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- A Prime investigation 🕵️
TOGETHER WITH
It's Wednesday and thanks to Meta’s new cartoon avatars, you can now answer video calls without ever changing out of your PJs (not that we’d recommend that).
CAFFEINE FIX
One can of PRIME Energy has about the same amount of caffeine as 6 cans of Coke.
Logan Paul and KSI’s energy drink brand contains a lot of caffeine. Is it enough to get the FDA involved?
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) isn’t happy about the amount of caffeine in Prime’s Energy drinks. Those are not to be confused with Prime’s Hydration drinks, which contain no caffeine. But it is confusing. And that - and the marketing strategies employed by the brand’s founders, influencers Logan Paul and KSI - are the senator’s issues.
In a July 9 address and an accompanying letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Schumer called on the agency to investigate the effects of Prime energy drinks on minors.
Per Prime’s website, its energy drinks contain 200 milligrams of caffeine per can—the same as about two cups of coffee or six cans of Coca-Cola. That “eye-popping level of caffeine” (as Schumer describes it) might not be a problem for adults dedicated to the 9-5 grind. But according to Schumer, Prime’s on-site warning that its energy drinks are “not recommended for children under the age of 18” isn’t reflective of the brand’s real-life marketing tactics.
“A lot of parents may not have ever heard of it, but their kids have. That’s because Prime is engaged in a vast advertising campaign aimed at kids.”
It’s true that KSI and Paul’s beverage brand has caught the eye of younger fans. U.K. teens have notoriously rushed into stores to buy Prime items—a melee that could lead some customers to mistake Prime Energy for the brand’s caffeine-free hydration line.
Whether the branding similarities of those two products is enough to trigger more than an initial review of Schumer’s letter remains to be seen. But for now, Prime spokesperson Alyx Sealy says the brand welcomes “discussions with the FDA or any other organization regarding suggested industry changes they feel are necessary in order to protect consumers.”
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰
TikTok’s first-ever brick-and-mortar storefront is making waves in London, England. (Tubefilter)
After just five months in Snapchat’s Snap Star creator program, Adam Waheed says his monthly Snapchat earnings have risen to six figures. (Wall Street Journal)
According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Threads needed only five days to hit a grand total of 100 million sign-ups. (Ars Technica)
A Nebraska woman has reportedly pled guilty to assisting with a medication-induced abortion after Meta responded to a warrant by giving police access to unencrypted Facebook chats. (The Verge)
DATA • GLOBAL TOP 50 📈
Who needs SFX when this viral beatboxer is around?
BeatboxJCOP has an ear for music and a seemingly faultless ability to reproduce everyday noises. But despite his remarkable talent for beatboxing, it’s the creator’s on-trend sense of humor that keeps viewers coming back for more.
Since launching his channel in 2011, JCOP has attracted a massive fanbase of nearly 18 million subscribers—and that’s just on YouTube.
JCOP’s monthly views soared to over 1 billion in June. Data from Gospel Stats.
The South Korean musician’s online fame is nothing new, but the rise of short-form video has taken his social media presence to a whole other level. JCOP’s signature mix of percussive sound effects and timely comedy has made him a viral star on both YouTube Shorts and TikTok, where he now claims more than 16 million followers.
It’s easy to see why the beatboxer’s short-form videos are so successful.
Whether he’s creating his own SFX for popular shows like Squid Game, testing out viral life hacks while beatboxing, or competing with friends in vocal emoji challenges, JCOP always manages to incorporate the latest online trends into his content. That on-the-pulse strategy has made the creator’s Shorts-driven hub one of the top YouTube channels in the world.
It only takes one look at JCOP’s Shorts library to see the extent of his virality. The creator’s #1 short-form video alone claims more than 446 million views—and his weekly viewership stats are just as impressive.
Over the course of our last seven-day count, JCOP’s YouTube channel received 311.3 million views.
That massive weekly total added up to a 10% week-over-week bump.
And that big leap in views short JCOP up to 32nd place in the Global Top 50.
WATCH THIS 📺
There’s a new Willy Wonka in town
From Call Me by Your Name to Little Women, Timothée Chalamet has already played his fair share of tortured young men with artistic spirits. Come December, he’ll embody another one: the ever-mysterious (and sometimes homicidal) Willy Wonka.
So, far Chalamet’s version of the character in Wonka seems less likely to watch little boys drown or feed girls to squirrels than Gene Wilder’s. We’re not saying that’s a good thing, but it might lead to fewer recurring nightmares than that creepy tunnel scene in the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.