If I had to sum up today's
entire video in a single word, it would be irresponsible. Some decisions are just
unwise no matter how you slice them. And lately, I've increasingly found that opening the Instagram
app falls into these irresponsible decisions, because what is even happening there anymore?
I feel like Instagram was just losing me over the years bit by bit, but when they finally
rolled out IG Reels, I was like, "Is this even real? Did I hallucinate this feature?
What is the point of this?" But it turns out people have found unique and creative ways to
use IG Reels, like in today's video, faking a Marina Joyce moment to promote your merch.
Now, as wild as the story is, you may not have heard of it because, again, it happened on
Instagram Reels. But in short, this influencer had her entire fan base convinced for a week straight
in that she was being stalked. But then it later came out that this was all just a publicity
stunt so she could launch her new merch line. So as you can imagine, there's a lot to get into,
but first, welcome, my name is D'Angelo, and I am your Professor of Neo-Victorian Cybernetics, which
is a very real degree that I definitely do have. Or maybe this is just me broadcasting myself
talking in my room like YouTube used to be. And in today's lecture, we're going
to look at none other than Daisy Choi, and the story of somebody having absolutely
no idea where to draw the line. It raises some pretty interesting questions about influencers
and their fans. And while the bulk of this has been deleted from the internet, as you're about
to see, the golden rule of the internet is that actually you can't really delete anything
at all, because somebody will have it. So of course the first questions I always like
to start with are who is this person and where do they do the thing that they do, and also,
what is that? So Daisy Choi is a 21-year-old influencer with 1.3 million subscribers
on YouTube and 400K on her Instagram. If you've never heard of her, it's all good.
I actually feel like that happens to me more and more nowadays where I'll see somebody new,
look them up, and find out they have 4 million subscribers and I've just been living under a
rock, unless it's a TikTok creator, in which case I look them up and then they have 10 million.
But Daisy is known for posting aesthetic content to the internet, back-to-school shopping for
college, cute clothes and supplies. She basically just puts a lot of work into making content
that is as visually pleasing as she can manage, and she manages quite well. I mean, obviously
I'm not into school vlogs at my big age, but if there is one thing I can commend,
it is commitment to a visual aesthetic. If you've ever noticed my videos look
nice and feel a certain way to the eye, it's because I actually create stuff like this
beforehand. This is the one I'm currently using. I used to use this one. If you've been here for
a while, you might recognize these colors. Here's the one I used on my main channel. I never really
talk about the behind the scenes of my aesthetics, but I put a lot of thought into it.
So all this to say, Daisy's content's not really for me, but I get it. This is an
aesthetic I actually made and then wound up not even using because I had a mental
breakdown. But if I had been physically able to create YouTube videos at this time, I'm
sure they would have looked very pleasing. Stuff like that makes me very grateful for days like
this when I feel nice, I'm happy and I can do the things. Never take them for granted and don't
beat yourself up for days that are not like this. Also, speaking of vlogs, I feel like I can never
really get into vloggers nowadays unless they give me Jenna Marbles vibes, which none of them do. I
miss this. Where is this on YouTube? If you know, please let me know. If you ever see
me making a dog a birthday cake, you'll know I'm just picking up where Jenna
left off and I've given up on commentary. But alas, there's plenty to comment on today.
"My friends and I are being stalked," so says the IG Reel that Daisy uploaded recently.
My friends and I, we have a stalker. Someone in our neighborhood keeps going around dropping
off gifts at our doorstep and we don't know who it is. The gifts are so random, it ranges from
flowers to candy to donuts to stuffed animals. So obviously even if somebody is giving you tea,
flowers and an assortment of teddy bear-themed gifts, you should literally never accept things
like this if you don't know where they're coming from. But instead, Ms. Choi decided to do a
stalker present unboxing, a haul basically of things that were gifted to her by a stalker.
And I received this earlier this week. I feel like I should be worried about this.
Literally had the same exact one. And I see she added the text, "Should
I smile or cry?" I think the third option is you should not have opened this box.
But this is really cute though. I'd keep this. At first, my friends and I were really scared,
but this has been going on for weeks, you guys, and this is kind of cute, so thank you, Teddy.
Even if this video was real, just thanking your stalker, giving them this level of attention
and putting up with it just because the gifts were cute is please don't. I think this
behavior would've been bad to model even in a vacuum towards her audience. And seeing as
she said this behavior was going on for weeks, people were reasonably very concerned.
Now, this Instagram Reel happens to be one of the key items in the story that has been
deleted. So technically, I don't have access to those comments, but there were a lot of them,
because Daisy's Reels go crazy. Half a million, 700K, 3 million. Nowadays, we'll never know
just how many views that racked up before it was deleted, but it's safe to assume hundreds of
thousands of people saw this, if not millions. And it was even being reposted by other
accounts. And on those existing reposts, you can see people were very concerned, "Put
a camera or guard your mailbox. I don't know how she's not concerned. Girl, your address is
about to get doxxed." But according to Daisy, the stalker was just getting started.
