Receiving the vitriol of one of the world’s most openly dangerous misogynists is a sure fire way to grab some attention for your company.
That’s what Australian skincare brand, tbh Skincare discovered when last week one of their Tiktok videos went viral, ending up on Andrew Tate’s X feed and garnering millions more views.
The original video
Last Thursday, tbh Skincare posted a video on their social media showing the young female employees of the company playing up the TikTok trend that involves standing in a circle and chanting two identifying characteristics of yourself.
Rachael Wilde, the company’s co-founder, described herself as a “Gen Z boss in a mini” — referring to the mini-skirt she was wearing. Other employees chanted the following: “5’3 with an attitude,” “secret product and a trench”, “itty bitty titties and a bob”, “fake tan hands and a hoop” and “new Frank Green and a sneaky link,” one of the women said, holding a reusable water bottle in one hand and a phone in the other.
The video has the frivolous, convivial temperature of a typical TikTok made by 20-somethings who are just having some fun. The company has a strong online presence, frequently posting videos of their employees in various states of play in an attempt to promote their products.
But this one TikTok went a bit crazy, and now has over 3.8 million views. One user posted it on X, where it’s garnered more than 44 million views.
A few days later, comedy legend Amy Poehler posted a similar TikTok featuring her friends Rachel Dratch and Rashida Jones with Dratch chanting: “hoops and a black short dress,” pointing to her hoop earrings, and Jones chanting: “pony and a cashmere shirt,” pointing to her pony tail.
The misogynistic response
On Instagram and TikTok, the responses were fairly neutral or supportive. Transported to the combustible environment that is X, however, users were less than enthused — with “thousands of men debating if women should have the right to work a job,” as one user remarked. In fact, many of the commenters (mostly men, of course) found the video “horrifying.”
“Bring back the gender pay gap,” one user wrote. Other responses include, “imagine if these girls ran the world”, “peak corporate cringe”, “Millennial core”, and “humiliating.” One commenter told the women to “get back in the kitchen.”
Andrew Tate reposted the clip on X, thereby extending the exposure of the brand.
“If you do not escape The Matrix women like this will be your boss,” Tate wrote. “Zog Corp loves emasculating men by forcing them to listen to semi-sentient females. If that doesn’t motivate you to get rich. Nothing will.”
The skincare company released a few videos in response to going viral, including a clip showing Wilde and other staff reacting to the original video’s sudden global reach.
“Twitter’s unhinged,” Wilde said in the clip. “This might be the most viral we’ve ever gone. This would be a great time to create a tbh skincare Twitter page. People have no boundaries. We should create a Twitter page. Why not? We’re getting the eyeballs, we may as well monetise it.”
On Saturday, the same women who appeared in the original viral video made another one in the same style of the first, this time, parodying the online haters by chanting their comments in cheer-leader-like vibes: “Gender pay gap bring it back,” “Women should go back to the kitchen,” “try not to cringe impossible!”
Perhaps Tate forgot that calling something terrible more often than not promotes the thing, basically. Which has been great for Wilde’s company. She is certainly not complaining about the exposure.
Yesterday, she posted a new video of herself introducing a new bundle called the “Gen Z boss and a mini” which contained the company’s best selling products.
Wilde, 27, released a statement, saying that her company has always tried to create a brand that would “shake up” the acne category within skincare with a safe and inclusive online community.
“There was a mix of feedback, as there always is on these kinds of videos when you go viral, but it really took a turn when we were reposted onto X,” Wilde told SmartCompany.
“Essentially, we just ended up finding ourselves on the wrong side of the internet. We were surprised to see innocent fun upsetting so many people online. Not sure how us doing a dance in the office warranted so much feedback and hatred like this.”
“In amongst the negative comments there have also been so many that have seen the fun in what we are doing, and have also come to our defense,” Wilde added.
“We are choosing to focus on that. At the heart of what we do we are marketers.”