What started out as a fun and catchy video filmed by Aussie office workers has turned into what some social media users have described as ‘the most hated clip of 2024’.
Gen Z boss Rachael Wilde, the founder of Aussie brand Tbh Skincare, and her group of young employees last week jumped on a TikTok trend in the hope it would go viral.
It did go viral – perhaps too viral – ending up on what the business describes as the ‘wrong side of the internet’, with the women involved copping vile abuse from mostly American men and even a blast from controversial influencer Andrew Tate.
The light-hearted clip depicts six women standing in a circle at the office each pointing out aspects of themselves and their accessories.
One sings they are ‘Gen Z boss and a mini’, another points out they have ‘fake tan hands and a hoop (earring)’ in the 20-second video – which spread like wildfire across several social media platforms on the weekend.
The team has since been inundated with thousands of tweets, comments and messages from ‘creepy’ American men. The backlash left Rachael and the rest of the office flabbergasted about how a fun video could cause such controversy.
‘It’s been a weird 48 hours. The interest is definitely a scary place. Mind blowing that a silly little TikTok turned into this.. nothing should ever warrant this amount of hatred online,’ Rachael wrote.
Speaking to FEMAIL, Rachael said more than 2.8million people have started following the Tbh TikTok to watch the drama unfold.
‘We’ve been on the receiving end of so many disgusting comments and even threats to our safety. And now I’ve just opened my Twitter to this,’ she added.
Rachael was talking about how dozens jokingly claimed the ‘Gen Z boss and a mini’ has the ‘same vibes’ as the rally shooter over the weekend.
Tate also commented and said the video proved men need to ‘get rich fast’ to avoid having a Gen Z woman as a boss.
‘If you do not escape The Matrix, women like this will be your boss,’ he tweeted.
‘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.’
Shocked by the comment, Rachael took a screenshot and shared it to her Instagram story.
‘It’s fascinating to watch how upset the men across Twitter have become over a fun little video? Honestly, it’s not that deep,’ she wrote.
The video was continuously ridiculed by Americans on X – formerly known as Twitter – who unleashed on the video.
‘Some women never outgrow 7th grade,’ one American wrote.
‘Zoomer women on their way to pretend Millennials are more cringe than them (they are exactly the same),’ another wrote.
‘The reason this video bothers people so much is that a lot of men in white collar work have to suffer the dreadful, stressful corporate jobs to make a living, which in turn subsidizes the non-productive roles like whatever these women do,’ a third wrote.
However, others rallied to support the brand and said they can’t get the song out of their head.
‘Men are so sensitive omg how many of your feelings are hurt over ‘Gen Z boss and a mini?’ one wrote.
‘The men in these comments are such sad individuals,’ another wrote.
A third said: ‘You know you’re doing when your comment section is flooded by the incels. Excellent work ladies, keep it up.’
Despite the hate, Rachael revealed she and her team aren’t letting the negative comments get to them.
‘We don’t pay much attention, we just have so much fun as a team doing these types of things,’ she said.
‘At the heart of what we do we are marketers. We jumped on a trend, something that took us only a few minutes of fun. It started going viral on TikTok and Instagram… but then it pretty quickly exploded into a worldwide meme after it was posted by another account on X (Twitter).
‘We have never gone this viral before – I don’t know if any brand has! We are known for our viral marketing but I’ve never seen anything to this extent. The original video was created by @maisieisobel_.
‘We decided to jump on the trend and it pretty quickly went viral … 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 (Twitter).
‘Essentially, we just ended up finding ourselves on the wrong side of the internet.’
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