Sophie Guidolin has opened up about what she called a mortifying experience in the hope to normalise period conversations. The fitness influencer was at an international airport when she discovered her period had leaked through onto her track pants.
Taylor Swift made history at the MTV VMAs last week, winning nine out of the 11 categories she was nominated for. However, all anyone could talk about was her chaotic antics caught on the audience cam.
A disturbing new report shows registered dietitians are being paid to promote diet soft drinks and artificial sweeteners on Instagram and TikTok. The paid promotions are being funded by American Beverage Group. Critics have slammed the promotion as unethical and misleading and say it’s mudding the water.
Over the weekend Sophie Cachia teased her followers that she had a huge career announcement, touting it as her biggest role to date. However, followers were left disappointed by the reality of the announcement.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
On today's show, Sophie Guidelin flips the narrative on an
embarrassing airport moment. Drunk Taylor starts trending on social media again.
Influencer Dietitians paid off to promote diet Coke and Sophie
Keisha's huge career announcement. Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's
your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news
(00:24):
twice a week. I'm Kate Torbert, and I'm getting pretty
stressed out because I am planning two Hens parties, and
they're both very different. We've got the high maintenance Hens
party with your Sophie, and then we've got Amy's backyard
Hens party, which on that's a bit hard, no, but
it's still going to be high maintenance because Sophie, I'm
trying to deal with Sophie's expectations. I'm sorry, I refute
(00:46):
those claims, Kate. It is far more high maintenance and
time consuming for us to set up this extravagant party
in Amy's backyard. We've got to make it look like Wimbledon.
I'm just going to a nice venue, having a sit
down lunch or dinner five course, well five yes, it.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Is five course, and I've got a.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Beautiful Ladulchi vita theme. It's gonna be very nice. But
I actually think there's gonna be far more work going
into yours. You are saying that you want a pim station,
you want a strawberries and cream station, you want a
huge installation of balloons. We're gonna come up with all
of these games. Everyone's got to go out and buy
a tennis outfit. So sorry, I think yours is more
home maintenance. The term backyard hens. It sounds like we're
(01:29):
having some barbecue. It sounds like, you know, a Bucks
part exactly. Hers is high matenance because we're having caterers in. Okay,
I will read Hat's a truck. I will rebrand it.
Amy's more of a DIY and Sophie's is more glam
Okay is that okay? Well, this is the difficulty because
there are so many moving parts to these Hens parties,
and I'm having to come up with a fee to
charge people to go. And I know that is a
(01:51):
bit of a controversial topic because there are old school
people that are like the bride's maids should cover the
cost of everything. But I look at a Hen's party
as you're buying a ticket to get a meal some entertainment.
I keep seeing on TikTok all of these girls sharing
their expression when they see a new email or group
message pop up, and it's like, oh, fantastic, another two
(02:11):
hundred dollars. I've got to spend on a special evening
for a girl and buy a present and do this.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
It's a friendship test.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, it gets that way, And that's why I feel
guilty because I don't want to charge my friends too much.
Because when I do go to a hen's party, I
sort of sit around and I think, if I've paid
like one hundred and fifty bucks to come here, I'm like,
I'm gonna eat all the food. I'm gonna have those
drinks right well, because I don't drink as well, so
I think, well, how else am I going to get
my money out. That's why I think there should be
different costs of people that are drinking and not drinking
(02:39):
at a hens, and then you can work out, say
in the diy tennis backyard thing, well, how many bottles
of wine do I buy? How many bottles of pims
do I get? I think it's a good thing having
a theme, though, because It ensures only.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
The people that really like you will come.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Because sometimes if I've got an invite and I don't
know the person that well and I won't know anybody there,
I'm not they come dressed up to it like not
too much effort. That's when you've got something else on
that weekend. But at the same time, I agree with you, Amy.
I love a theme because as much as people say, oh,
it's annoying you've got to spend all this money, I
think it's exciting. So I've recently got invited to a
(03:16):
disco theme, like a last dance theme, and I have
spent so long, like looking up sequent outfits, looking up bags,
looking up cool jewelry, and it's actually fun to me. See,
That's what I would hate, because I'd have no idea
what to wear. The tennis one. At least you can
go online. There's some cheap options. You can just wear
white to mine. It's Wimbledon theme. It's not as difficult.
I feel like disco is harder.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So where do we draw the line in terms of
how much to charge? I think that most hens parties
sit around one hundred dollar mark for each person, to
which I think that's a fair one I've been invited to.
When it's way more than that, I think one hundred
dollars is palatable. It does depend, though, If you're staying
away for a weekend, obviously it's going to be a
lot more. And then I think that's when you invite
your best friends. Well, that's when things are getting crazy
(03:58):
because people are planning the huge weekends away. And then
there's multiple themes. I'm seeing on TikTok. There's oh, for
the first night, we're gonna do the Great Gaspie theme,
and then the next night it's glad and then this
and that, and it's like people can't be bothered with that.
I think one theme and that's it. I saw this
video and it was like, it can't just be Taylor
Swift's theme where people dress up as Taylor Swift. It's
(04:20):
like Taylor swift ears theme, What character are you from this?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And it's so true.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I feel like Hen's parties are just so over the
top now, especially when you compare them to Bucks parties,
Like can you.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Imagine the men sitting around coming up there?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
The difference is that Hen's parties are performative and they're
for TikTok and social media. We want to take videos
of how cute our setup is. Maybe we want to
make a video saying how we created our Hen's parties.
But with men, it's private. No one wants a photo
of a Bucks party to get out. Yeah, none of
these Bucks parties are going on TikTok. No, so the
hens are just coffer content and Bucks are actually to
(04:52):
have a good time. Uh oh, your friend came to
visit and you don't wear light colors when you're getting
your period.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's my first time. Okie rip Sophie Gwiedland's white tracksuit pants.
In a very mortifying experience that I feel like we
can all relate to, the fitness influencer discovered that she
had leaked her period onto her tracking pants at the airport.
The worst part about this is it wasn't her that
made the personal discovery.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
She didn't go into the bathroom and go oh fuck.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
It was actually someone on Instagram who messaged her a video.
So this person filmed her at the airport with the
stain on her pants and decided to send it to her.
What is going through your mind as the person at
the airport who has spotted this. Instead of sending a
video to embarrass her, why wouldn't you go up and say, hey,
I'm so sorry, there's something on the back of your pants.
