Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: LukesReads book deal, Benson Boone hate, Alix Earle x Hawaiian Tropic campaign backlash + $7K Dominos order update

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: LukesReads book deal, Benson Boone hate, Alix Earle x Hawaiian Tropic campaign backlash + $7K Dominos order update · 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.
• 0:13
  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
• 0:17
  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
• 0:21
  everyone. OK, I know I keep asking you
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  So I'm like basically taking the next two weeks off.
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  So I'm finishing up this week and then I have a two week
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  break. I'm going to use some of that
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  time to write a mini series about the journey of building a
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  brand while you're still in the middle and like what that is
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  like from an emotional perspective.
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  So it's going to be like personal Diaries, personal
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  essays. It's not going to be like, oh,
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  here's like our marketing strategy or here's how you know,
• 1:02
  we've grown. It's not like a here's how we've
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  built this. It's going to be like a here's
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  the emotional toll. Here's the mental health journey
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  that I'm on. Like all of that.
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  It's going to be really intense. And we need a bit of proof of
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  concept from you guys to help lock in this potential sponsor
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  to see if it makes sense from you know, their perspective and
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  also for you guys. So there is a poll in the show
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  Yep, I have a hobby that I'd interested in funding for or
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  and things like that. It's honestly so exciting and
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• 2:13
  OK, the first word that I have for you guys today, book talks.
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  Luke Bateman has landed a book deal one month after joining the
• 2:22
  niche. So I was going to cover this
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  yesterday, but I literally thought to myself, Lauren, don't
• 2:29
  be such a hater. Let's just like see how this
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  plays out. Well, it's been exactly 24 hours
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  since I decided to not cover it. And so far it looks like things
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  are not panning out too well. So we spoke about Luke when he
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  launched his book talk account last month.
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  And I even said, like, I'm kind of wary because we are always
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  disappointed when men enter these largely women dominated
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  niches and they find so much success so fast.
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  And this isn't, like, necessarily his fault.
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  OK, I'll get into it. But this isn't necessarily his
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  fault. I don't fault him for, you know,
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  accepting this opportunity, but it's interesting.
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  So if you don't know Luke Bateman, he was an Australian
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  bachelor * and he joined Book Talk in late May and he
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  immediately went super viral because the women of Book Talk
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  were basically dying for him. In his first videos, he
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  explained that he loves reading and he loves fantasy books, but
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  he never really felt comfortable talking about it because he's
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  from the country and he does blue collar work.
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  He is very hot. You know, he came online, he was
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  wearing an Acubra hat, he was in a truck, he works with his hands
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  and he was like, I'm just a sensitive soul that loves to
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  read. And the women were like, Oh my
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  God, sign me the fuck up. So he got over 115,000 followers
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  in the first few days and he is now at 170,000 followers, I
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  believe. Yeah, 175,000 followers in the
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  first month. So at the time of him really
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  starting to blow up at the beginning, like there were some
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  criticisms about how hard creators in that niche work to
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  grow their accounts and to be taken seriously in this niche.
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  It's a very competitive niche. You know, we've covered book
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  talk several times here. Every time I cover book talk, I
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  get a little bit nervous because it is a very like the niche is
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  very protective of itself and it's a very, it seems
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  competitive niche. And I think it's a difficult
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  niche for creators to really crack into and to grow.
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  So a lot of people were kind of like, OK, it's so classic that
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  this hot guy comes in and he cracks like 100,000 followers in
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  his first few days when women have been so logging away,
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  making really meaningful content in this space for years and have
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  not grown, you know, half as big, nowhere near as fast, all
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  of that kind of stuff. Right?
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  And all of that feels even more true now because Luke has just
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  announced on Sunday that he signed A2 book deal for a
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  fantasy series with a Tria, which is part of Simon and
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  Schuster. So like a giant publisher, I
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  can't stress enough. I'm not, you know, part of book
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  talk, but I do have I'm obviously in media and I do have
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  a lot of friends that have written books that are in talks
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  with publishers that have been approached by publishers.
