(upbeat music) ♪ This is Safiya's new intro song! ♪ - Hello friends, and
welcome to another video. This week, I'm gonna be
buying the first five things that TikTok ads recommend to me. That's right, I'm gonna be giving TikTok even more of my personal
information, a questionable move. So, over the past few years, we've done a few experiments
that involve buying products from targeted ads across
social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, and Snapchat to see if their ad
algorithms and analytics could match me to things I might like. And a few months ago, I finally relented and downloaded TikTok, and lo and behold, there were
ads and abs, but mostly ads. Now in general, TikTok has
actually become an environment where companies and people interact a lot, so I think a lot of businesses see TikTok as a good marketing opportunity. - Thank you Little Caesars for the life size plush replica of me! - [Safiya] And in terms
of the ads I've seen, there's quite a wide variety. (dramatic music) - I have been dreaming of
marriage with a rich girl. - [Safiya] I've gotten ads for parks, ads for like fake veneers and
ads for working for TikTok. Some are for super small Etsy shops. Some are for larger corporations. Some play into TikTok trends, or try to mimic the normal videos you might see on your for you page, and some are incredibly
low effort and confusing. Like, what is this product,
and why is it so pixelated? And I also know that other
people notice these ads as well and can relate to getting blasted by the same one for weeks on end. - This is a plea to the
marketing people at HALARA. Please, stop targeting me to
buy your mini tennis dress. - [Safiya] Every time they open the app. - Wow, I sure love my HALARA dress. (sobs) It's, it's really cute! - But TikTok does have a
very targeted algorithm. I should know. I've been on
Edgar Allen Poe Tok before, so maybe they do know best, and maybe I will like
the things they show me. So that's what we're gonna
do, buy the first five things that TikTok ads recommend
to me and see how they do. All right, so a couple of
quick disclaimers here. One is that I'm gonna be
pretty much just ignoring the first ad that comes up
right when you open the app, because I usually find that
those are for movies, TV shows or big companies like Credit Karma, and I'm more interested in
their normal ad inventory rather than the big banner ones, which feel less targeted overall. The other disclaimer is that
rather than just sitting in one spot and just scrolling until I get to all of the ads, I'm gonna open the app up multiple times throughout the day and
get my five ads that way, just because that more closely replicates the way I use TikTok on the daily, compulsively opening the app, scrolling through a few videos, feeling guilty about wasting
time and then closing the app. Alright, and with that,
let's ruin my algorithm. Alright, so I've been scrolling, and TikTok gave me a pretty good ad here. This is an ad for Pizza
Hut's new limited edition, streetwear line, Tastewear. - They don't just sell pizza
anymore. They make streetwear. And it's called Tastewear,
so let's get into it. - Yes, that's right, Pizza
Hut made a track suit, and they're advertising it to
me, which is weirdly targeted. I am not necessarily the
world's biggest Pizza Hut fan, but I am a huge fan of companies doing weird PR things, including clothing. KFC Crocs, sign me up.
Peeps Crocs, I'm there. Pizza Hut parka, I mean, I have that. I don't actually follow a
lot of brands on TikTok, but I have posted a fair amount of videos with weird clothing, including
the aforementioned Crocs, so maybe that's what tipped them off. So I am gonna get all of this
stuff, or as much as I can. They have a jumpsuit that's inspired by the plaid tablecloths
at Pizza Hut restaurants. Then I'm gonna get their
T-shirt that is inspired by their stained glass chandeliers, and I'm also gonna get the slides. They do also have a necklace,
which I'm gonna grab. The pizza chain, oh I just
got that...pizza chain. It's a pizza chain about the pizza chain, Pizza Hut, pizza chain. Two notes here, one is
that the iconic red cup was sadly already sold out, and also that this is not that cheap, specifically, the track
suit is kind of expensive, which I wouldn't really
expect from Pizza Hut, but we're gonna get it anyways. Dude, we're definitely gonna have to go to Pizza Hut in this. - [Tyler] You're gonna
be drippin' in Pizza Hut. - I'm going to be as greasy
(laughing) as a Pizza Hut pizza, sorry for the slander. Alright, so I just got another ad for what seems to be an
electronics mystery box. It's from this account
called, What the Boxio, and it's sort of cryptic. It's almost like a cliffhanger. This dude is just like, "Hey,
you need a box, go get one!" - So you guys know we've got
boxes, boxes, and more boxes. I can't show you guys what's in there, but I can tell you guys, you guys need to go buy
one as soon as possible. - He also does a nice sheesh at the end. Wow, I felt so weird doing that. - Sheeeesh!
