Pokimane "Myna Snacks" Midnight Mini Cookies Controversy

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Pokimane's SIMP COOKIES chocolate chip "If you're a broke boy just say so!

pokimane @pokimanelol - 14h while what i said was 100% intended to be a joke, i see why it came off as insensitive and i apologize for that. i also understand the current price of the cookies may be expensive for some, and promise we'll continue to consider pricing to keep myna as affordable as possible. Chase DeMoor @ @ChaseDeMoor - 17h This has to be a joke. @pokimanelol there are people that work extremely hard daily doing jobs most would consider not as fun as streaming. There are better ways to word this, this is damaging not only to you but those who are in business with you and this cookie. twitter.com/dexerto/status... Rate proposed Community Notes Only visible to Community Notes contributors 3.7K pokimane @pokimanelol 1.2k 14K 11:08 PM - Nov 19, 2023 544.5K Views ili 4.6M ↑ 口企 i also want to clarify that this was said towards ONE rude chatter, i did not at all intend it to be a general statement or towards my community.

10:33 All iCloud :!!! Re: pricing - making a healthy and quality snack with real, gluten-free ingredients, and added vitamins is not a cheap practice. if you've been following me for some time, you know I rarely take sponsorships bc I try to be mindful of promoting or endorsing products. I haven't sold merch in years, I cap my donations, and frankly if I wanted a cash grab, it'd be silly to do that through a startup because they are extremely unlikely to profit in the first few years. + any profits we make goes directly back into creating more quality products.

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Overview

The Pokimane "Myna Snacks" Midnight Mini Cookies Controversy refers to backlash against Twitch streamer Pokimane following the release of her healthy snack brand "Myna Snacks" in mid-November 2023, particularly the product "Midnight Mini Cookies," for their perceived high price, costing around $28 USD for a four-pack of bags. After some voiced their opinions online that the cookies were too expensive, Pokimane went viral for responding to a critic in her Twitch chat, "If you’re a broke boy just say so," garnering further backlash as people accused Pokimane of making fun of those unable to afford the cookies. Pokimane responded by apologizing and claiming that she was joking and the comment was only made towards one chatter, not meant as a broad statement.

Background

On November 13th, 2023, Twitch streamer and YouTuber Pokimane announced the release of her snack brand Myna Snacks on X,^[1] specifically advertising the brand's Midnight Mini Cookies, which were advertised as a healthy snack made with non-GMO ingredients and added vitamin D. The post gained over 32,000 likes in a week (shown below). The cookies can be purchased through mynasnacks.com,^[2] with the smallest quantity, a four-pack, costing $28 USD.

pokimane @pokimanelol it's finally here!! introducing my new company: myna snacks! i could never find the perfect healthy snack that tasted good, so i made one for us! the midnight mini cookies are made w/ real, non-gmo ingredients + added vitamin D treat yourself @mynasnacks.com myna 000000 ... MIDNIGHT MINI COOKIES

Developments

White Label Accusations

On November 13th, 2023, X^[3] user @Atelisi posted a thread in which they share supposed evidence that suggests the Midnight Mini Cookies are a rebranded white label product, essentially meaning they were created by a third party company, in this case Creations Food, then branded around Pokimane. According to their findings, the cookies were originally sold as "Midnight Mini Cookies by Toatzy" and sold at Costco for a cheaper price than Myna Snacks is charging (shown below). In their thread, they call the cookies a "cash grab."

The claims spread that day, with X^[4] user @DramaAlert making a viral post about it, garnering over 9,500 likes in a week and Dexerto^[5]^[6] reporting on it on November 14th.

