What’s Hot: Wrapped

This year has been hot and cold, yes and no, up and down, in and out, wrong and right – who knew Katy Perry could sum up a year in one short song?

To prepare for 2022 (which, let’s be honest, is setting itself up to be the completely unasked for sequel to 2021; same plot, just a bit more tired), the Fever team has been reflecting on some of our hottest stories from the past year. We’re famed for asking important questions (Is Barbie bi? Who follows Matt Damon on Instagram? Is Paddington 2 better than Citizen Kane?) and today, we’re answering them.

Merry Christmas and here’s to a hot new year (we are trying to remain (non-COVID) positive)…

Paddington 2 vs Citizen Kane

• Claudia Hockey

In 2020, Paddington 2 overtook Citizen Kane as the top-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes, begging the question: What’s a King to a God?

How we feel now:

Sadly, since April, both Paddington 2 and Citizen Kane have been stamped with a less-fresh rating of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. Judging by the website’s erratic official ranking of films though, we’re not sure about the selection process…

How often have you disagreed with critics’ reviews of your favourite films? I don’t know about you, but my training in film analysis is extremely lacking. A few good-looking actors, or a cutesy bear who likes marmalade, would be more than enough for me to stamp a gold star rating on a film – regardless of cinematography or technique. We may work in film publicity, but that doesn’t mean that we always agree with the reviews we read. Jennifer’s Body failed to impress critics at the time of its release, but in more recent years has found a whole new voice.

Long story short – if you enjoyed Paddington 2 more than Citizen Kane, that doesn’t mean you’ve been watching films the ‘wrong’ way. By all means, go out and read what people have to say about the movies you watch – just don’t let anyone put you down for picking a Hallmark movie over It’s a Wonderful Life.

Matt Damon’s secret Instagram

• Patricia Ortiz Camacho

Matt Damon foolishly revealed in an interview that he has a private Instagram account – @odamnmatt – with just 76 followers.

How we feel now:  

Unfortunately, Matt’s secret Instagram account story was forgotten as fast as it spread out after his interview with GQ was published.

To date, we can only confirm that Matt Damon continues with his aversion to social media, and his Instagram account remains private and at 76 followers and 40 posts, still suspiciously followed by Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth.

Sounds pretty sweet for him to get a glimpse into normal life with a chill Instagram account dedicated to his family and friends. The story frizzled out in no time, however all we can think about now is the possibility of an underground celebrity “finsta world” and celebrities using their incognito accounts to stalk people as much as we all do.

Following Twitter

• Nathaniel Warnes

One of life’s greatest injustices is that the Instagram account @instagram has 401 million followers, and the Twitter account @twitter has just 59 million, despite Twitter having arguable better content.

Well, the trend has certainly continued insofar that Instagram has gained a further 48 million followers and Twitter only 2 million – so we certainly know which tact gains the most numbers.

That said, Twitter is still bringing it with strong, helpful and more current content, whereas Instagram’s slightly lazier ‘look at this’ style just isn’t adding as much to the conversation in the same way.

Whether it’s engaging with other brands on their platform like Netflix, nailing their own brand ‘purpose’ or keeping us updated on the platform’s latest news. You might not be getting the same following numbers, but we like your style, Twitter – cult classic, not bestseller.

Is Barbie bi?

• Marty Ruczynska

Born in Wisconsin in 1959, Barbara Millicent Roberts went viral on Tuesday for appearing to come out as bi-sexual on Instagram this week. Sadly, it wasn’t true. But we couldn’t help but wonder – is Barbie the ally we never knew we needed?

How we feel now:

Since her appearance on the market, Barbie has received a lot of criticism. After all, she is skinny, ‘tall’ and white. But whether you like it or not, Barbie is an icon who has always pushed boundaries – she purchased her first Dreamhouse before American women were legally allowed to open their own bank account, she travelled to space, became an archaeologist, and models for the likes of Oscar de la Renta.

In the last few years, Mattel has done to Barbie’s image what Victoria Secret now wishes it had – growing with the feedback and accepting criticism well. Yes, they’re not perfect. But no brand is. The Barbie range continues to grow and now includes Curvy, Tall, Petite and Disabled Barbies – allowing more and more kids to find a doll that best represents them. Although the company is not without its issues. It was in hot water just this summer, after not including an Asian Barbie in its Olympics Collection. The Olympics were literally happening in Asia… so that wasn’t very smart.

