The type B friend's quirky (but only if he's also charming in a conventionally attractive way). On the other hand, the same can't be said about someone who has the same traits but isn't a 10/10. On the surface, hot mess content looks like relatable people who just can't quite get their life together ("lol!!"). But if you look closer, it's obvious these tropes only work if the person has the social capital (read: attractiveness) to pull them off. Sooo, just another example of perpetuating pretty privilege, huh?

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

“My name is Jim Haggerty - and you are being lied to.” Oh yeah. It’s going to be good.

“Jim Haggerty spent 35 years in the lamestream media spouting powerful lies on behalf of the elite, and was cancelled for the thought crime of eating so much pork he turned into a pig,” The Onion CEO Ben Collins tells us. “We’re proud to give him a voice on InfoWars to talk about some of the most important information being hidden from the American public.”

Ok, it’s good.

For those of you not aware, InfoWars, the once right-wing conspiracy platform was acquired by satire news platform The Onion after founder Alex Jones was found guilty of some fkd up shit. Now, The Onion has taken over, tapping writer and comedian Tim Hedecker as creative director and has started to turn the place on its head and pull back the curtain, shining a light on conspiracy right-wing media through a comedic lens. Safe to say I can't wait for more.

Next! @ Burger King, I’m going to need you to apologise to my queen, Mary J. Blige. Again. In a recent interview with Scott Evans, Blige talks about how a commercial she did with the fast-food franchise went horribly wrong. And she’s still not over it.

In the ad, she sings about fresh lettuce, crispy chicken, three cheeses and ranch dressing wrapped in a tasty flour tortilla. She does this to the tune of her 2011 song "Don’t Mind". Apparently, it cost her a lot of bad press, and friendships, because of the belief that it perpetuated racial stereotypes. 

This was 14 years ago, but the singer still isn’t in a place where she can laugh about it. She says that many people in her life started “treating me like I was a disease.” Mary admits that experiencing this taught her a valuable lesson regarding trust.

Finally, huge news for the Elon apologists – X has launched a chat app. Ok, here we go. The X Chat app is now available for iOS, which X is promoting as having no ads and no tracking. “Privacy is the foundation. Every message is end-to-end encrypted with a key pair unique to you, protected by a PIN that never leaves your device.”

“No one can read your conversation,” the explanation on Apples App Store reads. “Not even X.” I call bullshit – considering X has already has several issues with end-to-end encryption. Anywayyyyy. 

-Sophie Randell, Writer

In our current era of performed imperfection, we are told that the mess is the new message. We celebrate the "hot mess" trope, the "type B friend" TikToks, and the "rotting girl" aesthetic.

We are led to believe that we’ve finally broken free from the prison of pretty to embrace the raw, unfiltered reality of being human. But there is a huge, cynical catch. And that’s that the mess only works if the person standing in the middle of it is conventionally attractive.

THERE, I SAID IT.

A structural phenomenon where pretty privilege provides a margin of error that allows certain people to be disorganised, kind of unwashed, or erratic (hot but off her rocker) without facing the social or professional consequences that would literally f*cking crush anyone else.

In social psychology, this is known as the Halo Effect. And it’s a real thing.

Because of this golden halo, a conventionally attractive person who is messy isn’t seen as lazy; they are seen as "effortlessly cool" or "artistically preoccupied". Their unwashed hair isn't a sign of poor hygiene; it’s a "lived-in" aesthetic. Their social awkwardness isn't cringe; it’s quirky, babes.

For the L.A. 10, the mess is a narrative choice. For everyone else, it’s a character indictment.

On TikTok and Instagram, we see time-lapse videos of conventionally attractive creators resetting their lives. The camera pans over a landscape of empty iced coffee cups, discarded fast-food wrappers, old vapes and mountains of laundry. The lighting is soft, the music is a lo-fi melancholic beat, and the creator, usually wearing an oversized but high-quality sweatshirt, sighs with a relatable weariness.

But look closer at the safety net in the frame.

The mess is almost always contained within a room that features expensive hardwood floors, designer candles, and high-end skincare products peeking through the clutter.