Suvana @Atelisi. Nov 13 Myna Snacks and it's co-founders, Pokimane and Darcey Macken, don't say anything about how they experimented, created, and tested their product. So I did a little digging on their product. Here's a thread of my findings. References included at the end of the thread. Dexerto @Dexerto - Nov 13 Pokimane just revealed her new snack company, Myna Snacks 24 Suvana @Atelisi myna 0900 **** 181 VHERE ARE MYNA SNACKS RODUCTS MADE? yna Snacks are baked and distributed out of th acific northwest in Washington, USA. VHERE DO YOU SOURCE OUR INGREDIENTS? 838 e get our ingredients from a variety of supplier ich one must meet our high-quality standards! sure that we are delivering the best product to u. That being said, the Midnight Mini Cookies e proudly baked and packaged in Washington ate. myna MONIGHT MINI COOKIES வானசாஜ்கய Private/White label products are common, and I had an inkling this was the case with Myna Snacks. Seeing that they claimed they were from PNW, I searched for private label snack companies. I found Creations Foods, a PNW based company that specializes in healthier snacks. il 124K ... *** State of the art facility Our newly built, state-of-the-art facility is conveniently located in the Pacific Northwest, with easy access to shipping routes in the US and Canada. We are able to produce extruded baked products at

Suvana @Atelisi - Nov 13 Right on their page are cookies that look similar to Myna Snacks.. Midnight Mini Cookies by Toatzy. The link to Toatzy's website redirects back to Creation Foods. A search revealed they have been sold at Costco before. Sure, they have the same name. What about ingredients though? We expect more from our food At Creations Foods, we believe that eating 2 Mw... Trans Protein Polyunsaturated Monounsaturated Snim 2 myna Saturated Fat 3.6g Trang Fal Og Cholesterol Omg 27 1 Sodium 75mg Total Carbohydrate 14 Dietary Fiber 20 Total Sugars 0g Protein 20 includes 8g Added Sugars Vitamin D mg Calcum 19ng Iran imo 000 22 Suvana @Atelisi - Nov 13 Hunting down CF's ingredients was a little bit of a pain. There wasn't much out there. MyFitnessPal and Spoonful came in clutch tho. Here, we can see the nutritional info of CF's cookies vs Myna Snacks. It matches up nearly identically with one another. 75 mm 1# ****#46 18% 0% 3% 5% 7% 16% 15% 09 2g 2% 55 with partners and specializes in gluten- free recipe development to make some of the tastiest cookies and crackers on the planst (GF C 50 y Sulf Cookies Toatzy Toatzy is is oat of this world... and best of all, they are crunchy and delicious! Decadent Plant-based Oat ili 22K h F Cont Blend (almond Flour, Organic Cassava Flour, Organic Coconut Flour), Palm Oil", Organic Coconut Sugar, White Chips (sugar, Palm Kernel Oil Natural Flavor, Sunflower Lecithin, Salt), Cocoa Powder, Organic Agave Syrup, Soluble Tapioca Fiber, Vanila Extract, Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Natural Chocolate Flavor. Contains Coconut And Almond Made in A 20K ... 口过 GLUTEN FREE FLOUR BLEND (ALMOND FLOUR, CASSAVA FLOUR, COCONUT FLOUR), PALM OIL, COCONUT SUGAR, WHITE CHIP (SUGAR, PALM KERNEL AND OIL, NATURAL FLAVOR, SUNFLOWER LECITHIN, AND SALT), COCOA POWDER, AGAVE SYRUP, SOLUBLE TAPIOCA FIBER, VANILLA EXTRACT, BAKING SODA, SEA SALT, NATURAL CHOCOLATE FLAVOR

Suvana @Atelisi. Nov 13 The distribution of the nutritional information, serving size, and even ingredients and their order are the same. Unless we had a side by side comparison of the two, on the surface it looks like they're the exact same cookie. Q Search Verified Toatzy Midnight Mini Cookies Serving Size: 7 cookies 140 Cal 39% 14g Carbs 56% 9g Fat Track macros, calories, and more with MyFitnessPal. 38 6% 2g Protein 156 Suvana @Atelisi - Nov 13 This would mean that Myna Snacks is possibly a cash grab attempt where all they needed to do was establish the company and branding. No work into the cookies themselves was put into it, and the claim of "creating" the cookie is (allegedly) a lie. 7 22 1 ihi 19K 148 17K Suvana @Atelisi - Nov 13 I kinda did this out of curiosity and boredom, not out of anything malicious towards Pokimane. I'm just a simple business major who can smell that BS a mile away. Buy it if you want Anyway, sources. 3 22 1 ₁20K

SOURCES: Myna Snacks Suvana mynasnacks.com/products/midni... Creations Foods creationsfoods.com MyFitnessPal myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/... spoonfulapp.com/products/toatz... Sold at Costco (6 months ago)... Show more Spoonful 3 @Atelisi Nov 13 3 27 1 69 22 Suvana @Atelisi. Nov 13 I was expecting this post to be unseen. Since it's getting more attention I'll point out a few things: - White labeling is a legit business practice. il 18K - Not saying the cookies aren't healthy. - "Cash grab" may be a bit harsh, but who knows what their intent is/was. 135 : 16K ...