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  So my very kind of high level understanding of this industry,
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  publishing is so gate kept and it is insane that he was offered
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  a two book deal, let alone a single book deal after being
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  publicly in this niche or in this like industry, quote UN
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  quote, for like one single month.
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  I understand maybe his story at it's more than one book, but the
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  fact that he got signed on A2 book deal his first time with
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  this huge imprint, it's it's actually wild.
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  So OK, my initial thought was like what the fuck?
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  Like being a reader is very different than being an author.
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  However, he has in some of the press, like they are referring
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  to him as a writer and a poet. So maybe that is like part of
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  his journey. Maybe he, you know, does some
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  writing that I am not Privy to. So that is why I started to be
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  like, you know what, maybe I'm being too much of A hater.
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  Like I need to back off. Maybe I won't cover this.
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  I was just waiting to see how it kind of all came together.
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  I was considering reaching out to him because he's in Australia
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  too and seeing if he would speak to me about this.
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  But I thought it was worth covering now because a lot of
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  his followers are excited for him.
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  But now, of course, the backlash and the criticism has started
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  and I fear it's going to snowball and this is going to
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  become really, really big. A white man joined book talk on
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  April 22nd and a month later achieved getting a two book epic
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  fantasy deal with Atria Books that he credits to his success
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  on book talk. And we don't really have very
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  many details of what he's already written, but it seems
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  like he didn't even have a manuscript.
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  Like it seems like it he had a concept which is something that
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  many established authors who have already been traditionally
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  published even can't even manage.
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  So I think that's very interesting.
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  Luke Bateman, He is a former rugby player turned Bachelor
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  contestant. He seems nice.
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  I don't hate the guy, and it's really not anything personal.
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  He also seems to be a genuine lover of books, which is pretty
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  rare for these like cute white book talk boys who come on here
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  and read smut and have like thousands of women lusting after
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  that. He has a pretty extensive
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  bookshelf high fantasy read that he seems to be very passionate
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  about. Like genuinely.
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  But the fact of the matter is he got his platform for being cute
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  and likable, and that platform led to him getting a.
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  Book deal and again, I don't think anyone is faulting him for
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  taking the deal like take any opportunity that comes to you.
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  It's just an industry thing, right?
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  Like, this is actually why we need DEI.
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  Like, this is like a literal case study for that.
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  And I'm not saying he's going to be a bad writer or a bad author.
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  He might have an amazing series that comes out and he becomes
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  one of the best fantasy authors of our generation.
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  But that aside, it's just the principle, right?
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  It is such a challenging industry to break into.
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  And it's not even like, you know, oh, OK.
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  Well, of course. Like they're going to give it to
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  people with lots of followers. Fair enough.
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  But like, he has 175,000 followers.
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  Yeah, he got them in one month. But like compared to some of the
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  book talk girlies who have millions of followers and I am
• 8:07
  sure some of them would love to be authors, it just doesn't add
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  up and it makes me sad. It makes me sad for the book
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  talk creators that have been literally slogging away in this
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  industry and it just feels so classic.
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  It feels so classic. OK, but we need to get on to the
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  next story because I mean, this is actually some more like white
• 8:27
  man hate. But I need to talk about how
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  there is so much viral hate right now towards Benson Boone
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  online. OK, so Benson Boone has been
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  criticized slash kind of publicly hated for about a year
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  now, but the discourse has really taken off over these past
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  couple of weeks, largely because his new song met majestic.
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  No mystical magic, majestic mystical magic, moonbeam ice
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  cream or whatever he sings came out and I think that coupled
• 8:57
  with his Grammys performance, he was performing amongst, you
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  know, some really big acts and it just doesn't feel like it's
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  adding up for people. Now, again, just like book talk,
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  I do get a little bit afraid to cover music sometimes because
• 9:13
  the stands, they are strong. I actually like don't even
• 9:16
  really know who Benson Boone is. Like obviously I know who he is,
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  but like I have actually no strong feelings towards him.
