Manifestation works
7:08
Speaker 1: because Sam Guggs managed to get herself a ticket to Coachella.
7:12
Speaker 1: So she is in Palm Springs with two of her friends. However,
7:15
Speaker 1: it appears that she has had to fund her own
7:18
Speaker 1: way there. Oh my God. I know. Can you imagine?
7:21
Speaker 1: So she's staying in a hotel with her friends. And
7:24
Speaker 1: at the time of recording, she doesn't appear to be
7:26
Speaker 1: working with any brands or going to any brand parties.
7:29
Speaker 1: She did, however, collaborate with a label called Eloni Couture
7:34
Speaker 1: on the outfit she was wearing on day one. It
7:36
Speaker 1: was a one-of-a-kind handmade lace dress, which was absolutely stunning.
7:40
Speaker 1: A lot of people were saying that she won the
7:42
Speaker 1: day one outfit of Coachella amongst the Aussie influencers. Did
7:45
Speaker 1: you see the TikTok where Jade Tunchi was saying that
7:48
Speaker 1: if she went to Coachella, she would just wear activewear
7:50
Speaker 1: because she actually wants to dance? And she said it
7:53
Speaker 1: must be freezing in some of those outfits. As much
7:56
Speaker 1: as I love that, we've got to remember that influencers
7:58
Speaker 1: have been brought there by brands, not Sammy Googs, but
8:01
Speaker 1: other influencers have been paid to go there by brands
8:03
Speaker 1: who want them to showcase their clothes. Well, Lorna Jane
8:07
Speaker 1: could surely send a few people. That is true. I mean,
8:10
Speaker 1: I could not think of anything worse than being in
8:12
Speaker 1: some of these outfits that I'm seeing at a festival. Firstly,
8:14
Speaker 1: you'd be freezing. And secondly, it would be so uncomfortable.
8:18
Speaker 1: Back to Sam Guggs, it doesn't seem like her trip's
8:20
Speaker 1: going too well because she said she'd been in a
8:22
Speaker 1: minor car crash, which caused her to miss getting to
8:24
Speaker 1: the festival in daylight again. I mean, that would be
8:28
Speaker 1: a bit of a kick in the dick considering you
8:30
Speaker 1: actually paid for your ticket and you had missed a
8:32
Speaker 1: whole portion of the day. Well, meanwhile, her ex-bestie Izzy Armitage,
8:37
Speaker 1: she's absolutely living it up at Beginning Boutique's villa with
8:40
Speaker 1: a bunch of other influencers. So Beginning Boutique is clearly
8:44
Speaker 1: team Izzy and it's been interesting that no other brand
8:47
Speaker 1: wanted to host Sam. Yeah, it is pretty surprising considering
8:51
Speaker 1: that she is an influencer that is literally on every
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Speaker 1: invite list in Australia. I do think the fatphobic comments
8:57
Speaker 1: really hindered her chances of getting a Coachella invite and
9:01
Speaker 1: also the fact that she's had a falling out with
9:02
Speaker 1: a lot of Australian influencers. I think she's there, though,
9:06
Speaker 1: kind of putting the feelers out to see if she
9:08
Speaker 1: can get any crumbs from brands, you know, maybe get
9:11
Speaker 1: invited to a party or something. Yeah, well, in a
9:13
Speaker 1: further kick to the dig, Sam's other nemesis, Sofa Dofa,
9:17
Speaker 1: she's been front and centre at Coachella. She's staying in
9:21
Speaker 1: this fuck-off villa with the likes of Jackie Alexander and
9:24
Speaker 1: Rani Bransbury. Now, I've been lapping up their content, but
9:28
Speaker 1: I am still confused which brand is actually hosting them. Like,
9:31
Speaker 1: they're not tagging them. Yeah, I've got no idea. That's
9:35
Speaker 1: what I don't get. Like, how do these people keep
9:37
Speaker 1: getting invites back when they don't even clearly disclose who
9:40
Speaker 1: they're there with? Sofa Dofa has already sparked a bit
9:43
Speaker 1: of controversy week one of Coachella because... She seemingly took
9:47
Speaker 1: a pot shot at Sam Guggs when she posted this
9:50
Speaker 1: video of her and her three friends strutting down Rodeo Drive.
