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Okay, so what you just saw was an excerpt from Tiktok video put up by a guy named
Harrison Pollock.
It is a part of a genre of videos of having someone hold flowers and
then, wait, no, you gave them the flowers.
And you just come across that video like, that's kind of sweet,
a little bit weird in the music super over the top.
And it definitely seems kind of like purposefully intended to affect
the audience more than the person and you're making money off of it.
And the whole thing might make you feel a little uncomfortable.
But it might particularly make you feel uncomfortable after you find out that that
video was not reflective of reality at all.
The woman in the video identified only as Marie told ABC radio she was
filmed in a public place receiving those flowers several weeks ago.
And then she goes on to say there's a lot of these flower Tiktok's all over
the internet.
He interrupted my quiet time, filmed and uploaded a video without my consent,
turning into something it wasn't and
I feel like he's making quite a lot of money through it.
It's the patronizing assumption that women, especially older women,
will be thrilled by some random stranger giving them flowers.
Marie is something, I love every bit of that.
She said she had asked whether she was being filmed and was told no.
She literally asked and they lied to her.
She also said she offered the flowers back and said, I didn't wanna carry them home
on the tram to really be quite frank but I wasn't given that opportunity.
Anyway, that video did quite well.
I think we had the view count.
I think it said 59 million views because of its simplistic.
It seems like it's a sweet thing that a stranger would do, as Marie points out
there's some weird patronizing thing there in terms of age and
in terms of gender and everything.
But then to find out that no, it's like everything, it's stage, it's artificial.
They lied to her, they didn't get her consent.
It's not what it appeared to be.
But who cares?
The views have already come in.
The money has already come in.
Annah what do you think?
>> Yeah, I think the consent point is the strongest point and
if you're gonna post a video of someone just ask them if they're cool with it,
more likely than not they will be okay with it.
And if they're not, you just respect them.
I get that they're in a public space.
You have no expectation of privacy in a public space but
still it's just a common courtesy.
Just be a decent person especially if you're putting out content making
a point about doing kind acts ,right?
Like a kind act would be to ask her permission before posting it.
>> Sure.
>> With that said though and that is how she feels,
I respect that but I would love that.
I would love that.
>> I predicted in the morning meeting.
>> I love flowers.
>> I thought you would hate that, if a random guy, really, you'd love that?
>> Yeah.
>> My God, I was totally wrong.
I thought you would absolutely hate it.
>> No. >> Okay, interesting.
Look at how fair and open minded you are.
>> Ironically you as a man are making an assumption about what I
as a woman would appreciate.
Almost, I would say that I am making an assumption about what you
very specifically based on my knowledge of you and
what you think about random strangers would think.
>> Okay, let me make a clarification because you're right about my previous
statements about strangers approaching me.
Look, there's a clear difference, right?
So if someone is approaching me to ask a question about directions or
do a kind act like that.
That's not in any way related to the fact that they might know me and
wanna have a discussion or debate about politics.
Like that's the difference, right?
When someone recognizes me and comes to me to debate a political issue I get very
uncomfortable considering what the current political climate is.
Like I do relate to, hey, I'm in the middle of something and
I don't really like to be disturbed.
Like when I walk my dog I don't want other dog owners to talk to me at all.
I wanna move about the sidewalk and
just get this chore that I have to do done.
But if I'm just sitting there and someone wants to give me flowers and
it's just like random kind act, I'm not gonna be upset about.
>> That is quite nice of you then.
She says that she felt dehumanized.
All the articles were like, old woman, elderly woman, heartbreaking tale,
like she had been lost in the woods and someone rescued her.
She said the picture made it look like she was crying but
it was just a horrible expression, I feel like Clickbait.
I love that she uses the expression Clickbait, that's awesome.
Anyway, yeah, no, every individual gets to make their choice.
That is why consent is so important and building a career based on not caring at
all about people's consent that's where you lose me.
So I will close with the final point that I've made in many cases where we talked
about things like this, like the family singing at the ice cream scooper.
Everybody wants to make content, everyone is desperate to get people to watch them.
I understand that I've made literally 50,000 videos in my life.
Everyone else isn't your cast, they don't work for you.
They're not there to make content for you particularly against their will.
If you wanna go out in the world and make something, you can do that if it's just
you might still be annoying and cringing and all that, that's fine.
The entire span of humanity is not there to give you content though.
You have to ask, you have to treat them like humanity especially if you're gonna
be making money off of the idea that you are an exceedingly kind and
compassionate person.
That's what I would say.
I don't know, maybe he'll respond to this.
Maybe he'll say something to this woman, try to reassure, I don't know.
Just make your own content, don't make everyone else have to be in it.
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