Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Alix Earle x Sabrina Carpenter album cover, Indy Clinton's PI, Tattle Life exposed + Converse x Love, Kelly scandal

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Alix Earle x Sabrina Carpenter album cover, Indy Clinton's PI, Tattle Life exposed + Converse x Love, Kelly scandal · 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.
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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. I am back.
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I am back off the back of our two week mid year podcast
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hiatus. And it was honestly so good.
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It felt both 10 minutes long and like 10 years long, which I
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think is pretty normal. But I'm really excited to be
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back And I had a very restful time.
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I really did. I, I wore like literally no
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makeup the entire two weeks. It was such a nice break and I
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got to do a lot of like business admin stuff that I just like
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don't really have space or like room for in my schedule, but
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also like my brain. It was a very good two weeks and
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I'm very happy that I get to come back refreshed and ready.
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Before I get into it, Please remember to rate, review and
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All right, let's get into the stories for today.
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So the first story that I have for you guys is that Alex Earl
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is facing backlash over a video that she posted saying that
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people are being too miserable mostly about the Sabrina
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Carpenter album cover situation. So Alex Earl posted and quickly
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deleted a very controversial video in which she called
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everyone online miserable and said people just need to
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collectively stop caring. So much as you can imagine that
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went down really well. So she used Sabrina Carpenter's
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album cover as an example of quote everyone being miserable.
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I'm sure she was also referring to other things she sees on her
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For You page, but the example she pulled from was Sabrina.
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So the conversation around Sabrina's album cover is so
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heated right now. I thought about making it a main
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story but honestly I think that would take actually 10 hours.
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Like, this episode would be so, so long if I really tried to,
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like, unpack all of it. But you know, no matter how you
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feel about the album cover, you cannot remove art from the
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context in which that art was created.
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And Sabrina Carpenter is an American woman putting this
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photo out at a time where women in her country are losing their
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rights all over, right. And violence against women is at
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an all time high in so many countries, including here in
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Australia. And the valid criticisms around
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the cover, there are a lot of criticisms that I would say are
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probably not super valid, but there are a lot of valid ones.
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And the valid criticisms are not necessarily about what she
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personally meant by it. It's more about how this lands
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in like the cultural and political context.
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So people were not having Alex's video, you know, talking about
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art and music and its impact on shaping culture is important.
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And it's not people being quote, UN quote miserable.
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Again, it doesn't matter where you fall in the Sabrina
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Carpenter album discourse, the ability for us to have this
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discourse freely and the ability to understand how impactful art
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and music and content and all of that can be on society and
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culture like that is why people quote UN quote care so much.
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Alex Earl yes, a lot of the Internet is just hate and is
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just people being miserable. And the next story that I have
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is all about that. But if Alex wanted to talk about
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like trolls or meaningless online hate, like she should
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have just said that. But using something like the
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critique or the discourse around Marina Carpenter's album cover,
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you know, as an example of something that everyone's like
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taking quote, UN quote too seriously and being miserable
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over like that is tone deaf. And that's what people were mad
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about. People are discussing this for a
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good reason. And I'm not against like
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aspirational wealthy influencers like Alex Earl.
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I follow a lot of them, you know, and you could of course,
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say like, they are out of touch. Of course they're out of touch
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with reality because of like the circumstances in which they
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live. I think it's similar to me
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loving to watch like Real Housewives, right?
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Like, I love watching healthy, privileged people live out these
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kind of dream lives, and so many of us do, but I am always
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shocked when people whose entire job, like Alex's entire job, is
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posting online. The fact that she thought that
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this was going to land somewhat OK really surprises me.
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I think the vast majority of us could tell you that even if you
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feel that way, posting something like that is never going to be
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received well. And that is what really
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surprises me. Maybe it shouldn't.
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I don't know if that's just naive of me.
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I understand why she might feel that way.
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Do I think that's privileged and tone deaf and you know all of
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these things? Yes.
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But like, I understand she may feel that way, but thinking that
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posting that would be received any other way than just so
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poorly is what is shocking to me.