(05:45):
See I think it's probably best not to even draw
attention to it. I understand where you're coming from that
people should look out for each other.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
But I would feel weird if.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Someone came up to me and said, oh, you've got
something green in your teeth, Like, I think it's something
that you just pretend that you don't see and you
look away. But why does she feel the need to
message her on Instagram?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
See?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
That's where I think it got yucky, because there is
this trend of people trying to get influencers in these
gotcha moments to send onto these influencer watchdog accounts. So
I'm wondering if this person was trying to blackmause Sophie.
And that's why it's all come out, because Sophie Gweedland
has come out and shared this story and she said
it was in the hope to normalize period conversations. And
(06:24):
she was actually motivated by her physiotherapist who said, why
don't you take the power away and talk about it
and that's what she did.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
She even shared a photo.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Of her period sat at the airport. Could it have
been that this person was too nervous to go up
to Sophie and they were actually trying to be a
good person and to say, oh, you've actually got blood
on your pants? Because I actually think sometimes as a woman,
it is nice if another woman comes up and just goes, hey,
just letting you know, like your flies under, I would
just so you know you've got some blood, because I'd
appreciate that because so many people would have seen her
(06:54):
at the airport.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And it'd be mortified.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
But could you write that in a message instead of
taking a video?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah. I don't think the person was trying to be
nice because Sophie ended up going into the bathroom and
crying about it. I think at its essence, this is
an experience that most people can relate to. And I
do love the fact that she shared about it on
her Instagram because it makes you not feel so alone.
This happened to me a couple of weeks ago or
probably months ago, when I was at the hairdresser and
I was mortified and I felt really nervous going back
(07:22):
there because it feels like such a spectacle. You almost
feel like this messy failure. Who can't even keep your
period under wraps? Well, As Sophie Gwedland said, it is
ridiculous because so many people experience this in their day
to day life. Most time I have a period, I
will leak on some part of clothing. So I think
it is great that Sophie Guedland is saying, Look, I
(07:43):
was embarrassed, But why should I be embarrassed. This isn't embarrassing.
Let's normalize this conversation. I heard Mama Mia recently talking
about the phenomenon of free bleeding, which apparently is popping
up a lot on TikTok, and it's basically where people
aren't using any sanitary items and they they will on
their heavy days. They'll sit at home, basically on a tower.
(08:03):
And I was quite taken back by that, because whilst
I think that we should normalize periods, I think that
we have sanitary items in place so we can make
women's lives easier, so that they're not taken out of
the workforce, they're able to continue what they're doing. Yeah,
I found that whole topic a little bit confronting, but
each to their own if that's what people want to do.
(08:24):
It's quite funny because, in true influencer style, Sophie Gwedle
actually used the moment to promote the period underwear that
she normally wears that she wasn't wearing in that instance. Well,
it was very brave to wear white to the airport. Yeah,
on your period as well. It's so degressy, isn't it.
It's very degressy. That scene still sits with me because
at high school we had light blue school dresses in
(08:45):
the flimsiest material. I mean literally, if you've got a
bead of sweat, it would be so obvious, so imagine
having a.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Bloodstain on them.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Clearly the uniform was designed by a male, because no
female would put a woman in that type of material
on their period.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Thank god for jumpers around your waist.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I remember literally living with a jumper tied around my
waist for fear of having period blood on my dress.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Most popular feedback I got was hello, just normal real
life stuff. And the reason I don't really post he
is six because it's quite boring.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
On Friday night, Sophie Kaisha Tea's to her followers that
she had this huge career announcement that she was going
to drop the next day, and she said that it
was going to be her biggest role ever. What were
you guys thinking it would be? Because I thought potentially
she might have a really good media gig for Women's
AFL or the Women's Basket because she seems to be
(09:40):
aligning herself with both of those brands.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, I think a lot of people thought that.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I thought maybe it had something to do with her
Keisha pajamas. Adding to that growing speculation was the fact
that influence of Watchdog accounts of picking up on this
news and sharing it to their audience as well. Well.
The next day, she did drop what this big career
announcement was, and it was pretty underwhelming. It was that
she's coaching her daughter, Florence's undernins netball team, and to
(10:05):
make this announcement, she shared a real of her walking
hand in hand with her daughter decked out in their
netball uniforms. And I was quite surprised because the logo
was very prominent. So it doesn't take much guesswork to
realize when the game's is going to be and for
weirdos to rock up and watch these kids play. I
always find it weird when influencers make it really obvious
which school their kid goes to. They're very much opening
(10:27):
themselves up to a dangerous situation. They're going back to
this post, she did caption it loving this era. Dreams
really do come true. She also shared more about the
announcement on her Instagram story. Here's what she said.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I have taken on.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
A very special role amongst the chaos of my life
is something I literally dreamt of doing forever. What's mummy coach?
And yeah, I was trying to find something to do
for myself. Even though it does involve hey, my child,
(11:03):
it still gives me so much joy and satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So go Gladiators. It is really admirable that she's so
excited to coach her daughter's netball team. I'm guessing maybe
the fact that her dad was an AFL coach has
something to do with this excitement as well. There is
a little bit of strategy there, though, because she did
get a lot of engagement on her page and the
day after she revealed that she was dropping a new
(11:27):
range of Kashia pajamas, so I think it wasn't incidental.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Timing.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, definitely. After she made this announcement, she responded to
a poll that she did the night before, asking people
what they wanted to see more of, and people voted
that they wanted to see more of a personal life,
and she said, well, it's quite boring, so I don't
really have much to share. She has revealed earlier that
she didn't want to share about her personal life due
to her breakup with Maddie Garrick and it causing a
(11:52):
lot of drama. So I think that this was a
strategic way for her to get a lot of engagement
to her page because it must have been recently, which
isn't good for her pajama brand at all. I wonder
how the mums of the other kids in the netball
team feel about Sophie plastering this all over social media.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, that would be rather interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
It always shocks me when influencers ask their followers what
they want to see and then they're surprised that they
want to know about their personal lives, because literally, that's
the whole reason they've got a following. I've noticed recently, though,
a lot of influencers have been using this same strategy
of teasing this big announcement and then it being completely
and utterly disappointed. It's all about working with the algorithm,
and we've seen that Instagram really is dropping off in
(12:33):
terms of engagement.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
However, if you do create.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
A big storm and you get a lot of eyeballs
on your page, generally the post you share afterwards gets
a good traction. We've seen that with Anna Paul as well. Recently,
a lot of people have been speculating that she's doing this.
