This just in from the AwkRando, our embedded YouTube reporter (a.k.a. me). A lot has happened since AwkRando last reported on the YouTube starlet GreenTeaGirlie that sent him into hostile territory.
Meandering through the intertubes, AwkRando has been sifting through red herrings, asinine comments, and dummy phone numbers to get to the bottom of the GreenTeaGirlie saga. One L.A. Times reporter, two more YouTube video posts (the latest embedded below), and 4,000-plus views later, AwkRando has reemerged to establish contact with home base. So here’s the deal.
GreenTeaGirlie, the poor man’s Lonelygirl15, is running a string of viral video games, starting with a simple variation on the schoolyard favorite, tag. Hooking up with her new YouTube bf, GreenTeaGirlie “tagged” beau DaxFlame, who in turn tagged his fellow pre-pubescent vlogger KevJumba, who in turn killed the game.
So much for that. If only this had happened the first time someone tried to send a chain letter. Not disheartened, GreenTeaGirlie is at it again and has promised a new exciting start to her video game and with more on Sunday.
The true drama here lies in the mystery behind www.GreenTeaGirlie.com and its parent site, Vidstars.net. It was while poking around the suspicious looking Vidstars site that AwkRando received a YouTube message out of keeping with the steady flow of crowd-sourced tips, clues, and hate mail. An L.A. Times reporter was asking about this conspiracy-turned-controversy.
Working with AwkRando, LA Times reporter David Sarno tracked the inter-tublar footprints of Vidstars.net back to the LonelyGirl15-exposé crew, including Matt Foremski (son of Silicone Valley Watcher blogger Tom Foremski), and Cody “thesmit” Smith, as well as a new face, Mark Andrews. Amid cryptic e-mails, cautious voicemails, and (finally) some one-on-one chats, fact started to separate from fiction.
Turns out the Vidstars.net enterprise was piggy-backing on the otherwise legitimate (save the gamed video views) GreenTeaGirlie. Hoping to garner some publicity for their own venture, Foremski, Smith, Andrews, and a yet to be disclosed “JD” registered http://www.GreenTeaGirlie.com and then built a site there that lured people to its home site at Vidstars.net.
An interesting idea, the new Vidstars wants to connect advertisers and products with YouTube celebrities. The issue now is that Vidstars is already claiming a long and impressive list of YouTube stars, none of whom are actually working with Vidstars (besides GreenTeaGirlie, they have claimed Renetto, DaxFlame, boh3m3, and littleloca as clients).
Ironically, the front page of the site claims: “The Vidstars formula is simple: Online Videos + Credibility + 4,000,000 viewers + You= Dynamic Advertising= Vidstars.” Already lacking in “credibility,” the fledgling ad agency may have an interesting model, thus far made interesting solely by its series of clever lies.
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