- Um so, you know, I guess that's how he's incorporating the TikTok culture into his ad. So when I click the shop now button, this company seems to be basically taking returned overstocked and
liquidated electronics, and then reselling them in mystery boxes. And I chose the small
one, which is 75 bucks. They do say though, that
you are guaranteed a tablet, MP3 player or fitness tracker. - [Tyler] Oh wow. - So I guess you're at least
guaranteed one high price item out of your $75 box. And though I wouldn't say that
buying returned electronics fits perfectly into my interests. We have been doing some stuff
with an Amazon return store, like a liquidation store. And I have liked, slash, saved
a few videos on this topic for use in our YouTube video. So maybe that's why TikTok
thinks that I am into deal talk. - Everyone likes a mystery
box, wait, where am I? Hi, everyone likes the mystery box. I'm like a head on your shoulder. - Yeah, you're right, people
love a good mystery box, so, you know, let's get it. - As Master Oogway said,
"Yesterday is history, "Tomorrow is a mystery,
but today is a gift, "and that's why they call it the present." (Safiya laughing) - Get up out of here! Get off my shoulder! Alright, so another ad has been found. This ad is for this device
called Bee Gone Wax. - Stick this is my ear and see. (playful music) Ew! - And it's basically a ear
wax remover with a camera. It sort of like illuminates
and shows your ear canal and where the ear wax is. Bee Gone Wax is actually one of the ads that's been following
me around for a while. I've seen a ton of them, and they're all sort of
short and sweet like this. They're kind of like
cliffhanger marketing. It has a camera on the end, so you can use an app to
see inside, oh my God! - But I am actually happy
that I found this ad, because I've been curious
about this device for a while. Now, I don't actually watch a lot of grossly satisfying content, like, I don't watch a lot of
Dr. Pimple Popper type videos, but I have made some close-up camera, microscope content on TikTok, So maybe they're running with that. I don't personally have
a lot of earwax problems, but Tyler has crazy ear wax. So, though I do think that this is gonna be a little bit gross, I think we should definitely get this and try this thing out, so I'm gonna add this to
the cart and then check out. (snaps) And that is an ad. All right, so I just got another ad for what seems to be a wireless
self-curling hair iron. Were those all the right
words in the right order? (dramatic music) - I'm about to change your life. (laughs) I'm gonna show you how
I get the perfect wavy hair, everyday, wherever I am, with
this wireless hair curler. - And essentially what she does with it, is she just sticks a strand
of hair into the hair curler, and then it curls it automatically. - Oh my God! It's amazing. - I don't buy a lot of hair irons, but I do interact with
beauty content a lot, so I feel like this is a
decently well-targeted ad. In general, TikTok seems to be full of hair curling hack
products, and I am someone who has really no idea
how to do my own hair, so the idea of a self
curling iron appeals to me. - You guys, look at how
perfect these waves are. (dramatic music) I'm obsessed, my favorite
product, you need it! - That being said, I'm going
to click on the shop now button and head over to this
website called, Summerskin and buy the LCD Automatic Hair Curler Rotating Curling Iron
Ceramic Professional Heating Hair Stick Portable Air
Spin Curl For All Hair Type. (inhales) Oh no, is this a wish product? (laughs) It might be. It might be. Now, it seems like basically
anyone can buy an ad on TikTok, so there's
no way to really know if you're getting a knockoff
version of something or maybe like a drop-shipped product, and with some further investigation, it seems like this creator, Zozoroe, is actually sponsored by
this company, Wavylook, not just Wavy Hair, so I'm pretty sure this is the knockoff
version of that product, and they just stole her video. But, per the experiment, I
