What’s Hot?
This week, we’re celebrating that the best things come in fours. That’s why we’re excited about the LGBTQ+ museum, voting on Instagram, checking out deleted tweets and learning about the ASA. Let’s go ➡️
Queer Britain
With the UK’s first ever LGBTQ+ museum, Queer Britain, opening in the Spring, many aren’t aware how crucial this is to history. In order for us to understand humanity, the way humans have behaved, the evolution of behaviours and identities, we have to understand every minority, its culture and its history. Everyday we are losing crucial artefacts and stories that make up that history, so the importance of this museum is really a starting point for others to truly understand, value and celebrate queer lives.
Like the 1999 Soho bombings, many aren’t aware that the motivation was to not only start a race war but to kill LGBTQ+ folk with the target being at The Admiral Duncan, an LGBTQ+ pub where queer people felt safe in the 90s, and a place where 140+ where injured by nail bombs, and 3 deaths occurred.
Without a place where this history can lie, where are people learning and understanding minority groups? Well, Queer Britain’s archive exceeds over 10,000 LGBTQ+ media archives, from books, articles, video clips and personal snapshots and stories from those affected. This type of content is significant to not just history, but for us to learn about different ways of loving, identifying and living. You will catch me visiting in the Spring, for sure!
Instagram doubles poll options
The best things come in fours.
The teenage mutant ninja turtles. The Shrek quadrilogy (new word I learned today). Samantha, Charlotte, Miranda and New York City (Carrie does not count, if you need to ask why, we cannot be friends). The Ashley’s in Recess – Ashley’s A, B, Q and T.*
Instagram is well aware of this fact, quietly updating the Story ‘poll’ option to include up to four options. Two options have always been so limiting, yes or no, this or that. Easy to respond too, very little thought needed. Four options give you more food for thought and for brands makes it easier to hold onto your audience’s attention, even if it’s for a split second – but we all know that in a world of distraction that split second counts. So go forward and get cracking on your polls. Be free to use the starters for ten above.
*Donatello, Shrek 2, Samantha, Ashley Q. If you were wondering.
We’ve all accidentally liked a tweet, right? Sometimes they are harmless, for example when you accidentally like a Star Wars meme which you neither understand nor care about – no biggie. Sometimes they are a little worse, where you accidentally like an anti-vaxxer post as you try to scroll, and quickly unlike before anyone thinks you’re one of them.
Accidentally retweeting something is a little harder. There are two buttons to click, ‘retweet’ then ‘retweet’ (instead of ‘quote’). So the reality is, when you quickly un-retweet something, there was a lapse in judgement, a misunderstanding, or you’ve fallen for a trick. Sometimes, it’s all three.
That’s what happened to Nadine Dorries this week, who retweeted comedian Joe Lycett’s tweet: “Boris Johnson dont rise to it babe, im with nadine we r on ur side no matter what xoxox”. Nadine isn’t usually in the business of retweeting posts with such poor grammar, so would have truly believed a famous name was trying to bond with her. Hilarious.
The twitter account “Tweets MPs Delete” is here, where you can see Nadine, and others, mistakes.
ASA rule breaks – what happens next?
We all (hopefully) know about the ASA, the authority that ensures brands posts are correctly labelled through stringent guidelines. The ASA created a list of rule breakers last summer – here’s the naughty list to deter further rule breaking, however the reality was that this list was checked by brands, who wanted to avoid working with these influencers. But it was not registered by their followers, who would continue to follow the influencers and potentially be persuaded to purchase products and services without realising the influencer is being paid to post about it.
The ASA has since announced that it is actually taking out ads against these influencers on Instagram (presumably targeting their audiences), stating that “[Name] has been sanctioned by the UK’s ad regulator for not declaring ads on this platform. Be aware that products and services recommended or featured by this influencer may have been paid for by those brands. Our non-compliant social media influencer page at asa.org.uk is regularly updated to inform consumers of those who break these rules.”
Ouch! Hopefully this teaches influencers to follow the rules – everyone else has to, after all.
