to ask if any of your DC got ripped off at the YouTuber event Hello World?

[BriechonCheese]

My DS(13) went to the HelloWorld event yesterday - which was billed as an "immersive event" run by Alfie Deyes from PointlessBlog. (This is probably a TL:DR so in short - the event was useless, thousands of children were crying. The event organisers are ignoring it. Vastly inflated YouTube stars put in minimal effort for the whole event and the special additions for the VIP ticket were changed in the days immediately before the event. Disabled access also a nightmare).

He saved up his pocket money and birthday money to attend and even paid extra for VIP tickets for him and his friend because his friend has been through a hard time of it. This VIP ticket was supposed to give him access to meeting some of his idols (I can't criticise him for his choice in idols - I liked Take That, East17 and Adam Ricket as a teenager). The day before the event they were told actually VIP holders wouldn't get what they were promised but would be given a tour of the event by one YouTuber and they now had to enter a competition to other meet youtubers.

It as a shambles and from the photos my DH took (he went with him) it seemed to be a room full of teenagers milling around having being told their idols wouldn't be doing formal meet and greets (as in the norm with YouTube events) but walking around ok and off during the day - so basically the whole place was gridlocked with people hoping to see someone famous walking around. The youtubers in fact seemed to all stay behind the scenes and Snapchat from backstage.

None of the children were getting what they were promised (rides, chance to bake with their idols, play games with them and loads of stuff) none of them enjoying it or being able to access the "immersive events", half of them were in tears and the other half were angry. There was a performance which was due to last 2 hours but the performers lasted less than 1hr 30 mins and the big names appeared for about 5 mins.

It turned out to be an arena where children paid to enter in order to queue with other children to buy over priced merchandise.
Lots of children were pushed and shoved by other attendees, security and staff - my DH saw one girl being lifted out of the queue having being pushed against a bench by a surge of people.
Worst of all, the tickets said under 14s would be seated, so my niece who also went and is disabled was excited she could attend and feel safe in a seat. It turns out, from staff, that the under 14s rule was applicable to concerts only and this wasn't mentioned before hand. She is able to stand but is in agony today as a result. Disabled access otherwise was a nightmare and many disabled attendees were excluded from 95% of the events (which ended up mainly being them getting to queue to look at stalls that were sold out or areas where they might see a YouTuber but in reality no one showed up).

Yesterday social media was trending with how awful it was and it has been completely ignored by the organisers and "creators"/youtubers both on the HelloWorld social media pages and on their own personal pages.

Does anyone else have DC who came home disappointed from this event? Is anyone else sick to the backteeth of these YouTuber "creators" putting in absolutely minimal effort to take cash from impressionable children?

Zoella, Alfie Deyes, Sprinkle of Glitter, Mark Ferris, Joe Sugg, Marcus Butler, Tyler Oakley and their little gang of white washed, hyper consumerism based idiots are banned in our house hence forth.

What a disgusting exploitation of children. Do these cretins have no shame?

I know my kids would have been crushed if they’d experienced this “event”. My DH queued for 3 hours with them in London this summer for them to visit a pop-up shop for some YouTubers (can’t remember their names, sorry). When they eventually got in, the merch was all sizes XL - hardly suitable for kids! - and the YouTubers weren’t there. DH was fuming that nobody was managing the queue to tell people that the “stars” weren’t there or that the merch was sold out. My kids were bitterly disappointed.

On the other hand, they did get to meet Arron Crascall last week and DH said he was a really lovely bloke who not only spent time chatting to them, he expressed his gratitude at them turning up!

The Boots Christmas stationery alone is extortionate. £14 for a bloody notebook!!?!

www.boots.com/zoella-lifestyle/zoella-stationery

It's as if they're trying to see what they can get away with.

I'm really sorry your child had such a disappointing experience; it's good to see the way he's handling it, though - I can see why you're proud!

I have to admit I came on this thread because I find the whole YouTuber phenomenon fascinatingly incomprehensible. I don't have teens, and I just find the appeal impossible to fathom. Zoella is one thing - her 30 going on 12 schtick is grating for an adult, but I can see why a child might find it appealing - but I find Natalie completely inexplicable. Surely she seems closer to their mothers than them? Would genuinely be grateful if someone explained what the appeal is for their tween/teen!

From what I’ve seen so far - the video from the vlogger- the neighbor joke - the talks about tinder - the question about who has bonked who - the merchandise- the advent thing - none of this seems to be aimed to kids. If this is their targeted market surely they would have stuff aimed at them?
Do people really buy their 11 year olds candles and travel mugs? Mine would have looked at me like I had 3 heads.

