[019] Monday Scroll Starter: everything to save, watch and post this week
This one goes out to Kendra's therapist
Greetings Victims!
I’d love to know how much Google paid for this collab post with Alix Earle, and whether it really convinced anyone to test new AI “try on” feature in Google Shopping.
I’m writing this on Saturday from my walking pad - so any typos you see are a result of me being completely insufferable (but let me tell you, 18 months into owning a walking pad, I’m as invested as ever).
Inside today’s newsletter:
The brand content that inspired me last week (including a very cool beauty product launch)
Social news you may have missed (are we all on Kendra and her Therapist Tok?
What I’ve been watching (and loving)
Let’s get into it.
The best content I saw from brands last week (a few ICYMI’s from last week, with some fresh ones thrown in!)
Note: the list is short this week! Color me unimpressed and a tad bored with what I’ve been seeing from brands.
WINNER OF THE WEEK:
Peach and Lily sent mystery testers to beauty influencers - they sent unlabelled products and didn’t disclose their brand name. The result was UGC from some of the best known influencers in the game raving about the product, and a hugely buzzy launch. Breaking through a crowded beauty market AND getting genuine, unbiased reviews from influencers is no mean feat. Peach and Lily’s social and influencer teams deserve huge kudos for this one!
Now for the best of the rest:
Who Gives a Crap pointing out their And Just Like That cameo - sure, it’s not the coolest post I’ve ever seen, but I’m awarding them whatever the Millennial version of aura points is now that I’m aware they were in the Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment.
Diet Coke tapping into the essence of what their audience loves and proving that simplicity is key (33k likes and counting!). I get it because I am the audience.
Rare beauty scratch and sniff posters - as someone who lived in NYC for 4 years, I would never sniff a poster there as there’s a 80ish % chance it will have urine on it. Nonetheless, seeing IRL activations always piques my interest, and I love watching humans be curious.
Figma partnered with Dude with Sign for National Thank Your Designer Day, and designers everywhere wiped away a single happy tear.
Figma (again!) with this tried and tested trend of showing people old photos of themselves - the nostalgia factor always hits for me.
Frida following up from the breast milk truck by calling for taste testers who are “former babies”. I love me some witty copy.2
The best (unbranded) content I saw over the past week.
I’ve watched so many summaries of Kendra falling in love with her therapist and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Rushtok is back baby!
Mariah Carey saying “I’ve done enough” after being asked whether she’d go to space.
Las Culturistas Culture Awards, of course!
To quote the top comment: “Thank you maya Rudolph, Johnny Brovo and southern Jesus”
The social media (and adjacent) news you need to know this week.
Social media accounts of Palestinians seeking financial aid are being flagged as spam.
The above article from The Guardian highlights the case of Hanin Al-Batsh, who uses social media to promote her crowd-funding campaigns, which she creates in the hope of being able to afford flour and water for her children.
39% of US adults under 30 get their news from TikTok
For better or worse, facts are facts. I think we’re going to see the rise of more and more news publications catering to social media in the way that their predecessors struggle to - Cheek Media and Daily Aus are two social media based news outlets in Australia that are already doing a great job of creating digestible news that doesn’t sacrifice rigor in reporting.
Instagram rolls out “find my friends” style feature
And people are raising security concerns. For what it’s worth, I disabled this feature immediately because I have zero interest in my Instagram followers knowing my exact location.
Instagram announces Insights updates, including individual post demographics
The girls (social media managers) are gonna looooove this.
Remember Lil Tay? She debuted on OnlyFans
Lil Tay was briefly a YouTube influencer/child rapper famous for carrying large sums of cash and saying things like “I’m 9 and I’ve already got a Ferrari”. She was also the victim of a death hoax in recent years. Now, she claims to have made $1 Million in her first few days of OnlyFans. Why is this of interest? It’s yet another case of a child influencer exploring adult content after turning 18, having spent most of their (very short) life cultivating an obsessed online following. The NY Times had a great piece on this in 2024.
Gambling is trending with Australian influencers - leading to calls for legislative intervention
Australia is a nation of gamblers (we make up 1% of the global population but have 18% of the world’s slot machine, which we call “pokies”). A new trend has emerged with influencers either making gambling their niche, or using gambling as a tool for follower growth (the article quotes a former Love Island star saying “Welcome back to day 22 of betting $1 for every new Instagram follower” on a recent reel). Right now, this falls in a legal grey area, but many medical professionals are beginning to call for Government intervention, given Australia is already considered to have a “gambling problem”.