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  So this is just me relaying the hate.
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  Okay, this is not my opinion. I do not personally hate him, I
• 9:28
  don't really care. I'm just relaying what is going
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  on. So there are some main
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  criticisms towards him right now.
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  First he came out of nowhere and was suddenly everywhere and he's
• 9:38
  being absolutely shoved down our throats.
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  I actually saw someone on TikTok, a man on TikTok say that
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  it's almost like Nickelback in like the 90s and 2000s when
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  Nickelback was literally everywhere, like all over the
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  radio, you know, played in every single mall, every store you
• 9:55
  went into non-stop. You could not escape Nickelback.
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  And that overexposure kind of turned US against them and as a
• 10:02
  result, they became cringe quote UN quote.
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  However, the difference is that Nickelback kind of just stayed
• 10:07
  the course and like made music for their die hard fans.
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  Whereas Benson Boone cannot seem to handle that people don't like
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  him because he has addressed this on TikTok, which I will get
• 10:17
  to in a minute. One of the main comments on one
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  of the videos that Benson Boone made about the criticism, one of
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  the top comments says you make music for Target ads and retail
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  stores. It gets shoved down our throats
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  every two seconds and it's honestly really irritating.
• 10:32
  OK, so to this criticism, I will say Benson Boone like did kind
• 10:36
  of come out of nowhere, but that's because he came from
• 10:38
  American Idol. Everyone from American Idol
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  comes out of nowhere. So he was on American Idol and
• 10:44
  then he actually didn't want to be associated with the show, so
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  he quit. And then he basically took to
• 10:48
  TikTok and like built his online following his music career
• 10:52
  through an online following and obviously had that one huge hit,
• 10:56
  Beautiful Things, where he's screaming his beautiful things
• 10:59
  I've done. You guys know the one that was
• 11:01
  such a big song that now he is kind of everywhere.
• 11:04
  The next major criticism is that his shtick is really inauthentic
• 11:09
  and his branding is all over the place.
• 11:11
  His whole like Freddie Mercury cosplay, Harry Styles reheating,
• 11:16
  his nachos thing that did seem to come out of nowhere, like it
• 11:20
  was a shift that seemingly happened overnight.
• 11:23
  His early music career, his aesthetic, his style, his
• 11:26
  branding was like, I don't know, white country singer almost.
• 11:30
  Even in Beautiful Things, he has such a different vibe than what
• 11:33
  he has now. And with his new song, I keep
• 11:36
  wanting to say Moonbeam Ice Cream, but you guys know what I
• 11:38
  mean. Majestic Magic or whatever it
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  is, he has this like Americana thing going on, which I do think
• 11:45
  is like an interesting choice right now, while also
• 11:49
  cosplaying, like I said, as like Freddie Mercury or Harry Styles.
• 11:52
  And the aesthetic that he has now feels forced or inauthentic
• 11:58
  because it's not how we knew him.
• 11:59
  And of course, like, artists can change, they can grow.
• 12:02
  Like think about all the different eras that different
• 12:04
  artists can have. But I think because it's all
• 12:06
  within the same era and it's all very conflicting.
• 12:09
  The cover art for Majestic Magic, Mystical Magic, Oh my
• 12:12
  God, I don't know what that song name is.
• 12:14
  I don't know why I keep saying Majestic Magic.
• 12:16
  The cover art from Majestic Magic is him holding.
• 12:20
  He's shirtless like dirty, holding up an American flag,
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  like a gritty American flag behind him.
• 12:27
  I swear it is such a bizarre cover art for like the song that
• 12:31
  it is. And then he's performing it
• 12:33
  dressed as Freddie Mercury. There's just like conflicting
• 12:36
  things going on and it's all happening within the same era.