Maybe Sophie Kesha has seen the success of that and thought.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I'm going to do it too.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well. Someone else who did it this weekend is Anna macavoy,
who was a former Love Island contestant, so her and
her partner shared a real with the caption we have
news coming the real We see them getting tattoos matching
tattoos done of the word honey, and a lot of
people are guessing in the comments section that they're either
having a child that they're gonna call honey, or they're
(13:11):
getting a dog. And they've even gone to the extent
of doing a countdown timer. So at the time of recording,
we don't yet know what the announcement is. Is this
kind of like the boy who cried wolf though, like
everyone's gonna start teasing all this stuff and then people
are not going to engage with it because they're like,
this is just crap, and it's like.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Actually, I'm having a baby.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, oh my godness, hot, oh oh, we're Taylor Swift
made history at the MTV VMA's last week, winning nine
out of the eleven categories she was nominated for. However,
all anyone could talk about was her chaotic aed was
caught on the audience camera. I am living for these
(13:53):
antics and drunk Taylor was trending across social media and
it's not the first time either. So back in twenty nineteen,
the hashtag went viral on Twitter after photos and videos
emerged of Taylor celebrating at a party she threw. She
later brought up the incident on The Tonight Show and
said this, Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I was at a party like a couple months ago,
and I had like two and a half motos and
then the next day drunk hashtag drunk Taylor was like
number one training on Twitter.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah I saw that because because you know, I go
like from zero to legitimately thinking I'm a wizard within
like two drinks.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
She's definitely not wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
There. At the VMA, she danced the night away during
the four hour show.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
It was very impressive.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
She seemed to know every single lyric to every song
that was played. The best bits for me were when
I saw her fanning herself when she was getting really hot,
because I swear every single one of us has done
that before. Did you guys see her with the plastic
cup trying to get her out in the wholder. There's
also this classic clip where her publicist comes up to
her and it's obvious she's trying to calm it down,
(15:00):
and she's like, oh, can you take some water? And
Taylor basically refuses it. I really felt for her publicist
because it's not like Taylor was just sitting there and
able to enjoy the music. She was going up excepting
nine different awards. There's this classic moment where she was
fanging in sync as well.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
It's pretty classic. There's another video doing the rounds, where
people are doing a voiceover of what they think Taylor
is saying in particular moments. It reminds me of those
Alps Stuart Ones. I love the slurping noise as well.
It has been reported that during all of this chaos,
Taylor lost the massive diamond in her Van Cleef ring.
So she was wearing this beautiful, vintage twelve thousand dollar
(15:39):
ring and she was seen wearing it on the pink carpet. However,
when she got up on stage to accept the awards,
it wasn't there, and vision has emerged of Taylor looking
really distressed as people around her.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Search for the ring.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I wonder if this was her ring or she'd been
lent the ring, because can you imagine a few of
the brand watching this all unfolowed. They're probably like, oh,
there's the ring. Oh wait a sec, it's going to disappear.
And we paid a lot of money for her to
wear the thing is actually the diamond that went missing
off the ring? I mean twelve thousand dollars. It's nothing
to her, though I'm sure she could cover the cost
of that ring. I am really relieved how this is
(16:12):
being perceived from a PR perspective, though, because I feel
like ten years ago the news.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Coverage would have been very different.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
It would have been about how sloppy Taylor Swift was
and she's out of control. However, I think everyone saw
it for what it was. This girl has been working
really hard and she was letting her hair down and
having a lot of fun. Yeah, she's clearly letting off steam.
And I think it was so relatable. We're getting to
the end of the year when everyone is overwork, they're
over their jobs, and people just want to let their
(16:40):
hair down and have a good time. Yeah, the publicists
didn't need to tell her to stop. Everyone wanted to
see more of drunk Taylor. If anything, they should have
been giving her some more drinks. I love. At the
end of the night, she had to do the walk
to get to the car with all of the varakee
and there's this moment where she starts walking out but
does that little lean on the wall and push herself back,
and everyone's like, that is so damn relatable. It looks
(17:03):
like it was all fun and games, but it was
one of the hardest things I've ever done. Bachelor Royalty
Anna Heinrich and Tim Robards have announced their expecting their
second child in the cutest way. On Sunday, they shared
a hilarious video of their two year old daughter Elle,
walking around with a balloon under her jumper. So in
the vision, she says my mummy is going to get
(17:26):
a baby soon. Just in case the video wasn't clear enough,
Anna followed up by sharing a photo of the family
of three.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
With the caption.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Turns out l was right, bringing another Rascal into the
world in twenty four. I'm enjoying seeing these more normal
baby announcements because I think we had this period where
people are taking these very curated photos of little mitten
or little booties and you know, mitten and the scan
(17:54):
and everything was and I don't like that. I mean
even we saw Victoria Devine recently and ounce that she
was pregnant, and all she did was share a photo
of a bump with a baby Chino, and I thought
that she had a coffee and all the coffee and
she said, oh, we need a baby Chino. Yeah, And
I just thought that that was a really nice, simple, normal,
relatable way. That being said, this is Tim and Anna's
(18:16):
second announcement. I feel like people are a bit more
relaxed the second time round. That's true. I do love
the Anna reference that she's getting another Rascal because I
love following Anna to see the l videos because she
is the most adorable little girl. She looks like an angel.
But she does have a rascal side to her. The
other day, Anna shared how Elle had given herself a
(18:37):
haircut before a birthday party and she'd lopped off two
big chunks, so they ended up having to put one
of those material headbands around her head to hide it.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It was hilarious.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Now, going back to your comment Amy about maybe because
it's a second child, it's not as grand an announcement,
I disagree. I think at the moment people are being
more sensitive towards those who can't conceive, and you know,
everything's clumbing with a disclaimer or a trigger warning, so
I think the people don't want to look like they're
rubbing in others' faces. I mean, we're seeing the death
of the gender reveal. I think there's nothing more naff
(19:07):
at the moment than attacking gender. We're seeing people. I
saw an article recently of a pilot who was killed
because he flew over to reveal the pink. There does
seem to be a lot of gender reveal related deaths.
But the thing is, I don't think that they are dying.
