Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Lipstick Lesbians respond to brand criticism, Katy Perry fan backlash + Millennial head space

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MINI SCROLL: Lipstick Lesbians respond to brand criticism, Katy Perry fan backlash + Millennial head space · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:04
  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
• 0:07
  media, the creator economy and the digital space.
• 0:10
  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays like
• 0:14
  today. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
• 0:16
  the founder of the Australian youth digital media brand
• 0:20
  Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
• 0:23
  everyone. OK, I have to tell you guys a
• 0:25
  really funny story. So Sean and I just finished
• 0:28
  watching Breaking Bad. It's literally all I can think
• 0:32
  about. It's all the content that I
• 0:34
  consume, like every video essay, every Reddit post, everything.
• 0:39
  I know I'm so so late. And as someone whose favorite
• 0:42
  show of all time is The Sopranos and I watch it time and time and
• 0:46
  time and time again, I cannot believe I had not seen Breaking
• 0:49
  Bad. I still think The Sopranos is a
• 0:51
  lot better than Breaking Bad. I don't know if that's a hot
• 0:53
  take. I believe it is.
• 0:55
  However, Breaking Bad was so good.
• 0:57
  OK, so I had like my own Breaking Bad moment.
• 0:59
  Like, you know, that iconic line.
• 1:00
  It's like probably the most iconic line in all of Breaking
• 1:03
  Bad where he's like, I am the danger, like I am the one who
• 1:06
  knocks basically. I had my own version of that
• 1:09
  today. So we had people using the
• 1:10
  studio this morning. I was in, I was helping them set
• 1:13
  up. I was getting everything ready
• 1:15
  for them. And I'm like, I'm just outside.
• 1:17
  Like text me if you need anything, like whatever.
• 1:18
  OK, They finished recording and one of them comes out and we're
• 1:23
  all just like chatting and, and she asks me, have you ever
• 1:26
  thought about podcasting? And I was like, huh.
• 1:31
  And then I thought she was kind of like making a joke, you know,
• 1:34
  like, of course, cuz I podcast, I don't know, 5 to 10 times a
• 1:38
  week. And she's in our studio.
• 1:41
  I've been with them all morning. Like I'm thinking she
• 1:43
  understands the context of like who I am in relation to the
• 1:46
  studio. And so I was like, what?
• 1:49
  And I thought she was, like, joking.
• 1:51
  So I was like, ha, ha, like, kind of like laughing literally,
• 1:53
  like that Trisha Page's meme. And she's like, yeah, like, have
• 1:56
  you ever thought about getting in front of the mic?
• 1:58
  Or are you more comfortable, kind of like in this role behind
• 2:01
  the scenes in production? And I was like, what?
• 2:06
  Because again, these are people like using our studio.
• 2:08
  So of course I figure like if you're out in the wild or if I
• 2:11
  meet you at like a work event or something, you don't understand,
• 2:14
  like what my role is in relation to Centennial or what I do on a
• 2:18
  day-to-day basis. Like that's totally fine.
• 2:19
  I would never expect that. But I was like, wait, what?
• 2:22
  So then I realized she's serious.
• 2:24
  And I was like, oh, have I ever thought about podcasting?
• 2:28
  And I was like, girl, I am the podcast.
• 2:31
  But I thought it was so funny. And I was like, I am so Walter
• 2:33
  White in this moment. Like my ego being bruised.
• 2:36
  I was like, I relate to Walter White in this moment in one of
• 2:39
  his worst moments ever. OK, anyways, I just had to tell
• 2:43
  that story. I was like, I need to tell
• 2:44
  Minnie because you guys are going to die.
• 2:46
  The fact that I podcast like minimum five times a week.
• 2:49
  OK, so let's get into the stories for today.
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  Again, reminder we are off next week on the pod.
• 2:53
  There will still be a touch grass and there will also be
• 2:56
  high stakes as usual, but Minnie and Minnie Tech will be off.
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  All right, let's get into the stories for today.
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  The first story that I have for you guys today is that the
• 3:05
  lipstick lesbians have actually responded to the feedback over
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  their new brand launch. So the lipstick lesbians have
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  responded to concerns and the negative feedback that they've
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  received from their audience over their new brand, Leaked
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  Labs. For a very high level reminder,
• 3:20
  because I did only just cover this yesterday, TikTok famous
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  beauty creator is the lipstick lesbians launched their own
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  brand this week called Leaked Labs, which sells somewhat
• 3:30
  unfinished products like they are finished products.
