Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Bella Hadid's new brand, Olivia Rodrigo accused of "stealing" merch design + Instagram cracks down on meme accounts

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MINI SCROLL: Bella Hadid's new brand, Olivia Rodrigo accused of "stealing" merch design + Instagram cracks down on meme accounts · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
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  daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
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  from social media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to the last Mini Scroll of the week, everybody.
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  So little scheduling update. I know I said this week was
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  going to be normal, but I am figuring out the growing pains
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  of, you know, the daily podcast balanced with the deep dive.
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  And I did hire a deep dive editor a few weeks ago and she's
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  still kind of getting up and running.
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  So there will be no deep dive unfortunately tomorrow.
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  I just need like a week of buffer to really solidify our
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  editors new schedule and like how the workflow is going to go.
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  So I need this week off to get her up to speed.
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  But next week I promise we'll be normal.
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  All right, let's just get right into the stories for today.
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  So the first story that I have for you guys is that Bella Hadid
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  has announced her fragrance brand Aura Bella.
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  Bella is venturing into the world of fragrance with the
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  launch of her new brand, Aura Bella.
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  Aura Bella is quote the first intentional skin parfum.
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  Launching May 2nd, the brand features 3 genderless scents,
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  blooming Fire Window to Soul and salted Muse.
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  The scents were crafted using aromatherapy designed to boost
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  your mood and personal aura. According to Bustle Quote.
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  Unlike most fragrances on the market, which use alcohol as a
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  base, Orabella opts for essential oils blended into a
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  skin friendly oil that won't cause irritation on sensitive
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  complexions. So these fragrances quote infuse
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  the skin with scent and hydration with every spritz.
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  And according to some reviews from different beauty editors
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  who had access to the product before it launched, they say
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  that it's kind of like a almost like a creamy serum like product
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  when you spritz it on yourself, which I guess is why they're
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  saying it's like hydrating with every spritz, Bella said.
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  This brand was five years in the making and it just feels very
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  Bella, It's very in line with Kin.
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  Is that her drink brand that's like infused with stuff to make
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  you feel happy? This is the same vibe.
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  This is supposed to like boost your mood when you use it, You
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  know, it's kind of all natural. It's very in line with Bella's
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  personal brand, with how she at least publicly presents kind of
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  how she lives her life. And we know she suffers with
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  chronic Lyme disease and she has been sick for.
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  I mean, I think she kind of took almost a full year off, even
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  more so I think she's getting back out there now.
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  But yes, she was very sick for a while there and this is very
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  much in line with that. It's like all natural.
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  It's to like help you feel better, all that kind of stuff.
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  And people are saying it smells amazing, It has had amazing
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  reviews. The bottles are really cool.
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  So I think I want to get my hands on it if it comes to
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  Australia if All right, the next story that I have for you guys
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  is that a TikTok creator has called out Olivia Rodrigo's team
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  for quote, UN quote, stealing her merch idea and selling it
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  back to fans. TikTok creator at Hey, It's Ali.
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  Jade made a TikTok video yesterday claiming that Olivia
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  Rodrigo's team copied her T-shirt design.
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  So Ali said she is a huge Olivia fan and that her whole family
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  recently went to the Guts tour. She said that an inside joke in
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  her family is that whenever they hear the song, bad idea, right,
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  her father turns it into dad idea, right?
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  So she made her dad AT shirt for the Guts tour that said dad
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  idea, right? Because they all went together
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  and he wore it. And now a couple months later,
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  Olivia is selling Dad idea, right?
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  Merch. It looks exactly the same as
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  Ali's T-shirt. However, the important thing to
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  note here is that Ali made the shirt for her dad stylized in
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  like the exact vibe of Olivia's March, so she basically just
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  switched out the B for the D in. Bad idea, right?
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  Bad idea, right? But everything else on the
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  T-shirt looks the exact same as Olivia Rodrigo's official March.
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  So Ali's video went pretty viral, and she actually ended up
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  deleting it because fans were defending Olivia so hard, saying
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  that dad idea right is an inside joke in the fandom and Olivia
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  owns the design, which was Ali's T-shirt.
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  OK, so I don't personally know enough about the Olivia Rodrigo
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  lore to know if her fans actually do say like dad idea,
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  right? As an inside joke.
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  But I think this whole scenario is a really interesting case
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  study in celebrity PR. Like Olivia is very beloved, she
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  is unproblematic, and she uses her influence for good.
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  Some examples of how she does that, she aligns with local
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  charities wherever she's touring.
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  Different countries, different continents.
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  She aligns with those charities and gives a portion of her
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  ticket sales to those charities. As we know, she's also
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  championed abortion rights all throughout the US at a bunch of
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  her US shows, so she really uses her power and her influence as
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  this a list celebrity for good, and that's pretty unique
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  nowadays. We don't see a lot of
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  celebrities at her level speak out so vocally about different
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  issues like that, especially something as contentious as
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  abortion rights. And when you kind of think about
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  how this video, like Ali's video, Ali's claim that Olivia
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  stole her design, If you think about that in relation to other
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  celebrities that I would say are around Olivia's size, like the
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  Kardashians or Taylor Swift, I mean, I don't know, maybe that's
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  like delusional of me to put Olivia Rodrigo in those
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  categories. But to me she is.
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  I feel like she is for like Gen. Z.
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  So if you think about if Ali's video was made about anyone in
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  the Kardashian family or even Taylor Swift, the reception
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  would be very different. You know, people would believe
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  it. People would say exactly, Kim
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  stole your idea, Taylor stole your idea.
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  And it's not that these people don't have fans, right?
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  It's not that there aren't huge Kardashian stands or huge
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  swifties as we know. Their die hard fans would defend
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  them against a video like this, against a claim like this, but
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  the general sentiment around Olivia Rodrigo is that she
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  operates with such integrity that whether it's authentic or
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  not, I don't think it really matters because the work that
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  she's doing is so good and therefore that integrity is
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  working in her favor here. People are inclined to believe
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  that because she is operated with such integrity throughout
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  her kind of a list status that she wouldn't just be out here.
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  Like stealing a fan's merch design and not paying for it or
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  not giving them credit. It's very rare where we see,
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  especially on TikTok, a celebrity, a wealthy person, a
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  famous person get called out by the general consumer and the
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  public is on the celebrity side as opposed to on the consumer
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  side. OK.
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  And the last word that I have for you guys is that Instagram
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  is cracking down on aggregator accounts.
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  A little tech news for you. So following the news that
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  Instagram will be limiting access to political content,
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  whatever that means, the platform has now announced that
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  it is changing its algorithm to quote reward original content.
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  So they will be doing this through implementing 4 changes.
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  The 1st is a new input to ranking that will give smaller
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  creators more distribution #2 replacing repost with original
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  content and recommendations, #3 adding labels to reposted
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  content, linking to the original creator, and #4 removing content
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  aggregators from recommendations.
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  Aggregator accounts are classified as accounts that
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  posted 10 or more posts in the last 30 days that are not their
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  own original content. So if you think like meme
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  accounts, even publishers like those kind of like Millennial
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  Media brands, so much of what they post is just repurposed
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  content, like meme accounts. Basically.
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  Instagram also admitted in this blog post that previously they
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  ranked recommendations based on how an account's followers
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  engaged with these posts. Therefore, typically bigger
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  accounts were recommended over smaller accounts regardless of
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  content. Now they claim that these
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  changes will give all accounts more equal opportunity to be
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  recommended. So this all sounds, I guess,
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  pretty good. The only caveat here, and this
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  is per Ryan Broderick for Garbage day quote.
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  I think the notable thing here though is that Instagram is
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  going after recycled Instagram content.
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  It's not cracking down on screenshots or videos from other
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  platforms. I assume because if they did
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  that there would basically be nothing left for anyone to look
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  at on the app. And that is the biggest caveat.
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  If you think about these meme accounts, these aggregator
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  accounts, even these millennial quote, UN quote publishers that
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  I was just referring to, Most of what they are reposting or
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  sharing is reposted Tik toks and even like reposted tweets.
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  So will this really make a big difference on the app or is this
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  more of just like a vanity thing so that Instagram can say like
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  we hear you, we're trying to give smaller accounts a bigger
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  opportunity? I think it's probably more the
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  latter, but we will see. All right, guys, that is it for
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  mini scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe if you like the
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  daily podcast, if you want more of it.
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  It means so much to me to hear your feedback and all of your
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  recommendations, and I cannot wait to be back in your ears on
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  Monday. All right.
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  Bye.