9:54
Speaker 1: So she captioned the video, daily reminder, you pick your friends,
9:57
Speaker 1: so at least choose hot ones. And she captioned the
10:00
Speaker 1: video sorry not sorry wow yeah i mean i found
10:04
Speaker 1: it awkward because all of the friends were clearly attractive
10:08
Speaker 1: and thin so two of them had their stomachs exposed
10:11
Speaker 1: they all had abs and i just thought Doesn't quite
10:14
Speaker 1: hit right after Sofa Dofa called out the fat phobic
10:17
Speaker 1: comments that Sam Guggs made. It just seemed like the
10:20
Speaker 1: video was in a similar vein. It literally looked like
10:22
Speaker 1: a scene out of Mean Girls.
10:23
Speaker 4: It did.
10:24
Speaker 1: It really did. And I was like, oh, like, cause
10:27
Speaker 1: I like all of those influences, but I'm like, why
10:30
Speaker 1: are you posting this shit? Like it might seem funny
10:32
Speaker 1: at the time, but can't anyone look beyond it and go,
10:35
Speaker 1: wait a sec, this probably doesn't look great on TikTok.
10:39
Speaker 1: Especially because there'd be so many people that have FOMO
10:41
Speaker 1: at the moment of missing out. I mean, it is Bieber-chella.
10:44
Speaker 1: I'm someone who could not think anything worse of being
10:48
Speaker 1: at Coachella. Like it seems like my absolute nightmare to
10:50
Speaker 1: be uncomfortable in the desert amongst these people. But I
10:54
Speaker 1: was even a bit like, oh, I would have liked
10:56
Speaker 1: to see Bieber. I was really excited to see Sammy
10:58
Speaker 1: Robinson there. And I was looking at her and I'm like,
11:01
Speaker 1: Why does she look different? And then I realised she's
11:03
Speaker 1: gone fully blonde for the event. Yeah, it felt like
11:06
Speaker 1: a throwback to her OG days, seeing her bleach blonde again.
11:10
Speaker 1: She filmed this incredible business class mukbang that I was
11:14
Speaker 1: absolutely drawn to. Like I couldn't take my eyes off
11:18
Speaker 1: the screen. There's a way that she eats that is
11:20
Speaker 1: just quite hypnotic. She's just so effortless in front of
11:23
Speaker 1: the camera. Yeah, she eats quite elegantly. I just couldn't–
11:26
Speaker 1: what I loved about the video– Was how drunk she
11:29
Speaker 1: was getting throughout. She kept having an update of how
11:33
Speaker 1: many wines she was having. Also, how much water did
11:36
Speaker 1: she drink? Because she showed her, I think it was
11:39
Speaker 1: like a 1.5 litre bottle and she said she makes
11:41
Speaker 1: sure she gets through this on the flight. Then she
11:43
Speaker 1: was downing all those wines. If that was me, I
11:46
Speaker 1: would be sitting on the toilet the whole time. I
11:49
Speaker 1: just don't get how she got the bottle of water
11:51
Speaker 1: through the... customs I think they've changed some of the
11:54
Speaker 1: rules oh because I remember it was like if you
11:55
Speaker 1: had any liquids it was thrown out I was wondering
11:57
Speaker 1: if it was because she was in business class I
11:59
Speaker 1: mean it shows how long ago I traveled obviously economy
12:04
Speaker 1: I really loved her outfit though I thought she looked
12:06
Speaker 1: really classy compared to some of the other influencers who
12:09
Speaker 1: I think have been looking quite tacky so she wore
12:12
Speaker 1: this beautiful long white dress that was of course from
12:15
Speaker 1: one mile with a brown chunky belt Again, she just
12:18
Speaker 1: looks so effortless. Let's be real though, Sammy can wear
12:21
Speaker 1: a potato sack and she'd still look amazing. Now we
12:23
Speaker 1: need to talk about Tammy at Coachella because she's back
12:26
Speaker 1: after a hiatus and she's really back to business, I
12:30
Speaker 1: would say. She is showing the other influencers how it's
12:33
Speaker 1: done because day one, she was ticking off her brand deliverables.
12:37
Speaker 1: She filmed a villa tour. She filmed herself at the
12:40
Speaker 1: White Fox HQ picking out outfits. I think it's because
12:45
Speaker 1: She wanted to make sure she got her work done
12:47
Speaker 1: before she got absolutely obliterated at Coachella so she could
12:50
Speaker 1: actually enjoy the festival. Well, good on her. As long
12:53
Speaker 1: as you're giving out your discount code. She even appeared
12:57
Speaker 1: on White Fox Boutique's After Dark podcast. I'm looking forward
13:00
Speaker 1: to hearing that come out. I'm actually loving the content
13:03
Speaker 1: she's producing from Coachella because she filmed this hilarious video
13:06
Speaker 1: of her and a bunch of the other girls going
13:08
Speaker 1: down the water slide in the villa. And they're all,
13:11
Speaker 1: you know, having so much fun splashing about. And then...