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  I think that's where things are getting a little bit like mixed
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  up here. They are finished products, but
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  they are like lab finished products it seems.
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  And there's not a lot of customization that's happened in
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  the process yet. And that's where the consumer
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  comes in. So you can basically buy these
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  products from the lipstick lesbians and give them feedback
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  on what you would change about the product.
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  And then they will decide, you know, based on consumer
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  feedback, audience feedback, if they keep the product in their
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  collection, what they change about it, if they reformulate
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  it, if they get rid of it entirely, all of that kind of
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  stuff. So the concept of essentially
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  buying lab samples hasn't really sat right with a lot of people.
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  And some feel like this is just a way for them to evade having
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  to pay for consumer testing and focus groups.
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  So Alexis and Christina have now responded to the criticism, and
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  they did so in the same style of content as their launch.
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  So in the video, they're playing basically like these really
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  famous people who are trying to, like, run away from the
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  paparazzi, like famous celebrities trying to get away
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  from the paparazzi. And they end up at a press
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  conference. The Internet has spoken.
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  This is the first leaked labs State of the Union.
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  Why am I paying to have a product that's unfinished for me
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  to test and give you? Feedback.
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  You're not paying for an unfinished good.
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  And you're not paying to do the work for us.
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  You're. Paying to participate in
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  Beauty's largest public focus group that's being documented.
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  We actually make sure we test BD products before we launch them
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  to make sure they're ready for consumers.
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  Hands. We might even be testing them
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  right now. When manufacturers present
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  products to brands and then brands take it and develop them
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  further, these products are finished.
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  It's just brands take it a step further with longer lead times
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  to make it tailored to them. What we're doing is we're
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  expediting that cycle and giving you the finished good that's
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  presented by the manufacturer to your hands.
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  But rest assured, Leak Labs products are safe to use.
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  Pass all cosmetics and regulatory testing ready for
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  launch and hygienic to you. The preservative system is there
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  for a reason, to make sure it's safe for you to use.
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  So what does the future of Leak hold?
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  The truth is, is that no one really knows what the is going
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  to hold, including us. We're going to rescue products
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  that deserve the spotlight. We're going to give them the
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  platform to be seen. And we're going to also develop
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  some of what we feel to be the best in class innovations that
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  are yet to hit the market. But at the end of the day, we're
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  going to do so alongside you. With the curtain peeled back
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  fully this time. This is a space for
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  collaboration. This is an invitation to all
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  brands out there that aren't sure about an innovation.
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  If they so choose, maybe they can link it with our lab.
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  It's Lexie a gimmick. Historically, when innovations
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  launch, many people don't understand them and they need a
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  lot of explanation. If you want this product to be
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  used the way you've used all your other powder products, is
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  it really innovative? It's really just a question of
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  is it worth it to explore? And ultimately, the question of
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  whether or not Flexi is a gimmick is really up to you to
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  decide. The selfie camera was actually
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  seen as a narcissistic gimmick when it first launched, and look
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  at it now. So it's kind of playing into
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  this same shtick, but like still addressing concerns.
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  I don't personally have a problem with it because I think
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  what they're addressing is not that serious in the scheme of
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  influencer scandals. So I think it's fine that it
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  still aligns with the concept and the style of the initial
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  launch campaign. Personally, I think it's fine
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  that they had a bit of fun with this while also addressing
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  concerns. I'm not sure they actually
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  should have addressed this because now I'm seeing a lot
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  more negativity, especially in the comments section and on
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  Reddit about them addressing this and about the concept in
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  general then I was before. There was still of course a lot
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  of criticism like I covered yesterday, but there was also a
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  lot of positivity, like a lot of people who were excited to try
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  this concept and excited to try their first products and like
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  defending them. And now their comment section is
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  mostly flooded with people being like, this is not quite right.
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  So let me read you some comments.
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  I feel like you're backpedaling with this.
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  You now say that it's a finished product, but the whole point of
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  quote leaked labs was for people to purchase these lab samples to
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  evaluate if the product deserves a permanent spot.
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  Is it just me or did this come off as aggressive?