Teddy stalker part two. So you know how she said the stalker was leaving
things not just for her, but for the friends and family within her neighborhood?
Apparently this stalker decided to go global. Guys, it happened again.
Are your other friends you vlog with experiencing this?
I don't think so. So Daisy shows a friend calling her who allegedly
got gifts all the way in Paris, and then Daisy's gifts were getting more elaborate and expensive.
Guess what we got today. And has a memo that says, "I got you this because it has a teddy."
Some of you guys thought that my friend would do this. We're all too broke for this.
These go for more than $200 on POP MART. Now, as for Daisy's assertion that she couldn't
have faked the stalking because she's not rich enough to afford the items, come on, Daisy,
we see them views. I see that half a million, 300K, 68 million lifetime views. I think
you could afford $200 to contribute to a potentially fake internet story.
But to be clear, the scenario she's presenting is not unrealistic. And I would
not immediately accuse her of faking this, had it not been revealed very clearly later.
But anyways, first we got to finish our stalker unboxing. So she's receiving little figurines and
things that happen to match things she already has in her room. I guess the stalker understands
her because the gifts are all very her. And one could argue that with the inclusion
of the friend from Paris, the story is now getting difficult to believe. If anything,
I think this would all be still very weird, but maybe better if Daisy was not trying
to seem like she was being serious, but she was on her Instagram story talking
about how this was real and this was happening. Obviously the stories are gone, but she was also
posting this on her Instagram broadcast channel. "I don't know if I'm being trolled, but someone
keeps sending me letters and teddy bear stuff, but it's not the best because that means
they know my location. Ha ha ha." And Daisy's broadcast channel is huge with 42,000 members.
So 42,000 people, thousands of people reacting to the message, basically verifying that she
was being stalked, I can understand why people believed her. And actually, before we look at the
reactions in her broadcast channel, I do have to stop and ask, literally what is an Instagram
broadcast channel? I was not kidding in the beginning of the video, I do not understand any
of Instagram's new features or why they're there. "Introducing broadcast channels, a new way for
creators to deepen connection with followers." And I guess this has been a thing for a year
and a half. Does anybody know about this? How does this differ from Threads? Because
I was barely keeping up with Threads. "Broadcast channels are a public one-to-many
messaging tool for creators to directly engage with their followers at scale."
Okay, so it's like a special form of Twitter where people can only follow you.
I was going to say that doesn't actually sound too bad, but then I saw Zuck did it and now I
don't like it anymore. Only Zuck can message, but you can read, react and vote in polls. One
day he may just go mad with power and make it so that only he can respond anywhere on all of
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. But seriously, the state of the Instagram app at this point
reminds me of that one quote from Family Guy. It insists upon itself, Lois.
What? It insists upon itself.
What does that- I feel like at this point, all of Instagram's
updates are just trying to make fetch happen, and fetch will never happen.
But anyway, within this broadcast channel, there were so, so many people who were
seriously concerned for Daisy's safety, literally just never-ending people. And
having gone through all the responses, it's very clear to me that literally everyone
believed her. "Please stay safe and alert. There's a lot of influencers experiencing this
right now," which is true, stalking is a real issue. "Stay safe, Daisy. Be safe. Stay safe."
There were also some people offering really good advice, "Please don't write anywhere online,
'My stalker.' If they see you acknowledging them, especially saying my, they can take that
as a hint that you like them." And this is very good advice. You should literally
never acknowledge these people. People were warning her about the teddy bears this person was
sending, saying they may have a camera inside, they might be tracking devices. These are
all extremely valid and genuine concerns. People were even suggesting she report it to
the police, which obviously she was not able to do as she was making this all up.
"That's literally terrifying. I'm so sorry this is happening to you." But the one
that kind of makes me the saddest, "Please stay safe. I can't lose my favorite YouTuber."
And while many may think that's an overreaction, I really don't think it is. Stalking, as we've
recently discussed on the channel, is terrible. Stalking is something that can end badly.
And people's concern was even spilling off of Instagram and onto other platforms. "I'm concerned
for Daisy, her friends, and her fans. She's since posted unrelated content with the stalker's gifts.
I just wish she knew that this is really not a good idea to do. I feel bad for her viewers who
have been victims of stalking. If this is fake and she does know or is in on the joke, this is
so, so disappointing. Stalking is not a cutesy and fun concept for creating content."