But I digress – the beauty of Barbie is that it lets you become anyone and anything you want. Because if Barbie can be a mermaid *and* a computer engineer, she can also be bi. And perhaps poly, because, erm, have we all forgotten about Ken?!

Goodbye Insta likes

• Gemma Walsh

Instagram announced it was giving everyone the option to remove likes this year, in order to help influencers (and us regular people) focus on their mental wellbeing.

How we feel now:

A summer throwback, but not necessarily in a good way…

Back in May we waved goodbye to Instagram likes, an exciting concept at the time. Whilst the feature is great for minimising some of the pressure that social media can create, it also allows us to engage and post more content we want to. I mean we’ve all been guilty of deleting a post because it wasn’t as popular as the last (haven’t we…)

Over the past few months, we’ve seen an uptake in companies removing their like count on their posts and whilst we appreciate the benefits of doing so, we have to say, this feature is making our jobs a whole lot harder! How are we ever going to work out engagement rates now?!

Photo dumps

• Paige Rymer

We said goodbye to picture-perfect Insta in 2020 and seemingly brought back the age-old Facebook album, mis-matched pics under themes like “Walking around London”, “From last summer” and “Few from around the house.”

How we feel now:

Well, this trend got HUGE over the year, didn’t it? We can’t log onto Instagram without seeing someone post a collection of random photos that aren’t worth sharing on their own but have enough significance to share within a collection of others with the same value, in other words, a “photo dump”.

And random is exactly what these photos are, a pic of your dog, a nice sunset pic or even a pic of a piece of new furniture for the room you’ve just redecorated in lockdown. Or you have too many photos to upload from your recent weekend getaway (if we dare venture further than the shop down the road) that they can’t all have their very own Insta post. As we previously said, it’s the 2021 version of Facebook albums (god what a throwback).

Has the pandemic heightened this trend? As we’ve had less opportunity to capture that “perfect picture” combined with a more virtual world – are we all just not that bothered about having the perfect Instagram aesthetic? Or is the photo dump trend a new Instagram aesthetic in itself? Either way, everyone’s doing it and we’re living for it. Personally, I’m loving the zero effort for it.

Don’t Miss your Pap

• Marty Ruczynska

This year, Miss Pap saw an opportunity and they took it – the #DONTMISSYOURPAP influencer campaign during Gynaecology Awareness Month.

How we feel now:

The campaign has an amazing cause and a clever name (and has won the Drapes Best Marketing Award 2021 and PR Moment Award 2021), but it is hard to judge it’s impact. The first drop of the poppable underwear sold out within 7 minutes and was so popular, Miss Pap brought it out in another colour. However, other than the occasional influencer posing in the underwear on Instagram and using #DontMissYourPap, nothing else seems to be going on in this space – which is a shame, because Miss Pap could’ve been going bigger and bigger. Even the brand itself hasn’t posted anything about it since September 14th.

It’s a cause close to my heart. Having had six pap smears in the two years since I’ve turned 25, I know just how important it is to not miss your smear test – it can be lifesaving. I would love it if they committed and focused more on this campaign in the New Year. A good start would be to actually actively post about it (outside of launch moments).

Molly Mae vs the ASA

• Jennifer Samia

In a year where the world celebrated Molly Mae’s media savvy for gaining thousands of followers for an £8,000 giveaway (nice ROI that), she also had a fall from grace when the ASA said her prize draw was not administered fairly.

How we feel now:

Since our last update, more influencers have been getting in trouble with the ASA. Another islander, Gabby Allen, posted an image with the #iworkwithprimark which caused some controversy – as the word ‘work’ was seen to be ambiguous and did not fully explain the influencer’s relationship with Primark. The ASA acted and ruled that Primark and any influencer working with them must clearly state #AD on any post or story where it is clearly and prominently displayed.

With more and more influencers being called out for not clearly displaying that their contracted posts are in fact ads, we’re asking WHY? Maybe influencers are aware of the #AD policy but choose to find ways around it to avoid engagement dipping? Ultimately, influencers must understand their responsibility to be transparent to their audiences and follow the code of conduct provided by the ASA for adverts on all and any platform.

Luckily for us the ASA doesn’t miss a post or let any of it slide… The ultimate influencer fan if you ask me!