13:14
Speaker 1: You can see her phone fall into the pool and
13:18
Speaker 1: their shocked faces are just absolutely hilarious. It's like the
13:22
Speaker 1: worst thing that's ever happened. Yeah, the panic in their
13:25
Speaker 1: eyes is real. I mean, it obviously survived because she
13:28
Speaker 1: was able to upload the content. I mean, I suppose
13:31
Speaker 1: it makes sense. She's probably filmed all these videos that
13:33
Speaker 1: she needs to deliver on. If you're grading all of
13:35
Speaker 1: the brand houses, I think that White Foxes is the
13:38
Speaker 1: best because you have to look at the tier of
13:40
Speaker 1: influencer that's staying there. I mean, obviously Tammy's there. But
13:43
Speaker 1: they've also got Love Island VIPs Millie Hurd and Chloe Burrows.
13:47
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine if they got someone like
13:50
Speaker 1: Molly May at Coachella? It would be her worst nightmare.
13:53
Speaker 1: But she would never go to Coachella. I mean, I
13:56
Speaker 1: saw that she was saying that she had FOMO watching
13:59
Speaker 1: Justin Bieber, but there is no way Molly Mae would
14:01
Speaker 1: ever go to Coachella. It's just not her scene. I mean,
14:04
Speaker 1: we were speaking on the show the other day about
14:06
Speaker 1: how she doesn't even want to have a wedding because
14:07
Speaker 1: she wants to be in bed by 9pm. Well, to
14:10
Speaker 1: be fair, Justin Bieber's set would have been perfect for
14:13
Speaker 1: Molly because he literally rocked up in a huge hoodie
14:16
Speaker 1: and played YouTube songs and sung to them, almost karaoke style.
14:20
Speaker 1: So Molly would love that. There's been a bit of
14:22
Speaker 1: talk about that, hasn't there?
14:23
Speaker 2: Yeah.
14:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love the impersonations on TikTok. It seems like
14:26
Speaker 1: everybody's husband or boyfriend did the same thing where they
14:29
Speaker 1: entered into the lounge room in a hoodie singing. Back
14:33
Speaker 1: to Tammy. It's pretty interesting because she was spotted with
14:36
Speaker 1: Chase and Miranda from the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
14:40
Speaker 1: And it's quite juicy because Chase recently admitted on Harry
14:44
Speaker 1: Jowsey's podcast that Tammy has been his celebrity crush since
14:48
Speaker 1: 2017 and he hoped he saw her at Coachella. So
14:52
Speaker 1: that resulted in quite a few trolls going and razzing
14:56
Speaker 1: up Tammy's new boyfriend, Grayson T. Moana, on his Instagram
15:00
Speaker 1: because he posted this reel of him strutting around at
15:02
Speaker 1: the races with the caption, pretending I'm fine, but I
15:05
Speaker 1: won't be at 4.25 p.m. today, which was, of course,
15:08
Speaker 1: the time Justin Bieber was appearing on stage at Coachella.
15:11
Speaker 1: I assumed he was riding Tammy's coattails and would be there,
15:14
Speaker 1: but clearly she didn't get a plus one. Maybe White
15:16
Speaker 1: Fox Boutique looked at his 4,000 followers on Instagram or whatnot. Sorry,
15:20
Speaker 1: it's like 100K and above to get in here. I mean,
15:24
Speaker 1: I can understand because Coachella is actually a big payday
15:28
Speaker 1: for influencers. Not only do they get to go there
15:31
Speaker 1: for free and be treated like VIPs, but a lot
15:34
Speaker 1: of them also get paid to be there. So an
15:37
Speaker 1: influencer called Brooke Wyatt has actually lifted the lid on
15:40
Speaker 1: how much some influencers are getting paid to be at
15:43
Speaker 1: Coachella this year. So Brooke has almost 500,000 followers on TikTok.
15:48
Speaker 1: And she shared with her followers that she received an
15:50
Speaker 1: email five days out from Coachella from a brand offering
15:54
Speaker 1: to pay her $ 10, 000 to go on their brand trip.
15:58
Speaker 1: In addition to the payment, she was also offered return
16:01
Speaker 1: business class flights, transfers, accommodation, all of the food was covered,
16:06
Speaker 1: and of course, a VIP pass to the festival. Now,
16:09
Speaker 1: if you can believe it, she ended up turning down
16:12
Speaker 1: the offer because her best friend was visiting from New
16:14
Speaker 1: York and she felt too bad. to her friend. I mean,
16:17
Speaker 1: she asked if she could get a plus one and
16:19
Speaker 1: the brand said no. Let's take a listen to more
16:21
Speaker 1: of what she said. In the spirit of financial transparency,
16:25
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't talk about how some of
16:26
Speaker 1: your favorite creators are going to Coachella and it's completely
16:30
Speaker 1: not only paid for, but they're also being paid.
16:32
Speaker 4: To be there.
16:35
Speaker 1: Now, as you can imagine, this video went viral and
16:37
Speaker 1: has over 628,000 views at the time of recording. I'd
16:41
Speaker 1: love to know what the brand deliverables were. Well, she
16:44
Speaker 1: didn't actually go into the exact deliverables this brand want,
16:47
Speaker 1: but she said that when it comes to Coachella, brands
16:49
Speaker 1: are very clear about about what they expect. And she
16:53
Speaker 1: said that brands know that influencers often will go above
16:56
Speaker 1: and beyond once they're there because they're so, you know,
16:59
Speaker 1: in awe of the fact that they're at Coachella, they're
17:01
Speaker 1: at this beautiful villa. And that's why it really pays
17:04
Speaker 1: off for brands to, you know, put a big chunk
17:06
Speaker 1: of advertising dollars towards an event like Coachella, because they
17:10
Speaker 1: know they're going to get more for their money. It'd
17:12
Speaker 1: be really interesting to see what the return on investment
17:14
Speaker 1: is for some of these businesses, because as you said earlier, Kate,
17:17
Speaker 1: Sometimes I have no idea who the influencer has even
17:20
Speaker 1: traveled with because the content is that bad. And I
17:24
Speaker 1: often think like, who the hell are buying these outfits? Like,
17:26
Speaker 1: I know I'm not the target demographic, but I'm like,
17:29
Speaker 1: is anyone actually copying their outfits? And what events are
17:32
Speaker 1: they wearing them to? But it's like runway shows. No
17:35
Speaker 1: one actually wears the weird outfits that they have at
17:37
Speaker 1: the runway shows. It's all about brand exposure. I was
17:41
Speaker 1: really interested this year to see what the feedback about
17:44
Speaker 1: Coachella was going to be like, because Ever since 2020,
17:48
Speaker 1: it's really attracted quite snarky commentary. And I think this
17:52
Speaker 1: year there's been a bit of a mix. I think
17:54
Speaker 1: Justin Bieber has actually elevated it more to an event
17:57
Speaker 1: that people are like, oh, actually, I really want to
17:59
Speaker 1: go to what I'm interested in this year, particularly millennials.
18:02
Speaker 1: Do you realize how much he got paid to do
18:04
Speaker 1: that set? Yeah, it was like $ 10 million. And Kate,
18:08
Speaker 1: you need to go on TikTok because I know you
18:09
Speaker 1: haven't seen the full thing. He's literally sitting on stage
18:12
Speaker 1: playing his own YouTubes, not even just music, but He
18:15
Speaker 1: was playing videos of him reacting to the paparazzi and
18:18
Speaker 1: just laughing. It was the weirdest thing. Oh, yeah. I
18:20
Speaker 1: have actually seen that clip. I haven't had time to
18:22
Speaker 1: catch up on the whole thing. It's been reported that
18:24
Speaker 1: Netflix are actually doing a behind the scenes doco of
18:27
Speaker 1: the lead up to his performance at Coachella, which I'm
18:30
Speaker 1: really keen to watch. Now, back to the mixed opinions
18:34
Speaker 1: on Coachella. An Australian content creator called Madison Browne posted
18:38
Speaker 1: a video with the caption, am I crazy or is
18:41
Speaker 1: no one talking about how much we're glorifying brands spending
18:44
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands to send influences to Coachella when it's
18:48
Speaker 1: one of the most problematic countries in the world right now?
18:51
Speaker 1: Such a good point. I want to point out in
18:53
Speaker 1: terms of California where the festival is held, they're predominantly
18:57
Speaker 1: made up of Democrat voters. But It really crossed my mind.
19:02
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, it is feeling rather dystopian at
19:05
Speaker 1: the moment. We've got the headlines about what's going on
19:08
Speaker 1: in the Middle East, and then you've got all these
19:10
Speaker 1: influencers living it up at Coachella. It has made me
19:13
Speaker 1: feel a bit ick. Yeah, I totally agree. I'm actually
19:16
Speaker 1: surprised that more people haven't been talking about that very point.
19:20
Speaker 1: It's interesting though, because I think the war in Iran
19:23
Speaker 1: is part of the reasons why people are so divided.
19:25
Speaker 1: Because In one camp, you've got people saying, oh, it's
19:29
Speaker 1: so revolting to watch this going on when we know
19:31
Speaker 1: what's going on in the Middle East. And then the
19:33
Speaker 1: other camp are like, I'm in such desperate need for
19:36
Speaker 1: a distraction. Hook these videos to my veins. It was
19:39
Speaker 1: quite funny. One Aussie content creator called Miranda Davidson posted
19:43
Speaker 1: in defense of influencers at Coachella. Let's take a listen
19:46
Speaker 1: to what she said.
19:49
Speaker 5: Influencers who've every second of their Coachella trip are keeping
19:54
Speaker 5: me alive at this point. If I see one of
19:56
Speaker 5: you bully them in the comments, I'm going to fucking
19:59
Speaker 5: go postal. I need this content. I need it.
20:04
Speaker 1: As much as I have been getting a bit of
20:06
Speaker 1: the ick, I have to admit, though, I have been
20:09
Speaker 1: actually glued to what's been going on. And I almost
20:13
Speaker 1: feel like this Coachella has a bit of a 2016 vibe.
20:15
Speaker 1: It does. It definitely does. Because I couldn't have cared
20:19
Speaker 1: less the last couple of years. But I haven't actually
20:22
Speaker 1: been searching out the content, but it's been appearing a
20:25
Speaker 1: lot on my For You page. And I've been actually
20:28
Speaker 1: really enjoying it. Yeah, I think we're at a stage
20:31
Speaker 1: with this global turmoil that it's almost like, we need
20:35
Speaker 1: influencers more than ever to create distractions, whether it's in
20:39
Speaker 1: the form of them pissing us off because they're being
20:41
Speaker 1: so tone deaf at Coachella, or if it's like, I
20:44
Speaker 1: want to watch Sammy Robinson doing a mukbang. But do
20:46
Speaker 1: you also think it's because at home, a lot of
20:48
Speaker 1: us are vicariously living through the influencers, like especially those
20:51
Speaker 1: of us with children. And that's why it has this
20:54
Speaker 1: 2016 feel almost because when it was 2016, that's when
20:57
Speaker 1: we were in our heyday in our 20s. Well, I
21:00
Speaker 1: think a lot of us are reliving our youth. The
21:02
Speaker 1: fact that, you know, it's very poignant for millennials because
21:04
Speaker 1: Justin Bieber's headlining it. We're all in our feels and
21:08
Speaker 1: wishing that we were there to see Justin Bieber. But yeah,
21:12
Speaker 1: it's really interesting. I'm looking forward to what week two brings.
21:15
Speaker 4: Influencers would do this to a small business and to
21:21
Speaker 4: a one-man show rather than to someone bigger.
21:25
Speaker 1: The owner of a small fragrance brand has been left
21:28
Speaker 1: $ 50, 000 out of pocket after an influencer allegedly pulled out
21:32
Speaker 1: of a collaboration after getting a better offer. While the
21:36
Speaker 1: influencer's identity remains a secret, speculation has already gone into overdrive. Now, Kate,
21:42
Speaker 1: it's believed that this small business owner invested the last
21:45
Speaker 1: of her money into the collaboration. Isn't that terrible? It's
21:49
Speaker 1: hard to believe anyone would actually do this to a
21:52
Speaker 1: small business owner. particularly when the economic climate is already
21:56
Speaker 1: so tough. Now, the business in question is an independent
22:00
Speaker 1: fragrance brand by Vatari, which is owned and operated by
22:04
Speaker 1: sole business owner, Sophia Marie Vatari. Now, Sophia is a
22:08
Speaker 1: 34-year-old new mom who started the brand back in 2021. Now,
22:13
Speaker 1: this brand has 57,000 followers on Instagram and has previously
22:17
Speaker 1: collaborated with influencers before, including Ella Ding from Married at
22:21
Speaker 1: First Sight. Now, Sophia revealed on Thursday that her deal
22:25
Speaker 1: with the mystery influencer had gone south, leaving her $ 50, 000
22:29
Speaker 1: out of pocket. And she explained that she'd brought the
22:33
Speaker 1: influencer on board to collaborate on the perfume line, but
22:36
Speaker 1: didn't get this creator to sign a contract, which she
22:39
Speaker 1: said was common practice for her with influencers. Her theory
22:43
Speaker 1: is that it costs so much money to actually take
22:45
Speaker 1: an influencer to court, it really wasn't worth making a contract.
22:49
Speaker 1: Let's have a listen to what she said.
22:52
Speaker 4: This influencer agreed to our collaboration which was really exciting
22:56
Speaker 4: and everything was confirmed and I ordered everything. I spent
22:59
Speaker 4: the last money that the business had which was around
23:01
Speaker 4: $ 50, 000 to get everything ordered because I have minimum order
23:05
Speaker 4: quantities being colorful bottles. After everything arrived another bigger fragrance
23:11
Speaker 4: business reached out to her to do a collaboration but
23:14
Speaker 4: that meant she.
23:14
Speaker 2: Can't do two and she emailed us saying that she
23:17
Speaker 2: can't do this collaboration with us anymore which I'm not
23:20
Speaker 2: even sad about that. It just Influencers would do this
23:24
Speaker 2: to a small business and to a one-man show rather
23:28
Speaker 2: than to someone bigger because of the power behind it.
23:31
Speaker 2: That's why it's so sad because money talks and relationships
23:36
Speaker 2: don't matter.
23:38
Speaker 1: That is hard to listen to. My heart breaks for Sophia.
23:43
Speaker 1: In terms of having no contract though, I was quite
23:45
Speaker 1: surprised because in this day and age, it's so easy
23:48
Speaker 1: to get ChatGPT to write up a contract for you.
23:50
Speaker 1: Even You know, I mean, she's saying that it costs
23:52
Speaker 1: so much to actually, you know, follow it up. But
23:56
Speaker 1: I just feel like validates things a lot more. You know,
23:59
Speaker 1: you know what the terms are. It's clearly stipulated. And
24:02
Speaker 1: this big brand probably said to the influencer, oh, so
24:04
Speaker 1: have you got a contract? And they're probably like, no.
24:06
Speaker 1: And they said, well, just go with us. Sophia also
24:10
Speaker 1: went on to say that the $ 50, 000 is gone and
24:13
Speaker 1: they will have to pay to get rid of the stock.
24:15
Speaker 1: She finished by saying this.
24:19
Speaker 2: Now, influencers were out in force to support her.
24:41
Speaker 1: Tully Smythe wrote, don't get rid of anything. Pivot, drop them,
24:45
Speaker 1: release the line regardless, screw her, get another influencer to
24:49
Speaker 1: step up. I would, and I'm sure a lot of
24:51
Speaker 1: others would be happy to as well. This is not
24:54
Speaker 1: 50,000 down the drain. It's just a redirection. You've got this. Now,
24:59
Speaker 1: Emma Hawkins wrote, no, I'm so sorry. I'm happy to
25:01
Speaker 1: help you in any way. While Ella Ding wrote, you're
25:04
Speaker 1: amazing for sharing. I love you. Emily Hembrough also wrote,
25:08
Speaker 1: so sorry this happened to you. I would love to
25:10
Speaker 1: help in any way possible. Keep going, mama. You got this.
25:14
Speaker 1: Now I'm looking at these comments and I'm going, what
25:17
Speaker 1: a fabulous Mother's Day collaboration this would be. There's quite
25:20
Speaker 1: a few mums in there. Well, how's this for a
25:23
Speaker 1: new perfume name? A follower suggested the Betrayal Collection. That
25:29
Speaker 1: is actually really good. Now, the most notable comment came
25:33
Speaker 1: from Raquel Boris, who is the founder of perfume brand
25:36
Speaker 1: Who Is Elijah. Now, if you can believe it, it
25:39
Speaker 1: was almost a year ago that she was caught up
25:41
Speaker 1: in her own collab scandal with fitness influencer Sarah's Day. Now,
25:45
Speaker 1: just as a bit of a refresher, Sarah announced in
25:48
Speaker 1: July that her collab with Who Is Elijah was over. Now,
25:51
Speaker 1: at the time, she alleged that she learned the partnership
25:54
Speaker 1: was over via an email with Sarah saying that she
25:57
Speaker 1: felt like she was being strung along for free promo
25:59
Speaker 1: and content. Sarah also alleged that she didn't receive a
26:03
Speaker 1: dime for the collaboration and everything she did was in
26:05
Speaker 1: good faith because she was committed to the project. Now,
26:09
Speaker 1: who has Elijah hit out and said that they pulled
26:11
Speaker 1: the pin on the deal after deciding to shift resources
26:14
Speaker 1: towards retail expansion and other internal priorities? Things didn't end
26:20
Speaker 1: well with a war of words between Sarah, her husband, Kurt,
26:24
Speaker 1: and the CEO of Who Is Elijah, Adam Boris, breaking
26:28
Speaker 1: out in the comment section saying, Now, a lot of
26:30
Speaker 1: Sarah's fans actually urged her to make her own perfume
26:33
Speaker 1: in the comment section. And Sarah admitted that she'd been
26:36
Speaker 1: talking to her husband, Kurt, about launching her own. Now
26:40
Speaker 1: that we're all up to speed, let's get into what
26:42
Speaker 1: Raquel wrote under Sophia's post. So she wrote,' Purchased. You
26:46
Speaker 1: got this. DM me if you want to chat. Kiss.' Now,
26:50
Speaker 1: this comment received over 200 likes. You would have thought
26:53
Speaker 1: this was a comment that Raquel could have written privately,
26:56
Speaker 1: but I feel like she wanted Sophia's followers to know
27:00
Speaker 1: that they had something to chat about or perhaps someone
27:04
Speaker 1: to talk about because this comment has really driven speculation
27:09
Speaker 1: that the mystery influencer could allegedly be Sarah's date. Now,
27:13
Speaker 1: I am not saying that is true. That is pure
27:16
Speaker 1: rumours and speculation. There is no truth to back up
27:18
Speaker 1: that statement. Yeah, and what's added even more fuel to
27:21
Speaker 1: the fire is the fact that Bhai Vatari commented on
27:24
Speaker 1: Sarah's post about who was Elijah at the time. So
27:28
Speaker 1: she casually offered to collab with her. There's also the
27:31
Speaker 1: fact that for the last couple of months, Sarah has
27:34
Speaker 1: been teasing that she is developing her own perfume. So
27:37
Speaker 1: in reels, she's been subtly showing herself wearing perfume from
27:40
Speaker 1: this small unmarked bottle, which appears to be a tester.
27:44
Speaker 1: Could this be the perfume she was planning on releasing
27:46
Speaker 1: with By Vatari? And has she now had a better offer?
27:49
Speaker 1: The only thing that puts a bit of doubt in
27:50
Speaker 1: my mind is surely after this fallout with Who Is Elijah,
27:54
Speaker 1: Sarah would have demanded a contract. Yeah, I mean, there's
27:57
Speaker 1: that old saying, fool me once, shame on you, fool
27:59
Speaker 1: me twice, shame on me. I highly doubt she would
28:02
Speaker 1: get into another perfume deal without a contract. So surely
28:06
Speaker 1: it's not Sarah's day. Yeah, but in this case, not
28:08
Speaker 1: signing a contract has actually helped the influencer in question. Yeah.
28:12
Speaker 1: I mean, I think this is just a sign. If
28:14
Speaker 1: you are getting into a partnership, which involves big dollars,
28:17
Speaker 1: make sure you sign a contract. Like I'm not trying
28:19
Speaker 1: to victim blame or anything like this incident is absolutely terrible.
28:23
Speaker 1: And I feel so much for Sophia, but creators and
28:26
Speaker 1: brands really need to protect themselves. I can kind of
28:30
Speaker 1: see how it would have happened though. I know with
28:31
Speaker 1: Soph and my business, when we first started, we found
28:34
Speaker 1: it quite awkward to get people to sign contracts. You
28:37
Speaker 1: just are so desperate to work with a potential client
28:40
Speaker 1: and it can get awkward. And I know Sophia mentioned
28:43
Speaker 1: that she had befriended this influencer. So maybe it got
28:46
Speaker 1: to that stage where it was just too awkward to say,
28:48
Speaker 1: let's put pen to paper on this. And she might
28:51
Speaker 1: have trusted the person. Yeah, it just goes to show
28:53
Speaker 1: you can't really trust anyone when it comes to money.
28:56
Speaker 1: It was really lovely because a lawyer actually ended up
28:59
Speaker 1: writing under Sophia's reel offering to draft an influencer agreement
29:03
Speaker 1: for her moving forward free of charge as a security
29:06
Speaker 1: blanket for her. God, people are nice. It seems like
29:09
Speaker 1: this story might actually have a positive ending though, because
29:11
Speaker 1: Aussie-based fitness coach and new dad, Adam Sullivan, he's gone
29:15
Speaker 1: into bat for Sophia. So on TikTok, he said this.
