- 'Sup you beautiful bastards?
Hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday.
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show
and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing we're gonna talk about today
is the story coming out of Texas, which also, don't worry.
I know a lot of people when they watch the show and I say
a place that they live, they're like "ah, what'd we do?"
It's not you, or at least all of you.
So there's this story that's blown up
about the sexiest of topics, job applications.
And specifically at the center of this story we have
a woman who's job application went viral, Emily Clow.
She lives in Austin, Texas, she applied to an open
marketing position at a startup called Kickass Masterminds.
Clow saying she was eager to grow her social media
and sales experience, saying she
eventually heard back from the company.
They then asked her to fill out additional application forms
and also asked her to follow them on Instagram.
And so all seemed like it was going pretty well
until she saw that Kickass Masterminds had posted
a cropped photo of her in a bikini to it's Instagram story,
with Kickass Masterminds adding text to the photo saying
"PSA because I know some of you applicants
are looking at this, do not share
your social media with a potential employer
if this is the kind of content on it.
I am looking for a professional marketer,
not a bikini model."
Adding "go on with your bad self and do whatever in private.
But this is not doing you any favors
in finding a professional job."
Clow obviously surprised then messaged the company privately
about the photo saying that she'd screen shotted the story.
Then saying "I appreciate your advice."
To which Kickass Masterminds then replied
"remember that everything you put on social is public
and future potential employers will see it.
Best of luck in your job search."
Clow then responds again "I am aware of that,
as I worked with social media for two years.
I didn't realize wearing a bathing suit
and appreciating my body made me an unprofessional.
Most employers and companies, especially those
who work with marketing, have that understanding.
I am disappointed to see a company I was very interested
in decided to go out of their way to shame an applicant."
And she then continues by asking
the company to take down the story.
Kickass Masterminds simply responds "best of luck."
Clow asks again but then following that
the company blocks her.
She then takes to Twitter saying
she felt objectified and that she was baffled
that the company handled it in such a manner.
Also later sharing a photo of the company's bio
from it's LinkedIn page saying "this is fucking hilarious
considering" that bio stating that Kickass Masterminds
works with rebellious business owners, specifically those
who are rebelling from the traditional way of earning
a living because they've lost faith in corporate America.
And it then goes on to say that it works with business
owners who quote "want other like-minded people
to have their back when shit gets tough
in their quest for personal and money freedom."
And following this, her post goes viral.
We see a wave of support for Clow.
You also had others sharing photos like this,
which is reportedly from Kickass Masterminds Instagram page.
People asking, well is this photo professional?
Also photos like this from CEO
Sara Christensen's personal Twitter.
But at the same time, of course
that reaction was not universal.
You had some others saying things like
"what the hell, of course it's unprofessional.
Women need to help other women
learn how to be taken seriously."
And that was essentially the full story until yesterday
when Christensen posted an apology to Medium,
saying "in a very human moment, I made an error
in judgment by posting to my Instagram stories
about a job applicant's online persona.
To anyone watching, I am a great
case study in what not to do.
To Ms. Clow, I apologize for my behavior.
I intended you no harm.
I should have never made that post.
To those I serve through my business
and who have trusted my counsel, many of you have
been affected by this very avoidable event.
There are no words to describe how sorry I am
that you have felt the consequences of my poor decision."
And as of recording this video, Kickass Masterminds
has set their Instagram to private, the company's Twitter,
Facebook, and even LinkedIn page were also taken down.
As far as Clow, she seems to be rolling with it with her new
Instagram profile reading "an unprofessional bikini model."
And I'd really love to know your thoughts on this,
because depending on where you see this story popping up,
there are vastly different opinions.
Right for example, on Yahoo News, if you look
to the top comments, there are a lot of people
that are siding with the business, but if you look to places
like Twitter where this story blew up, you had
a lot of people just calling this blatant slut shaming.
Now as far as my opinion on this, I think regarding
the company and the CEO publicly shaming this woman,
and sure they cropped out her face,
I still think that it's disgusting they did that.
If you wanna make an untethered post about your advice
regarding hiring practices that doesn't include
an actual applicant and her photo, fine,
but the way things were actually done, it feels petty,
unprofessional, it feels like slut shaming from someone
that's maybe at times given what they've put out
on social media is being hypocritical and maybe jealous.
And also I'll add, as a small business owner,
someone who employs a number of people, if you apply
to me and this was your profile, I wouldn't give a damn.
If you're putting stuff out on social media and it's like
illegal drug use, or you blacked out with the caption
just another Tuesday, I'm gonna have concerns.