I have seen them all over my TikTok, and it
(19:28):
must be a particular algorithm for me. But I'm seeing
multiple birth gender reveals. There was this great one where
a woman was having triplets and they just kept bringing
up more balloons.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
To pop and everyone's like, what is going on?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I would you have a gender reveal? Like, quite honestly,
I think I would be a bit embarrassed to invite
people to a gendera I actually would want one. Maybe
I would keep it private and have it just with
close friends and family. I think if I found out
I was having triplets or something, you'd have to do
something big for it. So if I do do a
gender reveal, I think you guys will know what's coming.
There's this couple having quads and I couldn't believe it
(20:02):
because they have the scan and they just show people
the scan.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
People are like, you can see them trying to wander what.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, So apparently drinking this diet coke is going to
give me cancer because it contains asparteine. A disturbing new
report shows registered dietitians are being paid to promote diet
soft drinks and artificial sweetness on Instagram and TikTok. The
paid promotions are being funded by a group called American
Beverage Now. Critics have slammed the promotion as unethical and
(20:31):
misleading and say it's mudding the water sophy.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Can you tell us more?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, you will remember. A couple of months ago, the
Internet went into meltdown when the World Health Organization linked
a spar tame to cancer. Now, a spar tame is
the sweetness that is found in diet cokes and other
diet products. Now, just as these concerns were being raised,
the hashtag safety of a spar Tame started spreading on
the social media accounts of health professionals. Now. A registered
(20:56):
dietitian called Steph Grazo, who has attracted two point two
million followers on TikTok, used the hashtag and told her
audience that the warnings about artificial sweetness were clickbait and
based on low quality science. Another dietitian called Kara Harpstreet,
who is from Kansas City, She also told her followers
(21:16):
that the headlines were fear mongering and said that the
evidence didn't suggest reason for concern. This was followed up
by another dietitian called Mary Ellen Phillips, and she specializes
in diabetes. She appeared on camera sipping a glass of
soft drink and told her followers that artificial sweetness satisfy
the desire for sweetness without affecting blood sugar or insulin levels. Now,
(21:41):
what these dietitians didn't make clear is they are being
paid to post this content by a group called American Beverage. Now,
American Beverage represent.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
The likes of Coca Cola and Pepsi co So it.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Seems like these dietitians are a part of this orchestrated
marketing campaign that has been developed by this GRIP grou
to play down the World Health Organization's recent claims about
a spartan being castinogenic and ineffective in weight loss. In total,
twelve health professionals were paid to promote this message, including
(22:14):
ten registered dietitians, a physician, and a fitness influencer. At
this stage, it's not clear how much they were paid,
and it wasn't really clear that they were being sponsored
to begin with. While it did say paid partnership, there
was a lot of confusion about who was actually paying
for these ads. It's not until you clicked through and
came across the American Beverage website and had to do
(22:35):
a bit of digging to find that they were actually
associated with cocon pepsi. Now, the Washington Post and the
examination broke this news and the publication revealed that this
is a tactic that has not only been used by
American beverage but the broader food beverage and dietary supplements industry.
And the report basically analyzed thousands of posts and found
that the companies paid dietitians for content that encouraged consumers
(22:59):
to eat laws and ice cream and downplay the risks
of highly processed foods and also push unproven supplements. It
is so disturbing the way that these registered dietitians are
being used like pawns in a game, and pretty shocked
that there wouldn't be any regulations in this area. Yeah, well,
they do actually have rules. So there's a trade group
that basically oversees the dietitians, and there's a code of ethics.
(23:22):
So the code says that dietitians should disclose conflicts of
interest and they should avoid accepting gifts or services which
potentially influence or which may give the appearance of influencing
professional judgment. So the Academy has a board of ethics
and they basically review any allegations that are brought forth
and if dietitians are found to breach these rules, basically
(23:44):
they have the power to evoke a dietitian's license. However,
in this case, the Washington Post contacted the board and
basically they claim that they so far haven't received any
complaints about the social media activity. But what is really
crucial here to know is is that the academy in question,
they actually accept millions of dollars in donations from leading
(24:06):
producers of soft drink, lollies and ultra process foods. They
are even sponsored by American Beverage, So no wonder they
aren't punishing any of these dietisians.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, and this isn't a new thing.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I mean, I've listened to so many podcasts and health
experts and they all tell the tale of there's always
these new studies coming out which they find out later
is you know, oh, they say that chocolate milk is good,
and then you find out that it's been funded by
a chocolate milk company. You feel like Cereal is the
biggest one because I remember growing up and it was
always about how breakfast is the most important meal of
(24:38):
the day. And funnily enough, that was funded by cereal companies.
It just makes it really hard to know what is
actually the truth. And it is so unethical and so
appalling that health professionals are allowed to accept money to
put out information that is possibly dangerous. Actually so clever
of the food industry because they know that TikTok has
(25:02):
become a very trusted source of information and it's almost
somewhat of a search engine for a lot of gen
zetters and millennials. Yeah, particularly if you just do a
bite sized piece of information, because let's be honest, everyone
wants to drink diet coke. People want to know that
diet coke is fine to drink, So if they see
it by a doctor on TikTok, they're going to be
like cool, whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
And that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
What is so disturbing about this new strategy is I
feel like we have been on guard for so many
years now about unqualified influencers spooking health and diet advice.
But we've had it drummed into us that we should
trust health professionals. However, the fact that they are accepting
paid promotions is really mudding the water, and the food
industry is now basically harnessing the credentials of these experts
(25:44):
and they're using them to deliver a commercial message so
that the messages don't trust anyone online. Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
But it shows you.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
How worried the big beverage companies are the fact that
they actually have sat down and they've strategized, oh shit,
how are we going to get the message out there
that it's actually safe.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I don't think they're that worried about it. I think
that this is just something that they do all the time.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I think they are because when the World Health Organization
did reveal their findings about the cancel link between a
spar tame soft drink, sales went.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Down by twelve percent in the US. I mean this
is massive.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
So it's clear the beverage companies thought, how are we
going to change this view of diet soft drinks. Now,
the American Beverage Group did provide a response to the story.