• 12:39
  So let me read you something that one creator wrote on
• 12:43
  TikTok. They said desperately trying to
• 12:44
  explain that the root of Benson Boone criticism is that he is
• 12:48
  inauthentic and willing to use any marketing to hit 15 minutes
• 12:51
  of fame. A great example is his use of
• 12:54
  the patriotic aesthetic to promote his new single versus
• 12:57
  Bruce Springsteen's use of the patriotic aesthetic to criticize
• 13:01
  America's encroaching fascism. What does a gritty American flag
• 13:05
  have to do with moonbeam ice cream?
• 13:08
  And then someone commented, Benson Boone is the answer to
• 13:11
  the age-old question, what if Freddie Mercury was born at
• 13:14
  Target? And then there are the
• 13:16
  criticisms that he is using queer performance culture to
• 13:21
  basically, you know, raise his profile and build his career
• 13:25
  again, because he did not start with that personal brand.
• 13:28
  That shtick it really like came into play over the last couple
• 13:32
  of months. So like I said, he has responded
• 13:34
  to some of this hate he wrote on Tiktok.
• 13:36
  This was from April so it was a little while ago.
• 13:38
  He wrote on Tiktok, if you hate me or my music, at least have a
• 13:41
  good reason for it. I just wrote a comment that said
• 13:43
  I don't even know why I hate Benson Boone but it feels right.
• 13:46
  Like what? How am I supposed to improve
• 13:48
  after reading that? At least say something valid
• 13:51
  like he low key just flips everywhere.
• 13:53
  Can he do anything else? Because he does like backflips
• 13:55
  all the time on stage or even I just don't like his songs even
• 13:59
  though I'm basing my opinion off of only one that I've heard over
• 14:02
  and over. Super valid.
• 14:04
  I think it is possible that he is just finding what his public
• 14:06
  brand is and because he has built his career online.
• 14:10
  Like we're watching it happen in real time but the fans are not
• 14:14
  being patient with it. I will say I kind of like that
• 14:17
  the most hated pop star in the world right now is a man.
• 14:20
  How rare is that? OK, the next story that I have
• 14:23
  for you guys, this one happened a couple weeks ago, but I just
• 14:26
  found it from Jen Loves Reviews and I was like, Oh my God.
• 14:30
  OK, so we need to talk about this.
• 14:31
  Alex Earl has partnered with Hawaiian Tropics, the brand to
• 14:35
  promote tanning. Kind of.
• 14:38
  So Alex Earl is the face of a new Hawaiian Tropics campaign
• 14:41
  called Tana Sutra, a play on Kama Sutra, and it centers
• 14:45
  around sunbathers who switch positions to get a more even
• 14:49
  tan. So the press release, according
• 14:51
  to Gen. Love's review says, quote, ask
• 14:53
  any sun lover, including Alex Earl, and they'll tell you the
• 14:56
  secret to an even glow is switching positions every 15 to
• 15:00
  20 minutes. That ritual inspired Tana Sutra
• 15:03
  are vibrant and flirty Glow getting guide that is hard to
• 15:07
  say that nods to the brand's iconic history while speaking
• 15:11
  directly to the bold radiant energy of now.
• 15:14
  Sure. So yeah, the ad is basically all
• 15:17
  of these gorgeous women who are like tanning like by a pool and
• 15:23
  switching positions. And they don't of course,
• 15:25
  outwardly promote tanning, but like it is it is promoting
• 15:29
  tanning. And this is really shocking to
• 15:31
  me because I live in Australia now.
• 15:33
  Like I'm from Canada originally. And I mean, sun safety has
• 15:37
  always been really important to my family, specifically because
• 15:40
  my mom is super, super fair and she's always just been so sun
• 15:43
  safe and she's had skin cancer so many times, even though she
• 15:47
  was born and raised and has lived her whole life in Canada.
