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MINI SCROLL: TikTok's underconsumption-core + MrBeast "is a fraud" goes viral · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  OK, so I just went to a brand event.
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  It was a berries class and I had to quickly shower and like run
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  upstairs to do mini scroll. Oh, I have hair like all over my
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  hand because I had to brush my hair with my fingernails because
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  I forgot a hair brush. So my hair on camera, Hopefully
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  these big headphones are like covering it, but it is looking a
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  little unwell as a blonde. I forgot my K18 oil.
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  I forgot my proper shampoo and conditioner.
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  I forgot my hair brush. So she needs a little help.
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  Anyways, let's just get right into the stories for today.
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  So I have two stories for you guys.
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  The 1st is I wanted to quickly cover the underconsumption trend
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  going on on TikTok. So over the past couple of
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  weeks, a new trend has emerged on TikTok called
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  underconsumption core or normal consumption core.
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  As Crystal Andrews writes for Z Feed Quote, it's pretty
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  straightforward. Users are sharing the mundane,
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  normal things in their homes and lives that they use over and
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  over again. Dirty sneakers they've been
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  wearing to the gym for years and years.
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  Showers that contain only supermarket brand shampoo,
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  conditioner and body wash. A kitchen shelf of mismatched
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  glass jars, A2 step skin care routine and a crusty bronzer
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  compact. The focus is on well used, even
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  worn items in low quantities. But the most crucial part is the
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  presentation. There is no attempt to showcase
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  these things in an aesthetic way.
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  It's simply what normal life looks like for the vast majority
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  of people. So I'm sure you guys have seen
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  these videos. They're essentially like in
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  response to, I would say overconsumption and how social
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  media, particularly influencers, really push the overconsumption
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  of like beauty, lifestyle, fashion, all of that, even tech.
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  I would say it's also in response to the like restocking
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  or collection videos, you know, like Stanley collections.
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  Those were so, I mean, they're still really popular, but they
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  were so popular last year at one point, everyone showing that
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  they had a Stanley color for like every type of output they
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  could possibly have, like shelves and shelves of Stanleys.
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  And there's just a few different items like that that just kind
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  of end up like going viral and people get really obsessed with
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  collecting them. It reminds me of like 2015, 2016
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  beauty YouTube. And I definitely fell victim to
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  that. I still have this giant glam
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  station at my house, but it's literally just all those IKEA
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  drawers with like a giant mirror with the glam lights around it.
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  And I love getting ready there. And I think I will always have a
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  glam station. Like it is truly like where I
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  feel my happiest is doing my glam at my big glam station.
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  But my drawers like I have, I don't know, maybe 10 drawers,
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  like big wide drawers and they are just filled with makeup and
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  some of that makeup I have literally had for probably 10
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  years. So I don't really buy makeup
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  anymore because I don't really need to.
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  Like I buy mascara and foundation things I like go
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  through that I use all the time. But like eyeshadow and stuff I
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  never buy because I still have so much.
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  And I think that's kind of where we're headed now anyways,
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  especially with cost of living and just just we're in a
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  different time period than the mid twenty 10s.
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  So it is kind of interesting that overconsumption and
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  collections and halls and all of that got really popular on
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  TikTok for a little while. It's not to say that they're not
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  still really popular because they absolutely are.
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  But I do think that this trend, this underconsumption trend is
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  showing that tides are shifting and it's such a positive trend.
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  Like watching these videos, it's just like a warm fuzzy feeling
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  inside. You're like, Oh my God, that is
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  what my shower looks like. Or, Oh my, that is, you know
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  what my pantry looks like, what my kitchen looks like.
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  All of this stuff, it's so nice to see, just like normal life.
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  But Crystal's article also has a very interesting angle, and I'll
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  obviously link it down below. But it explores how this trend
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  could be a gateway to a person's deeper interest in things like
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  sustainability and economic justice.
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  It's not single handedly going to lead people down that path, I
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  don't think. And she kind of came to that
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  conclusion as well, but it could open the door for that.
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  But in general, I think this is just kind of like a feel good
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  trend. And I was actually going to talk
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  about how I think brands can jump on it.
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  But I think that's like the complete antithesis of the
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  trend. So maybe that is like something
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  for you guys. I know a lot of marketing
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  managers listen to the pod for you guys to take with you.
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  This trend is popping off. If there is a way to
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  organically, you know, put it into the brand that would make
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  sense, go for it. But I don't think I'm going to,
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  like necessarily encourage that because I do think that's kind
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  of the opposite of the trend. OK.
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  And the next story that I have for you guys is that Mister
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  Beast has been exposed by an alleged former employee.
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  Literally just yesterday, I said people are starting to turn on
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  Mr. Beast and, like, speculate that Mister Beast has a downfall
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  coming. And I didn't even know that it
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  was basically already happening. So I spoke about that in
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  reaction to Rosanna Pansino's Tik Toks, where she's been kind
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  of exposing what it's like behind the scenes of Beast
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  games, I think is what they're currently filming.
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  And she's getting a lot of messages and stuff because she
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  spoke out last year about how like what her experience was
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  being on one Mr. Beast competition show.
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  So she's been getting a lot of messages and stuff from people
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  who are currently competing. However, this is not related to
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  that, but it's kind of like all coming to a head together.
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  So this YouTube creator last week, he goes by Dog Pack 404.