But literally all we're talking about is a young woman
who is confident and happy in her body sharing photos.
Like I understand that when I hire someone,
they're not a robot that's just doing
the thing that I need them to do,
they are also a person outside of the building.
But whatever, I understand that I am just one employer
in a business that is not prudish.
And so, with that said, of course
I'd love to know your thoughts around this.
Then kind of a quickie story I want
to touch on cause it blew up yesterday.
For those that don't know, there are these people
that exist, they were initially
the Dobre Twins, then the Dobre Brothers.
You got Lucas, Marcus, Darius, and Cyrus Dobre.
As far as what they do, what they provide to the world,
according to their YouTube description "we are the Dobre
Brothers and we do backflips. We dance, we do backflips."
They really want you to understand the backflip part.
"And we also live life like there is no tomorrow."
And they're also just massively popular on TikTok
with the Dobre Twins having 17.6 million fans there.
But the reason there was all this news around them,
this whole situation blew up, is they're currently
on a 21 stop live tour, and according
to their site, they offer a range of tickets
starting at $29.99 all the way to just around $600.
And part of the ticket tier above general admission
is that there is a meet and greet.
And a video of one of those meet and greets went viral,
I'm gonna have to remove the music that was in it.
(bright music)
Hey so nice to meet you.
Oh my god, thank you so much.
What was that?
Right, so following that, there were a number of people
that were like are you serious,
a lot of other people saying it's disgusting.
People saying can you imagine treating
a fan like that that has spent money on you?
Among those calling out the Dobre Brothers,
you had people like James Charles.
Who as you might remember had been slammed
in the past for having tickets that cost $500.
Tweeting "what the actual fuck is this."
And later adding "being tired is not an excuse
to not smile and give a hug to people who pay to meet you."
YouTuber JC Caylen tweeting that it was actually sad, also
noting that the fan probably waited months for this moment.
Danny Gonzalez who's actually on tour right now tweeting
"for a second I was like is there
a Dobre brothers exhibit at Madame Tussaud's?"
Which for those that don't know is a wax figure joke.
You also had people defending them saying
you don't know what was happening, they could've
received bad information right before this moment.
And regarding that kind of defense, we saw Lucas Dobre tweet
on Monday "after a long 48 hours of restless filming
and touring then meeting thousands of fans with no sleep,
we were exhausted by the end of the show.
Our true apologies, we are sincerely sorry."
And following that, you had some people
accepting that apology, some saying it's not enough.
And here's the thing, while just quickly scrubbing
through this story, I saw some other people
sharing their meet and greet videos
where there's kind of half assed hugs and (groan).
My opinion is if you're doing these live shows
and you're promising a certain experience that these people
have paid for, you need to make it worth it.
If you wanna blame management or someone else
for putting too much on your plate, okay, go for that,
but then try to actually change.
But otherwise, understand you wouldn't
have anything without these people.
Once again, yes you guys are massive,
I had no clue really before this story who you were,
but based off of an initial scrub, you need to be
the nicest fucking people on the planet, cause I don't know
other than your looks appealing
to younger girls what's happening.
That does not and will not last forever.
And here's the thing, no one's ever
gonna be perfect, but you have to at least try.
If I've ever been at the end of a meet and greet,
I'm losing my voice, I'm tired, there's always
like a I'm so sorry, I'm trying, thank you so much.
But, I don't know, that's where I'll leave this one,
of course I'd love to know your thoughts on this.
But from that, I wanna share some stuff I loved today
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so main point, click the link, check it out, and enjoy.
And the first bit of awesome is a little bit of a heads up,
tomorrow which is Wednesday is the day that I've been
uploading the weekly A Conversation With podcast,
me and a guest just kinda talking about whatever.
It has been doing fantastically well,
so thank you for being a part of that.
I've been looking for a more conversational
less jump cutty outlet, so it's awesome
that there's an audience that also wants to see that.
You kinda just get used to doing one thing,
but the announcement is that tomorrow
there won't be a new episode here on YouTube,
but you'll still be able to listen to that episode
on Apple Podcasts, or really any audio platform,
I'll provide links down below so you can listen
to it wherever you wanna listen to it.
Just because this episode I didn't have a guest,
and I had a conversation with you.
You guys sending in voice messages, text messages.
And it's kind of a fun, more personal filler episode,
because I need to stop getting my guests 12 to 24 hours
before filming, which is what we had been doing.
And so this kinda gave us a buffer week,
which has been fantastic, we already
have our next guest booked, it's great.