A spokesperson said that the Dietitians who participated in the
campaign had adequately disclosed their relationship to the group by
flagging the post as paid and using the paid hashtag. Now,
they claim that it was clear that the post had
(26:36):
been paid for by the American Beverage group because the
Dietitians had listed the aspartame dot com website, which includes
the American beverage logo at the bottom of the page. Now,
out of the thirty five videos, eleven specifically named the
Association or Amery Beev.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
As the partner.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
The group claims, Now, I think that's all we've got
time for today. Thank you so much for listening to
another episode of Outspoken. If you did enjoy it, we'd
love if you could leave us a five star review
and make sure you are subscribe to the podcast. This
podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana
people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders
past and present.
On today's show, Sophie Guidelin flips the narrative on an
embarrassing airport moment. Drunk Taylor starts trending on social media again.
Influencer Dietitians paid off to promote diet Coke and Sophie
Keisha's huge career announcement. Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's
your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news
(00:24):
twice a week. I'm Kate Torbert, and I'm getting pretty
stressed out because I am planning two Hens parties, and
they're both very different. We've got the high maintenance Hens
party with your Sophie, and then we've got Amy's backyard
Hens party, which on that's a bit hard, no, but
it's still going to be high maintenance because Sophie, I'm
trying to deal with Sophie's expectations. I'm sorry, I refute
(00:46):
those claims, Kate. It is far more high maintenance and
time consuming for us to set up this extravagant party
in Amy's backyard. We've got to make it look like Wimbledon.
I'm just going to a nice venue, having a sit
down lunch or dinner five course, well five yes, it.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Is five course, and I've got a.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Beautiful Ladulchi vita theme. It's gonna be very nice. But
I actually think there's gonna be far more work going
into yours. You are saying that you want a pim station,
you want a strawberries and cream station, you want a
huge installation of balloons. We're gonna come up with all
of these games. Everyone's got to go out and buy
a tennis outfit. So sorry, I think yours is more
home maintenance. The term backyard hens. It sounds like we're
(01:29):
having some barbecue. It sounds like, you know, a Bucks
part exactly. Hers is high matenance because we're having caterers in. Okay,
I will read Hat's a truck. I will rebrand it.
Amy's more of a DIY and Sophie's is more glam
Okay is that okay? Well, this is the difficulty because
there are so many moving parts to these Hens parties,
and I'm having to come up with a fee to
charge people to go. And I know that is a
(01:51):
bit of a controversial topic because there are old school
people that are like the bride's maids should cover the
cost of everything. But I look at a Hen's party
as you're buying a ticket to get a meal some entertainment.
I keep seeing on TikTok all of these girls sharing
their expression when they see a new email or group
message pop up, and it's like, oh, fantastic, another two
(02:11):
hundred dollars. I've got to spend on a special evening
for a girl and buy a present and do this.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
It's a friendship test.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, it gets that way, And that's why I feel
guilty because I don't want to charge my friends too much.
Because when I do go to a hen's party, I
sort of sit around and I think, if I've paid
like one hundred and fifty bucks to come here, I'm like,
I'm gonna eat all the food. I'm gonna have those
drinks right well, because I don't drink as well, so
I think, well, how else am I going to get
my money out. That's why I think there should be
different costs of people that are drinking and not drinking
(02:39):
at a hens, and then you can work out, say
in the diy tennis backyard thing, well, how many bottles
of wine do I buy? How many bottles of pims
do I get? I think it's a good thing having
a theme, though, because It ensures only.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
The people that really like you will come.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Because sometimes if I've got an invite and I don't
know the person that well and I won't know anybody there,
I'm not they come dressed up to it like not
too much effort. That's when you've got something else on
that weekend. But at the same time, I agree with you, Amy.
I love a theme because as much as people say, oh,
it's annoying you've got to spend all this money, I
think it's exciting. So I've recently got invited to a
(03:16):
disco theme, like a last dance theme, and I have
spent so long, like looking up sequent outfits, looking up bags,
looking up cool jewelry, and it's actually fun to me. See,
That's what I would hate, because I'd have no idea
what to wear. The tennis one. At least you can
go online. There's some cheap options. You can just wear
white to mine. It's Wimbledon theme. It's not as difficult.
I feel like disco is harder.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So where do we draw the line in terms of
how much to charge? I think that most hens parties
sit around one hundred dollar mark for each person, to
which I think that's a fair one I've been invited to.
When it's way more than that, I think one hundred
dollars is palatable. It does depend, though, If you're staying
away for a weekend, obviously it's going to be a
lot more. And then I think that's when you invite
your best friends. Well, that's when things are getting crazy
(03:58):
because people are planning the huge weekends away. And then
there's multiple themes. I'm seeing on TikTok. There's oh, for
the first night, we're gonna do the Great Gaspie theme,
and then the next night it's glad and then this
and that, and it's like people can't be bothered with that.
I think one theme and that's it. I saw this
video and it was like, it can't just be Taylor
Swift's theme where people dress up as Taylor Swift. It's
(04:20):
like Taylor swift ears theme, What character are you from this?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And it's so true.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I feel like Hen's parties are just so over the
top now, especially when you compare them to Bucks parties,
Like can you.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Imagine the men sitting around coming up there?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
The difference is that Hen's parties are performative and they're
for TikTok and social media. We want to take videos
of how cute our setup is. Maybe we want to
make a video saying how we created our Hen's parties.
But with men, it's private. No one wants a photo
of a Bucks party to get out. Yeah, none of
these Bucks parties are going on TikTok. No, so the
hens are just coffer content and Bucks are actually to
(04:52):
have a good time. Uh oh, your friend came to
visit and you don't wear light colors when you're getting
your period.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's my first time. Okie rip Sophie Gwiedland's white tracksuit pants.
In a very mortifying experience that I feel like we
can all relate to, the fitness influencer discovered that she
had leaked her period onto her tracking pants at the airport.
The worst part about this is it wasn't her that
made the personal discovery.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
She didn't go into the bathroom and go oh fuck.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
It was actually someone on Instagram who messaged her a video.
So this person filmed her at the airport with the
stain on her pants and decided to send it to her.
What is going through your mind as the person at
the airport who has spotted this. Instead of sending a
video to embarrass her, why wouldn't you go up and say, hey,
I'm so sorry, there's something on the back of your pants.
(05:45):
See I think it's probably best not to even draw
attention to it. I understand where you're coming from that
people should look out for each other.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
But I would feel weird if.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Someone came up to me and said, oh, you've got
something green in your teeth, Like, I think it's something
that you just pretend that you don't see and you
look away. But why does she feel the need to
message her on Instagram?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
See?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
That's where I think it got yucky, because there is
this trend of people trying to get influencers in these
gotcha moments to send onto these influencer watchdog accounts. So
I'm wondering if this person was trying to blackmause Sophie.
