Keep scrolling for a Kardashian Konundrum.
A Fashion Nerd & Smac McCreanor face off in latest TikTok drama
YouTuber Smac McCreanor has (accidentally?) exposed wildly entitled messages and voice notes she received from Amy Roiland of OG blog ‘A Fashion Nerd’.
Earlier this week, Smac went viral on TikTok for poking fun at an influencer asking to use her studio. Rather than offering payment, the influencer promised social media exposure.
Smac co-owns The Billy Studio, an LA-based space for creatives to shoot content.
“This is a real voice note an influencer left on my studio business IG when I said no to her using our space for free”, the text read on screen as Smac danced to the voice message she received from an unnamed creator. She also shared screenshots of their DM conversations.
Though Smac blurred out any details that could help identify the influencer, users quickly realised the voice was Amy’s.
“I asked to come there for twenty minutes to shoot something for my daughter, and that is disappointing? We charge a lot of money for postings, and we have like twelve million hits on our TikTok, and we do really well, and that is disappointing? … That is crazy. Who runs this account? Are you 90 years old and not know how influencers work? You guys are really out of touch, it is crazy,” Amy says in the voice note.
While Smac has since deleted her videos, this situation amplified existing discussions around influencer entitlement and if those with large followings really deserve their platforms.
Read the full story via Centennial Beauty.
Why some Taylor Swift ‘The Eras Tour’ presale tickets cost up to $50,000
Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ tickets went on presale Tuesday for “verified fans” and it’s been a disaster, to say the least.
Over the past two days, Taylor Swift fans have waited in Ticketmaster queues for up to 8 hours in an attempt to secure presale tickets to ‘The Eras Tour’.
Some that were able to get through claimed that every ticket was already sold out for that day and the tickets that were left had been posted for resale for up to $50,000+ USD.
There are arguably two factors that contributed to this disastrous presale scenario:
Ticketmaster has become a monopoly after its merger with Live Nation. The site sells around 70% of all live venue entertainment tickets in the United States.
Taylor’s team did not opt-out of Ticketmaster’s *optional* dynamic pricing model, allowing tickets and fee prices to “adjust over time, based on demand”.
Despite using a “verified fan” system to weed out scalpers in presale, journalist Jason Koebler explains that serious ticket brokers have “far more advantages” in securing presale tickets than the average person does.
“There is rarely a presale that ticket brokers don’t have access to. There are a variety of pay forums (Shows on Sale, which costs $150 per month, is one of the largest) where brokers share strategy, sell software, and share presale passwords. Ticket brokers join artist fan clubs, because they can make up the joining fee in profit on the tickets,” he writes. “The Eras Tour is sponsored by Capital One, and anyone with a Capital One credit card has access to specific presales. It is common for ticket brokers to have and open specific credit cards just to get access to presales.”
On Thursday, Ticketmaster cancelled the public on-sale for The Era's Tour, citing, "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand."
Read the full story via Motherboard.
Nori’s Black Book theorises why The Kardashians on Hulu is failing
In a TikTok posted this week, Natalie Franklin, the creator behind the viral North West parody account, Nori’s Black Book, says fans aren’t happy with the second season of The Kardashians on Hulu because…it’s boring.
Following the end of Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E!, the famous family re-launched their reality show with Hulu, claiming that it would be different.
Natalie says there is only one major difference between the old show and the new one— there is no drama.
“It’s new in the fact that there is absolutely no drama on this show. We’re in season two, episode nine’s about to air, and I’ve just noticed that they intentionally do not have any drama or any conflict on this show.”
Natalie notes that the only real “drama” featured on the show was Tristan Thompson cheating on Khloe (again) and impregnating another woman. However, Tristan was never confronted on the show.
She theorises that Kourtney (who notoriously hated filming the E! reality show in its final seasons) only agreed to do the Hulu series if she didn’t have to “put her trauma on display” or fight with her sisters on camera.
While the new show evidently focuses on the Kardashian clan as media moguls and entrepreneurs rather than on their family dynamics, audiences also rarely see them working, as TikTok user anotherkimk points out.
“I was watching the SKKN by Kim office tour, and there’s a shower in the office, and there’s a chair in the shower. She says in her tour that she has so much going on, she’s so busy, she’s working all the time, that people will sit on this chair in her shower and talk to her and conduct business while she’s showering off after doing a shoot. And I’m just like, why aren’t we seeing that on the show?”
Watch Natalie’s full video on TikTok.
Finance influencers apologise for promoting FTX to followers
One of the world’s largest crypto-exchange platforms, FTX, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Friday after reports that CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried mishandled customer funds.
The FTX meltdown has “eroded trust in the industry”, impacting celebrity endorsement deals, investment firms, and around 5 million users who stored their digital assets with the company.
FTX had several high-profile affiliates, including a 19-year $135 million sponsorship deal with Miami Heat.
Among those working with FTX were finance YouTubers Graham Stephan, Max Maher, Coin Bureau, Tom Nash, and Minority Mindset. Just like any brand deal, these creators were paid to convince their large audiences to use FTX as their crypto-exchange platform.
All of the creators listed above have since apologised to their audiences, with Graham and Max both saying they plan to take a step back to re-evaluate how they can improve moving forward and better vet their affiliated sponsors.
Last year, several mainstream influencers, like Tana Mongeau and members of FaZe Clan, came under fire for promoting cryptocurrency pump-and-dump schemes to their audiences. Kim Kardashian was also recently ordered to pay a $1.26m fine for advertising EthereumMax on Instagram without proper disclosures.
Read the full story via Business Insider.
Breaking down the Acne Studios #BeanieGate saga
Centennial Beauty’s podcast, Renegade w/ Lauren & Jordyn, dives into the Acne Studios #BeanieGate drama on TikTok.
They break down the initial drama between bytrendypep and zaaachydub over "gatekeeping" an Acne Studios beanie and how it exploded after popular creator Danisha Carter got involved.
They look at both sides of the argument and explore why brands, influencers, and audiences are struggling to understand each other on a platform as unique as TikTok.
Listen to the full episode of Renegade w/ Lauren & Jordyn on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.