And someone responds saying, "Whether she actually had the stalker or it was just her
friends pranking her, I was really weirded out that she posted on her story about keeping
the gift because it's cute. If it's real, it's enabling the stalker even more."
And as for the enabling thing, when it comes to real victims of stalking, it's not even
right that they should have to be very careful and manage the way they handled this so as not to
exacerbate things. Obviously the responsibility would fall on the other person to just stop
stalking people and be a normal human being. But nevertheless, the point remains, this would
be a terrible way to handle a stalking situation. And as you can see, people off-platform were a
little more wary of the fact that she might've been faking, but nobody could really accuse her
of anything without evidence until Daisy announces her merch line, this is more than just merch, at
Teddy is Calling. And so here we can see Daisy talking about her merch line, Teddy is Calling,
for which she has launched a website with a countdown. Ooh, can't wait. And she launched
a dedicated Instagram page for this as well. And so you may be thinking to yourself, "Hold
on, she had the teddy bear-themed stalker and now she's releasing a teddy bear-themed merch
line?" Yes, she made everything up, specifically with the intention of promoting her merchandise.
"So the stalker thingy is your way of introducing your merch?" Somebody asks on the broadcast
channel. And you can see Daisy gave that a heart. Somebody said, "Girl, I was so worried for
you." To which she said, "I'm actually so sorry, I feel so bad." And I just want to know how bad
can one feel for something that was planned so elaborately with so much detail over so many days?
But nevertheless, people were not happy about this. Not even just the fact that they've all
been duped, but to be duped over, I don't know, feeling empathy for somebody who seems like
they're going through a horrible situation. "Happy for you, but using stalking as a
marketing strategy was a bit insensitive. Stalking is very real and very scary. Please be
mindful of how you promote products in the future, please." And seeing as this was one of the people
who was offering her advice on the broadcast channel, I can understand the disappointment.
I don't know, does anybody else think that stalker marketing was just tasteless? Even the
phrase stalker marketing is crazy. "Love you, Daisy, but I don't understand how people would
find marketing stalking in a positive way and lying to your fans as cute or exciting. It's just
plain wrong and messed up. You made thousands of people worry about you just to get them tricked
by this marketing strategy. Wow, I'm honestly disappointed with your fans and you, good job."
And that wasn't even the bulk of the backlash. There were other announcement posts, but as
is quickly becoming a theme with the story, they've been yeeted into the ether. So because
of that, the majority of the surviving backlash is actually off-platform once again.
If you thought her own fans were unhappy about this, wait till you see people casually
talking about it. I think her fans were being kind of nice about it because they were on
her IG page, but people elsewhere did not mince their words. "She faked getting stalked
as a marketing technique and I cannot stress enough how insane you have to be to do this. Who
told her this was a good idea? And she seriously said she tried to make it lighthearted and
cute. Oh my God, it's about stalking." This person also apparently got blocked, and I'm
assuming this was because they called it out. And I would have to agree that this behavior
is indeed unhinged, but it's a very calculated kind of unhinged that makes it all feel just
kind of gross. Other people in the comments are explaining why this is not funny or cute
at all, "Stalking can lead to lifelong trauma, psychological and physical damage, and
even death. It mocks the victims of actual stalking. You have to be seriously insensitive."
And there is a reason that stalking is a crime in all 50 states. I'm pretty sure our friend, Daisy,
is from Canada, but I would have to assume there's similar vibes over there. You'll have to let me
know, any Canadians in the chat. And this isn't just like, "Oh, stalking could be bad." There are
medical studies linking it to substantial PTSD, grave effects on victims' mental health.
And while I haven't endured stalking per se, I have had disturbing messages sent to me
via channels that are not at all public. Not my comment section or my DMs, I mean I
was actually personally contacted. And even just that day of trying to figure out how in
the world did anybody get my information when this has never happened with hundreds of
thousands of people, it's very disturbing. I only bring that up because it was a very
long time ago, it's been resolved, but again, stalking is not a joke. That was me getting a
message I didn't want, I can't really imagine more severe cases and how they would affect somebody.
Other people point out, "There's nothing lighthearted. It's very traumatizing. Her video
was such a joke, it's funny that she deleted it." And I think she had to delete it. I mean, when you
have people off-platform calling her out for lying about having a stalker for what will eventually
be profit and saying they're done with her as a creator, it's not necessarily something you'd
want to leave up on your page. I do understand. "There's lots of ways to drive up engagement.
Using such a serious topic to make money is something else. And the majority of her
audience clearly has low intelligence or maturity to think this was a clever marketing strategy."
Personally, I believe maturity is the key word here. She is trying to sell this merch to
children, that much is very clear to me. The merch photo shoot is a school theme, 7:00
AM before class number one. I think almost all of the promo is school-themed in some way.
And just a ton of her videos are about school. Pinterest school girl. My after-school routine.