On November 15th, Pokimane then posted a response to the controversy on X,^[7] writing that the cookies are not "drop shipped," the batch they're selling was made three weeks ago and confirming they are made by Creation Foods. She writes that the Toatzy branded cookies were sold for one test batch and then retired and months later she partnered with them after "falling in love" with the flavor.

She then explains that they worked to perfect the formula, writing, "while the ingredients list may look similar, they are entirely different in terms of ingredient quality, quantity/ratios, sourcing, the size/texture of the cookie and of course, the added vitamin D," and that "70-80%" of grocery store foods on the market are white labeled. About the price, she writes that it's not cheap to make a healthy, quality snack, denying allegations that the cookies are a "cash grab." The post gained over 22,000 likes in five days (shown below).

"If You're a Broke Boy Just Say So" Viral Video and Controversy

On November 18th, 2023, a clip from Pokimane's stream went viral on the /r/LiveStreamFail^[8] subreddit in which Pokimane responded to someone in her chat for criticizing the price of the cookies, garnering over 5,500 upvotes in two days. In the clip, Pokimane breaks down how it's $28 for a four-pack, making it $7 per pack, then says, "If you're a broke boy just say so."

The clip was subsequently deleted but was shared by X^[9] user @DramaAlert that day, writing, "Who pays 7$ a bag of cookies? Talk about being an out of touch millionaire," garnering over 22,000 likes in two days (shown below). The clip was also shared by the Dexerto X^[10] page the next day, garnering over 24,000 likes in a day.

Pokimane responds to the criticism for the price of her cookies. ‼️“If you’re a broke boy just say so” pic.twitter.com/NJIcnGO3HL

— DramaAlert (@DramaAlert) November 19, 2023

The controversy spread across social media over the following days, with some content creators criticizing the way she responded to the chatter. For example, on November 19th, YouTubers^[11]^[12] Asmongold Clips and Penguinz0 / Moist Cr1tikal posted videos responding to the clip, both criticizing the way Pokimane handled the situation, with Penguinz0 criticizing her for calling her viewers broke and the pricepoint of the cookies, garnering over 400,000 views and 4.1 million views, respectively, in a day (shown below, left and right).

Some X users also accused Pokimane of being hypocritical, sharing a past post from Pokimane in which she criticized streamer InvaderVie for shaming her viewers into subscribing to her and a clip in which she says she'd feel bad trying to scam money out of her viewers.^[13]^[14]

While Pokimane garnered a large influx of criticism for the comment, some people also defended her. On November 19th, the Hasanabi Productions YouTube^[16] channel posted a video of Hasan Piker reacting to Penguinz0's video and defending Pokimane, claiming it was clear she was joking and blaming her incel haters for blowing the criticism out of proportion, garnering over 71,000 views in a day (shown below).

Streamer Nadia Amine also defended Pokimane on X,^[17] writing, "you guys have people like n3on, jack, sneako, who avg thousands of viewers and do nothing but spread negativity and harass people in public, but when a girl sells cookies that’s when the y’all wanna speak out? the immense hatred towards women on the internet is unhinged," garnering over 26,000 likes in a day.

Pokimane's Apology

On November 19th, 2023, Pokimane posted an apology for the comment to X,^[15] writing, "While what I said was 100% intended to be a joke, I see why it came off as insensitive and I apologize for that." She also addressed the price, writing, "I also understand the current price of the cookies may be expensive for some, and promise we’ll continue to consider pricing to keep myna as affordable as possible." She then clarified that the comment was made towards one "rude chatter" and she "did not at all intend it to be a general statement or towards my community." The post gained over 14,000 likes in a day (shown below).