• 15:50
  It's always been top of mind for me.
• 15:51
  But you know, growing up, like I'm a millennial, like growing
• 15:54
  up in the 2000s, sun safety was really not that big of a deal in
• 15:58
  Canada. Like all my friends would go to
• 16:00
  tanning beds, like getting the most tanned possible every
• 16:03
  single summer was like the goal. And unfortunately, I do see some
• 16:08
  of that trend coming back online among younger generations.
• 16:11
  But I do see a huge difference between how people talk about
• 16:14
  like sun safety and tanning in Canada versus Australia because
• 16:17
  the sun is so strong here. It's like so, so, so incredibly
• 16:20
  dangerous. People take sun safety so much
• 16:22
  more seriously here, as you know, as they should.
• 16:24
  So this is a shocking commercial to me.
• 16:28
  It's honestly OK. I know we keep talking about
• 16:30
  these similar things, but it's like watching a commercial that
• 16:33
  promotes cigarettes or something.
• 16:35
  It's really scary. And Alex Earl has such insane
• 16:38
  influence. Like whether you love her or you
• 16:40
  hate her, if you find her problematic or whatever, like
• 16:43
  she actually is probably the most influential creator in the
• 16:47
  space right now in terms of like her reach, like mass influence.
• 16:51
  She is so insanely influential right now and this is really
• 16:56
  disappointing both from the brand and from her.
• 16:59
  OK, the last word that I have for you guys is I have a quick
• 17:01
  little update on the Domino's Pizza Scotia Bank situation that
• 17:05
  we covered last week. OK, so last week I talked about
• 17:07
  how there was this Canadian crater named Naya.
• 17:09
  She ordered Domino's Pizza online on like March 30th, I
• 17:13
  think it was, and it was supposed to be $72 and like
• 17:17
  $0.53. And she ended up getting charged
• 17:20
  $7253. And Despite that being a very
• 17:25
  obvious mistake, Domino's Scotia Bank, which was her bank or
• 17:30
  credit card, neither of them really seemed to care.
• 17:33
  Like they were not rushing to resolve this.
• 17:35
  She had to pay the $7000 on her credit card because the bank was
• 17:39
  not reimbursing her and they weren't even like opening up her
• 17:42
  case. And so eventually everybody in
• 17:44
  her life was like, just take this to TikTok because you'll
• 17:46
  probably get a resolution. And unfortunately, well,
• 17:49
  fortunately for her, but like, unfortunately for like the
• 17:51
  reality that we live in, that is what happened.
• 17:54
  But Scotiabank has reached out to me and they have started
• 17:56
  finally looking into the dispute.
• 17:58
  They've also credited me the $7000 and so I'm satisfied with
• 18:03
  that. That's honestly all I wanted
• 18:04
  from the beginning was for them to look into it and credit me
• 18:06
  the money while the dispute is being looked into.
• 18:09
  So that's the temporary resolution for now.
• 18:12
  So yeah, it's pretty shitty that this had to literally go viral
• 18:16
  until she was taken seriously by two companies, 2 huge companies
• 18:20
  where she is a customer and they wouldn't even really, I mean,
• 18:24
  they were like quote UN quote like looking into it, but like
• 18:26
  nobody really cared. But the fact that there needed
• 18:28
  to be viral public pressure for her when she ordered, like,
• 18:31
  obviously she didn't order $7000 of pizza and who could pay that?
• 18:35
  That was like her original point is like I'm in such a unique
• 18:39
  position that I could pay that amount of money off, but like
• 18:42
  the average person could not just put $7000 down to pay off a
• 18:46
  credit card for pizza. Anyways, guys, that's it for
• 18:49
  Mini Scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
• 18:52
  Please remember to rate review and subscribe.
• 18:54
  Please fill out the form down below.
• 18:57
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• 19:00
  I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow for Mini Tech
• 19:03
  Scroll. Bye.