Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Emma Chamberlain film debut, Billboard cracks down on album variants + Shay Mitchell Beis pop up scandal

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MINI SCROLL: Emma Chamberlain film debut, Billboard cracks down on album variants + Shay Mitchell Beis pop up scandal · 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 Mini Scroll everyone.
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  I'm doing my first keynote speech ever this afternoon,
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  which is why I'm in a blazer. So you guys know when I'm in a
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  blazer it means I have some business shit on.
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  But wish me luck because I am very nervous.
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  I've never done a keynote speech before.
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  It's a 15 minute speech on basically like Gen.
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  Z and virality and why virality is kind of a myth.
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  Now, if you are using virality as your Gen.
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  Z content strategy, then you need to rethink that because
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  virality, it doesn't really exist on such a fragmented
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  Internet. So I'm talking for 15 straight
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  minutes about that. And then I am on an hour long
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  panel about like Gen. Z reaching Gen.
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  Z as a publisher and as a brand. So it's going to be a lot.
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  I'm going to be so tired by the end of the day.
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  I'm not sure if this is going to go up before or after that.
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  It depends on how much practicing I need to do between
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  now and then. But wish me luck.
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  OK, let's get into the stories for today.
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  The first story that I have for you guys is that Emma
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  Chamberlain is making her film debut.
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  In an exclusive to Deadline, it was revealed that Emma
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  Chamberlain is making her film debut in a movie called
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  Forbidden Fruits. IFC Films and AMC Networks
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  horror streamer Shudder have acquired the rights to Forbidden
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  Fruits which was Co written by Meredith Alloway and Lily
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  Houghton. So it's currently set to be
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  released in 2026. Emma will be appearing alongside
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  some other big names including Lily Reinhart, Lola Tong,
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  Victoria Pedretti and Alexandra Ship.
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  We don't know much about the plot so far, but according to
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  reports, it follows a retail worker named Apple who quote
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  runs a witchy fem cult in her basement of the mall store after
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  hours. But soon a new hire challenges
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  their quote performative sisterhood, where Apple and her
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  colleagues are quote forced to face their own poisons or
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  succumb to a bloody fate as per Deadline.
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  That actually sounds really good.
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  There has been a mixed reaction to Emma joining in on the
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  project. For example in our slash acting
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  the subreddit 1 user wrote influencers are taking good
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  acting jobs away from the people who deserve them, wrestlers,
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  reality TV contestants and stand up comedians.
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  But other users said they were happy to see Emma act since
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  quote she isn't another Neppo baby.
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  She seems pretty intelligent and artistically creative so I think
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  she might pleasantly surprise people with this one.
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  I kind of agree with that. I actually saw a really
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  interesting take about OK, I don't is it Patrick
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  Schwarzenegger, whoever Arnold Schwarzenegger's son is that is
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  in White Lotus. So he posted, I haven't seen
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  White Lotus yet, but he posted the reaction to him getting
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  white Lotus and it looked like he was sitting at like a resort
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  in, I don't know, the South of France or like Italy or
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  something. And he posted his reaction to
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  TikTok. And then I saw this really
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  interesting take where somebody's like, if I was a
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  working actor and I had to constantly see these nappo
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  babies getting job after job and then posting something like
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  this. Like, he was crying.
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  He was freaking out. And it's like, yeah, like, OK, I
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  understand it's a big deal. But also like, did you not kind
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  of expect that this is the way that your career was going to go
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  when you are the son of literal Arnold Schwarzenegger?
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  And they're like, if I just see videos like this, I would just
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  quit. Like, I would just be done.
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  Obviously, Emma is not an Eppo baby, but she does have a big
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  leg up trying to get into entertainment.
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  But I also think at the end of the day, like, she's been doing
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  this since she was a teenager. It's time to move on.
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  And she can't very well go get like a regular job.
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  Like, she's one of the most famous influencers in the world.
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  So she's just trying different things and expressing herself
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  and just figuring out what kind of fits.
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  And yeah, I'm actually really excited for this movie.
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  It sounds so good. All right, the next story that I
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  have for you guys is that Billboard is enforcing new rules
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  on digital variants. Billboard has changed the rules
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  around artists releasing different digital albums to
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  boost sales. So this is obviously something
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  we saw a lot last year, particularly with artists like
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  Taylor Swift. So the Torture Poets department
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  reportedly had 18 digital versions.
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  That was actually my top like listen of the whole year.
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  I love that album but that is actually insane.
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  That is so it feels like unethical, like it feels like
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  icky. For context, many artists
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  release digital versions of an album with like one bonus track
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  in order to get people to stream or download it.
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  So there are a couple of rules that will now be restricting
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  digital variants of an album. Artists will only be allowed to
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  release 4 digital D to C exclusive versions through the
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  life of an album, also including deluxe version Pop Sam Cam, a
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  commentary creator predominantly focusing on music, speculated
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  that artists will probably be able to release more, it just
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  wouldn't be counted on the charts.
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  So if this is the case, it is unlikely that artists would
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  continue to release them because the point of them releasing
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  these digital variants is to continually chart above everyone
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  else. So digital D2C exclusive
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  versions cannot be put up for sale during the middle of the
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  first week. This is obviously to boost
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  sales. Now they will either need to be
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  available for pre-order or held for a later week of release.
