TikTokers are buying the #cheapestthing from luxury brands, Gen Z and Millennials are at it again and this time it’s over skorts and the word “cheugy,” these adult Lightning McQueen-themed crocs sold out quickly, and Paddington 2 is now higher rated than Citizen Kane on Rotten Tomatoes and fans are excited—plus other trending youth news to end your week!
A New TikTok Trend Has Users Buying The Cheapest Things They Can Get from Luxury Brands
We recently told you about how Coach’s pillow bag was dubbed “bag of the year” by users on TikTok using the #pillowtabby hashtag—and now another trend involving luxury brands has taken over the app. Users have been using the #cheapestthing hashtag, which currently has 131.7K views and counting, to showcase the “cheapest” products they’re buying from brands like Chanel, Gucci, Prada, and Hermès. Everything from lip gloss to keychains are featured in users’ videos—and because luxury brands still use fancy and luxury packaging for all their things, it “makes for a postable social media moment.” Some users have been using the trend to promote their own DIY projects featuring the designer trinkets. TikToker @steffieinthecity (who has 51.5K followers) has posted a series of the “I bought the cheapest thing from…” videos featuring brands from Hermès to Louis Vuitton, and while she doesn’t use the #cheapestthing hashtag, her videos have garnered hundreds of thousands of views. Her biggest hit though is “I bought one of the cheapest things you can buy from Prada…” which has racked up seven million views. She also followed up with a video of how she transformed her $50 Prada keychain into a necklace, which has almost half a million views itself. YPulse’s luxury report found that 76% of 13-39-year-olds think luxury brands should make some affordable items so more people could own them. Syama Meagher, CEO of Scaling Retail, told Glossy: “Luxury brands understand that the way to take a customer through their lifecycle—going from people who are looking from afar to consumers, then to brand loyalists—really comes from being where they’re at. So even though Gucci will probably always advertise predominantly to luxury consumers, there’s a reason why they’ve done these collaborations that make the brand more mainstream. Luxury brands are trying to tread the line between keeping their luxury brand value and appealing to a more mass-market consumer.”
Gen Z & Millennials Are Feuding Over Skorts and the Word “Cheugy”
We’ve told you again and again how the ‘90s and 2000s are back thanks to young consumers, and “skorts” are the latest thing that Gen Z has “discovered” (or should we say, “re-discovered”)—but apparently, some Millennials aren’t too happy about it. Earlier this week, @tallivingty shared a video of herself (which has 709.4K views) wearing “skirts that are shorts” that she just “discovered.” Some of the comments on the video feature Millennials saying they were “done” with Gen Z for not knowing that skorts have been around, while another one read: “Why does gen z keep thinking they found some mystery clothing item that’s a skort sweetie, we all wore them in early 2000s.” As a response to the original video, @janikon made a video that received 11 million views, where he (jokingly) said that he felt old and asked: “Are you saying you were born after skorts and that you think it’s new?” The hashtag #skorts currently has 3.9 million views on TikTok. Meanwhile, Gen Z is finding other ways to hit back at Millennials: The term “cheugy” is trending among teens—well, at least some teens on TikTok—to describe someone who is “out of date or trying too hard.” While the term can be applied to anyone of any gender or any age, it’s been typically associated with Millennial women. The word quickly caught everyone’s attention after Hallie Cain (a.k.a @webkinzwhore143) shared a video—which has 609.7K views—of herself reflecting on other videos where users refer to themselves as being “the type of people who get married at 20 years old” or having Millennial “girlboss energy”—and calling those types of people as “cheugy.” So far, the hashtag #cheugy has 648.2K views. It’s not just a way to describe people. According to the New York Times, things like Golden Goose sneakers, Gucci belts with the large double “G” logo, being really into sneaker culture, Rae Dunn pottery, or anything chevron-patterned is considered “cheugy,” while things like thrifting, DIY clothes, handmade products, Levi’s jeans, or Birkenstocks are “un-cheugy.” But according to Cain: “I think Millennials have noticed that some things we used to consider cheugy are coming back in style and aren’t cheugy anymore.” We recently told you about how Gen Z and Millennials were “feuding” about everything from skinny jeans and side parts to Eminem. And as more of Gen Z “rediscover” older trends, or as young people use new terms to describe their younger and older counterparts, we predict these lighthearted social media battles are likely to continue.