And that's why it's all come out, because Sophie Gweedland
has come out and shared this story and she said
it was in the hope to normalize period conversations. And
(06:24):
she was actually motivated by her physiotherapist who said, why
don't you take the power away and talk about it
and that's what she did.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
She even shared a photo.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Of her period sat at the airport. Could it have
been that this person was too nervous to go up
to Sophie and they were actually trying to be a
good person and to say, oh, you've actually got blood
on your pants? Because I actually think sometimes as a woman,
it is nice if another woman comes up and just goes, hey,
just letting you know, like your flies under, I would
just so you know you've got some blood, because I'd
appreciate that because so many people would have seen her
(06:54):
at the airport.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And it'd be mortified.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
But could you write that in a message instead of
taking a video?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah. I don't think the person was trying to be
nice because Sophie ended up going into the bathroom and
crying about it. I think at its essence, this is
an experience that most people can relate to. And I
do love the fact that she shared about it on
her Instagram because it makes you not feel so alone.
This happened to me a couple of weeks ago or
probably months ago, when I was at the hairdresser and
I was mortified and I felt really nervous going back
(07:22):
there because it feels like such a spectacle. You almost
feel like this messy failure. Who can't even keep your
period under wraps? Well, As Sophie Gwedland said, it is
ridiculous because so many people experience this in their day
to day life. Most time I have a period, I
will leak on some part of clothing. So I think
it is great that Sophie Guedland is saying, Look, I
(07:43):
was embarrassed, But why should I be embarrassed. This isn't embarrassing.
Let's normalize this conversation. I heard Mama Mia recently talking
about the phenomenon of free bleeding, which apparently is popping
up a lot on TikTok, and it's basically where people
aren't using any sanitary items and they they will on
their heavy days. They'll sit at home, basically on a tower.
(08:03):
And I was quite taken back by that, because whilst
I think that we should normalize periods, I think that
we have sanitary items in place so we can make
women's lives easier, so that they're not taken out of
the workforce, they're able to continue what they're doing. Yeah,
I found that whole topic a little bit confronting, but
each to their own if that's what people want to do.
(08:24):
It's quite funny because, in true influencer style, Sophie Gwedle
actually used the moment to promote the period underwear that
she normally wears that she wasn't wearing in that instance. Well,
it was very brave to wear white to the airport. Yeah,
on your period as well. It's so degressy, isn't it.
It's very degressy. That scene still sits with me because
at high school we had light blue school dresses in
(08:45):
the flimsiest material. I mean literally, if you've got a
bead of sweat, it would be so obvious, so imagine
having a.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Bloodstain on them.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Clearly the uniform was designed by a male, because no
female would put a woman in that type of material
on their period.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Thank god for jumpers around your waist.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I remember literally living with a jumper tied around my
waist for fear of having period blood on my dress.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Most popular feedback I got was hello, just normal real
life stuff. And the reason I don't really post he
is six because it's quite boring.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
On Friday night, Sophie Kaisha Tea's to her followers that
she had this huge career announcement that she was going
to drop the next day, and she said that it
was going to be her biggest role ever. What were
you guys thinking it would be? Because I thought potentially
she might have a really good media gig for Women's
AFL or the Women's Basket because she seems to be
(09:40):
aligning herself with both of those brands.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, I think a lot of people thought that.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I thought maybe it had something to do with her
Keisha pajamas. Adding to that growing speculation was the fact
that influence of Watchdog accounts of picking up on this
news and sharing it to their audience as well. Well.
The next day, she did drop what this big career
announcement was, and it was pretty underwhelming. It was that
she's coaching her daughter, Florence's undernins netball team, and to
(10:05):
make this announcement, she shared a real of her walking
hand in hand with her daughter decked out in their
netball uniforms. And I was quite surprised because the logo
was very prominent. So it doesn't take much guesswork to
realize when the game's is going to be and for
weirdos to rock up and watch these kids play. I
always find it weird when influencers make it really obvious
which school their kid goes to. They're very much opening
(10:27):
themselves up to a dangerous situation. They're going back to
this post, she did caption it loving this era. Dreams
really do come true. She also shared more about the
announcement on her Instagram story. Here's what she said.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I have taken on.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
A very special role amongst the chaos of my life
is something I literally dreamt of doing forever. What's mummy coach?
And yeah, I was trying to find something to do
for myself. Even though it does involve hey, my child,
(11:03):
it still gives me so much joy and satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So go Gladiators. It is really admirable that she's so
excited to coach her daughter's netball team. I'm guessing maybe
the fact that her dad was an AFL coach has
something to do with this excitement as well. There is
a little bit of strategy there, though, because she did
get a lot of engagement on her page and the
day after she revealed that she was dropping a new
(11:27):
range of Kashia pajamas, so I think it wasn't incidental.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Timing.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, definitely. After she made this announcement, she responded to
a poll that she did the night before, asking people
what they wanted to see more of, and people voted
that they wanted to see more of a personal life,
and she said, well, it's quite boring, so I don't
really have much to share. She has revealed earlier that
she didn't want to share about her personal life due
to her breakup with Maddie Garrick and it causing a
(11:52):
lot of drama. So I think that this was a
strategic way for her to get a lot of engagement
to her page because it must have been recently, which
isn't good for her pajama brand at all. I wonder
how the mums of the other kids in the netball
team feel about Sophie plastering this all over social media.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, that would be rather interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
It always shocks me when influencers ask their followers what
they want to see and then they're surprised that they
want to know about their personal lives, because literally, that's
the whole reason they've got a following. I've noticed recently, though,
a lot of influencers have been using this same strategy
of teasing this big announcement and then it being completely
and utterly disappointed. It's all about working with the algorithm,
and we've seen that Instagram really is dropping off in
(12:33):
terms of engagement.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
However, if you do create.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
A big storm and you get a lot of eyeballs
on your page, generally the post you share afterwards gets
a good traction. We've seen that with Anna Paul as well. Recently,
a lot of people have been speculating that she's doing this.
