Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: MrBeast, Logan Paul & KSI's Lunchly, Diddy arrest (TW) & Matt + Abby Howard cruise backlash

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MINI SCROLL: MrBeast, Logan Paul & KSI's Lunchly, Diddy arrest (TW) & Matt + Abby Howard cruise backlash · 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. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone, and thank you guys so
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  much for all the love on our return.
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  I got so many DMS. We had so many comments on YouTube.
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  You guys have been so sweet. I'm so excited to be back and I
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  have a normal three stories for you guys today.
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  So the first story of course is we need to talk about how Mr.
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  Beast, Logan Paul and KSI have teamed up to launch a Lunchables
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  competitor. So yesterday the three creators
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  announced that they are launching a brand called
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  Lunchly, which is a prepackaged school lunch for kids that
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  brings together two of their existing products, Mr. Beast's
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  Feastables and Logan Paul and KSI's Prime Energy Drink.
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  These two products will be packaged together with either
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  Fiesta Nachos, the Pizza or Turkey Stack EMS. So quartz.com
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  writes quote the Lunch Lee kits, available on the company's
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  official website, contain Prime Drinks and Feastable bars in
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  addition to a choice of Pizza, Turkey Stack EMS or Fiesta
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  Nachos. The Lunch Lee website features a
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  side by side comparison of the meal kits and their Lunchables
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  equivalent. Lunchely boasts that their
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  products provide more electrolytes, contain fewer
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  calories and offer quote big gestures in comparison to their
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  competitors Mid moments. I can't.
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  So they are going on sale apparently at select grocery
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  stores or like retailers at the end of this week in the USI
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  don't know about anywhere else, like internationally.
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  But I think that this is really interesting because this is them
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  admitting that their audience is children, that all of their
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  audiences actually are children, not even teenagers, like legit
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  children, right? And none of them really own that
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  fact. And I think that's partly
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  because if they did, if they spoke publicly about how their
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  audience is very young. And when I say young, like I
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  like I said, like not teenagers. Like, there's no teenagers
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  bringing Lunchables to high school for lunch, right?
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  So if they're launching a Lunchables competitor, this is
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  like a prepackaged lunch. This is for kids under 13 years
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  old, presumably, like this is for kids in grade school.
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  So, you know, if they were to be very public about the fact that
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  their audience is very, very young, then that would put a lot
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  of heat on them for their problematic content, their
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  problematic views, their problematic supporting of
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  certain celebrities, creators, politicians.
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  I think Mr. Beast out of all of them owns it like the most, I
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  guess I would say, because Feastables is so obviously
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  geared towards children. Like, it's a it's a candy bar.
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  It's a chocolate bar brand. But that being said, I watched
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  hours of Mr. Beast interviews and documentaries for that
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  Mister Beast deep dive that we did at the beginning of the
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  year. And not once did I hear him say
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  in the content that I watched at least.
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  And again, I watched every interview that I could find
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  really online of Mr. Beast. Not once did I ever hear him say
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  that his audience were children. And this just goes back to how I
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  feel about Mr. Beast, which is, yeah, he's not really building
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  culty community, right? Like, he is making shock value
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  lowest common denominator content for children who are
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  inevitably going to age out of that content, obviously.
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  So I think that this is almost like a bad PR move for, I mean,
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  all of them, but especially Mr. Beast.
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  There's already so much heat on him.
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  I know that there's so much drama going on with Amazon Prime
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  show Amazon is that. Yeah, I think it's Amazon.
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  And because of everything that's coming out, you know, there's a
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  lot of questions about is Mr. Beast even going to really be
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  able to attract that audience on a platform that's not YouTube.
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  We know that Gen. Alpha, who is presumably largely
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  their audience, like Mr. Beast's audience, they are probably,
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  they probably don't have Amazon Prime subscriptions like their
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  parents probably do, of course. But like they are iPad kids,
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  they are addicted to YouTube. We know that that is like the
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  number one platform for Gen. Alpha.
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  So I think in a way, of course, it's like a good business move,
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  I guess to launch Lunch leaves. But it's an interesting PR move
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  because we know that Mister Beast is trying to move away
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  from YouTube. He is trying to be taken
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  seriously in entertainment in Hollywood.