No pewdiepie is not friends with them, they did some videos together but just to get viewers. These collabs are nothing more than buisness arrangements. Most of gleam only meet for "work" and pretend to be friends.

The Zoe and Alfie inspired show is rather good. Like anything negative they just ignore it and pretend it didn't happen

I find this all fascinating tbh. YouTube stars need to be held accountable and not just see the YouTube ££ and freebies coming in. I think back to when I was a preteen, obsessed with neighbours and Kylie and Jason and the rest of the stock aiken and waterman stars - I would have paid up to meet them and watch their every video, I'd have felt like they were my friends talking to me through my laptop. It's sheer role model worship isn't it?

Margaret
Who is Natalie? I think I've missed that one.

Argh, 'Natalie' was a complete brain failure on my part - I meant Louise! She vaguely reminds me of someone I know called Natalie and clearly my subconscious took over!

It's way woorse than Kylie and Jason with social media and the constant connection. None of them have apologized and just blamed people themselves if they didn't enjoy it.

Only a few thousand people went to the event and the ones that dare to complain are hounded on by the millions blindly supporting.

I don't get the Louise thing at all. She seems to be aiming her content at mothers/grown women (channel mum type content) but always seems to be lumped into these events aimed at 12 year olds by virtue of her friendships.

I've watched a fair few of her videos over the last couple of days and she has even made a few videos rebranding herself basically saying "I used to make content for kids because that's what brought in the cash but now I'm going to make the kind of stuff I like (namely sex and swearing) so like it or lump it" - ok fair enough.
But why then feature yourself as a big name at an event aimed at tweens and tweens?

These people seem to want to do it all their way but deliberately aim to make money from kids who want it another way. Then they have huge social media strops when people call them out on it.
It isn't 12 year olds with a twitter account daring to complain anymore, the adults are getting involved.
I have been in contact with a few parents from the Facebook group and we will be joining forces to take this further if we aren't met with a full apology from the organisers, the "creators" and issued a full refund.

Many of the other parents now want to raise public debate about the YouTube culture and make parents aware of what goes on in these videos and how it is intense advertising in their own homes. So much of it is hugely pressured, one guy is constantly saying "I have spent all day in meetings trying to organise making new merchandise for YOU GUYS" or "I went without lunch because I was busy editing for you guys" or "we made this (stupidly expensive) product just for you guys".
It's very intense and the pressure in schools for the kids to be up to date on the lives of these people is immense. I hadn't realised how far beyond the likes of reading Smash Hits and watching Neighbours this had become.
Like many parents I watch a few videos from the YouTuber of the month when my DC become interested and generally they seem ok but the pressure to buy and hand over cash is hammered at them for 20 mins a day. Then followed up in the comments and at school.
If you have kids watching YouTubers on a regular basis, I encourage you to watch one video, from their favourite, a day for a couple of weeks and also read the comments below. The pressure is mind boggling. I thought having Kickers and knowing the words to Boyzone songs was a big deal when I was 13 in 1996, it's nothing compared to pressure aimed at them these days.
My DC have limited screen time and I refuse to buy them this stuff but DS wanted to spend his own money (and generally I let him spend his money on what he likes as it teaches him lessons about value) and thought it would be a nice way to spend a day with his friends. He was badly misled.

I am very interested in what the end game is for these people? They are just making hay while the sunshines with a view to doing what in the future?

The end game is to milk it for all they can as many like Zoe and Alfie understand they peaked a few years ago and numbers are on the way down.

I agree totally with the "for you guys" everything Alfie does he claims to be for other people. It's manipulation pure and simple. He complained that he was gaining weight as he was so busy filming videos for you guys. When his videos are just simple eating a bowl of cereal or diving to Nadia and are quick and easy to film and edit.

twitter.com/DdotMinter/status/924724766682107905

Liking the fact that the office address above is in New Fetter (foetor) Lane! A new kind of stink indeed...

The picture on that tweet is hilarious but the comments below "delete this now" etc. are hysterical and worrying.
(They feed into the "no debate" and "no platform" culture which is growing out of social media and leading to women being beaten in the street for having opinions.)

No wonder they have been able to get away with treating their customers (because that's what they are) like shit for so long when teenagers are reacting like this. Money that has changed hands before now has been small (but not insignificant) on the likes of key rings, books and posters so the loss or delay in receiving their item can be hidden by proud and loyal teens.
Hundreds of pounds on a crap and unsafe event, to which many parents escorted their children can not be hidden away. Parents hold none of the loyalty the fans do so they'll find it hard to brush this backlash under the carpet.