For the "pretty and privileged," a messy room is a temporary setback. A humanising moment that makes their inevitable return to perfection feel like an inspiring comeback. Their beauty provides the assurance that this mess is an event, not a lifestyle.

And I’m not saying that every one of these creators doesn’t genuinely experience depression or hardship. I’m talking about the acceptance of the state of such. If we compare this to the social reception of a person who doesn't fit the aesthetic mould living in a cluttered studio apartment. When they show their mess, it isn’t a vibe. It’s a red flag.

No, they’re failing at adulthood, at fitting into society and being a functional human.

The trend proves that we haven't actually destigmatised mental health or messiness—we’ve just gentrified it. We’ve turned the genuine struggle of existing into a scenic backdrop for those who have the social capital to walk away from it at any time.

Research indicates that attractive individuals are often given more lenient treatment in various settings, from more favourable grades in school to lighter sentences in the judicial system. So yeah, “so cute they could get away with murder” is not a far cry.

When a hot girl performs the Hot Mess aesthetic, she is spending her beauty capital to buy relatability. She is signalling that she is "just like us," while the very foundation of her privilege ensures she will never actually have to suffer the repercussions of being genuinely unpolished.

Their vulnerability is a controlled burn. They are showing us a curated version of failure that they know their beauty will ultimately redeem.

It’s ok to take a trip to the psych ward every once in a while, as long as you look like your parent put you into modelling at the age of 13. Even if you are an unstable and all-over terrible person.

To reject the prison of pretty, you first have to prove that you hold the keys to it.

The Type B friend trend is only a vibe because it implies a safety net,  the ability to be disorganised because you have the social currency to be forgiven for your mistakes.

We haven't moved past beauty standards, whatsoever. So please, my friend, do not be fooled. We’ve simply moved into an era where beauty is the prerequisite for being allowed to be human. If you want to be meaningfully ugly, you first have to be undeniably pretty.

Otherwise, your mess isn't a trend; it’s just, well, a mess.

Marketing has realised that we are exhausted by the beautiful, fatigued by polish, and rejecting AI perfection.

So, it has built us a wilderness of the real. But this wilderness is just as fenced-in, just as manicured, and twice as dishonest. Authenticity Marketing is not an invitation to be ourselves; it is a demand that we learn a new, more complex visual language of failing correctly.

To the brands and influencers peddling performed imperfection: give up the ghost. Stop touting that the mess is for everyone when you only hire the polished to represent it. Stop calling it unfiltered when every blurry shot and grain-heavy filter is a calculated move to dodge the Uncanny Valley of AI.

We don't need a more authentic marketing strategy.

We need a world where your value isn't determined by how well you can perform your humanity. The prison of pretty was at least honest about its bars.

The new authenticity is a prison that tells you the door is open, provided you’re wearing the right kind of ugly to walk through it.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

The first clip leans more negative or reflective, showing what the wrong experience left behind. The second clip flips it into something positive, and hopeful, showing what the right experience feels like.

Creators are using it to tell emotional and relatable stories; basically from heartbreak to healing, glow-ups, and everything in-between. It's a personal trend, which is why people are so invested in reading every line and engaging heavily.

Use the audio and insert a photo (relatable to the on-screen text or not) and add on-screen text. You can have the choice of taking the positive root and start the line with how something started and how great its gone. Or you can state an experience that led to you hating certain things. Keep it simple and let the text guide viewers' interpretations.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Georgia Russell, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos: Puss in boots is that you?!?
❤How wholesome: Ultimate girl dad
🎧Soooo tingly: Got some blue going on
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Want pasta but too lazy? do this...

Hi Blake!

There are so many ways you can create content around a service like this. One of the easiest content styles you can use is just answering FAQs you get. You can create a list of questions clients ask or have ChatGPT to help you come up with some. Or you can find others in your industry who already have a following and see what people ask them in the comments.

Once you have a list of questions you can answer, record your team answering them. At the end of each video, ask the audience to put more questions for you to answer in the comments. You can always branch out and try other content styles over time. But this is an easily repeatable, low production content style that allows you to show off your expertise.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.