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All right, the next story that I have for you guys.
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This is like 2 stories basically in one that I'm combining
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related to creators getting a bit of vindication against their
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trolls. So first, Australian influencer
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Indy Clinton has revealed over the weekend that she hired a
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private investigator to find the source of some really aggressive
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online hate that she's been receiving.
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She said the private investigator she hired turned in
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a 64 page document to her filled with findings related to her
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being trolled, harassed and defamed online.
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She said most of her trolls actually live in Melbourne and
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she has tons of details on them, like their names, their AB NS,
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their doctors names, details of their two designs and even where
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they gave birth because a huge portion of these trolls, she has
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found out are actually mothers themselves.
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So Indy Clinton is a bit of like a family vlogger.
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And that is a criticism all on its own.
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OK, we talk about family vlogging all the time.
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So the fact that she's posting her children aside, you know,
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the the amount of hate that some of these really big creators get
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is absolutely unhinged. And we know that, you know,
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we've done episodes unlike snark reddits and all of that.
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Like that is no surprise. So here's what she had to say
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Do. You know what's funny?
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Well, maybe not that funny, but I think it's kind of funny.
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So this week, you know how I told you I kind of scaled these
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people like from like how much you troll me to like the worst
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troll ever. So the ones that like kind of
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were here, you know, like they still continues to troll me, but
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they're not like the top at the end of the scale.
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So I engage with their platforms this week.
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Like some I would follow, some I would like a TikTok video, some
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I would do, you know what I mean?
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Like I did little things to let them know that I know who they
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are just to kind of be beg, beg. You have an opportunity to come
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forward and publicly. No, OK, not publicly, but to
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formally apologize to myself. Like I will forgive you, even
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though I'm sorry it's embedded into you.
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But if you actually own your words and Meg, I'm so sorry.
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I was, I don't know what went on with me.
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I had a, a fucking fart. I had a brain fart.
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And I've been trolling you for two years.
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I'm so sorry. You know, I, I feel like I would
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find it in my heart to forgive you because I am such a
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empathetic person. OK, And then in a similar vein,
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there has been a little bit of a War One against the influencer
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hate blog. And yes, I'm going to call it
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that Tattle Life. Tattle Life was founded in 2018
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and it's a blog dedicated to basically talking shit on
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influencers. It's similar to Stark Reddits,
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but I'm going to say it's like if you can think of the worst
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snark Reddit that you have ever been on, that is what that whole
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website is like. OK, It is like Trishy Land times
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1000 and that is like the entire website.
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So on Tattle Lifes about Us page, this is what they say.
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Tattle Life is a commentary website on public business
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social media accounts. We allow commentary and
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critiques of people who choose to monetize their personal life
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as a business and release it into the public domain.
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We have a 0 tolerance policy for any content that is abusive,
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hateful, harmful, and a team of moderators online 24/7 to remove
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any content that breaks our strict rules, often in minutes.
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If you guys have been following any of the discourse around
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Tattle Life, then you know that that last sentence is not
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necessarily true. OK.
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I mean I don't know how it could be if you go on tattle life like
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almost every single thing there is so hateful, negative and then
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they go on to say influencer marketing.
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Influencer influencer marketing is insidious.
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It revolves around people that occupy the space between
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celebrity and friend to stealthily sell when in reality
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it's a parasocial relationship. Studies have shown people's
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brains find it hard to play social media influencers.
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They share the most intimate and emotional parts of their life,
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making themselves seem accessible.
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So many people believe they're a close friend.
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Influencers actively encourage followers to feel like a friend
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and part of their family as it's more powerful to sell to.
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In reality, social media influencers have a one way
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relationship. I wasn't going to read the whole
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thing but I need to keep reading because it's kind of unhinged
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when it influencer posts quote any suggestions where to stay in
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Paris, they do so hoodwink their followers into thinking they
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care what they have to say to foster the faux friend
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relationship. And main reason is to get brands
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to reach out to offer cash and freebies to advertise.