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  And this just further puts him in that box by telling, you
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  know, the public, like my audience actually is children.
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  So that's who you're going to be attracting if you work with me
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  on a major television network or anything like that.
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  That's how I feel about that. I'm also very confused about the
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  regulations around selling an energy drink bundled in a kids
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  lunch because like these like lunch Lee is so clearly marketed
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  towards children. Like I said, there's no high
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  school kids or like college kids taking prepackaged like
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  Lunchables to school. You know, like that is a
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  children's lunch. So this is very clearly being
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  marketed towards children under 13.
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  And I don't understand how they can get away with putting Prime
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  in the Lunchables or in the lunch leaves or whatever.
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  But I know there was already drama anyways.
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  I think it was actually Australia that was warning, like
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  I think it was us, I don't know, some governing body here was
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  like warning parents against letting their children consume
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  Prime because of the very, very high caffeine content.
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  So I don't know, I guess we'll see.
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  I guess it probably lunch. Lee will probably not be sold in
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  Australia, is what I'm gathering.
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  OK, the next story that I have is a very mainstream story, but
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  I feel like it is important to cover.
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  So Diddy has been arrested on sex trafficking and other
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  charges. So rapper Diddy, whose real name
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  is Sean Combs, was arrested on Monday on charges of sex
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  trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in
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  prostitution and accused of running a, quote, criminal
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  enterprise that abused women over a period of years.
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  Mark Agnefilo, a lawyer for Sean Combs, said, quote, he's going
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  to plead not guilty. Obviously, he's going to fight
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  this with all of his energy and all of his might.
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  Last November, an investigation kicked off after singer Cassie
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  filed a lawsuit quote alleging that Combs abused her, urged her
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  to have sex with male workers while he filmed, and that he
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  later raped her. Ventura So Cassie Ventura
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  Ventura's case, settled one day after it was filed, set off a
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  torrent of similar lawsuits from other accusers, several of whom
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  also described brutal and disturbing details.
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  Combs initially denied Ventura's allegations, but in May, CNN
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  obtained and published a violent surveillance video showing Combs
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  kicking, dragging, and throwing an object at Ventura, writes
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  Fox. Diddy then took to Instagram to
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  apologize once that video came out.
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  First of all, it's just like justice for Cassie and all the
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  other women that I've spoken out.
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  But if you guys saw the video of Cassie and Diddy, it is so
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  horrifying and I'm so happy I know she's actually spoken out.
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  I literally just saw before I started recording, she spoke out
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  and said like I was hoping for justice in this situation and I
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  feel like I'm just hoping that she gets it.
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  So I will definitely be following this case.
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  I have seen a few people talk about how this is hopefully
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  going to be like the Me Too moment for the music industry
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  because I guess, I mean, I was a little bit too young to really
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  follow Me Too that closely. But I guess it didn't touch
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  music obviously as much as it did, just like general entry
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  entertainment and film and television.
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  And I have faith that if this does become like a Me Too esque
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  movement for the music industry, that the public will take it
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  more seriously and receive it better than we did with the me
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  Too movement. I think the culture, especially
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  online, like Internet culture has changed so much.
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  But I do have faith that if something like this happened, if
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  like a Me too ask movement happened for the music industry
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  because Internet culture is at the forefront of culture now.
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  And I do believe Internet culture is in a different place
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  than, you know, it obviously used to be.
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  I would hope that that's of benefit to the victims, the
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  survivors, and that there would be like real change made here.
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  So I'm going to follow it. I will keep you guys posted on
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  any like major developments on this case.
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  OK. The last story that I have for
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  you guys is that parenting influencers Matt and Abby Howard
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  have addressed allegations that they left their children alone
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  on a cruise. So Matt and Abby are the family
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  vloggers who go viral and make headlines all the time because
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  of their controversial like marriage podcasts where they
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  basically, I, I, I think people are like concerned about how it
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  seems like Matt treats Abby or like handles their relationship.
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  They are like a family vlogging couple, but they actually don't
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  show their children, which is something that I really
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  appreciate from them. So anyways, the story that Abby
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  posted featured a photo of their baby monitors on a cruise and
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  the text wrote. So we ended up taking them as in
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  their children for five nights and it became apparent that they
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  weren't enjoying it and therefore we weren't either.