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  Focus groups are usually paid. Honestly I would cut your losses
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  and pivot the beauty community. Really trust your opinions and
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  perspective in the industry and this has been received pretty
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  poorly for valid reasons. We want to support you but this
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  seems like 1/2 baked idea. And on Reddit the top comment
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  about this is you're not paying to test products, you're paying
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  to be part of a focus group. Baby.
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  Focus groups are usually paid to do it.
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  Yeah, I stand by the fact that they probably shouldn't have
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  addressed this. While I agree with a lot of this
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  criticism, I totally understand why people feel this this way.
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  Of course, at the end of the day, like we are not forced to
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  buy it, you know? It's not like other beauty
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  scandals where people have already bought things and then
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  they feel like they were totally scammed or ripped off because
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  there's like, I don't know, shards of plastic or, you know,
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  fuzzies in a lipstick or something like that.
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  It's not been a situation like that.
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  The concept of the brand and the first product, like we know what
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  we're getting with it before we have invested in it, at least so
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  far. There are so many resources out
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  there where people who are considering buying this and
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  maybe don't fully understand the concept could have read up on
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  it. So I don't know, I feel like
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  them addressing this has made it worse.
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  This was obviously an attempt to do something different and I
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  know you need to do different things to stand out out, but I
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  think we can so easily get into the trap of launching something
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  different or trying to create something different for
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  different sake as opposed to trying to fill a need, a gap,
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  something like that. All right, the next story that I
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  have for you guys today is Katy Perry is facing backlash for how
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  she responded to a fan on Twitter.
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  So Katy Perry is facing online backlash after a social media
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  exchange with a struggling fan went viral on March 10th.
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  A fan posted about having severe financial stress and health
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  struggles, saying that they were considering selling their Katy
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  Perry concert ticket because they could not afford to live.
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  They wrote, I so badly don't want to be here anymore.
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  I'm not cut out for this world. Like I cannot afford to live at
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  this rate. And I'm so close to selling my
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  Katy ticket. Cry face with a Katy Perry photo
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  of her, like lying down on. I think it's like a bed or a
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  couch. So that's obviously a very sad
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  tweet. And then Katy Perry, the next
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  day, she saw it and she responded to it and she wrote.
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  But I am looking forward to seeing you.
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  Okay, so that reaction has spread very quickly online,
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  sparking a wave of criticism from people who felt like she
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  dismissed the seriousness of the fans situation.
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  There were lots of opinions that she should have offered.
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  I mean probably more sympathy or empathy if she's going to
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  respond at all and also practical support.
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  A lot of people feel like she should have offered the fan like
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  free tickets or AVIP ticket or something else.
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  So these are some of the responses.
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  Quote. This is so grim.
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  Not even an offer of a free ticket or help offered.
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  Girl wow Katie you're so out of touch.
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  You just keep living your out of touch high life while everyone
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  else is barely able to afford essentials, food, rent,
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  insurance. If you loved her you'd give her
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  AVIP meet and greet package and tell her to sell the ticket so
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  she can have extra money to enjoy the show.
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  This is so tone deaf LMAO. I love you.
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  Don't sell the ticket. I need my tour to look sold out.
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  I'm genuinely losing it at the audacity.
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  No ticket or anything, just straight up left you hanging.
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  Where's the hospitality girl? OK so on this podcast we talk a
• 10:55
  lot about the cost of living and the widening gap between
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  celebrities and fans. And of course all of those
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  things are at play in what went down here.
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  But what I actually wanted to touch on here is something that
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  I don't think we've spoken about too much on the podcast before.
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  And that's the toll that really intense fan interactions can
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  have on public figures. And before I get into it, I do
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  want to make it clear I am actually not referencing this
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  situation. This situation is different
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  because this person didn't say this directly to Katie during
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  like a meet and greet. They didn't even tag Katy Perry
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  in this tweet. OK, This obviously just came
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  across Katy Perry's timeline. So I'm not referring to this
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  person specifically, but I think it's an opportunity for us to
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  talk about this given a lot of people are also defending Katy
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  Perry saying celebrities can't be expected to intervene with
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  every personal crisis that their fans bring to them or reference
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  them in. So four years ago, there was
• 11:50
  this discussion in the K Pop fandom about what was
• 11:53
  appropriate to disclose to idols when you see them out of meet
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  and greet or send them fan mail or DM them or have fan calls
• 12:00
  with them. The discussion came off the back
• 12:02
  of an alleged incident that happened in the 80s fandom where
• 12:05
  a fan disclosed in a letter to one of the members that she was
• 12:09
  being physically abused by her husband and lost her baby as a
• 12:13
  result of the abuse. It turned into this whole
• 12:15
  discussion about if it's OK to disclose your trauma to idols,
• 12:19
  if it's in the context of how this celebrity, this idol, this
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  influencer has helped you cope with that trauma.