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  I I've heard like some videos I was watching about it like
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  Philip Defranco's video and stuff said that his name was
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  Dawson. I don't know if that's his first
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  or his last name, but he started a YouTube channel and he posted
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  like his first video was a 53 minute video where he talks
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  about how he worked for Mr. Beast and he thinks he's a
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  fraud. And the video has over 6,000,000
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  views, like, it has just exploded.
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  So I wanted to talk about some of the kind of main points that
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  he brought up. And there was a lot, as you can
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  imagine. So I can't go through
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  everything. But the number one thing he says
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  is Mr. Beast really manipulates children's minds for profit.
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  And he claims that he does this in three ways.
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  So he said step one is getting the viewer to associate the
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  brand with trust and authority. He says, quote, Mr. Beast videos
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  are real and he's a great guy that gives away big rewards to
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  his loyal followers. As in, like, that's what they
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  want you to think, right? They want you to believe that
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  Mister Beast's videos are real. He's this great guy.
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  I mean, we've talked about that so much on this channel, like
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  the public image of Mr. Beast and how that's so much more
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  important than what he's actually doing on his channel.
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  So step two, he says, is showing people that when they interact
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  with Mr. Beast in the way that he tells them to, they are
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  rewarded. And he says step three is
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  calling on the viewer to act in a certain way that benefits Mr.
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  Beast with big rewards. And he kind of debunks some of
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  this by saying that you know, you won't win some of his
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  competition shows and the things that he puts on his channel
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  unless your friends or family with Mr. Beast, he claims that a
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  lot of the random subscribers or like random people, quote UN
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  quote that he gets to compete in his videos are actually his
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  staff friends or family or the friends and family of his staff.
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  So that was kind of the one big claim that he also said in there
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  that some of his videos are like sensationalized and they use CGI
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  and stuff, which I don't think that necessarily matters.
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  Like a Mr. Beast is making entertaining content for a young
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  audience. I think that's to be expected
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  that some of the stuff he shows is not completely real.
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  And then the other major thing he talks about is that Mister
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  Beast is running illegal lotteries and framing them as
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  giveaways. And the target of these
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  lotteries are children because that is the majority of who
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  watches Mr. Beast. So an example of like how
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  they're turning giveaways quote, UN quote into illegal lotteries
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  is, you know, he gives examples of times when people have had to
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  spend lots of money, like $45 or whatever to like enter a
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  giveaway. So that's kind of like gambling.
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  So Mr. Beast personally has not addressed these claims.
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  I mean, it's just been it's been quite a few weeks for Mr. Beast.
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  He has not addressed this video, but it is gaining so much
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  traction and all these huge Youtubers are reacting to it and
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  stuff like that. But Chucky, who works on Mr.
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  Beast's team, he actually addressed some of these claims
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  on Twitter. So he wrote I want to quickly
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  debunk some of the info in this video since the guy who made it
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  was on my team. I suppose he was his manager.
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  It was my decision to fire him for erratic behavior.
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  He worked at the company for less than a month and wasn't an
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  employee for most of the videos he mentions to have knowledge
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  on. There's so much in this video
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  and I want to specifically address him saying our videos
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  are fake or staged because this is not true and I was on set for
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  many of these videos. He acts like he's exposing us
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  for using CGI to make backgrounds look cool when we
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  have done multiple public behind the scenes videos with skopsky
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  scripts ski. So I have literally no idea what
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  that word is. I don't know if this is like a
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  YouTube So Crispy. Oh my God, so crispy.
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  Am I OK with So Crispy showing this?
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  It's clearly not a secret. On top of that, we did drive
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  buses in that pitch and same with the train that you claim we
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  didn't. I mean, that's kind of what I
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  was saying, right? I don't think it's like that
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  crazy that they might be using CGI or creating kind of fake
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  sets and scenarios and stuff for his videos.
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  So in relation to the statement that the YouTube said, he said
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  you won't get in a video unless you're friends or family with
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  someone that works at Beast. So he says in response to that.
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  This is a wild statement that can easily be proven wrong.
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  There's probably hundreds or thousands of people who have no
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  affiliation to friends slash family of Beast employees.
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  Think the 456 people in Squid Game ages one to 100 etcetera.
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  Jimmy doesn't know more than like a dozen people lol.
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  So there was more to that. But I think the major thing that
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  people are taking away from that Twitter thread is that he didn't
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  actually acknowledge the lottery thing.
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  And Mr. Beast would not be the first YouTube who has a younger
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  demographic where he is kind of promoting, indirectly promoting
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  gambling to them. This happened with the Paul
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  brothers. I just like a lot of those guys,
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  they've, I don't know if it's been by accident or they are,
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  they know what they're selling to them or promoting to them and
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  they don't care whatever it is. But there's been a few Youtubers
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  like that that have gotten in trouble for that.
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  I think the difference with Mr. Beast is that he is promoting
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  like his own services, like his own lotteries, as opposed to
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  promoting like gambling websites or, you know, external
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  affiliations and companies and partners that don't actually
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  have anything to do with the Youtubers.
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  So I don't know, I highly recommend watching the video.
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  It is quite a bombshell. But yes I I am interested to see
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  how this keeps going. I think there is just like a
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  massive pile on right now with Mr. Beast and once I mean we've
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  seen this a million times once it starts it's really hard for
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  it to stop. If the YouTube does not come out
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  and make a statement I feel like it is going to keep snowballing
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  unless he nips this in the bud, but I feel like his tactic might
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  be just to ignore it. We will see.
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  Anyways guys that's it for mini scroll today.
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  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
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  Please rate review and subscribe it helps me so much it helps me
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  grow. I love you guys and I will talk
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  to you tomorrow. OK, bye.