A Whole Lotta Nothing!

In this episode, we discuss how a new form of social media marketing is actually just mass brainwashing! It's unethical, hard to spot, and it rids us of our options.

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More Than You Think! is a podcast produced by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2, student-run radio from NC State University. Like what you hear? Consider supporting it with a gift to the WKNC Enhancement Fund. Visit our podcast page to hear more and follow us on all social media platforms @WKNC881. Thanks for listening.

Creators and Guests

Host

Valerie Gorham

WKNC Podcast Content Creator

What is More Than You Think!?

“More Than You Think!" is a podcast that explores the deeper layers of pop culture, uncovering how today’s trends connect with the political, economic, and social climate shaping our world. Each episode dives into the ways music, media, and cultural moments reflect — and influence — the society we live in. "More Than You Think!" is a podcast produced by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 at NC State University.

Valerie. Hello. And welcome to an After Dark episode of More Than youn Think, the podcast where we talk about how political, economic, and social events interact with pop culture. Yay. But why is it after dark, you might ask? Because it's just nighttime right now. I'm trying to be quiet, but not too quiet because everyone else is asleep where I am. So today we are going to be talking about the new era of marketing that we're in. And yes, I'm a marketing student, but I want to talk about specifically these videos that I've been seeing lately that have really been raising some questions in my mind. So basically, I keep seeing these videos on TikTok, and they are, like, complaining about iPhones. And I love my iPhone. This is my second iPhone.
Valerie. I didn't even really need to switch the first one, and it was an older one with a button, still a home button. And if I didn't have the opportunity to switch, I wouldn't have, and I think I still would have been fine. I like my Apple products. I have an iPad as well. I have a laptop, a MacBook, and they have never steered me wrong. I've loved them since I've gotten them, and I play Roblox on all three of them. I love that there's the freaking Apple ecosystem. I like that my Beats automatically connect to whichever device I'm playing sound out of. I have no grievances with Apple. I have no beef with Apple. And for the most part, I don't really know anyone who does.
Valerie. I've known a few people in my life who were anti iPhone, and they were like, I'm never getting an iPhone. I'm going to stick with my Samsung and my Google and my Android. Both of those people now have iPhones, and they're happy with their iPhones because iPhones are good. Good. They're the standard. But if you're like me, you've seen these videos of people. They might just be text, like those TikTok text images things that they just upload. Or it might be just like a video of someone recording themselves with some text over it, and it says, like, I'm so done with Apple. I'm so tired of my iPhone. I hate Apple. I want to kill Steve Jobs. But then you go in real life and nobody is complaining about their iPhones. I don't. I don't think so.
Valerie. The only time I've ever seen anyone complain about Apple is when they, like, announced their new iPhone. And it's the exact same thing as the old one. And everyone's like, this is so annoying. But then everyone goes and buys the new iPhone or they switch it out, or they just wait until the next one comes out and then they switch it if they're like, phone plan allows or whatever. I think I have a 15. I think I have a 15 and I'm very happy with it. I've had it for a few years now. And it's. I'm recording on it right now. It's amazing. It doesn't do anything. It's beautiful. I love it. It's cute. It has a big screen. I can see everything. I can customize it. It's awesome. But then you see those TikToks. I hate the iPhone and I hate Apple.
Valerie. I'm so done with Apple. I've been wanting to switch for so long. And then you know what I see under every single comment section? The first comment is, I switched to the nothing phone and I love it. The frick is the nothing phone. The frick, or one that I always also see, and it's always the exact same comment under different videos is my girlfriend has the nothing phone and she loves it. The frick is the nothing phone. So I do know that this is like a newer tech company, it's called Nothing, and it's very, like, cool. And they're like, oh, we're just like, not trying to be like Apple. We're just like, we're. We're different. And the interesting thing about the phone is that, like, the back of the phone, you can sort of see the inside of the phone. But the.
Valerie. I think the most interesting thing about it is that nobody has this phone. I haven't met a single person in real life with the nothing phone. And when I went into TikTok and searched for, like, actual videos doing reviews on the nothing phone, first of all, I couldn't find that many that were, like, organic, like, people doing it of their own free will. Reviewing this phone. And every single review that I saw was basically that this phone was, you know, no pun intended, but nothing special and uses a lot of AI, which AI is integrated into Apple as well. But that this nothing phone was completely AI integrated. Like, the phone basically runs on AI and then of course as well.
Valerie. The comments under the actual reviews are also a bunch of like, I've looked at this phone in real life before and I've looked into it and I just don't see anything interesting about it. I'd rather just keep my iPhone, whatever. And so what this tells us is that it's more likely than not that these videos that come up complaining about Apple, complaining about iPhone are probably made by this nothing tech company. It is probably marketing that has been done by this nothing tech company. And it's by the way, as just a human being who has bought stuff in the past. Nothing is a terrible name for a tech company. Nothing is like zero. It is minimal, it is bad. So I, I just think that's a, I don't know why they named it that actually. Let me look it up real quick and see.
Valerie. Okay, well, apparently the idea is that the best technology should fade into the background and feel like nothing. And that is honestly what I predict is going to happen to this company. I feel like they're going to fade into obscurity and become absolutely nothing. But I really just want to talk about mainly this type of marketing and advertising that has become really popular now with social media. And not just in this instance. This is something that is inter industry, is something that I of course being a music fan and a pop culture fan notice most of all in the music industry. But of course you'll see it in any industry, like any, absolutely any industry that uses social media for marketing, which is basically all of them now, right? A very big conversation happening in the music industry is the creation of these accounts.
Valerie. These social media accounts that post pictures and tiktoks and short form content. Most of all highlights artists and bands and makes them seem like they have a bigger fan base than they actually do. The technical term for this is UGC or user generated content campaigns. And you know, false advertising has been around for a long time and lying has always existed. And that's what this is, it's lying, it's false advertising, it is not ethical. And I have a very big problem with it. I have talked about Cat's Eye, the girl group Katseye on this podcast before. I had nothing good to say about their management then and I still have nothing good to say about their management now. But this is definitely a prime example of a group that has just fake online hype.
Valerie. That's what I am kind of gonna refer to it as. It's like this fake online hype of just accounts that are just made by employees, people getting paid to make content for these artists because they wouldn't be able to survive without it. It's like Charli XCX said, do that little dance without it, you be named last. And I'm not gonna lie. Charli xCX When Brad came out, I think she was doing the same thing. I think she was advertising in the same way and she was getting a lot of like paid stuff out there. However, Brat was actually a good album, so luckily for her it was worth it.
Valerie. But there are so many people out there who don't have good products to sell, and so they have to just lie and make up this crap online and have these fake comment sections where they have fake commenters telling each other or giving each other fake reviews on their crappy products. If you're on stan, Twitter and TikTok like I am, you have more likely than not heard or seen or read. I don't know. It's online, so I don't really know the phrase industry plant. Industry plants are real. They've always been. But the thing is that now they can get away with having bad music. Because here is why. Here is why. Because of these fake comment sections where the comments are all, this is so good. These lyrics are so good. I love this person.
Valerie. Meanwhile, actually three people are listening to this person's music in reality, right? And then you have not just the fake comments and the fake accounts, but the fake streams. So if you haven't heard of payola, that there's basically this thing that a lot of artists do, the big ones do it too. But the newer ones, the industry plants, of course, do it so that it seems like they're popular to other people. And basically what it is that they get bot accounts to stream their songs on all the streaming platforms and not only does it increase their streams and sort of show other people this fake. It gives this fake illusion of like, oh, this person's popular. They're. They're getting listened to by everyone. Everyone else is listening to them and so should I.
Valerie. But it also raises them up on like the charts, like the streaming charts and the sales charts, which is really. That just sucks. It really sucks because then, you know, other people, other artists with better music and less money and less resources don't get a chance. They don't get a chance. I mean, of course, this isn't just the music industry. One of my favorite YouTube channels, it's called Slushy Noobs. They are actually hilarious. So it's okay in their case because they actually have a good product to sell. But when they were first starting out their YouTube channel, they created their own clip accounts. And clip account is just like an account on TikTok or maybe Instagram that posts like the short form videos, TikToks or Reels or YouTube shorts in, I guess, extreme cases, I don't know. Who's that desperate? But dang, someone maybe.
Valerie. But they just post like clips from the long form videos, the funniest clips, the highlights. They put them on there and they attract people to their YouTube channel. And that's how I actually started watching them. The difference between Those two, there's two guys in that YouTube channel that they were goofing around and making their own accounts and like big artists with a lot of money that are like industry butts. The difference between Slushy Noobs and Cat's Eye is that slushy noobs was two guys in their 20s, Martin and Hamza, who made their own clip accounts and putting the work on their own. Artists that are trying to make it big with as little effort and as little artistry as possible. Like for example, Hybe trying to push out Cat's Eye, right?
Valerie. They are hiring dozens, if not hundreds of content creators and video editors to create content, to push out the idea of this group, that this group is iconic, that they are actually good, that they are popular, when in reality no one is willingly listening to freaking UTI Frutti. When I saw. Oh my God, every single time Cat's Eye drops a new song, they just invented the new worst song of all time. And then every time they drop a song, they also drop a member. So I don't know what's going on with that. But anyways, my point is just like Fleshy Noobs Bootstrapped Hybe is, you know, using their millions of dollars to convince and brainwash. And it is literally. I. This is not an exaggeration. It is brainwashing. It is mass brainwashing.
Valerie. They are using millions of dollars to brainwash the population into thinking that this low quality music is cool. And if you genuinely enjoy Cat's Eye, that is fine. That is beautiful. If you genuinely enjoy gnarly and iconic by mistake and Hooty fruity and whatever else they've got going on over there, then live your truth. I support it. I love it. Yes. Yes. Well, yes, that's amazing. But if you don't and you just think you're supposed to, don't worry, you're not alone. That is literally their game. That is literally the game that they're playing and they're playing in your face, SpongeBob realtor. Okay, Janet, but I'm going to finish off this episode by saying they are brainwashing you. You know that meme. It's like you are under spells, people. It's actually true. Fun fact, you are under spells, you are getting brainwashed.
Valerie. How is this working? Because they fake these statistics. They create fake statistics by creating content that is going viral, by creating streams and making it seem like these artists are getting millions of streams. And then you see this on your phone and you think, there's no possible way that this is fake. There's no possible way that they have a million fake likes on this video or 10 million fake streams on this song. But it's actually fake. It is. And then you know, being the good person, you are not believing that they could possibly be lying to you this badly. Are like, well, if everyone else likes it, I want to try to like it too, because I don't want to be left out. Why not? Because you're weak. Not because you do what everyone else does.
Valerie. Like your mom said, if your friends all jump off a bridge, do it too. No, because you're a human being and human beings like to fit in. It is natural. It is a biological instinct. And then you're like, okay, I guess I'll just like listen to it and keep listening to it until I know what it is, until I can blend in with everyone else. Thing is, everyone else is also trying to blend in and getting started on listening to this crap because everyone else is being tricked the same way you are. So don't feel bad either. Don't feel bad because you're not the only one. A Sam Smith. And this reminds me of like when I was in like seventh grade and all of my friends liked 21 Savage. Or like everyone at my school liked 21 Savage.
Valerie. And I've never really been into rap. You might not be able to tell by the sound of my voice, but I'm not really into rap music like that. I, I have nothing against it. I do like some. I do like Megan. Megan the Stallion. I like Doja Cat, RIP Nicki Minaj. It's unfortunate that she did pass away in a gruesome accident and is no longer with us. But you know, I've never really been into rap, but everyone else at my school was. So I was like, okay, I'm going to listen to this extremely explicit rap music at the age of 12 so that I can be just like everyone else at my school. You know why? Because I was a child trying to fit in like a normal child. That's normal. Maybe you're not a child. Maybe you're a full grown adult.
Valerie. It doesn't matter. The point is fitting in is an instinct. It's something that everyone does and big companies with A lot of money and enough resources to mass brainwash people are mass brainwashing people. So just beware of that. Whenever you see an advertisement for something that you've never seen before or heard of before, and none of your friends have heard of it either, and it has a bunch of likes, and you're like, wow, this is, like a really popular thing, apparently. Maybe ask around a little bit, maybe look a little bit more, do your own research, because chances are it's a mirage. It's marketing. It is a marketing tactic, a very unethical marketing tactic that profits off people's psychological and emotional needs. It's really messed up.
Valerie. Not just because of that, but because brainwashing, you know, at that point, then you don't really get to choose what you like to listen to. You're forced by these ginormous big freaking music or whatever. Whatever company is. It's not just music. It's every single type of industry now. You are forced to do what everyone else does. And they are. They're forcing us all to conform to, like, the same slop crap. And it's really annoying. And if they wouldn't do that, it would be a lot nicer. And yeah, I. I honestly, I feel like I need to do more research on this. It's something that, like, I think needs to be stopped because also, false advertising and undisclosed ads are illegal. So it's getting to a point where there's, like. It's kind of a blurry line between like, undisclosed ads and just, like, fan content.
Valerie. But it's something that I think it just. It's gonna become a problem. So, yeah, everyone be careful on the streets out there. And whenever you see something, just question it. I feel like I say that all the time on this freaking podcast. Like, question everything, but seriously. Yeah, question everything. All right, well, that's the episode for today. Everything you see is a lie. And I will be back in two weeks with a new episode, and we're going to be talking about the rise of, like, friendship. That sounds so goofy, but, like, FX adults, bunch of friends on YouTube. I'm going to talk again about slushy noobs. And I'm going to talk about I love LA and just like, friendship sitcoms and comedy content that has become so popular. See you next time. Until then, love you. Bye. It.