• 12:25
  And we've also seen influencer speak about this, especially
• 12:28
  with things like meet and greets where you can be seeing like
• 12:31
  hundreds of fans an hour and they're all coming up to you.
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  They want to tell you about how much you mean to them.
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  And apparently people will just be like trauma dumping over and
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  over again to these influencers, these creators.
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  And then they have to just like stand at the media wall beside
• 12:48
  you and like smile and just be like, it's all fine.
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  And I can only imagine, imagine that constantly hearing about
• 12:53
  other people's trauma, like you have no idea how that's going to
• 12:56
  trigger the person on the other end.
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  Celebrities or influencers are likely not equipped or trained
• 13:01
  to understand how to navigate conversations like that, how to
• 13:06
  take on information like that from totally random strangers
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  and deal with that properly, especially if you're right there
• 13:12
  in front of them. So it's a very like tricky
• 13:15
  situation. I understand why people want to
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  tell their favorite celebrity, their favorite influencer, how
• 13:20
  much they've helped them, what they need to them.
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  But at the end of the day, of course, I don't think it's
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  appropriate for you to be trauma dumping on somebody who's famous
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  that you don't know. So with something like that in
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  mind, I can understand why there's some support for Katy
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  Perry in this moment, like looking at it from a broader
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  perspective of what we expect from celebrities and influencers
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  in terms of the support that they give their fandom.
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  But with that being said, there are also a lot of people who are
• 13:46
  saying like, she would have been roasted if she publicly offered
• 13:52
  something like this because everybody would have been like,
• 13:53
  she's just doing it for Klout. She's doing it for attention.
• 13:56
  She's doing it to look good. And there's also some people who
• 13:58
  are just saying like she probably didn't mean it that way
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  like someone on Reddit said, I think it's meant well but badly
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  phrased. And somebody else on Twitter
• 14:05
  said honestly if she did help publicly you just say she was
• 14:08
  doing it for clout. There is literally no winning
• 14:10
  with people like you. OK?
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  I don't, I don't really like the people like you.
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  I don't really like that. OK.
• 14:16
  And the last story that I have for you guys today.
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  Oh, also there is that Manosphere documentary by Louis
• 14:22
  Theroux that has just come out and I haven't watched it yet, so
• 14:25
  I'm not going to report on it obviously, if I haven't seen it.
• 14:28
  But I've heard mixed things. I've heard on one hand, people
• 14:31
  being like, holy shit, everybody needs to watch this.
• 14:34
  And then on the other hand, I've heard from people who I think
• 14:37
  probably have more knowledge of the space and Internet culture
• 14:40
  that it's like a rage bait documentary.
• 14:42
  So I don't know, but also rage waiting people to understand
• 14:46
  more about the manosphere. Maybe I support that type of
• 14:49
  rage base. OK, the last word that I have
• 14:52
  for you guys today is millennials are being attacked
• 14:54
  again on TikTok for the way that we film content.
• 14:58
  OK, so I normally don't cover these like generational wars.
• 15:01
  I think they're so dumb and people in real life so rarely
• 15:06
  react like this, act like this, interact like this.
• 15:09
  But I think this one speaks to a bigger cultural difference that
• 15:12
  is interesting and relevant to Centennial and mini scroll and
• 15:15
  what we cover here. So this conversation started
• 15:18
  when a Gen. Z creator joked that you can
• 15:20
  instantly spot a millennial because they leave a gap above
• 15:24
  their head in videos, whereas younger creators tend to film
• 15:28
  with like a tighter frame so their face fills up essentially
• 15:33
  the full frame. So like.
• 15:34
  Say there's like a ton of space between like the top of their
• 15:37
  head and the top of the screen. That is 100% millennial.
• 15:40
  So tons of people are losing their minds over this.
• 15:42
  Not just millennials defending themselves, but like Gen.
• 15:45
  Z being like, really guys? Like really?