Lightning McQueen-Themed Crocs for Adults Sold Out Within an Hour
On Tuesday, Disney-Pixar’s Cars teamed up with Crocs for a launch of a limited-edition release of Lightning McQueen-themed shoes, which light up and feature a design of the character on them. But for those thinking these red-hot Crocs were for kids, think again. The themed footwear were made for grownup fans, and according to a tweet from the company, they sold out within an hour of dropping. “Lightning McQueen Crocs” started trending on Twitter as users created “sad memes” to express their feelings about the clogs selling out so quickly. Some of the tweets featured screenshots of customers who were waiting in the “virtual line” of the Crocs site only to be disappointed and unable to purchase the shoes. Many of them blamed resellers and bots for snatching them up so fast. eBay currently has listings for the shoes priced for “hundreds of dollars.” This isn’t the first time the company released the shoes—they dropped the pair in 2019 and found similar success then as well. YPulse’s Cult of Ugly trend report has been tracking how young consumers are leading the ugly-is-cool era for some time now, with 70% of 13-36-year-olds saying that it’s now cool to wear clothing that was once considered ugly. And Crocs certainly has been having a hot streak, especially with their creative collaborations: Last year, they partnered with KFC for chicken-themed, scented clogs, and a few months later worked with Justin Bieber for limited edition Crocs—both pairs sold out shortly after being dropped. The company announced that demand for Crocs is “stronger than ever” globally and they’re being dubbed the “it” shoe of the pandemic. According to the Crocs, they grew a whopping 64% to $460.1 million from $281.2 million a year earlier. Their digital sales surged $75.3% to represent 32.3% of revenue, compared with 30.1% from the previous year, while direct-to-consumer sales from its store and site grew 93.3% to $170.1 million.
Paddington 2 Now Has Higher Rating Than Citizen Kane
For years, Orson Welles’ 1941 classic film Citizen Kane had a perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 115 aggravated reviews. That is, up until this week. Someone dug up an 80-year-old review from The Chicago Tribune, in which a critic gave it a negative review—and after it was submitted to Rotten Tomatoes, its rating was brought down to 99%. While other classics like The Maltese Falcon or Singin’ in the Rain are still part of the site’s “100% Club,” some movie fans pointed out that because of this, Paddington 2—based on the beloved children’s books about a happy, marmalade-obsessed bear—now has a higher score than Citizen Kane. Fans of the movie shared their excitement about the news all over social media and Paddington himself even responded with a tweet from his “official account,” writing, “I do hope Mr Kane won’t be too upset when he hears I’ve overtaken him with rotten tomatoes.”—garnering 130.8K likes and 16.9K retweets. Director Paul King responded to the news and told The Hollywood Reporter that while he doesn’t take the list too seriously, it’s “extremely lovely” to be part of it, and that he has written the script for the third movie, which is “well developed and coming on nicely.”
Links We’re Passing:
As Godzilla vs. Kong continues to top the box office, Warner Bros. launched a viral campaign on TikTok to reach young viewers using the #GodzillaVsKongRoar hashtag—and it currently has 7.1 billion views.
TikTokers are using the hashtag #mashup (which has 3.9 billion views and counting) to combine two of their favorite songs—and sharing how it sounds with their followers.
Walmart is feuding with Kanye West’s Yeezy brand after claiming the new logo was too similar to their own.
Billie Eilish just dropped a new song and music video—and announced that her album Happier Than Ever is coming out at the end of July.
Justin Bieber is getting accused of cultural appropriation (again) after sporting dreads in his latest photos on Instagram.
A Reddit post about an “Apology Dinner” is leaving a lot of users confused, but that hasn’t stopped them from turning it into a meme.
