Instagram + COMPLEX start a flame with HOT ONES: Truth or Dabb
Photos | Jennifer Johnson @jenphoto
Lyrically Curated | Chaunielle Brown @chaunielle_brown
How hot and spicy is your sauce? And I mean your every day, toss in the Gucci, bust it out at the lunch table with the girls, letting them know in all Beyonce style status, “I got hot sauce in my bag.” And the spice we sauce about, could depend on the run of the mill myriad of the daily news bits of the days of our lives. With timely perfection ushering in the heated index we highlight one of LA’s hottest events.
To play catch up, First We Feast established in 2012, “views food as an illuminating lens into pop culture, music, travel, and more through its innovative slate of food-driven video franchises. Part of Complex Networks, First We Feast is home to popular shows including but not limited to Hot Ones, Food Grails, The Burger Show, Pizza Wars, Snacked, Food Skills, and Feast Mansion.” First We Feast’s flagship Hot Ones is the show with spicy questions and even hotter wings. Past guests include Gordon Ramsay, Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, and Tyra Banks. The pop culture phenomenon has amassed over 11 million followers and 5 billion lifetime views.
Through the success of Hot Ones, the brand has created an eight-figure commerce business featuring hot sauces sold on Heatonist and Amazon, Truth or Dab The Game, a footwear and apparel collection with Reebok, a TV show on truTV, “Hot Ones: The Game Show,” and so much more.
Now through a partnership with Instagram, Hot Ones is bringing its spinoff format – Truth or Dab – to the platform with Truth or Dab: Rapid Fire. The show’s premise is simple: tell the truth, or suffer the pain of the Last Dab, the show’s extremely spicy sauce that scorches with over 2.5 million Scoville units. Truth or Dab: Rapid Fire will feature some of Instagram – and the internet’s – most viral creators and personalities as they take on the wings of death.
Past guests for the native spin off segment have included Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo, Karrueche and Victor Cruz, and more.
Now that we’re all caught up, let’s pivot to LOS ANGELES – At a Creator-packed event in West Hollywood Monday evening, May 9th, wherein Instagram and Complex celebrated the launch of HOT ONES: TRUTH OR DAB: RAPID FIRE: An Instagram exclusive season of the viral celebrity interview show featuring popular Instagram Creators and emerging musicians, including Yungblud, Sommer Ray, