Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Mikayla Nogueira lip kit reviews, NYC "scammer" influencer goes viral + iJustine song AI allegations

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Mikayla Nogueira lip kit reviews, NYC "scammer" influencer goes viral + iJustine song AI allegations · 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 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. All right, before I get into it,
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  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  Please Spotify star rate US. We're trying to get to 1000
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  Spotify star ratings by the end of the year, please.
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  I think there's only six weeks left of the year, so please rate
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  US. Before I get into the official
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  stories, I wanted to let you guys know what I decided on the
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  Colleen Ballinger situation. And that is, I'm not sure.
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  I think if I'm going to cover her in general, I will make it a
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  more in depth episode as somebody suggested in the
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  comments. I thought that was a great
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  suggestion. So I'm considering making it
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  like a mini deep dive. You know how sometimes I'll do
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  those on Fridays instead of a mini scroll for next Friday
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  because this Friday we have a deep dive.
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  But yeah, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do it.
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  But if I do cover her, I want to cover her more in depth and
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  properly. All right, the first story that
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  I have for you guys today is Michaela Naguera has launched
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  color cosmetics, her brand, and it's not really going that well
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  so far. So we all know that Michaela
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  Naguera launched her own brand called POV Beauty in March of
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  this year. She launched with a skin care
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  range and now this week has officially launched color
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  cosmetics. So the first color cosmetics to
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  come out of this side of the brand is called the Ampit Lip
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  Kits. It's a spin off of PO VS ampit
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  lip. I cannot say ampit without
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  wanting to immediately say amp it up, amp it up Ampit lip
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  treatment. So she has released basically a
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  colored version of this lip treatment and a matching lip
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  liner to make a lip kit. OK, so despite being a lip
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  treatment, she did promise that they would be highly pigmented.
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  She promised that they would not be sticky, like, you know, a
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  sticky lip gloss. And she also promised that the
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  lip liner liner had ultra grip. She called it so it didn't wear
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  off. And she did all these videos
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  showing like it didn't come off with water.
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  It barely came off with a makeup wipe.
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  She was like, these lip liners are so tough.
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  So these kids sold out almost immediately.
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  And honestly, they did sound like a great idea.
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  I think like a liner and a glossy bomb vibe that is so
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  trendy right now. And like I said, Michaela's
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  videos showing how grippy the liners are meant to be.
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  Like they were genuinely very convincing.
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  However, as consumers have started to receive them, it
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  seems as though Michaela's promises were maybe a little bit
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  hollow. So people have been having
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  issues with the pigmentation of the lip treatments, which is
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  making them appear patchy on users because they're a lot more
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  sheer than she initially said that they would be.
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  People are also having issues with stickiness, especially
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  given how much product you need to apply to avoid having the
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  patchiness from the lack of pigmentation.
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  And there's also issues with the lip liners.
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  People are saying that they actually do wear off much faster
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  than she claims. So anyways, this is just a
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  classic example of an influencer brand not living up to the hype.
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  And you know, I know that we are possibly more critical, not like
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  me, but just like us, like Internet users and beauty
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  consumers are more critical of influencer brands.
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  Like we look at them with a more critical eye.
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  We review them differently than if this lip kit was released by
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  a Faceless brand, for example. But the reason for that is
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  because these people, first of all, have made millions of
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  people trust them right from the reviews and from the years
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  online. And second, they have had such
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  an insane head start compared to others in the industry.
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  For example, Michaela has investors and partners in POV,
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  which is a good idea, right? So that she can avoid a lot of
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  the mistakes that we saw a lot of the really early beauty gurus
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  do or make. Because they were trying to do
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  it all themselves and own 100% of their company and like be the
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  CEO and whatever. And that was obviously not their
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  area of expertise. So I think it was really smart
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  that she went with some partners and investors.
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  However, obviously her social media fame would have made it
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  infinitely easier for her to secure that investment and find
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  those partners. You know, she didn't need to
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  necessarily self fund a portion of her brand early on to prove
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  to investors that it was viable or it was a good product, for
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  example. And she also has a built in
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  audience for her brand, meaning she's had to spend a lot less
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  money on marketing, paid ads, salaries for a marketing team, a
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  sales team, whatever. So there's just like quite the
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  head start there. And I'm not saying that
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  influencers are not incredibly hard working.
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  I'm not saying that she hasn't worked really hard to build her
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  following and influence. And now that hard work has
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  opened doors for her. Because obviously, like, whether
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  you like Michaela or not or you think she's a liar or not, she's
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  obviously worked really hard and built herself a lucrative
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  career. So yeah, I do think it's fine
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  for influencers to leverage their hard work and to pivot
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  into something else and to take that hard work that they have
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  done in another area of their career and be able to use that
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  in their pivot. Like we all obviously do that in
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  some way or another in our careers.
