Oh, no, are influencers going through influencing recession? Audiences are growing weary of never-ending sponsored posts. Brands are cooling down on sponsoring influencers. Algorithms have changed, dropping channels’ view counts. Influencers are receiving smaller sums for product placement, ads, and other promotional content, prompting them to resort to ragebait for more engagement.
One influencer who might be a victim of the influencer recession is Jools Lebron, the creator of the “very demure, very mindful.” She started a GoFundMe for $45,000 of dentistry. What pissed people off, though, is that Lebron said in her now-deleted TikTok, “I don’t need a job. Like, you know what I mean?” Previously, Lebron revealed that she made over $500,000 from the meme and regularly posts videos of her expensive wig and doll collections. She deleted her GoFundMe after the backlash. In the past, she has done GoFundMes for a car, a hospital visit, a trip to see Beyonce, and money to get stable.
OpenAI is apparently paying influencers out the ass, though, since several TikTok-famous nobodies went on a luxury brand trip this week that it sponsored. OpenAI called it “Summer Club.” For a company that seems hellbent on depleting the earth, the event was oddly environmentally focused, featuring farm-to-table dinners and beekeeping workshops. The influencers stayed in suites that start at $2,000 per night. In an economy where AI is using up water and putting artists (and other influencers) out of work, you can imagine that TikTok was not thrilled.
You might notice that most of the influencers on the trip were female. Some commentators theorize that this is a deliberate strategy by OpenAI to preemptively accuse critics of misogyny. So, if you shit on the influencers for supporting OpenAi, they can turn around and say that you are anti-women because you don’t support women or whatever.
Some of influencers who attended include: [List] Nat Lucy Grace McCarrick Colin Rocker Megan Lieu Justyn Warner/Justyn Berkovits Sreya Halder Avni Barman Marisa Chentakul Erik Cupsa
Samyra Miller, the fat-positivity activist, crashed out this week when Old Navy revealed that they were collaborating with Cardi B. Samyra has criticized Old Navy for failing to carry enough plus-sized clothing options in their brick-and-mortar stores. Samyra beefed with Cardi B last year when Cardi jokingly called her fans fat for buying out 3X sizes of her mech. This week Samyra posted an old diss track that she made about Forever 21, and it has gone viral again.
Speaking of AI, Hank Green revealed that he has been using AI to write many of his video scripts. He only admitted it because he accidentally read the AI prompt feedback left in his video script. His fanbase was pissed. Now, he is doing damage control and claims that he will not use LLMS for any future videos. (Sure, Jan.)
Beloved influencer Sydney Towle has passed away at age 26 from a rare form of bile duct cancer. Towle supported the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation and her family is accepting donations to start a scholarship fund in her memory.
Tate McRae is a spokesperson for Neutrogena, but she faked an ad for them on TikTok. She pretends to use their makeup remover wipes, but clearly does not let the product touch her skin or remove her makeup. The spoofs and troll responses have been hilarious.
Ever since the trailer for Wicker dropped, TikTok has been horny for this wicker man’s wood. Alexander Skarsgård plays the twiggy titular character, who may or not be hot depending on how desperate you are.
The memes, thirst posts, and other responses on TikTok and social media have been…well, why am I wasting your time by talking? Enjoy (????) them for yourself.
The movie Obsession went super big on TikTok when it was released, and the latest dance trend involving it has some ~controversy!~ It’s set to audio of the heroine being obsessed with the male protagonist against her will, so some people say that it is not appropriate material for a dance trend. Idk, I say it’s camp.
If you weren’t crazy about the fruit ice cream that went viral a while ago, here are two other dessert options. First, a guy named Kendric dropped a recipe to enhance your boxed yellow cake mix, and it has gone super viral. He says to use four eggs, a stick of melted butter, a cup of milk, extra vanilla extract, and bake it low and slow. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is woefully underrated, so I fully support this viral show of support for it.
Second, the ice-cream-bar-in-a-croissant. How to do it: you put an ice cream bar inside of a croissant. Looks kind of tasty, but it seems like you should warm up the croissant a little bit first. So the chocolate gets melty.
This song has been popping off on TikTok because it’s so good/bad.
