to ask if any of you are watching the Zoella Advent Calendar hoo ha?

[BriechonCheese]

Now, I might be enjoying this fall out because my DS went to the HelloWorld event and was badly ripped off (a YouTuber event which went terribly wrong) but finally Zoella is being challenged on her over priced tat merchandise. Particularly her advent calendar which is £50 FIFTY FUCKING POUNDS for the likes of confetti, 2 tiny candles, a thin copy book and a Pom Pom!

www.boots.com/zoella-12-days-of-christmas-advent-calendar-10235552

Social media is going mad, there are thousands of tweets, a viral video lampooning it is doing the rounds and it was discussed on 5Live last night.

Is anyone watching this fall out?

Do we think this will finally be the end of these terrible, vacuous idiots? Or am I too optimistic?

That’s absolutely fucking terrible

The stuff in it is ok for that age group, the price is fucking ridiculous

I want to know the psychology of why people feel compelled to actually buy this shit.

Superb video icerebel 🤣🤣🤣

As everyone else has said, it’s a total ripoff.

I'd bet my bottom dollar that she'll say the quality of the objects justifies the price, and the things people are using as comparisons are of inferior quality. All the youtubers go on about how they insist on high quality from their merchandise stuff.

Either that or she'll just disappear until it's all blown over. IIRC that's what happened with the ghost writer palava.

wtf? I'm totally astounded by the whole concept of British youtube stars...

My initially reaction to this whole business is that anyone who went to Helloworldlive and spent 99 quid to be totally disappointed by these 'stars' probably got terrific value for money.

At least THEY won't be queuing up to buy 3*£50 advent calendar dross....

That guy doing the you tube review was marvellous :)

The "12 days of Christmas" format seems to be a thing.
Primark had one with nail polish (I think) but theirs was only £10.

IceRebel That video 😅

Ice that review is mint. DD is a fan of Zoella so I will have to show her it. I was looking at some of the Zoella merchandise in Boots and it is way over priced.

What I don't understand is there also seems to be a Zoella range in Superdrug which look nicer and are cheaper

I’ve had a lot of sympathy for Zoella this year, thinking she was being led by others and exploited herself. Then I found out she’s older than me I thought she was 14-15 and honestly felt bad for her.

The whole thing comes across as so cynical. Aiming something so expensive at Tweens is pretty yucky. Does Zoella have any redeeming features?

It's aimed at young girls, why isn't it pocket money type prices?

Because an inflated price implies greater desirability?
Because she's seen her chance and grabbed it?
And because there are still enough parents prepared to indulge their kids in crap like this?

I'd suggest she's got her "twenty four" mixed up with her "twelve days of Christmas" regarding the door numbers ... except that would mean it's been thought about at all beyond the profits to be made

Hippo I didn’t realise she’s a tad older than me either!

I took my 14 year old DD to the Pointless Blog pop-up shop they did in London a few months back. The queue was over an hour to get into the ‘store’ (a gutted out shop unit with racking all over the place). They’d been sold out of EVERYTHING since the previous day apart from hoodies in TRIPLE XL, baring in mind their target audience, a hoodie that size will NEVER EVER fit them unless they end up morbidly obese as an adult! Yet they still let these kids queue up to buy the extortionaly priced tat, and were Alfie or Zoe anywhere to be seen, were the feck. Out back counting their ill gotten gains I reckon! I told DD right then and there that they, or any other ‘vlogger’ will never get a penny out of me!

Having read this a saying springs to mind 'a fool and their money are soon parted'

I do sort of agree Silvery...I don't really get why kids want to go to stuff like that pop up store which was only ever about selling merchandise (when there's already tons of merchandise you can buy online), and clearly not really about meeting the Youtubers. Similarly I think something like HelloWorld was always going to be awful and its pretty obvious the vast majority of attendees aren't going to be having any meaningful interaction with the Youtubers regardless of the marketing, just based on sheer numbers.

However I think it's a lot easier to see all this as an adult than as a tween/teen...I guess it's stuff like this that helps them learn lessons about anticlimax and value for money?

Silvery The thing is, her other things are cheaper (not cheap but a lot cheaper) and more teen friendly prices. My niece buys her hand cream for instance, with her pocket money. That's fine and well.
This price however is where parents are stepping in and saying "no way!"

My DS bought HelloWorld tickets for him and his friend with his birthday money. We thought it would be like any other type of concert event - the type of events I spent my money on as a child.
I don't think he is a fool, nor us. I like my DC to have autonomy over their pocket money and birthday money so they can learn the value of money and making mistakes etc. However I do speak up when they are being taken advantage of, like in the case of HelloWorld.

I don't think teens buying these types of things are fools, I think they are being sold to daily as "entertainment". They are children.

@BriechonCheese I remember your thread about the helloworld fiasco

I think silvery is calling the parents fools for spending their money on this rather than the teens, I might be wrong but in that case I agree.

I think it would be foolish of anyone to spend £50 on a calendar without knowing what's in it. It's essentially a hyped up lucky dip, yes.

So disappointed as I thought the thread title said a Zoflora advent calendar.

Rain

I'd never heard of these people before. Are they just a new version of the Kardashians?

Very happy that lots of you are amused by the review. :) I would definitely recommend showing it to your children if they are fans of Zoella. Someone who thinks they can get away with putting a bag of confetti in a £50 advent calendar needs to be shown for what they are, a rip off merchant.