Ad Blocker Detected
Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.
Other influencers have faced backlash for selling poorly made products or not delivering on what they advertised. But so far, Pii is neither of those things — at least she wasn’t before the backlash. She’s not backed by a media company or making the profits through a well-known empire, but she has been overwhelmed by the same vitriol reserved for random internet villains like West Elm Caleb and Couch Guy.
Before her pink sauce posts blew up, Pii had fewer than 1,000 followers on TikTok — too few to even livestream. She now has 50,000 followers, which pales in comparison to the millions of views and posts that pink sauce has inspired. She began posting food- and weight loss–related videos on YouTube four years ago, but none of them have topped a couple hundred views.
“This turned into a product overnight, but I wasn’t able to verbalize my plan for it like a regular individual. I’m not an influencer,” she said. “Before this, TikTok didn’t know me from anyone else.”
“This is a small business that is moving really fast,” she says in one video. “We are following FDA standards, however. We are currently in lab testing. … I’m a passionate person, but I’m listening to y’all.”
She told BuzzFeed News that it has been hard to have so many people call her a scammer, but she’s determined to overcome it and put out the best possible product.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kelseyweekman/tiktok-pink-sauce-creator-carly-pii-talks-backlash