So yeah, just a little bit of a heads up,
and if you haven't yet, be sure to follow and subscribe.
Then we had Dude Perfect giving us more trick shots.
We got the honest trailer for Spiderman: Far From Home.
We got the official trailer for Queer Eye: We're in Japan.
We had Nick Kroll on the burger show.
We had Binging with Babish giving us
Chicago style pizza from the daily show.
And if you wanna see the full versions of everything
I just shared, the secret link of the day, really anything
at all, links as always are in the description down below.
And then let's talk about the situation with China, cowering
companies, censorship, there's a lot to cover here, right.
And understand when I'm talking about censorship,
I'm also talking about things outside of China itself.
So quickly because I know a lot of you aren't familiar
with sports, which is part of the reason one of our best
selling shirts of all time is the sports shirt,
in the NBA, the National Basketball Association,
there is a team called the Houston Rockets.
And their general manager Daryl Morey tweeted while in Japan
for a preseason game, specifically posting an image
that says fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.
So he was showing support for the pro-democracy protesters
in Hong Kong who have been protesting for 18 weeks now.
Now if you're unfamiliar with the protests
and how things have developed, how dare you
for not watching my show before this video.
Been covering it for a while, things have
been escalating, you can check out
those videos, I'll link to them down below.
Now regarding Morey's tweet,
he ended up actually quickly deleting it.
And that tweet, both the posting and deletion,
it was met with a lot of mixed reactions.
You had Chinese fans upset that an NBA
leader spoke in support of Hong Kong.
Which something to note here, the NBA has a lot of money
to make in China, which is why over the weekend,
the Rockets were scrambling to handle the situation.
The Rockets owner Timan Fertitta sent out a tweet
clarifying that the tweet represented Morey's personal
beliefs and not a political position of the team.
Morey himself tried to do damage control on his own,
addressing the situation on Sunday.
There he kinda started to backpedal and downplay
his comments, saying "I did not intent my tweet to cause
any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China.
I was merely voicing one thought, based on one
interpretation, of one complicated event.
I have had a lot of opportunity since
that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives.
I have always appreciated the significant support
of our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided
and I would hope that those who are upset will know that
offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention.
My tweets are my own and in no way
represent the Rockets or the NBA."
Which on that note, the NBA has also addressed
the situation as well, taking a similar approach to Morey
and trying to appease China and their fans,
saying Morey's tweets are his own,
"the values of the league support individuals' educating
themselves and sharing their views on matters
important to them" and "we have great respect
for the history and culture of China and hope that sports
and the NBA can be used as a unifying force
to bridge cultural divides and bring people together."
But in response to this, China was essentially
like yo, we're China, no go fuck yourself.
And so we saw the Chinese government
cutting ties with the Houston Rockets.
It also upset a lot of Chinese businesses,
including the team's Chinese sponsors who followed suit.
Also the Chinese Basketball Association along with Tencent
which streams NBA games in China
to almost 500 million viewers cut their ties as well.
And some background here, the Rockets specifically
are an incredibly popular team in China.
Yao Ming who's one of the most popular basketball players
in the country played for the Rockets, he's also
a major reason behind the NBA's popularity in China.
Also a big thing of note here is that Yao Ming himself
is actually the current president of the CBA.
Right so when the CBA cut ties with the Rockets,
it meant Ming was cutting ties with his former team.
Right so all the statements, the moves, it's a massive deal,
and it's also part of the reason why
it's believed that this is kind of just the beginning.
According to a report from The Ringer, ownership is actually
debating whether or not to replace Morey as the team's GM.
You also had the owner of the Nets Joe Tsai,
who also co-founded Chinese media company Alibaba
saying "I don't know Daryl personally," regarding Daryl,
"I am sure he's a fine NBA general manager."
Also regarding the apology saying he would take that
at face value, "but the hurt that this incident
has caused will take a long time to repair."
We also saw an example of an NBA player trying
to calm things down, this with James Harden.
- We apologize, you know.
We love China, we love playing here.
I know for both of us individually,
we go there once or twice a year.
They show us the most support and love, so you know,
we appreciate them as a fan base,
and we love everything they're about
and we appreciate the support that they
give us individually and as an organization.
You know, we love you.
- Following this, we also saw a number
of American politicians respond.
You had presidential candidate Julian Castro
tweeting "China is using its economic power
to silence critics, even those in the US."
You had republican senator Ted Cruz saying
he was proud of Daryl Morey, but adding "now, in pursuit
of big money, the NBA is shamefully retreating."