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Can you really trust social media influencers to give
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impartial and honest opinions once money is involved?
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Reminder this is on the about us OK?
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Influencers are said to affect people's body and mind far more
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than celebrities and friends because they spend their whole
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lives posting what may a glance look like may at a glance I
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think they mean to say may look like authentic content when it's
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nothing of the sort. Beauty magazines have in the
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past been blamed for their toxic effects on people.
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The effects of influencers is far deeper and more extreme, but
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any negative opinions on them is routinely deemed unacceptable as
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it's a real person who has blurred the lines between
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business and private Life. OK, like keeps going on.
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Are there valid things in that statement on the about us page?
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Sure, there are. Like we talk about a lot of
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those things on this podcast, you know, the parasocial
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relationships, I shady influencer practices.
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We talk about how a lot of criticism that we put forward
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towards influencers, they just kind of have to brand it as hate
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because they get so much feedback all the time.
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And I really do believe like it is partially their brains, like
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protecting them from that much ongoing feedback at all times.
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But yes, like there are things in here.
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Sure. The way that this is written is
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absolutely unhinged in my opinion.
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And it sets the tone for the website.
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So title was super popular or is super popular?
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It reportedly has over 12 million visitors every single
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month. And they do seem to do quite
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well financially. A report from the Guardian in
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2021 claims that the website made over 276,000 British pounds
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in a six month time frame from advertising.
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That is so infuriating. I'm sure it is like programmatic
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ads mostly. I'm sure it's not like brands
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doing campaigns with them. But this like hate website.
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Like that's what I'm going to call it.
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This is a hate website, OK? Is making so much money, more
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money than like the majority of the independent media brands
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that I know, the independent podcast that I know like that is
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so unfair, OK. So the founder of the website
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has been revealed after a wealthy Northern Irish couple,
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Neil and Donna Bond, sued the website and its owner over posts
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that were made in February 2021. And it is important to note that
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despite Tattle's claims in their About Us section that everything
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gets pulled down within a matter of minutes, the post stayed live
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on Tattle until May 2025. S Several people have tried to
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sue Tattle in the past, I guess, but they weren't able to because
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they never knew like who owned the website.
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There was never any indication any way to trace who on the
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website with Neil and Donna. They have lots of money.
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They are like this wealthy couple and they felt like they
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were being defamed on the website.
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And so they just like went the distance.
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They were like, we have the money, the resources to do this.
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So they basically executed worldwide financial forensic
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investigation to trace the money connected to Tattle Life.
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And all the organizations, I think there's like two or three
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organizations that like ended up tracing back to Tattle Life,
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like incorporated in different countries to reveal who owns the
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website. So Neil and Donna through this
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were awarded £300,000 in British pounds in damages.
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And then last week, they secured a court order was approved on
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Friday where they could release the name of the owner of the
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website. And it is a male influencer
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named Sebastian Bond. First of all, an influencer in
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his own right. He has like, a vegan cooking
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blog called Nest and Glow. And I'm so glad he's a guy.
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Oh my God, thank you. I'm so glad he's a guy.
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OK, so obviously this is like a huge win both with Indies
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findings and now Tattle's findings.
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The fact that like these people who are trolls and helping kind
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of perpetuate really damaging things, right?
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Like we, we talk about influencers, we gossip over
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here. Like, you know, that is part of
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the culture of pop culture, the online zeitgeist, you know, all
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of that I think has a place and is important.
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But when it starts veering into like pure hatred, people are
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getting docs, you're talking about the way that people look
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in really damaging ways, just like really horrible things.
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That is obviously where the line should be drawn.
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So both of these cases are a really big deal in basically
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pushing back against kind of like this anonymous online hate
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that does feel like it is getting worse and worse by the
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day. Now I was thinking about this.
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I'm like, OK, so why is Tattle Life and its owner?
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Why are they responsible for the content on this website?