will be ordering this one. Please pray for my hair. Alright, and to wrap this bad boy up, I have one final ad. Now, this is an ad for
Harney & Sons tea company, and it's sort of like a super
long potions class play out with the Harry Potter theme
playing gently underneath. And they're advertising to
me, butterfly pea tea leaves, flowers, blossoms, butterfly
peas, not butterfly urine, but P-E-A, butterfly pea. - [Tyler] Actually, thank
you for the clarification. - Yeah! And basically it's
kind of like this flower, where when you steep it,
a blue liquid appears. (laughing) I'm making this sound so weird, but then when you add
lemon water, it turns pink, and they're basically
sort of marketing it like, "Ooh, it's magical that our
tea turns from blue to pink!" I don't really know what
TikTok knows about me to send me this ad, besides
maybe that I am a millennial, and we are suckers for
stupid Harry Potter (beep), but I am interested. So what I'm gonna do is I am going to click the shop now button and buy myself some
butterfly pea flower tea, so with that purchased, we
have all of our items en route, so the next time you see
me, I'll have my haul. (playful orchestral music) Alright, so it's a
couple of weeks later, and I have all of my haul here, mostly. (laughs) The only thing that we don't have is the What the Box
Mystery Electronics Bundle. It said it was shipped on August 18th, but when we sat down to film
this part in early October, it still had not arrived, so we'll have to figure out the mystery
box part a bit later. But for now, I'm gonna
go through the stuff that we have here, starting with, the Harney & Sons tea. All right, here we go, boom! Ooh, pretty! Now besides the two pouches
of tea that I ordered, come play with us Tyler. It's like twins, I don't know. They did also send me some
extra samples, which is fun. A single silken sachet
of calming camomile tea. - [Tyler] To sit in solemn silence? - In a single silken sachet, (Tyler and Safiya laughing)
Yes, that's what this is. Though, I was kind of
surprised to find out that this tea was basically
just a bunch of dried flowers. I have this tea steeper, because
we've got some loose tea, some loose, oh my God,
(laughs) I almost just died. And that they also didn't
really smell all that good. Oh! (gagging)
- [Tyler] It's pungent? - Pungent is the right word. Kind of smells like Sencha green tea, like a really plant-y, a
plant tea, plant tea, tea. Now apparently, the way this works is that butterfly pea flowers contain a blue pigment
called, anthocyanin. Oh, that's too much. What
a hungry, hungry steeper. - [Tyler] (singing) It's
a hungry, hungry steeper! - Which is a base indicator. - [Tyler] Ewwwww, Nelly! - [Safiya] Oh my God, it's so blue. - [Tyler] That is blue
da ba dee, da ba die. - [Safiya] I just blue myself. The flowers, they blue themselves. - [Tyler] Gotta be a
better way to say that. - [Safiya] So adding in
an acid like lemon juice, oh, do you see it? Oh! - [Tyler] Oh, oh, I see
the side, I see the side! - Alters the pH level of the
drink, making it turn pink. That happened really fast. That's a quick little
science lesson for ya. Before...after. Now, I did want to see if this
tasted as good as it looked. It's hot, piping, hot, pea, tea. - [Tyler] I'm glad you
finished the sentence. - And overall, I would say it has kind of like a muted earthy taste. Definitely tastes better than it smells. As Prince Zuko once said,
"All tea is pretty much just hot leaf juice," and
that's the vibe I get from this, but it's flower juice, plus lemon. All in all, I think this ad
did deliver on its premise. It's so pretty, and it makes sense to me why Harney & Sons would
lead with this tea, since it's so visually appealing, even though it doesn't taste that good, but I do like a good science experiment, so I'm not too mad about it. All right, so next up, I'm gonna try out the Bee Gone Wax Ear
Wax Remover and camera. So I had bought the
standard wax cleaner body. - [Tyler] It looks like
a Sonicare toothbrush. - [Safiya] I was gonna say,
it looks kind of like luxury. With some extra ear spoons, so Tyler and I could both use it. Ooh, that looks medical.