School. New school bag. Last week of school. And yes, the school that Daisy's going to would
be college because she is an adult, but the fact that some of her fans were in fact hyping her up,
"You trolled the internet for this. Got to say, the marketing strategy is pretty good. Oh my
God, this is so cute, stop. You pranked the whole internet, Daisy." This is horrible.
I really don't blame any of her fans for not seeing this for what it is because I do think
if you view it without the context of the really dangerous behavior that she's modeling, it kind of
seems fun, right? And it's nice and wonderful that all of these people don't have the additional
context it takes to see how bad this is, but that is literally exactly why she should not
be normalizing this kind of thing to her audience, especially not to sell some pajamas.
Even people who didn't fall for it were still upset. "I feel like it was obviously
fake, but it's such a weird and embarrassing marketing tactic. Definitely would not be buying
any of her merch now. Yeah, I was very skeptical because of the behavior, but I didn't want to in
any way encourage doubting a potential victim as a survivor myself." Like Daisy. Come on, dude.
Though I have to say, my favorite comment, even if it was kind of really messed
up, was, "The Blake Lively School of Advertising." I wish I hadn't laughed when I saw
this because I felt like a bad person, but I did. Also, oh my God, I just realized you can see the
Reel in this person's Reddit post, and at that time it had 151,000 likes, almost 6,000 people
sending it to each other. 100K likes is probably 1 million views minimum. And that was just when
this person happened to capture it. It's actually kind of crazy that nobody heard about this.
The internet is really becoming a bubble. You can have so much influence and kind of none I
guess. What does influencer even mean anymore? Well, that's kind of implying it's ever meant
anything. And I say this as somebody who could only really be described as an influencer,
but obviously I deserve it because I'm objectively right about everything all the time.
Anyway, if you're wondering what Daisy's response was other than trying to bury any evidence that
this has ever happened, "Eek, I totally understand where you're coming from. I tried my best to
keep it lighthearted and cute, and it seemed like most people caught onto the idea that it was
for marketing and for my upcoming brand since I've been mentioning it in my videos and stories,"
crying emoji. "But I apologize for my lack of sensitivity in using stalker. Mysterious gift
giver would probably have been more appropriate." And I got to be honest, I have to speak my
truth. I think this apology gets a 2 out of 10. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize for my
lack of sensitivity is actually pretty darn good, as is the suggestion for what you
could have done instead. So there's your two points. But she does still seem to
believe that this was genuinely harmless. I think the point, that feels to me as if it
has been missed, is that stalking can never be lighthearted or cute, especially not very
realistic, weeks-long multi-person-targeted stalking that you are presenting as a real
thing. Also, that there's just a few more eyes when you roll out your new product.
And when you combine that apology with the fact that even standalone comments about
it in other places are getting deleted. Did my comments about how stalking is a sensitive
topic get deleted? I was looking for it too. This is seriously messed up. It's safe to say the way
Daisy has handled the situation has been no bueno. So my verdict is with a great follower
count comes maybe not great responsibility, but at least hopefully some decency. I'm not
saying she needs to drop an apology video or cry on camera or really anything like that, but
no formal response and just a I'm sorry in the comments reply that I don't even know is easily
accessible anymore, the optics of that are crazy. I believe that harmless pranks are fine,
but there's something about people who enjoy pranks where I just feel like most of
them have no concept of what a harmless prank actually is. And something that engenders so
much concern in others that they are literally worried for your actual life does not fall in
the category of harmless as far as I'm concerned. Also, if I can just throw something out
there, I kind of feel like the merch line would've done really well even without
this. Daisy's content is nice. The merch looks well-designed. I don't really feel like
her fans would've had any problems buying this from her even if she hadn't pulled that stunt,
but never underestimate the power of greed. But anyways, I don't make this video to
say Daisy Choi needs to be canceled and driven off the internet. I just thought it was
something to talk about because literally what is going on? How is anything that happens on
Instagram even real? I guess the point is that it's not. But that's my take on the situation.
Dave's take is that instead of a fake stalking controversy, Daisy should have done a fake
relationship. Then she could just drop the merch in her breakup video and it would be legendary,
honestly. And Dave may be onto something, I might write that down for the future.
But of course I'm excited to hear your take. I mean, this is the part of the video where a
layman would ask you to subscribe, like the video, leave a comment. But I will ask you to enroll,
evaluate the video and submit your feedback. Because I am of course running a 100%, mostly,
maybe not totally, but probably, somewhat for the most part, unaccredited university. Just ask
anybody in the student body, we're totally legit. And as for me, whether you'll see me in 24 hours
or 24 months is anyone's guess, but until then, thanks for watching. Your homework for
the day is to not stalk anybody please.