Maybe Sophie Kesha has seen the success of that and thought.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I'm going to do it too.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well. Someone else who did it this weekend is Anna macavoy,
who was a former Love Island contestant, so her and
her partner shared a real with the caption we have
news coming the real We see them getting tattoos matching
tattoos done of the word honey, and a lot of
people are guessing in the comments section that they're either
having a child that they're gonna call honey, or they're
(13:11):
getting a dog. And they've even gone to the extent
of doing a countdown timer. So at the time of recording,
we don't yet know what the announcement is. Is this
kind of like the boy who cried wolf though, like
everyone's gonna start teasing all this stuff and then people
are not going to engage with it because they're like,
this is just crap, and it's like.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Actually, I'm having a baby.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, oh my godness, hot, oh oh, we're Taylor Swift
made history at the MTV VMA's last week, winning nine
out of the eleven categories she was nominated for. However,
all anyone could talk about was her chaotic aed was
caught on the audience camera. I am living for these
(13:53):
antics and drunk Taylor was trending across social media and
it's not the first time either. So back in twenty nineteen,
the hashtag went viral on Twitter after photos and videos
emerged of Taylor celebrating at a party she threw. She
later brought up the incident on The Tonight Show and
said this, Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I was at a party like a couple months ago,
and I had like two and a half motos and
then the next day drunk hashtag drunk Taylor was like
number one training on Twitter.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah I saw that because because you know, I go
like from zero to legitimately thinking I'm a wizard within
like two drinks.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
She's definitely not wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
There. At the VMA, she danced the night away during
the four hour show.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
It was very impressive.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
She seemed to know every single lyric to every song
that was played. The best bits for me were when
I saw her fanning herself when she was getting really hot,
because I swear every single one of us has done
that before. Did you guys see her with the plastic
cup trying to get her out in the wholder. There's
also this classic clip where her publicist comes up to
her and it's obvious she's trying to calm it down,
(15:00):
and she's like, oh, can you take some water? And
Taylor basically refuses it. I really felt for her publicist
because it's not like Taylor was just sitting there and
able to enjoy the music. She was going up excepting
nine different awards. There's this classic moment where she was
fanging in sync as well.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
It's pretty classic. There's another video doing the rounds, where
people are doing a voiceover of what they think Taylor
is saying in particular moments. It reminds me of those
Alps Stuart Ones. I love the slurping noise as well.
It has been reported that during all of this chaos,
Taylor lost the massive diamond in her Van Cleef ring.
So she was wearing this beautiful, vintage twelve thousand dollar
(15:39):
ring and she was seen wearing it on the pink carpet. However,
when she got up on stage to accept the awards,
it wasn't there, and vision has emerged of Taylor looking
really distressed as people around her.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Search for the ring.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I wonder if this was her ring or she'd been
lent the ring, because can you imagine a few of
the brand watching this all unfolowed. They're probably like, oh,
there's the ring. Oh wait a sec, it's going to disappear.
And we paid a lot of money for her to
wear the thing is actually the diamond that went missing
off the ring? I mean twelve thousand dollars. It's nothing
to her, though I'm sure she could cover the cost
of that ring. I am really relieved how this is
(16:12):
being perceived from a PR perspective, though, because I feel
like ten years ago the news.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Coverage would have been very different.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
It would have been about how sloppy Taylor Swift was
and she's out of control. However, I think everyone saw
it for what it was. This girl has been working
really hard and she was letting her hair down and
having a lot of fun. Yeah, she's clearly letting off steam.
And I think it was so relatable. We're getting to
the end of the year when everyone is overwork, they're
over their jobs, and people just want to let their
(16:40):
hair down and have a good time. Yeah, the publicists
didn't need to tell her to stop. Everyone wanted to
see more of drunk Taylor. If anything, they should have
been giving her some more drinks. I love. At the
end of the night, she had to do the walk
to get to the car with all of the varakee
and there's this moment where she starts walking out but
does that little lean on the wall and push herself back,
and everyone's like, that is so damn relatable. It looks
(17:03):
like it was all fun and games, but it was
one of the hardest things I've ever done. Bachelor Royalty
Anna Heinrich and Tim Robards have announced their expecting their
second child in the cutest way. On Sunday, they shared
a hilarious video of their two year old daughter Elle,
walking around with a balloon under her jumper. So in
the vision, she says my mummy is going to get
(17:26):
a baby soon. Just in case the video wasn't clear enough,
Anna followed up by sharing a photo of the family
of three.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
With the caption.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Turns out l was right, bringing another Rascal into the
world in twenty four. I'm enjoying seeing these more normal
baby announcements because I think we had this period where
people are taking these very curated photos of little mitten
or little booties and you know, mitten and the scan
(17:54):
and everything was and I don't like that. I mean
even we saw Victoria Devine recently and ounce that she
was pregnant, and all she did was share a photo
of a bump with a baby Chino, and I thought
that she had a coffee and all the coffee and
she said, oh, we need a baby Chino. Yeah, And
I just thought that that was a really nice, simple, normal,
relatable way. That being said, this is Tim and Anna's
(18:16):
second announcement. I feel like people are a bit more
relaxed the second time round. That's true. I do love
the Anna reference that she's getting another Rascal because I
love following Anna to see the l videos because she
is the most adorable little girl. She looks like an angel.
But she does have a rascal side to her. The
other day, Anna shared how Elle had given herself a
(18:37):
haircut before a birthday party and she'd lopped off two
big chunks, so they ended up having to put one
of those material headbands around her head to hide it.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It was hilarious.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Now, going back to your comment Amy about maybe because
it's a second child, it's not as grand an announcement,
I disagree. I think at the moment people are being
more sensitive towards those who can't conceive, and you know,
everything's clumbing with a disclaimer or a trigger warning, so
I think the people don't want to look like they're
rubbing in others' faces. I mean, we're seeing the death
of the gender reveal. I think there's nothing more naff
(19:07):
at the moment than attacking gender. We're seeing people. I
saw an article recently of a pilot who was killed
because he flew over to reveal the pink. There does
seem to be a lot of gender reveal related deaths.
But the thing is, I don't think that they are dying.
I have seen them all over my TikTok, and it
(19:28):
must be a particular algorithm for me. But I'm seeing
multiple birth gender reveals. There was this great one where
a woman was having triplets and they just kept bringing
up more balloons.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
To pop and everyone's like, what is going on?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I would you have a gender reveal? Like, quite honestly,
I think I would be a bit embarrassed to invite
people to a gendera I actually would want one. Maybe
I would keep it private and have it just with
close friends and family. I think if I found out
I was having triplets or something, you'd have to do
something big for it. So if I do do a
gender reveal, I think you guys will know what's coming.