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  But you can't have it both ways in life, sadly.
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  Like, you can't have all the influence and money and power
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  that comes with being one of the most famous influencers in the
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  beauty space right now without the consequences of that
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  extremity. And one of those consequences is
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  that when you launch a brand and ask people to spend their
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  personal money on it, especially right now, given the economic
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  situation of, you know, a lot of countries around the world, your
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  brand will be held to a higher standard because your starting
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  position was much further along. So, yeah.
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  Are some of these reviews possibly a bit nitpicky?
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  Sure. But that's why.
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  OK, The next story that I have for you guys is I'm going to
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  breakdown what's going on with the New York City influencer
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  Famita Merez going viral all over social media for really
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  horrible reasons. And big trigger warning here,
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  this story involves the death of a dog.
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  So this creator named Femida has several accounts online where
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  she posts mostly food and lifestyle content.
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  Her main account is Medes, like MEDES OO0.
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  And a few days ago, people started talking about her
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  because of a food review scandal.
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  And now this scandal has snowballs and Internet users
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  have learned more about her, looked into her, and they have
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  discovered something else really dark in her history.
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  So this is what the food review situation was.
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  So Femita was invited by the restaurant chef Papa in New York
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  City to do a meal collab where she ate for free in exchange for
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  a tip and posting a review of the restaurant.
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  The restaurant owner basically put her on blast claiming that
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  they comped her a $200 meal. They took a bunch of that to go
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  home. Like Famita, and I think she was
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  with her husband, took a bunch of it home indicating they
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  obviously enjoyed the food. They never said anything
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  otherwise. However, she ended up leaving a
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  $6 tip on a $200 meal and she didn't post despite the
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  restaurant following up a ton after the restaurant posted that
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  Famita didn't honor their agreement.
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  Famita did post about the restaurant.
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  She said the food was horrible, the food smelled bad and the
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  service was bad. So this is what the restaurant
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  said to that she. Posted the video after I made
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  the video about her not honoring her agreement with us.
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  This was the comment that she left on our post which she
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  deleted. It's basically the same thing.
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  She's saying the food was terrible, service was terrible,
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  and she didn't want to post a video misleading her followers
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  because she believes in transparency which is crazy.
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  This was my response stating basically you came to my
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  restaurant, you ate the food, we asked you how was everything.
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  You told us everything was great, service was great, food
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  was great. Then you left the restaurant
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  knowing that you weren't going to post us because you thought
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  everything was terrible. But not only do you sound super
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  ignorant because if you know Vietnamese food, you know it's
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  known for strong aroma, fish sauce, shrimp paste, and even
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  our food is Americanized because at home when we cook it, it's
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  meant to be super strong. Maybe you didn't know that
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  because everyone has a complex palette.
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  You know I won't blame you for it and it won't be Vietnamese
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  food won't be for everyone. But you can't make the excuse
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  saying the food was terrible, so I'm not going to post them.
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  If you truly did not enjoy the food, you would have told me or
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  the server the food wasn't good. I didn't like it.
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  You know, I don't want to mislead my followers.
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  I don't want to post a video featuring a restaurant, and I
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  would have been fine with that. You could have paid the bill and
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  left. But no, you told us everything
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  was great, food was great, service was great.
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  You packed everything to go $200 worth of food for two people.
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  OK, so the way that she handled the situation went kind of
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  viral. I mean, how many times do we
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  need to see this? I'm really surprised.
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  Maybe like I just am a little bit old because, you know, I
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  used to do YouTube and like, I used to do that kind of stuff.
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  I used to do restaurant collabs all the time because until
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  you're like a really big influencer, you know, you, you
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  have to do a lot of collabs. Basically, I would do restaurant
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  collabs all the time. I have tons of friends that
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  still do restaurant collabs. It's like a known thing.
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  You have to post about the restaurant.
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  If you didn't like your experience, you don't
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  necessarily have to still post something positive, but you have
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  to post that you were there. You have to tag the restaurant,
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  You have to do the agreement. And how many times have we now
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  talked about these influencers from TikTok who, like, don't
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  hold up that end of the agreement?
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  Anyways, so the way she handled this went really viral and has
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  now unearthed a much bigger issue in her past, that Femita
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  and her husband were babysitting a Husky and the dog allegedly
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  died in their care. After the dog allegedly died in
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  their care, they allegedly put the dog's body in a garbage bag
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  inside of a suitcase to deliver it back to the owner.
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  And the reason why people know this story is because there are
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  clips of it on TikTok and it appears to be Femita and her
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  husband in the video. I'm not going to play the clip
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  but you can find them floating around on TikTok.
