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?

@Glitter Companies like Gleam have targeted children and exploited the fact parent want to give their kids gifts etc or just can't say no, and they have made a lot of money. £30 for a hideous jumper, sounds like one of their products down to a T. And they have the balls to charge so much because they know it will sell. They could seell toe nails and kids would still buy it, if it was Zoella's

Designer handbag.

Production cost: £150.
Price: £8000.

In our capitalistic society an item's value is determined by how much someone is willing to pay for it.

Lover the only one of those I watch is I'm a Celeb.

Delores Where is she saying that?

Can someone tell me what happened at the you tube hello world event? I keep reading it was awful but what was supposed to happen and what actually happened (sorry but late to the party!!)

five four - it was supposed to be a revolutionary new type of event where fans could mingle with Youtubers in an expo hall decked out as a mini world, with various side shows and attractions manned by different Youtubers. Culminating in a two hour stage show. The reality was there were so many people there that the vast majority didnt get anywhere close to a Youtuber, spent all the time shuffling around in a packed space in queues that may or may not have borne fruit, things like the fairground rides that had been billed just weren't there, and the stage show ended after 1 hr 30.

The pointless book one of these guys sold was a direct copy of Wreck this Journal which came out a few years before his.. so much for producing “original” content

Zoella apparently earns ~50k a month I certainly do not feel sorry for her

@JonSnowsWife but a lot of people do watch all of those programmes, the Kardashians, and whatever other shite that markets itself as entertainment, and they develop a kind of hero worship for the individuals who star in them.

And Kim Kardashian or Katie Price is no different to Zoella or Dan TDM in terms of what they have to offer, the only difference is the platform they choose. But I have no doubt that if Kim Kardashian had a youtube channel she would be able to market herself in a very similar way to the way she does in other media. She's still a nobody though, as is Zoella, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

There are millions and millions of people who upload to youtube on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Only a small handful of those make it purely because they're seen by someone who takes them seriously at the time. No different to the Kardashians or whoever might supersede them.

But while we as a society hero-worship the stars of big brother or embrace them coming back as "celebrities" on to love island next year it's impossible to sell the idea that vlogging from your kitchen is any worse than checking in on "day one in the big brother house."

Thank goodness peoples eyes are beginning to open, youngsters get sucked in and made to feel like they are part of a special club. Zoella has a powerful influence over so many, I wish she would use it more wisely (anti drugs / anti self harming / anti bullying etc) instead of the constant 'want want want' (latest Christmas jumper, best mascara, scented candles, fairy lights, I want I want I want) you can only meet her if you pay, she's never seen doing any sort of charity, is she? Giving back to her fans....not something she does.

50k a month! Whaaaaaattt?

And Kim Kardashian or Katie Price is no different to Zoella or Dan TDM in terms of what they have to offer, the only difference is the platform they choose. But I have no doubt that if Kim Kardashian had a youtube channel she would be able to market herself in a very similar way to the way she does in other media. She's still a nobody though, as is Zoella, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

I agree that they're part of the same phenomenon, I do think they attract a different audience though - do 10-14 year olds really follow the Kardashians? Kylie Jenner maybe, but not the older sisters surely? If idiots want to buy K merchandise, that's their own stupidity, but they're not marketing directly at children. Zoella goes for that whole "wholesome"/"basic" image, twinkly lights, UGGs, pumpkin patches and ugly trendy dogs, and the "buy this and you can be like me" which for some reason pre-teen and young teen girls (in the main) seem to lap up.

Just watched that video and he is hilarious. But that is nothing short of an outrage how much that costs and how little you get. And there is fucking duplicates! They couldn't even come up with twelve items to put in it!!

No but they market to adults who flock to buy their shite. And how many times have we seen on here what a shrewd business woman KP is while mugs flock to buy her latest book which was written by someone else.....

So if the adults buy into the one market then it's hardly surprising that a similar one has sprung up which markets to children, and the adults are hardly in a position to then say don't buy from them when they're essentially doing the same just with different idols.

Bullying?! Yeah right.

Zoella is a brand. That is how she has made millions. If you put yourself out there as a brand, and not a person, then you have take criticism thrown at that brand on the chin.

The calendar is bullshit and Zoella should absolutely see and approve everything that has her brand on it. I mean, what else does she has to do everyday? Sit in her bedroom and talk on camera about mascara? She should at least attend meetings where these products are pitched FFS. That’s part of her job and if she isn’t prepared to do it then she can’t complain about shitstorms like this.

Reading the press puffery before anyone had seen the calendar is quite interesting:
www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/worklife/a12172295/zoella-lifestyle-advent-calendar/
metro.co.uk/2017/09/07/zoellas-released-a-lifestyle-advent-calendar-filled-with-12-days-worth-of-surprises-6907046/

I don't buy for a second that she had no idea what a pile of cheap crap was in there - it would have been produced long before the Hello World fiasco when she was still wondering how much she could charge people for sweet FA.

Last thing I can find from Zoella online is a tweet about Christmas jumpers being out of stock. Has she responded to the calendar complaints somewhere?

No maudlin she’s doing her usual and going quiet

@Nicknacky haha too true, it comes to something when the items are duplicates, 2 cookie cutters, 2 candles, no originality. However, duplicates or not they still beat the confetti. I don't think i'll ever get over the fact that someone thought a small bag of confetti had any place in a £50 advent calendar.

She has a brass neck on her, doesn't she dipping?

Ahhh yes I forgot about the confetti. And we know how much parents live messy crap like that!

Yep parents love messy things like confetti, i'm just so disappointed there wasn't a tub of glitter included as well. For £50 of your parent's hard earned money you really want to create as much mess as possible.

I can't comment on her as a person, but the brand identity she has promoted on YouTube, I have always disliked.

Thankfully DD has outgrown her now (and DD is 15!!!) but a few years back, she was obsessed with her. I was arm-twisted into buying her awful book and the utterly vacuous crap book by Alfie Deys (her bf) too. She has products everywhere now and nearly all of it is shite. Cheap, low quality goods marketed at young girls and not at cheap, low quality prices. Her advent calendar is just the icing on the rotten cake. 12 pieces of the cheapest, shittest tat for £50!!!!! Since when was advent a 12 day affair anyway?

I don't know anything about any of these bloggers/ vloggers and just clicked on this out of interest but I'm surprised that they thought it'd be a good idea to include candles in a calendar which appears to be aimed at children (never mind the poor value!)! I won't even use them myself (having worked in the fire service) and I certainly wouldn't let a child use one in my house!

auto That's a good point. And are teenagers even interested in candles and room sprays?