There's this couple having quads and I couldn't believe it
(20:02):
because they have the scan and they just show people
the scan.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
People are like, you can see them trying to wander what.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, So apparently drinking this diet coke is going to
give me cancer because it contains asparteine. A disturbing new
report shows registered dietitians are being paid to promote diet
soft drinks and artificial sweetness on Instagram and TikTok. The
paid promotions are being funded by a group called American
Beverage Now. Critics have slammed the promotion as unethical and
(20:31):
misleading and say it's mudding the water sophy.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Can you tell us more?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, you will remember. A couple of months ago, the
Internet went into meltdown when the World Health Organization linked
a spar tame to cancer. Now, a spar tame is
the sweetness that is found in diet cokes and other
diet products. Now, just as these concerns were being raised,
the hashtag safety of a spar Tame started spreading on
the social media accounts of health professionals. Now. A registered
(20:56):
dietitian called Steph Grazo, who has attracted two point two
million followers on TikTok, used the hashtag and told her
audience that the warnings about artificial sweetness were clickbait and
based on low quality science. Another dietitian called Kara Harpstreet,
who is from Kansas City, She also told her followers
(21:16):
that the headlines were fear mongering and said that the
evidence didn't suggest reason for concern. This was followed up
by another dietitian called Mary Ellen Phillips, and she specializes
in diabetes. She appeared on camera sipping a glass of
soft drink and told her followers that artificial sweetness satisfy
the desire for sweetness without affecting blood sugar or insulin levels. Now,
(21:41):
what these dietitians didn't make clear is they are being
paid to post this content by a group called American Beverage. Now,
American Beverage represent.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
The likes of Coca Cola and Pepsi co So it.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Seems like these dietitians are a part of this orchestrated
marketing campaign that has been developed by this GRIP grou
to play down the World Health Organization's recent claims about
a spartan being castinogenic and ineffective in weight loss. In total,
twelve health professionals were paid to promote this message, including
(22:14):
ten registered dietitians, a physician, and a fitness influencer. At
this stage, it's not clear how much they were paid,
and it wasn't really clear that they were being sponsored
to begin with. While it did say paid partnership, there
was a lot of confusion about who was actually paying
for these ads. It's not until you clicked through and
came across the American Beverage website and had to do
(22:35):
a bit of digging to find that they were actually
associated with cocon pepsi. Now, the Washington Post and the
examination broke this news and the publication revealed that this
is a tactic that has not only been used by
American beverage but the broader food beverage and dietary supplements industry.
And the report basically analyzed thousands of posts and found
that the companies paid dietitians for content that encouraged consumers
(22:59):
to eat laws and ice cream and downplay the risks
of highly processed foods and also push unproven supplements. It
is so disturbing the way that these registered dietitians are
being used like pawns in a game, and pretty shocked
that there wouldn't be any regulations in this area. Yeah, well,
they do actually have rules. So there's a trade group
that basically oversees the dietitians, and there's a code of ethics.
(23:22):
So the code says that dietitians should disclose conflicts of
interest and they should avoid accepting gifts or services which
potentially influence or which may give the appearance of influencing
professional judgment. So the Academy has a board of ethics
and they basically review any allegations that are brought forth
and if dietitians are found to breach these rules, basically
(23:44):
they have the power to evoke a dietitian's license. However,
in this case, the Washington Post contacted the board and
basically they claim that they so far haven't received any
complaints about the social media activity. But what is really
crucial here to know is is that the academy in question,
they actually accept millions of dollars in donations from leading
(24:06):
producers of soft drink, lollies and ultra process foods. They
are even sponsored by American Beverage, So no wonder they
aren't punishing any of these dietisians.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, and this isn't a new thing.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I mean, I've listened to so many podcasts and health
experts and they all tell the tale of there's always
these new studies coming out which they find out later
is you know, oh, they say that chocolate milk is good,
and then you find out that it's been funded by
a chocolate milk company. You feel like Cereal is the
biggest one because I remember growing up and it was
always about how breakfast is the most important meal of
(24:38):
the day. And funnily enough, that was funded by cereal companies.
It just makes it really hard to know what is
actually the truth. And it is so unethical and so
appalling that health professionals are allowed to accept money to
put out information that is possibly dangerous. Actually so clever
of the food industry because they know that TikTok has
(25:02):
become a very trusted source of information and it's almost
somewhat of a search engine for a lot of gen
zetters and millennials. Yeah, particularly if you just do a
bite sized piece of information, because let's be honest, everyone
wants to drink diet coke. People want to know that
diet coke is fine to drink, So if they see
it by a doctor on TikTok, they're going to be
like cool, whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
And that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
What is so disturbing about this new strategy is I
feel like we have been on guard for so many
years now about unqualified influencers spooking health and diet advice.
But we've had it drummed into us that we should
trust health professionals. However, the fact that they are accepting
paid promotions is really mudding the water, and the food
industry is now basically harnessing the credentials of these experts
(25:44):
and they're using them to deliver a commercial message so
that the messages don't trust anyone online. Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
But it shows you.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
How worried the big beverage companies are the fact that
they actually have sat down and they've strategized, oh shit,
how are we going to get the message out there
that it's actually safe.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I don't think they're that worried about it. I think
that this is just something that they do all the time.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I think they are because when the World Health Organization
did reveal their findings about the cancel link between a
spar tame soft drink, sales went.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Down by twelve percent in the US. I mean this
is massive.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
So it's clear the beverage companies thought, how are we
going to change this view of diet soft drinks. Now,
the American Beverage Group did provide a response to the story.
A spokesperson said that the Dietitians who participated in the
campaign had adequately disclosed their relationship to the group by
flagging the post as paid and using the paid hashtag. Now,
they claim that it was clear that the post had
(26:36):
been paid for by the American Beverage group because the
Dietitians had listed the aspartame dot com website, which includes
the American beverage logo at the bottom of the page. Now,
out of the thirty five videos, eleven specifically named the
Association or Amery Beev.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
As the partner.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
The group claims, Now, I think that's all we've got
time for today. Thank you so much for listening to
another episode of Outspoken. If you did enjoy it, we'd
love if you could leave us a five star review
and make sure you are subscribe to the podcast. This
podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana
people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders
past and present.
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