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  So then we switched our dinner time to after their bedtime and
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  Facetimed the monitors while we ate.
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  She said the baby monitors didn't work well on board the
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  cruise, so Facetiming the baby monitors worked better.
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  That like allowed them to basically be able to keep an eye
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  on their kids. People went absolutely wild that
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  they seemingly left their children alone in their rooms.
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  So now Matt has responded in a video saying that there was
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  someone with their children at all times and they were not left
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  in these rooms on the cruise by themselves and.
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  People started to speculate and believe that we had left our
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  children alone in their staterooms and that is just
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  completely untrue because we had someone with our children at all
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  times on this boat. Period.
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  I. Can see where my story did lead
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  to misunderstanding, which is why I ended up deleting it
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  several hours after posting it. It's because I could see that it
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  was causing concern and misunderstanding.
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  OK, so I'm obviously not a parent and I'd be interested to
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  hear from parents what your opinion is on this.
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  But I don't know if this is like an absolutely rogue or like
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  inappropriate take. But I don't know if this is that
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  scandalous. Like I have to question if the
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  children sleeping in their rooms on a cruise ship where Matt and
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  Abby are like, it's not like they're at a restaurant.
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  You know, it's like the kids are at home and they're at a
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  restaurant downtown or something.
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  They're like on the same ship together.
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  They're like, you know, a flight down, let's say, having dinner
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  and they have the baby monitors there so they can actually keep
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  an eye on them. Like, I don't see how that is so
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  different from them being in their rooms at home and you,
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  let's say, like being in the basement watching a movie
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  together and having the baby monitor there.
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  I don't know. I, I, I was really surprised to
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  see the reaction to this. But again, I'm not a parent, so
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  I don't know. And I also understand, like, I'm
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  a 90s kid. My husband's an 80s kid, you
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  know, our parents, I was left in the car with the windows rolled
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  down while my parents like ran into shopping centers.
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  I am sure that I was left sleeping somewhere, you know,
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  and maybe my parents took the baby monitor.
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  Maybe they didn't like, I don't know.
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  And I understand there's always an element of, like, progress
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  means, you know, you know better, you do better.
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  So things change, obviously, for example, like, we used to never
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  wear seatbelts, right? And now we know better, so now
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  we do. So I understand that argument as
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  well. Like, I'm not saying that if I
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  had a child, I would leave it in a hotel room while I was
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  downstairs for dinner at the hotel.
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  OK, That's not what I'm saying, but I was really surprised by
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  the reaction to this because I'm like, they're still there, you
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  know, they're still I, they're just like a flight or two
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  downstairs. They might even be on the same
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  floor, like, I have no idea, right?
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  But second of all, I was really shocked that Matt and Abby
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  actually posted this because I do believe that like the family
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  vlogging, like parenting corner of the Internet, it is obviously
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  very judgmental. It's very heated.
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  People have a lot of opinions about parenting and I feel like
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  posting anything about parenting online would be terrifying.
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  So I'm really surprised that they posted this because I'm
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  sure that they could have anticipated that some that a
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  reaction similar to this would have happened.
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  So that leads me to think that maybe they posted this
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  intentionally. And I know that's a bit like
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  conspiracy vibes, but there is a lot of questions around if they
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  post their controversial marriage podcast clips and
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  stuff, if they post those to get press mentions.
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  Because anytime they post anything like that and it goes
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  viral, it always gets written up in like People magazine, Us
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  Weekly. Obviously, their names do well
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  and their takes are controversial enough that
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  journalists feel, you know, it's worthy of a story.
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  So I don't know. I feel like it's possible.
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  They are very online. Obviously, their whole job is
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  the Internet. They would know to an extent
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  that this reaction was going to happen.
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  I have to wonder if they posted that intentionally to get press,
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  not just engagement, but like press.
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  I feel like that is what they're chasing.
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  Because that's like legitimacy, right?
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  Like getting a full story written up in People magazine.
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  If you're trying to be Internet famous and boost your followers,
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  your engagement, your legitimacy, like what's better?
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  I don't know, I feel like I have my tinfoil hat on right now, but
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  I just that's the inkling that I have.
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  Anyways, guys, that's it for today.
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  Thank you so much for listening to Mini Scroll.
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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.