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Kylie Jenner Shows Me What's Wrong with Reddit

2019-11-19 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Economics) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, community lore

John unpicks a viral Reddit outrage claiming Kylie Jenner thinks she owns 'rise and shine': trademarking a phrase is not owning it, the cease-and-desist story was false, and Jenner's denial was misleading; he argues that distillation becomes deception and that outrage beats nuance online.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — A 129,000-upvote Reddit post claims Kylie Jenner thinks she owns 'rise and shine'

  • ★★★ John saw a Reddit post with 129,000 upvotes titled 'Kylie Jenner thinks she owns the phrase rise and shine'. — 00:00:09 · Reddit, Rise and shine
  • ★★ John says top comments included calls to fundraise to countersue and hundreds of angry takedowns, with literally no one pointing out that the story was fictional. — 00:00:18 · Reddit

00:00:28 — The Rise and Shine meme, the trademark filings, and why trademarking a phrase isn't owning it

  • ★★ John says Jenner apparently said 'rise and shine' in a funny way that was widely memefied, then quickly released merch. (hedged) — 00:00:31 · Rise and shine
  • ★★ John says TMZ reported that Jenner's company had filed to trademark 'rise and shine' for cosmetics and clothing, and people got upset. — 00:00:46 · Rise and shine
  • ★★★ John says trademarking a phrase is not the same thing as owning it. — 00:00:56
  • ★★ John says Nike didn't invent 'just doing it'; Shia LaBeouf would only infringe Nike's trademark by saying 'just do it' in contexts like marketing sportswear. — 00:01:01
  • ★★ John says even with a trademark he could still say 'rise and shine' to his children every morning, but couldn't start a cosmetics line by that name. (playful) — 00:01:16 · Rise and shine
  • ★★ John says the trademark applications might not be approved, because several other companies already hold rise-and-shine-related trademarks. (hedged) — 00:01:26 · Rise and shine
  • ★★ John says Jenner's lawyers presumably knew this, as they are also seeking to trademark the spelling with three i's in 'rise' and five vowels in 'shine'. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:32

00:01:44 — The false Gold Coast Bulletin cease-and-desist story, Jenner's lawyered denial, mandatory enforcement and why DFTBA isn't trademarked

  • ★★★ John says the Gold Coast Bulletin published a story claiming a small Australian Rise and Shine t-shirt company got a cease and desist letter from Jenner. — 00:01:44 · Australia, Rise and shine
  • ★★★ John says that story became a tweet, a screenshot and a Reddit post with 129,000 upvotes, and it is entirely false, denied by Jenner and by the t-shirt company. — 00:01:57 · Twitter, Reddit
  • ★★ John doesn't know how the story got published: maybe a source exaggerated, maybe a miscommunication. (unsure) — 00:02:11
  • ★★ John notes the only Gold Coast Bulletin story he read this year (2019) was that one: he is much more likely to click on its inaccurate news than its accurate news. (playful) — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John reports Jenner tweeted that she had not sent any Rise and Shine cease and desist letters and had laughed at everyone's memes. — 00:02:35 · Twitter, Rise and shine
  • ★★ John says the lawyer-vetted statement avoids the fact that if the trademarks are granted, Jenner's company will be legally required to send many cease and desist letters, possibly to small t-shirt sellers. — 00:02:51
  • ★★ John says a trademark holder may not enforce it selectively and must enforce it, or lose the trademark. — 00:03:06
  • ★★★ John says this is why he and Hank have never trademarked 'Don't forget to be awesome' or DFTBA. — 00:03:15 · Hank Green, DFTBA

00:03:21 — Distillation becomes deception; nuance loses to outrage, so misinformation spreads

  • ★★★ John admits the video radically oversimplified trademark law and hopes not too much, because at a certain point distillation becomes a form of deception. — 00:03:21

    “distillation becomes a form of deception.”

  • ★★★ John says this applies to much larger news stories too, and not only on Reddit: all over the place, headlines misrepresented the truth. — 00:03:35 · Reddit

  • ★★★ John says nuance is less likely than outrage to get 129,000 upvotes, and until that changes we will be swimming in misinformation. — 00:03:48

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a pinned comment John points viewers to the Crash Course on Navigating Digital Information, which he hosted. — creator comment · Crash Course
  • ★ In comments John says he is not back on social media but sometimes lurks on Reddit and Twitter on his iPad. — creator comment · Reddit, Twitter
  • ★ In a comment John says the problem is systemic: Reddit and similar systems profit from holding attention, so they will always surface inaccurate information. — creator comment · Reddit, attention economy

Humor (significant)

  • Jenner quickly released merch after her phrase went viral. — 00:00:37

    “what I would do if something I said were viewed a billion views on tiktok.”

  • Jenner's lawyers also seek to trademark an elongated spelling of the phrase. — 00:01:32

    “Rise with three i's and shine with five total vowels.”

  • The Gold Coast Bulletin published the false story. — 00:02:17

    “How come I only read one story in the Gold Coast Bulletin this year, and it was that one?”

  • Jenner tweets a carefully worded denial. — 00:02:46

    “Which is an amazing statement and was definitely vetted by a lawyer.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Kylie Jenner · Reddit · Rise and shine · trademark

Also: People: Shia LaBeouf

Organizations: Gold Coast Bulletin · Nike, Inc. · TikTok · TMZ · Twitter

Terms: DFTBA

Concepts: misinformation · moral outrage · paltering

Places: Australia

Only in the description or credits: Crash Course

Also centred on trademark: Who Owns DFTBA? An Introduction to Trademarks

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