Why is that scary? - [Tyler] I'm getting
dentist vibes from it, yeah. - [Safiya] Serious dentist drill vibes. And the way you use it
is you charge the body and then download a
corresponding app on your phone, which is called Be Bird and has 2.5 out of five
stars on the app store. - [Tyler] It's Justin Be Bird? Right, Justin Be Bird. - Ear picking is so easy. And then you have to connect
to the device's internal Wi-Fi. All right, let's see, okay, I'm in. Yeah, that's the ceiling. - [Tyler] Point it towards me. Yeah, I think that's me. - Oh my God, (laughing)
that is literally you. This is kind of like a demented version of the Snapchat spectacles. Now, besides the camera, there were a few unexpected features. This is bizarre. At the bottom,
they have more settings. I have customized,
couples, elderly, children, oh my God, and standard,
don't know what that means. Like beautifying filters you
could add to your footage and a few relaxing songs
you could pick from. (relaxing music) (Safiya laughing) - [Tyler] (singing) I
can show you the world. - What is happening? - [Tyler] I think this
TikTok ad didn't share all this great information. - This one is called, "Coming Again." Is Peter Jackson directing
this ear wax cleaning session? - [Tyler] I miss the shire Mr. Frodo. (Safiya laughing) I've forgotten the taste of bread. I don't know the taste of butter, Sam. (gentle music) - And this one is called, "Chase Dream." Oh my God, this is tugging
at my heartstrings. - [Tyler] (singing) Into the shallow. - Stop singing copyrighted music! - [Tyler] Sorry. - I am not gonna be utilizing
these features here today, but they do exist. Okay, so now that we have the camera on, and you know, everything working, I am now gonna give
the disclaimer that is, if you don't want to see inside my ear, skip ahead to this timestamp. I'll see you on the other side. But without further ado,
let's stick this in my ear. Now, this was grosser than I had hoped. Oh, my ears are so hairy! (gasping) Ew, ew, this is
awful! This is horrifying! So, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. I don't even have really
that much ear wax. I just have so much hair back there. And maybe slightly censored. Wait, it literally looks
like an old man's hairy nose. It looks so gross up there, what the hell? - [Tyler] I think it's
cute. Hairy ear, Saf. - But this device does work. Okay, I got out like the
tiniest speck of earwax. You see that small speck?
- [Tyler] Oh yeah. - That's how small it is in real life. - [Tyler] It's tiny. - Though, I would say this thing is more for looking than for scooping. - [Tyler] Oh, look at that hair. - Especially since I've heard
that you're not supposed to go that deep in when you're
cleaning your ears. We did have Tyler do it as well. - Oh my God, holy, oh my
God, it's disgusting, Safiya. Oh my, oh my God. Oh my God, oh! - Though we decided to
mostly not show that. (screaming and laughing) That's maybe, no, no, no, no. I can't look at that right now. I'm literally going to throw up. Oh my God, I'm literally
going to throw up. So, that was a legitimately
terrifying, horrifying, awful, no good, very bad, a
truly scarring experience. Though, I'm still not sure exactly why this was referred
to me, I was curious, and now I regret it. Now I understand why you might
want a beautifying filter on the lens, and you know, I like the idea that there's some calming
music to sort of soothe you as you are confronted with the reality of the inside of your ear. (snaps) Okay, so with that,
let's move on to the next. All right, so next up is the
Pizza Hut loungewear set. Oh yes, look at that beautiful
pile of Pizza Hut merchandise made by Pizza Hut, the pizza
chain that is off the chain. - [Tyler] Kind of fancy looking, almost got a Louis Vuitton vibe to it. - Yeah, I think that the tablecloth print is actually reading kind of Gucci. So, I am basically just
gonna put this stuff on, and we're gonna see how it looks, and then we'll go to Pizza Hut. - [Tyler] All right, show me what you got. Ewww (laughing) you look
like a Royal Tenenbaum. - Here I am in my Pizza Hut loungewear. They had like a specific word
for it. I kind of forget it. Crustwear? No, that's wrong. Cheese- cheesywear? Nope, that's wrong too. Hutwear? No, that's wrong.