• 15:47
  Can we not let the millennials have anything?
• 15:50
  And that's really nice to see. That's heartwarming to see.
• 15:53
  I've seen some millennials argue that the reason why we film like
• 15:56
  that is because we have like traditional photography
• 16:00
  principles like drilled into us like the rule of thirds.
• 16:03
  I'm like, I don't think that's why we record like that.
• 16:07
  I just don't. I mean, as a millennial who does
• 16:09
  record like that, I'm not thinking about photography's
• 16:12
  like rule of thirds when I'm setting up the camera.
• 16:14
  What I think this has more to do with is generational differences
• 16:18
  and how we learned to use technology.
• 16:21
  So millennials like we learned it through YouTube and early
• 16:24
  creator culture. And I'm sure that that does have
• 16:27
  roots in traditional photography principles.
• 16:29
  Like, I am sure that that is why people started filming certain
• 16:32
  scenes certain ways. But regardless, I don't think
• 16:35
  it's because we all just, like, inherently know the rule of
• 16:37
  thirds in photography. I don't know.
• 16:39
  But, you know, millennials, like, we instinctively frame
• 16:41
  ourselves like we're talking to an audience, Like, we are doing
• 16:44
  more traditional broadcasting. But Jen Zedd grew up on
• 16:48
  algorithmic feeds. So their style is way more
• 16:50
  intimate. It's way more kinetic.
• 16:52
  Like, they're close to the camera, they're moving.
• 16:55
  They're constantly trying to stop people from scrolling,
• 16:57
  rolling, so they imitate visual style that mimics like
• 17:00
  Facetiming or talking to a friend so it feels more
• 17:03
  intimate. And I also think that's why Gen.
• 17:07
  X and elder millennials. Elder millennials is the
• 17:10
  craziest term of all time. I recognize that.
• 17:12
  I think that's why they do the above selfie.
• 17:15
  Because I was thinking about this and I haven't looked into
• 17:17
  it. I'm sure if I googled it I could
• 17:18
  find it in like 3 seconds. This is just my own thesis on
• 17:21
  this. My own theory is because it
• 17:24
  mimics webcams, like before smartphones, if you wanted to
• 17:28
  take photos on, you know, like a device that wasn't like a
• 17:31
  camera, you could take webcam pics, but usually they were
• 17:36
  perched on top of the desktop monitor and so they were above.
• 17:39
  That's my theory. OK, So what I find interesting
• 17:42
  about this debate is that it's presented as another example of
• 17:46
  how fast media norms evolve online.
• 17:49
  What feels quote UN quote correct or natural on camera is
• 17:53
  largely determined at the end of the day by the tools and
• 17:56
  platforms that people grew up with and how we learned to use
• 17:59
  that technology. And it shows how difficult it
• 18:03
  can be to evolve out of that, to evolve into something else.
• 18:07
  And you know the etymology nerd, he did an interesting video on
• 18:11
  this. I can't remember when it was, it
• 18:12
  was a few months ago. If I can find it, I will insert
• 18:16
  it here. But if not, his video was
• 18:18
  talking about a test he did where he was recording front
• 18:22
  camera and then he would record videos back camera.
• 18:25
  And he said the back camera did worse because he would have it
• 18:28
  set up on like a tripod or whatever.
• 18:29
  And it was very obvious that he was filming on back camera on a
• 18:33
  tripod. So innately we felt less engaged
• 18:36
  with it because it feels less intimate.
• 18:38
  It feels more like he's presenting to us.
• 18:39
  And he said when he was doing videos where they were selfie
• 18:42
  camera and you know, the camera was moving a little bit because
• 18:44
  he was obviously holding it, that they would do much better.
• 18:48
  So even though this girl was like a little bit sad savage and
• 18:50
  her original TikTok and yes, I agree.
• 18:52
  It's like, please let the millennials have something.
• 18:54
  But she was kind of right and it's interesting to look at why
• 18:57
  she was right and how she was able to identify that.
• 19:00
  Anyways, guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
• 19:02
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 19:04
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 19:07
  Please Spotify star rate US and I won't talk to you next week,
• 19:10
  but I will talk to you the week after by Centennial World
• 19:13
  Podcast Network operates on Gadigal land.
• 19:16
  We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the
• 19:19
  traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
• 19:22
  elders both past and present.