Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Celebrity Ritz-Carlton cruise, YouTube cracks down on AI content + Aussie wedding-tok dress drama

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MINI SCROLL: Celebrity Ritz-Carlton cruise, YouTube cracks down on AI content + Aussie wedding-tok dress drama · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  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. Happy for ride Day.
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  We have a Friday Mini Scroll for you guys.
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  This is random, OK, Like mini scroll on Fridays, anything
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  goes. So bear with me.
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  Let's just get into the stories for today.
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  So the first story that I have for you guys is I need to talk
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  about the Celebrity cruise. So many of you guys said yes,
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  please talk about this cruise. I haven't even heard about it.
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  OK, so tons of A Listers were on basically this like giant branch
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  trip for Ritz Carlton's new super yacht this week.
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  There were 450 guests and they left from Rome and it was two
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  nights. The guests included Kendall
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  Jenner, Sting, Orlando Bloom, Martha Stewart, Alex Earl, Ellie
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  Goulding, Ricky Martin, Janelle Monáe, Naomi Campbell, Nina
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  Dobrev, Sofia Vergara, Ashley Graham, Kygo, Tom Brady, and
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  more. OK, so this cruise popped off on
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  social media obviously, and I know it said it was like a brand
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  trip, but basically it was like APR preview I guess.
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  So the Ritz Carlton only has three of these.
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  I think this is the third of like their super yachts that
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  they have and its first paid cruise on this specific yacht
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  set sail on July 3rd. So literally they did 2 days of
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  VIP's PR preview and then it set sail with their paid guests.
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  There wasn't really any drama. I feel like I kind of hyped it
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  up or like made it sound like there was drama.
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  There wasn't really any drama. People just liked following
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  along. However, one thing did happen
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  and that was that Alex Earl lost part of her veneer on the
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  cruise. So she posted videos explaining
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  that a piece of her veneer on her very front tooth cracked off
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  during dinner on the first night.
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  And then she posted a video the second day, like trying to use a
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  nail file to shave it down so it wasn't so spiky and like looked
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  a little bit better for night 2. She also said she regrets
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  getting veneers out of like all of the work she's had done.
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  That's the one thing she regrets the most.
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  Also, the memes to come out of it is that Martha Stewart, she
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  took pictures with literally everyone.
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  Everyone was like she was the and Dom of like this cruise and
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  she was just in every photo. Everybody wanted pictures with
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  her. She was doing the most as usual.
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  That is very Martha Stewart. The next word that I have for
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  you guys is that YouTube is to crack down on quote UN quote
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  unoriginal content. This is a little bit like mini
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  tech coded, but you know, like I said, mini scroll on Fridays,
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  anything goes. So YouTube has announced a new
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  plan to crack down on AI generated content from accounts
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  that are monetized. Now this is a huge problem,
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  especially in like the video essay explainer space.
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  I don't know about you guys, but I watch YouTube every single
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  night and almost every single like deep dive or exploratory
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  video that I click on from my recommended page.
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  If it's not like someone that I subscribe to already, it's a
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  random video that's recommended to me.
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  I'll be like, Oh my God, this looks interesting.
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  I'll watch it. It's almost always now and AI
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  generated voice or the graphics and the video you can tell is
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  all done by AI. So from July 15th, the platform
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  will be updating its guidelines to be stricter with what it
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  considers original content that is available to monetize Quote
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  In order to monetize as part of the YouTube Partner Program,
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  YouTube has always required creators to upload original and
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  authentic content, the platform said in a new statement on July
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  15, 2025. YouTube is updating guidelines
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  to better identify mass produced and repetitious content.
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  This update better reflects what inauthentic content looks like
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  today. Now, I don't think this
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  necessarily means those like AI voiced videos or the videos that
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  are, you know, like AI graphics. Like I don't necessarily think
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  it's going to crack down on that type of content.
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  I think it's more about the channels itself and if a channel
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  is bringing something like educational or entertaining to
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  the platform rather than just like AI generated brain rot for
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  views. On one hand, I'm like, yeah,
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  this makes total sense and I like this strategy, strategy.
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  And on the other hand, I'm like, is this just YouTube trying to
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  save some money on its Adsense? You know, like, do I think that
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  those videos should be monetized and rewarded like that?
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  I don't know. But I do think it's an
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  opportunity for YouTube to basically save some money in its
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  ad revenue program. Because also there's tons, I
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  mean, this is anecdotal evidence, but tons of anecdotal
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  evidence out there from creators who say my video has been
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  demonetized or like, I don't have monetization turned on on
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  this video or whatever. And they say like, but ads still
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  appear on my video. So another part of me is like,
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  OK, so YouTube's going to save money from, you know, not having
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  to monetize these videos that they can say don't seem to be
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  like educational or entertaining.
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  And they're just kind of like brain rot.
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  But are they still going to show ads and just keep all the
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  Adsense? Because that's apparently
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  sometimes allegedly what they do on demonetized videos anyways.
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  OK, the last story that I have for you guys, there is some
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  bridal drama happening on Australian TikTok right now.
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  And I feel like there's just always bridal drama.
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  But honestly bridal content when it's like specifically calling
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  out pops the fuck off. And I'm going to actually talk
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  about my theories as to why, but here's the story.
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  So a creator named Jade posted a video earlier this week sobbing,
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  calling out a pretty reputable and high end bridal shop in
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  Sydney and Paddington called the Ivory Room.
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  So Paddington is the suburb in Sydney where it is.
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  Jade said that she spent $15,000 on a wedding dress.
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  She's 4 weeks out from her wedding, the dress is way too
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  big, especially around the top and she was told that the
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  alterations to take it in would cost her around $4000 and that
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  because of like the beating and just the way that the dress is
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  structured at the top, altering it could impact the integrity of
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  the dress. Jade's point of her original
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  video was basically that it's predatory for bridal shops to do
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  this with like charging for alterations and not guaranteeing
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  the integrity of the dress will stay in place with these
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  expensive alterations, especially when they know that
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  brides are so close to their wedding day so they don't really
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  have another option. This video blew up.
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  People went nuts for this video to the point where other women
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  who have done like try on hauls or vlogs going to this specific
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  bridal shop in Sydney and trying on dresses on TikTok literally
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  over the years, OK. Like some of these videos are
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  like years old. There are people going from
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  Jade's video and they're going into these other people's like
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  random people's like vlogs and stuff of them trying on wedding
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  dresses and telling them to like delete this video saying like
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  it's disgusting that they would keep this video up.
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  Justice for Jade. It's so obvious that this random
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  creator doing a try on haul at the ivory room like 3 years ago
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  is being paid off by the ivory room to deflect from all the
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  drama with Jade. Like it is wild.
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  It is so wild the conclusions that people are jumping to and
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  the fact that they're like telling these random people
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  these random, like some of them are not even like creators.
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  They're just like regular people that posted a vlog trying on
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  wedding dresses when they were getting married.
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  Like telling them to delete these videos and stuff because
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  they had a positive experience at this bridal shop. 1 creator
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  Alex Loney made a video actually talking about this.
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  So she vlogged herself trying on dresses at the Ivory Room in
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  February 2024. And now her comments on that
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  vlog are filled with people calling her a paid plant for the
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  bridal shop and telling her, like I said, it's disgusting
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  that she would something positive about the shop amid the
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  Jade situation, telling her to delete the video.
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  It's wild. And she was like, I didn't even
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  buy my dress from there, but I had a positive experience there.
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  This vlog is literally like 18 months old.
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  Leave me alone. So I'll get into why I think
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  this happens in a minute. But to tie it all up, the owner
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  of the Ivory Room responded Jay. Came and did her pick up and she
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  was happy with the dress. We popped her in it, we took
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  photos of her in it. We remeasured her bust, waist
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  and hip again which showed a significant size reduction but
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  she signed off saying she was happy with the dress, took the
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  dress and it wasn't for another 4 weeks until we heard from her
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  for the very first time that there was any concerns with the
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  gown. We have been responding to her
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  in regards to this and our first point of contact was of course
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  to speak to the designers and we raised this query with them and
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  they assured us that the dress was ordered as per size on order
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  in November 2024. We then look through our own QC
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  records again just to recheck to make sure we absolutely knew
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  what we were saying was correct and we can see that yes, the
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  dress arrived correct as ordered to the order in November 2024.
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  We then had a look at her pickup form which had her photos from
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  pickup and measurements from pickup, which we can see quite a
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  significant measurement fluctuation.
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  We then relate all this information to Jade and just let
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  her know that unfortunately the dress has come as per order and
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  that fluctuations in measurements are not a designer
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  fault or an ivory room fault. It is something that the bride
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  will just need to, you know, work through with her
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  alterations. This is standard and expected
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  and we've offered to assist her through the process.
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  If she needs any help with the alterations, we've offered to
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  give her other alterations to be able to go to if she wants a
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  second opinion with that and we're just really looking to
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  support her in what is a really anxious and nervous time.
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  It should be really exciting. I think in general, what
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  possibly has happened here is that there's not so OK, look,
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  I'm married and when I was trying on wedding dresses, I
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  actually got married in a jumpsuit from Revolve.
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  But when I was actually trying on like real wedding dresses,
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  you know, like it was very, it was made very clear to me that
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  the bride pays for alterations, that there are some dresses that
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  are designed so intricately and built in such a way that if you
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  do get mass alterations, it will impact the dress and they would
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  tell you like approximately to alter it.
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  It will cost like this much. So I feel like there is a lot of
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  miscommunication that happened. I think Jade was not expecting
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  this, which is like a problem, like that's a problem that she
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  was not expecting to have to pay so much money for these
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  alterations and that the wedding dress she chose to be altered,
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  it would possibly impact the integrity of the dress.
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  That being said, now all the content regarding this has been
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  deleted by Jade and the bridal shop and Jade posted saying that
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  they agreed to talk about this in person and to archive all the
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  content. OK.
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  So I feel like this story is representative of a larger trend
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  that we're seeing online around like call out culture in
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  general. Like nothing will get you more
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  support and more engagement than a video.
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  So calling someone out for wronging you.
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  And I actually just did one of these on my TikTok literally
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  like 3 days ago and it's popping the fuck off.
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  I talked about like a kind of a sexist experience that I had at
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  a founders lunch and it wasn't even like that shocking, you
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  know, of a video or like that shocking of a story.
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  But it is going absolutely insane.
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  And the algorithm obviously rewards like call out content,
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  but it does like it tickles something inside of us.
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  I think we like a villain moment.
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  Like we like when things feel kind of black and white, right?
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  Like, oh, you are right and you are wrong.
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  And I think it makes sense to us.
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  So I think this also works particularly well when brides do
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  this, when they do like call out videos.
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  First of all, weddings are so expensive and we all know that.
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  So the emotional investment that like we have in the story
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  already is so much higher than if you were like, oh, I went to
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  some restaurant and I had a really shitty experience with
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  the waitress and like the meal was trash or whatever.
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  And you're like, OK, well, that was probably like a $30
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  experience. You just feel like, OK, you were
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  wronged. But like, at at what cost?
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  Like, you know, like were the stakes that high for bridal
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  stuff? Like, yes, usually it is quite
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  high. But also it's like the one day
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  that women are conditioned to believe is like the most
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  important day of our lives. It's the day you get to be a
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  Princess. You get to call all the shots.
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  You get to be a bridezilla if you want to.
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  Like, you basically get to do and say and be whatever and
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  whoever you want. So I feel like for a lot of us,
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  it might be subconscious that we inherently side with the bride
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  in these scenarios because it feels so black and white to us.
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  Like anything that stands in the way of a bride getting exactly
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  what she wants on her wedding day, like it's the most special
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  day of her life, we're told, you know, like, that is
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  automatically wrong. And I'm not saying that was the
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  case in this situation. I'm just kind of musing on why
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  wedding specific call out content go so viral and kind of
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  elicits such like a cohesive reaction from the Internet.
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  And I do think we like to have an outlet, right?
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  Like, we like a villain. We like to project our anger or
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  whatever out onto someone, which is why general call out culture
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  works so well. And of course, there is the
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  element of, you know, you don't want to support a business that
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  is doing wrong by its customers or whatever.
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  So like there's of course that element of it too.
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  But I think we're at this very interesting point in like call
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  out content and what it does for us, like personally,
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  collectively, emotionally, like why we're so obsessed with it.
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  It's like the easiest type of content to truly like take off.
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  Anyways, guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
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  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
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  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 13:27
  Oh, there will be no mini on Monday because Oh my God, you
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  guys are going to die for like the housewives fans on Monday.
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  I am doing an IRL interview for the pod.
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  I know we have some Bravo lovers.
• 13:38
  I know we have some that do not love Bravo, but I love Bravo.
• 13:41
  It's like my number one passion. OK, I'm doing an IRL interview
• 13:45
  with Whitney Rose, my queen of already done that.
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  I did that last year and she was so much fun, like literally so
• 13:50
  much fun. And Teresa Judice, I get to meet
• 13:55
  Teresa in the flesh. An icon.
• 13:57
  No matter how you feel about Teresa, you cannot deny she is a
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  Bravo Housewives icon. I'm gonna die anyways.
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  So I have that on Monday. So I'm gonna focus on that, and
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  then I will let you guys know how it all went on Tuesday.
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  OK, bye.