(Tyler laughing) Tastewear! I think it
was Tastewear, maybe. Now, though I do think that
this whole outfit is pretty fun, I would say that unfortunately,
the quality isn't great. The T-shirt seems fine.
The slides seem fine, but the track suit is made of some type of pretty synthetic feeling material, which is most awkward in the pants, because they lay super
awkwardly on top of the pockets, so you can see them very clearly. But, the vibes are good. Vibes
are good. Quality is okay. - [Tyler] It's kind of
like Pizza Hut pizza. (Safiya and Tyler laughing) - You said it, not me. I didn't say it. All right, so now that I am
decked out, let's go to the Hut. Jabba? No, Pizza, yes. - [Tyler] I'm at the Pizza
Hut. I'm at the Taco Bell. I'm at the Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. - Now I do thoroughly
enjoy being in costume. - [Employee] Hope you're
doing all right today, Safiya, and would you like to hear our specials? - [Safiya] Yes, please. So having a costume to go to Pizza Hut in was straight up, just fun. - [Employee] I like your jacket. - [Safiya] Thank you! The cashier was like,
"Where'd you get your jacket?" And I was like, "TikTok!" (Tyler and Safiya laughing) But in terms of like an
everyday rational purchase, I think the only items that
someone might actually want are the T-shirt, the
cup that we couldn't get and maybe the necklace. I kind of wish the pizza was bigger. - [Tyler] Right. - Because then it could be
like Flava Flav's clock. - [Tyler] Oh yeah!
- The Flavor Flav. - [Tyler] It might work
better with his name, pizza. - [Safiya] It makes more sense. - [Tyler] Yeah. - Though, I also know that
Pizza Hut's main goal here is not to actually market their clothes, but just to kind of get general good press for doing something funny. - [Tyler and Safiya] Oh, yeah. (Safiya laughing) - In the hopes people will
think about Pizza Hut more. It tastes even better in the
jumpsuit. I'm not kidding. - [Tyler] (laughs) It enhances the flavor. - Dude, are they enhancing
this stuff? Is this enhanced? - [Tyler] It could be. - Which, you know, did
work, at least on us. The prophecy has been fulfilled! (laughs) All right, let's go, come on, let's go. All right, so now we are on
to the automatic hair curler. All right, let's open up this bad boy. I see box.
- [Tyler] You hit package. - Box ho, and there she blows. It looks okay. - [Tyler] It don't look so bad. - It doesn't look great,
but it looks okay. Now, once we opened up the
package, we could confirm that this is not the
wavy look, hair curler, but is in fact some kind
of unbranded version of it. I mean, you can kind of
see how it works, right? You can like feed your hair into that. But it has some weight to
it, and it seems functional. (device beeps) Beep was heard. LCD screen is on. All right, so while this is heating up, I'm gonna comb through my
hair to remove any tangles and divide the hair into two
centimeter wide sections. That's probably good, right?
- [Tyler] Yeah. - And though I was a bit nervous to stick my hair into the void. - [Tyler] Oh, oh, oh, oh. (device beeping) - What's happening? Why am I being eaten by this machine? I did achieve some amount of curl. - [Tyler] Oh!
- Something happened! - [Tyler] It is a little curl! - Do you see it? - [Tyler] Yeah, you only
got a pig's tail for hair. - (laughing) It's not like a pig's tail. That'll do, pig! That'll do! I tried a few times to get further up the strand to no avail. - [Tyler] Are you feeding as you go? - I'm trying.
- [Tyler] Spooling it in? (device beeping) - I totally didn't get enough in there. Like, look how far it
is away from my head. I need some practice hair. So, I tried it on my mannequin head from the liquidation store. - [Tyler] Incoming.