And adding, "we're better than this, human rights
shouldn't be for sale and the NBA shouldn't
be assisting Chinese communist censorship."
Republican senator Rick Scott calling the statement
from the NBA commissioner an absolute joke.
As well as democratic senator Chuck Schumer
saying "no one should implement a gag rule
on Americans speaking out for freedom."
Also, like I was saying, this situation
it's prime to escalate even further.
We're now seeing news this morning that China won't show NBA
preseason games as backlash over Hong Kong tweet grows.
And reportedly that latest move was in response
to the NBA commissioner who actually on Monday night
told Kyodo News "I have read some of the media suggesting
that we are not supporting Daryl Morey, but in fact we have.
I think as a values-based organization that I want to make
it clear that Daryl Morey is supported in terms
of his ability to exercise his freedom of expression."
But, like I said, there is a lot more to this China story,
and not even what's to come, but already
what we're seeing in different avenues.
For one of the more recent ones,
we jump from sports to esports.
So there's this professional
Hearthstone player called Wai Chung.
And according to reports, Wai Chung appeared
on a Taiwanese Hearthstone stream in a gas mask and goggles
and said "liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age."
As far as why the gas mask and the goggles, it appears
that was a reference to the ban on masks in Hong Kong now.
Now following that, the clip was removed from the Taiwanese
Hearthstone channel, though the internet is the internet,
and so it began to spread and blow up even more.
And so we ended up seeing after this is that Blizzard,
the company behind the game, the tournament,
they announced this player's immediate removal
from Grandmasters, they're withholding his prize money
for his participation, and they're banning him
from taking part in Hearthstone esports for a year,
with Hearthstone announcing this on their official blog
and pointing to a rule reading "engaging in any act that,
in Blizzard's sole discretion, brings you
into public disrepute, offends a portion or group
of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard's image will
result in removal from Grandmasters" etcetera, etcetera.
And then they actually had the audacity to include
"while we stand by one's right to express
individual thoughts and options" did you though?
Okay, actually I'll save it.
"Players and other participants that elect to participate
in our esports competitions must
abide by the official competition rules."
The two parts of that one sentence
do not appear to go together.
Which may also be the reason
why they disabled comments on that post.
Also crazy enough, Blizzard also fired the two commentators,
who it appears did not also call for anything
with Hong Kong, they were just there.
Right so in my opinion, this is Blizzard blatantly
saying hey, the business that we have
in China is more important than free speech.
Which, hey, they're a private organization,
they have rules in place, they're allowed to do
what they want, and I as someone that is outside
of it can call them fucking pathetic cowards.
Also congratulations to everyone involved,
as we always constantly see when you try
to suppress something, when you try to push something out,
you just draw more attention to it.
So the people in Hong Kong, you're just
drawing more attention to their struggle.
But that is only possible if we have people
that are not terrified of China or losing money in China.
Because like places like Axios have pointed out,
this is not a covert operation from China.
China is using their market power
to bully American organizations.
As their report points out, this is just the latest in this.
You had Marriott apologizing to China
after Beijing shut down the hotel chain's website
because it listed Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Tibet, and Macau as separate countries.
You had American, United, and Delta
bending to China's will last summer
and scrubbing references to Taiwan as its own country.
Hell, actually one of the most recent stories,
and a story that I am happy to see, according to reports,
South Park this week was erased from major platforms
in China after an episode last week taunted Chinese censors
and the far-reaching effect they often
have on American entertainment.
It was an episode called Band in China, little word play.
Popular platforms when you were searching for South Park
on Tuesday, you'd get the message "according to the relevant
law and regulation, this section is temporarily not open."
And so following this, we saw the show's creators
Trey Parker and Matt Stone apologize saying,
And I think for me, that's a solid note
that I kinda wanna end on, because I mean, as far as
my opinion, one, fuck Xi and the Chinese government.
I'm not saying that about the Chinese people.
I think it is incredibly important to separate
governments with their people, especially when
you have a government like China.
And also two, fuck these cowardly companies
that are choosing the money in China over human rights.
You can make all the excuses you want,
but in part, to a certain degree,
in certain areas, you are being complicit.
But hey, that's the story, a little bit of my opinion,
and of course I pass the question off to you,
what are your thoughts around this?
And that's actually where we're going to end today's show.
And hey, if you liked this video,
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And hey, if you're looking for more to watch,
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you can click or tap right there to watch either of those.
But with that said, of course, as always,
my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been Phil'd in,
I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.