29:19
Speaker 6: Who cares about integrity? Let's just fuck everyone and do
29:23
Speaker 6: what's best for us.
29:25
Speaker 1: He then urged his community to follow by Vatari and
29:28
Speaker 1: offered to help the business financially. Let's take a listen
29:31
Speaker 1: to more of what he said.
29:34
Speaker 6: Anyone who buys two packs of gummies, I'm throwing in
29:37
Speaker 6: a pre-workout. This went off last time. but i'm gonna
29:40
Speaker 6: give 15 of the revenue we generate directly to this
29:45
Speaker 6: lady so what i'm hoping for is we can help
29:48
Speaker 6: her out with some funds and you guys are obviously
29:50
Speaker 6: going to follow if you're interested in our product.
29:54
Speaker 1: Now sophia ended up replying i don't even know where
29:56
Speaker 1: my head is at i'm still in shock super overwhelmed Look,
30:00
Speaker 1: this is a really lovely gesture, but my fear is
30:02
Speaker 1: that it might be perceived as him trying to drive
30:05
Speaker 1: up sales off the back of her story, because there
30:08
Speaker 1: were a lot of influencers who were accused of doing
30:11
Speaker 1: this during the Australian bushfires, but I actually genuinely think
30:14
Speaker 1: he's trying to be nice.
30:16
Speaker 5: Yeah.
30:16
Speaker 1: I mean, recently we've touched on the fact that I'm
30:18
Speaker 1: starting to see some similarities between this year and 2020
30:23
Speaker 1: in terms of we're having this global issue with the
30:26
Speaker 1: war in the Middle East and influencers are starting to
30:30
Speaker 1: cop it from the general public because in a way
30:34
Speaker 1: we don't know how to channel our frustration and we
30:37
Speaker 1: sometimes channel it at influencers because it's easier. And I
30:40
Speaker 1: had the same thought. I'm like, God, he better be
30:42
Speaker 1: careful because unfortunately it seems like you have to be
30:46
Speaker 1: really careful when you do good deeds like this if
30:49
Speaker 1: they also impact you financially in a positive way. Yeah, well,
30:53
Speaker 1: it looks like he could even end up being the
30:55
Speaker 1: face of the perfume because he's since revealed that he's
30:58
Speaker 1: working with Sophia on a female and male fragrance. So
31:02
Speaker 1: he shared a message he wrote to Sophia saying, this
31:04
Speaker 1: is what I'm thinking. Evidence, fragrance, two versions for him,
31:08
Speaker 1: for her. How long will it take? He then presented
31:10
Speaker 1: the idea to his followers, telling them if he could
31:12
Speaker 1: get 20,000 likes on his post, he would do the
31:15
Speaker 1: collaboration with By Voltarii. Now, it seems like it's going
31:19
Speaker 1: to happen because at the time of recording, that post
31:21
Speaker 1: has over 29,000 likes. I just wonder if it will
31:26
Speaker 1: actually convert to sales because it's easy to like a
31:29
Speaker 1: post and it's easy to get it behind this when
31:31
Speaker 1: it's currently trending online. But obviously, rebranding and promotion is
31:36
Speaker 1: going to take a while. And by the time this
31:39
Speaker 1: perfume comes out potentially as evidence fragrance, are people still
31:43
Speaker 1: going to care and want to support the brand? Yeah,
31:45
Speaker 1: we'll have to keep an eye on Sarah's day as
31:47
Speaker 1: well if she suddenly drops a new fragrance with a
31:50
Speaker 1: large brand. Well, that is where we're going to wrap
31:53
Speaker 1: things up today. But if you want to hear more
31:55
Speaker 1: from us, we drop a subscriber only episode every Thursday
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Speaker 1: to our Outspoken Plus subscribers. If you want to sign up,
32:02
Speaker 1: it's $ 5. 99 a month and every week you get a
32:05
Speaker 1: bonus episode of Outspoken Plus. We also have a second
32:09
Speaker 1: podcast called The Mums Group, and we know that a
32:13
Speaker 1: lot of outspoken listeners are listening to it, but they
32:15
Speaker 1: are yet to hit follow on it. So if you
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Speaker 1: could do us a favour, please pause this podcast, go
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Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Mums Group on Spotify or Apple
32:24
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your podcasts. We would greatly
32:26
Speaker 1: appreciate that. This episode was recorded on the traditional land
32:30
Speaker 1: of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay
32:33
Speaker 1: respect to elders past and present.
32:36
Speaker 6: Thank you.