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?

I think schoolgaterebel has it, Zoella could do so much towards helping young girls gain confidence in their bodies, not being bullied, not conforming to peer pressure etc. Instead it's all about materialism. Dd used to watch her a while ago, every time I saw a video I had to point out how fake she is because she's pretty much always plastered in slap. There aren't many videos of her looking natural. I absolutely can't stand her boyfriend, and why does her brother only seem to make videos where he's taking pleasure out of pranking someone?

I hate these kibd of products. They all end up in landfill. Why do we have so little regard for our environment?

Also appalled to think of the extent to which kids are being exploited by a grown woman.

A Zoella rep said:

‘Zoe is incredibly proud of the Christmas collection and excited to see it in store. However, the pricing and in store promotional strategy of the collection, including the calendar, is at the control of third parties and is not set by Zoe.’

The thing is in past videos she has talked a lot about how involved she is with the product development of her branded stuff, and seemingly does attend a lot of meetings about it all. Giving her the benefit of the doubt maybe she was involved with developing the calendar but didn't know the price it would be sold at - then again surely that's not how product development works? I would imagine you need to have an RRP bracket at least throughout the process.

In defense of Zoe she obviously is who she is: someone who is interested in clothes, makeup, Christmas, hanging out with friends and home decor. I don't think this is a persona she's putting on, she just doesn't have much more to her than that and has never been interested in travel, current events, charitable giving etc etc. People happened to latch on to her videos and the whole thing grew from there. She's still pretty much the same as she ever was, but with all the influence she now wields the question is whether she should be more thoughtful in her content and as someone above suggested, do more things to set a less consumerist example to her followers.

I think at the least she should dial right back on all the merchandise stuff going forward. Yes have some merchandise available if your fans want to buy
it, but do less of it and at reasonable prices for her target market. Having the cosmetics line and the lifestyle line and the Sugg Life line and the books and the Hello World type events it's got out of hand.

I was watching newsround this morning and they asked some of the vloggers at hello world what to do about online bullying and they were all a bit vague and "just block and don't worry about it, your awesome".

That should be the thing they do for good, they should be able to nail that question with proper advice and actually help their fans.

sweetbitter, even if the 'advent' calendar was on sale for £10, it would still be nothing to be proud of.

I guess not but loads of kids like tat of the type in the calendar, just look at Clare's Accessories. For me the main problem is the utterly ridiculous price, even more so when compared to other calendars on the market.

Why would you give her the benefit of the doubt @sweetbitter? She's a con merchant

I can’t stand her or her boyfriend. Just her photograph makes me mad 😠

She is so fucking twee!

I don't believe she is consciously out to con fans and bleed them dry. That's not to say I think what she's doing is acceptable or morally right, I just think it's more likely she's been naive, got more greedy bit by bit, and made bad decisions without giving proper thought to the influence she wields and the morality of what she's actually doing.

I think it's interesting how far she's got under guise of being harmless and anodyne. Maybe let's not give these people the benefit of the doubt, when they publish ghostwritten books and market to young kids. Zoella seems to think that acting like a child will give her some protection (her boyfriend is a few years younger than her which was a surprise).

Even if we give her the benefit of the doubt (Which I don't, she would have known the price points), she is still a 27 year old woman.

She can't be proud, involved and love her brand when it's good, and hide when it's bad. I don't understand why she hasn't said anything about the fact she has disappointed her fans, apart from getting her PR team to say 'wasn't her!'. Shit really.

I just think it's more likely she's been naive

I can't believe that, she has been doing this for over a decade and is very aware and savvy as to how much influence she has as her lucrative income has demonstrated. She is basically a shopping channel for tweenies.

Zoella seems to think that acting like a child will give her some protection

Agree with this. She acts incredible young and hides away when things go wrong.

So, confetti, stickers, a note pad and a pen, two biscuit cutters, two candles and a bauble? Oh and a merkin!

all yours for £50? Fuck.

MoistCantaloupe same with Hello World: no comment from her or her bf about it.
She gets upset when she's found out (as when ghostwriting was exposed) but otherwise very calculating.

I can't believe that, she has been doing this for over a decade and is very aware and savvy as to how much influence she has as her lucrative income has demonstrated. She is basically a shopping channel for tweenies.

I agree, she knows exactly what she's doing. Her and her other half have not long moved into a new house, rumored to have cost £1.8 million. It's not like they're short of money, yet still they push the 'Merch'.

And it's the belief that she's naive, got a bit carried away, and made bad decisions, which allows people like Zoe Suggs to carry on bleeding teenagers dry. Because you've bought into her public persona

IceRebel thank you for the video :D

I also saw on Twitter that someone had done a full costing, and the items are only worth £21.50.

sorry if someone mentioned this already, i couldn't be bothered to RTFT :D

Zoella doesn't have to do anything. It's up to parents to check what their kids are watching, and to not buy them ridiculous advent calendars. £50? It was obviously going to be a load of tut, wasn't it.

I think £21.50 is generous glow1984. I think you could get it all from a £1 shop, Primani or similar shop for a lot less than £21.50 and it still be the same quality.

Margo I would not be surprised. i am almost tempted to go shopping and post my finds :D

Yes millicent: and her pattern of behaviour has been consistent for years.

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.

Well said.