It seems like anything organised with Alfie Deyes involved is a shambles. It took my daughter 3 months to get Sugg life merchandise and when it turned up it was such poor quality all the text came off after one wash. The pop up shop was a joke, kids queued for hours and the so called 'talent' hood in the back rather than meeting the fans. The merchandise was over priced and they ran out of everything but xxxl sizes. Hello world we didn't even bother with once we realised that Alfie Deyes was involved as we knew it would be overpriced and a complete shambles. I think the more people boycott anything with these people involved the more they will realise you can't keep ripping kids off.

Yeah the comments are worrying, I posted half for the comments. Hopefully this opens a wider debate up on these people. They aren't your friends, they just want to make money from you.

The t-shirts they sell are the low quality pollyblend ones that are for cheap freebies. Zoella was wearing a £320 Gucci t shirt while selling pollycotton cheap nasty quality t shirts for £18 at the event.

They are currently selling 9 little Halloween stickers for £6.99 plus postage and packing. I can't believe so many parents let their children buy such stuff.

Alfie will go on and on about how hard he's working on something, then it turns out to be just slapping his basic logo on some item that costs less than a pound and will be sold for 15 pounds.

Just watched one of Louise's top video. What an inane woman, a mother posting about her hurt after her boyfriend dumped her- just so very odd and narcissistic! Did anyone see the video where she was singing terribly with a guy on the Hello World stage? I mean - where's the talent?! At least Kylie and Jason could sing and dance!
I hope I can find genuine real role models for my boys to get to know when they are older, so they won't blindly follow these online idiots that just are a front to advertisements.

I've seen a lot of people saying things like "yes Louise was a bit shit, but that's Louise - she's amazing!" - WHAT?!

I'm really using my sick leave well, researching these idiots.

Well, if it makes you feel better, brieoncheese, I'm fascinated by these people and I don't even have children! I just find it such an interesting cultural phenomenon. I do find something odd - and, to be honest, a bit troubling - about the fact that so many children are so invested in adults' lives. The top video for Louise is her pregnancy announcement - I just watched two minutes of it and could get no further, but it just all seems so far from a teenage world.

I just wanted to add for balance, I took my DS's to Legends of Gaming last year which is the same YouTuber hyped up convention type of event. When I saw the queue which was thousands of kids long I was dreading it, it was billed as the same thing as yours about meeting the YouTubers and interactive shows etc etc...

However the DS's loved it and although I can't remember all the YouTubers names, DanTDM et al all stood for hours on end meeting everyone who wanted to meet him (if you braved the queue) and signed anything and everything and stood for pictures for all the kids who wanted them. And the same for all the other YouTubers too, the shows were great and they invited lots of kids on stage to take part. Obviously they had lots of stalls with over priced nonsense, but overall even I enjoyed it.

The one you went to sounds beyond crap and exactly like what I was dreading the one I went to would be, but they thankfully aren't all like that, I guess they really are hit or miss. I really hope you get your money back.

It is very interesting though. These people have tens of millions of fans who are watching them on a regular basis. They have billions of views.
I think it would do our young people a disservice for us not to be interested in such a large cultural phenomenon. Stuff like this (beyond shit March and events) has far reaching impact on society and culture. The media we consume deserves to be examined and it's interesting the people who are consuming this type of media don't want it looked at by outsiders and attack anyone who is vaguely critical.
I understand teenagers feel a huge brand/tribe loyalty but the pressure with the internet and social media is very tight and focussed - there is access to information about and ramblings from these people available 24/7.

I'm wondering if it is possible for this bubble to burst?

NoAdventure I'm glad that event worked out better for you guys. My family are into gaming and I think the culture surrounding gaming on YT is very different to this specific group of vloggers who seemingly don't do anything other than just showcase their "personalities" and sell hyped crap.

Not sure if this this been suggested OP but if you payed by credit card you might be able to claim back via them as you did not get what you paid for... worth a try

I've just watched Amy's vlog that someone posted a link to. I have to say that I do think that Joe Sugg tried his best with the dire situation- he was friendly, kind and seemed to want the people in 'his group' to have a good time.

However, the stage bit with Louise, Marcus etc- I am really not a fan with Louise's unfunny oneliners and I don't think the young audience were either.

Wow- I have the vlog still playing right now and just heard Marcus asking about someone 'getting jiggy'- this is a really appropriate subject to be be discussing with a tween audience!!

Hopefully all of the teenagers who wasted their money and time will unsubscribe from the YouTube channels and unfollow on Instagram, snapchat, twitter. Hit them where it hurts.

I don't know much about the whole YouTube thing, I have heard of Zoella and assume the rest are similar. It seems like a house of cards to me along with all the instagrammers who brand rep and seemingly are happy to sell their whole lives. It won't last forever, I hope they have a back up plan.