- Don't ask. Don't ask what's happening here. (device beeps) - [Tyler] Don't light a fire. - But I couldn't really
improve there either. - [Tyler] Okay, that looks bad. - (laughs) It's curled though. All right, so it seems
like this machine is okay. (device beeps) - [Tyler] One Garnier
Fructis, Garnier Fructis! - But I can't really
figure out how to curl further up the strand. That can't be right. This can't be right. So I might need to ask for some help. So with a quick Kayley Melissa assist-- - All right.
- Help me. (laughing) We were able to get this
machine to work a bit better. - [Kayley Melissa] Um, you have a curl. - Is it curled?
[Kayley Melissa] It's curled! It is a founding father curl. (everyone laughing) - I knew somehow I was the problem. So it seems to work fine. - Exactly.
- Does it look right? - Sure.
- Is this good? Though, I can't say I'm a fan of companies who may or may not be
snatching other people's videos to market their own knockoff products. And, as a person who
can't curl their own hair, and was hoping this could help, I still couldn't really
make this work either. (Safiya mumbling)
(Kayley Melissa mumbling) So I would say I'm not
too jazzed about this one. All right, so it is a
couple of weeks later, and we now have our What the
Box Electronics Mystery Box. I literally have no idea what happened with the shipping here. It was shipped in mid August and then delivered on October 14th, so I don't know, but we have it now. Shall we see what's inside? - [Tyler] All right, let's see it. - Oh, so here we go. We have a wireless mouse that says, "Good vibes only," on it. We have a techCOMM YX7.
It's like a Fitbit. It says heart rate monitor,
pedometer, sleep monitor and then this thing. And then I have a dual alarm clock with battery backup and USB charging. It's an alarm clock that is not ignoring the
existence of the phone. It's just existing alongside it. That I have a Smart Band, which seems kind of like
the same as the Fitbit, but maybe like the less
tricked out version of it. All right, then I have a phone case for a Galaxy Samsung 20 Ultra. - [Tyler] We don't have that. (Safiya laughing) - But you know what,
maybe MatPat has this. - [Tyler] Oh!
- Yeah, he is a Samsung user. So maybe I'll try and give it to him. And a 30 pack of Polaroid sheets. I also don't have a Polaroid camera, but I do kind of want one. Maybe MatPat has one, and
we'll just take it from him. Excuse me, Matt, I have
a trade proposal for you. You get this. I receive
entire Polaroid camera. So, all in all, we got six
items in our mystery box, and their total retail value is somewhere in the ballpark of $195, and we did only pay $75 for the box, so it is definitely worth it. But, I can't say I'm super
jazzed about any of these items, except maybe the idea of
stealing an entire camera from MatPat, and after
snooping around a little bit, it also seems like the resale
value of some of these items is much lower than their original prices. So overall, we did receive the box, and it was relevant to my interests or at least to my saved videos on TikTok, but I'm not obsessed with
this particular haul. It does all work though. All right, so that was my TikTok ad haul. Overall, I do think that we
got a nice variety of ads. We tested products from
some larger companies, some smaller companies, a
potentially fraudulent company, but I would say that
they mostly made sense in terms of personalized recommendations, and they all did generally work okay. I do think that the content algorithm is a little bit more specific
than the ad algorithm. I'm still waiting for the day when I get a cask of
amontillado promoted post, but that is probably due
to their ad inventory. And I would say that based
on these recommendations, TikTok's impression of me
is that I am a waxy eared, deal hungry millennial with
a soft spot for nostalgia, which isn't too far off. I think maybe if you
swapped out waxy for hairy, you might be right on the money. It's so gross. - [Tyler] It's Shelob's Lair. - (laughing) It literally
is. It literally is. - And I'm interested to see, now that I've bitten on a few TikTok ads, how that changes our
algorithm going forward. I feel like all of the
other social media platforms have flagged me as a whale, so why not add TikTok to the bunch? Thank you guys so much for watching. If you liked that video, make sure to show
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somewhere, down there, but also at fiendishbehavior.com,
if you're interested. So with that, all of that, I
will see you guys next time.