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But like Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, you know, all of these
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other social sites where you get like really hateful forums and
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comments and things like that, Why are they not held to that
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same responsibility? And the difference seems to be
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the purpose of these platforms and the breadth of their
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content. So this is from the BBC quote.
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The judge said the site had been set up to deliberately inflict
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hurt and harm on others by allowing the anonymous trashing
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of people's reputations. So yes, does anonymous trashing
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of people's reputations happen on Reddit and TikTok and YouTube
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and Instagram? Like, yes, it does.
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However, the breadth of those platforms are not just set up to
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do that, right? Like they are platforms.
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Let's say Reddit, for example, is a platform set up to talk
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about any niche interest you have, any topic you want, like
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you can find content on all of that.
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And same obviously with like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram,
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those are like entertainment platforms.
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They're not set up to be like these vehicles of hate in the
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way that title Life as a Forum was.
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At least that's according to the judge.
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All right, the last story that I have for you guys is that
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Converse has been accused of ripping off branding from a
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small designer who they actually recently collaborated with.
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So the founder of Love Comma Kelly, which is a creative
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agency and a clothing line, has taken to Tiktok to accuse
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Converse of ripping off his branding after Converse
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collaborated with his company in September.
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Kelly Butts Burrito is the founder of Love Kelly and in
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March 2023, he claims that he started selling clothes with the
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phrase Love Coma Kelly and Dear love on them.
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So one of the sweaters would say like dear love and then the
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other one would say Love Coma Kelly.
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In February 2024, he began working with Converse on hosting
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a fashion show for Love Kelly in their New York City store for
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New York Fashion Week. During this collaboration, Kelly
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shared tons of his like, branding, designs, concepts,
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essentially shared his IP with Converse, and they did put on
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this fashion show and they even had custom Love Kelly sneakers
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available during the fashion show.
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But now things have gone South, so this is what he says.
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In February 2025, one year after our initial meeting and five
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months after the runway show, Converse added Love Comic Chuck
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to their Instagram bio to launch a new marketing campaign run by
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the Converse Partnerships team promoting their Chuck Taylor
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sneakers. Their subsequent posts include
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the words Dear, Insert Name and Love Comic Chuck, which had
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never appeared in any prior Converse marketing.
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Even the handwritten style is similar to what I had shown the
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partnerships team and a similar font is used in Converse's
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rendering of the word love comma.
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He shares other examples of how dear insert name and love comma
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Chuck is used across Converse's branding says obviously this
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bears like similarity to his work.
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So he made this video talking about it.
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And then he said Converse has since removed love comma Chuck
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from their Instagram bio, which may indicate an awareness of an
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attempt to distance themselves from their blatant creative
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imitation. This is pretty wild.
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Everyone is on his side. Like, I mean, not everyone, I'm
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sure, but you know, like the, the temperature in his comment
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sections across these two videos, people are very much on
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his side. Obviously there's a lot of
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people that are like, you know, This is why you should have Ndas
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and contracts in place when you're sharing creative ideas
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and things like that with companies.
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But I also understand from his perspective, you would never
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anticipate anything like this happening if Converse did
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allegedly take some inspiration, some heavy inspiration from him.
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Like you think you're going to be able to trust a brand as, you
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know, reputable as Converse. So I understand why he didn't do
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that. Yeah, this is very disappointing
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if that's what happened here. You know, he is a small
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designer. Like, he's an independent
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founder of this creative agency, this clothing brand.
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He's doing really cool stuff, obviously cool enough for
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Converse to think that they wanted to, like, partner with
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him. And then to see something like
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that, I can't even imagine how disappointing that would feel.
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And it's one of those situations where it does feel like maybe
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nothing can be done. It is very possible that the
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Converse team weighed up the risks, you know, where it's
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like, OK, maybe they had their lawyers looking at their legal
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team and kind of weigh up the risks of doing this, knowing
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that he probably doesn't have the funds to go up against
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Converse. Or maybe someone just passed off
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this idea as their own in a meeting and it just kind of
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snowballed. I don't know.
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All right guys, well, 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.
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I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow.
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Bye.