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  Lastly, the minimum price for all digital albums has been
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  raised to 799. Previously artists were making
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  the price very low so that fans would be willing to pay and then
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  boost sales that way to get on the charts.
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  I like this. I like the regulation.
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  You know, that was a huge topic of conversation last year was
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  these artists that could like had the means to constantly
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  release these new variants and how they were just monopolizing
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  the tops of the charts. So yeah, I actually think this
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  is a great initiative if they can execute it.
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  Well, we'll see. OK.
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  And the last right that I have for you guys is there has been a
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  bit of a scandal around Shay Mitchell's brand Base and the
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  pop up that they just did. So Base is a brand founded by
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  Shay Mitchell that predominantly sells bags and luggage.
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  They recently did a pop up in LA that started to go viral on
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  TikTok for all the wrong reasons.
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  Basically, the pop up was a human sized claw machine where
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  people were strapped in and could grab all types of items
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  from this pit that included luggage and suitcases.
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  However, it seems that the event did not have enough inventory
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  for the amount of people who ended up coming along to the
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  event, and that left many attendees feeling essentially
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  burned by the brand. One video from a TikTok user
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  named Emmy showed her being strapped up to the claw machine
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  and waiting to be lifted. However, just as she was about
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  to grab her items, a worker went into the pit and took out a
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  suitcase. And then she went on to caption
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  the video. The luggage got taken out as I
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  was already lifted. The video has since amassed over
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  20 million views. Emmy made a follow up video and
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  she said the whole time she was in line, she didn't see any
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  employees take out items from the pit.
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  And she was confused why that was the case.
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  And it was allegedly passed on to an influencer.
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  And then another situation was this one creator at Grippy Sock
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  Lifestyle said that there was just, I mean, the way she
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  described it just sounded like there was a bit of like chaos
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  and confusion around, like the logistics of the event.
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  She thought she was the last in line.
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  So she'd be for sure getting a bag.
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  And then it turns out that like essentially wasn't the case.
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  Shay Mitchell showed up later and was like congratulating
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  people behind her in line for being like the last in line and
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  gave them some big pieces of luggage and grippy sock
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  lifestyle was upset because she was like actually supposed to be
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  the last in line and actually supposed to get like that big
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  luggage. So anyways, base apparently has
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  been willing to own their mistakes.
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  They have been responding to people really quickly.
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  I mean, I think in general, like public pop up for a brand that
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  is an influencer first brand where fans might be able to meet
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  Shane Mitchell and stuff. Like it's going to have, I think
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  logistical issues. And coming from somebody who
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  goes to so many brand events, or at least I used to before I
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  really had to lean into my founder era these past 18
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  months, I used to go to brand events multiple times a week and
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  stuff is constantly going wrong. And I think that is
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  unfortunately just the case when you're going to an event that is
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  like fully for free. But yes, I mean, this is just
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  like a very minor thing. I'm like actually really
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  surprised that they were allowed to have this like claw clip
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  thing. When I first saw all the base
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  pop up scandal stuff and I didn't realize what happened yet
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  or like what people were saying and I saw the claw clip or like
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  whatever it's called. And I was like, Oh no, what has
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  happened here? So having logistical issues
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  where people aren't leaving with the bags that they wanted, it's
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  kind of, it's definitely not what I thought that this whole
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  situation was going to be why people were talking about it.
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  It kind of reminds me of when Tik Toker started going to
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  Coachella and then they were exposing how like logistically a
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  nightmare it is when you are actually like an influencer
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  attending Coachella. It kind of reminds me of this.
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  It's like users going behind the scenes to like a brand event
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  that typically is reserved for like media and influencers and
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  getting a bit of a behind the scenes of what it's like to go
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  to these events. Because like there's always
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  stuff that goes wrong. There's always going to be
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  influencers or media there who are more like quote UN quote
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  important than you that get the better stuff.
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  Like that's very common. But I also can understand how
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  like if you're a customer and you actually are a base fan,
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  you've purchased this brand, you've attended this pop up, and
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  then an influencer gets the bag that you are.
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  You're literally hanging in the air going for it and a staff
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  member snatches it away from you to give to an influencer.
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  They could just give that influencer that bag like later
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  on, surely they can find her Instagram or get her e-mail and
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  just send her a PR bag. Anyways, I think it's really
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  hard to throw events like this and do like community and
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  influencer events like together. But I also think like there
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  should just be more events for community.
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  Like I do think that's the future of activations is like
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  fewer media and influencers and more focus on your actual
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  customers. However, maybe you could have
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  both. You know, it's probably
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  unrealistic for a lot of brands with like event budgets and
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  stuff. But if you could afford it,
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  maybe do like a smaller event for like media influencers and
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  then do a separate one for consumers.
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  I feel like I've seen some brands doing that lately too.
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  All right guys, well that's it for mini scroll today.
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  I have to go practice for like 5 straight hours until I have to
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  go do this big speech. So fingers crossed all goes well
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  manifest for me. I love you guys.
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  There will be a deep dive tomorrow and then I will talk to
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  you on Monday. Bye.