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  And now one of the biggest pieces of conversation around
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  this whole situation is the fact that Fumita cannot stop posting
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  multiple times a day like nothing is happening.
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  She has turned her comments off but she hasn't addressed any of
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  the controversy around her. And she has posted a few videos
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  recently, like just in the last day or so with captions,
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  including this one. Literally just let people be
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  wrong about you. It does not matter.
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  It's not your job to make sure so that everyone's perceptions
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  of you are accurate. Just be a good person and let
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  them be. OK.
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  Sure, but I fear if thousands of people thought that I had
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  something to do with animal abuse or possibly a dog dying in
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  my care, I would be clearing that up real fast if it was not
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  accurate. OK and the last story that I
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  have for you guys is I need to talk about how the I Justine
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  song is going viral everywhere and all of the AI accusations
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  against it. So on November 6th a TikTok user
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  Kira dropped a music video for her song I Justine about the OG
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  tech YouTube I Justine. It's like a hyper bubble gum
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  Electro pop song. The song is literally triple
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  platinum in my household. Like I listen to that song all
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  day everyday. I am so obsessed with it.
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  It's so fucking good. And I am not the only one who is
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  obsessed with it because everybody is obsessed with it.
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  Like it is all over TikTok. People are losing their minds.
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  I think it's so much fun. But as the song started to pick
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  up steam over the past couple of weeks, people started
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  speculating that it was AI generated.
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  So on November 8th, TikTok user at the Bella Luxury posted a
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  video accusing the track of being a AI, which helped push
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  the rumor further. Kira uploaded a TikTok showing
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  her producing the song in real time to prove that it was human
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  made, but the conspiracy theories unfortunately did not
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  stop. By November 10th, Tik Toker at
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  Jonah Taylor claims that Kira blocked him for asking whether
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  the song was AI, which he took as proof that it was AI.
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  His video went pretty viral. It got almost 1,000,000 views in
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  you know, just four days. And then things really escalated
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  on November 12th when Kira posted and later deleted a
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  statement saying she was quitting music altogether and
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  might delete the song. The announcement spread across
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  TikTok. It's spread across X.
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  And she later followed it up with another video denying the
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  AI accusations, again claiming that this guy Jonah Taylor
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  actually blocked her. And then I just seen herself
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  posted with the song and said that she doesn't care if it's AI
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  or not because you know, obviously she loves the song.
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  After seeing that, I just seen herself had posted about it.
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  Kira updated her earlier statement about quitting writing
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  on YouTube. OK I just seen let just use the
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  audio on TikTok. Holy goat.
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  Oh my God. If that isn't a sign to stay
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  then I don't know what is. I am in the camp that it's not
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  AI. I've seen a lot of people be
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  like, do we just like not remember that this kind of like
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  Electro hyper pop, like this sound has existed forever?
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  I just feel so I mean, I don't know if it's AI.
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  I don't think it is. I'm going to believe her that
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  it's not AI, but I just like feel so bad for artists because
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  it's just keeps happening. And we've talked about it so
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  many times on this podcast and I've told you guys the story so
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  many times. But we've had accusations over
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  the years of our deep dives being written by AI.
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  And the fact that they're not like they are literally hand
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  handwritten, hand researched, hand hand researched, I don't
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  think is a chart, but you know what I mean?
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  They are researched by humans. They are handwritten by
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  Annabelle and I. And the fact that for hours,
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  like they take us hours and hours and hours and hours to
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  write the deep dives to research and put them together.
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  And the fact that people think that they're just AI and accuse
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  us of that as if they know for a fact they're like, well, no,
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  it's written. It sounds so much like tattoo BT
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  OK, well, like, it's not it's it's not.
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  I don't know what else to tell you.
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  It's not. It's so infuriating.
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  So this song is not AI. And this was going like viral
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  that she made this song with AI. Like, I totally get why she's so
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  frustrated. And she's like, I might as well
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  just quit. And I feel like we're just going
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  to see more and more of these problems amongst creatives and
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  artists because yeah, like people are just we're we're so
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  attuned now to just assume that things are created with AI.
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  It's good that we're keeping an eye on it, but I think it's
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  really, really unfortunate because at the end of the day,
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  like people can still make like really good stuff.
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  People can make fun things without AI, Like we can think
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  without AI still. And it's really frustrating for
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  a creative to feel like their work is being diminished because
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  people are just jumping to that conclusion.
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  Anyways, guys, that's it for me. Scroll today.
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  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 15:10
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  Please Spotify star rate US Annabelle will talk to you guys
• 15:15
  tomorrow and then I will talk to you again on Thursday.
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  Bye.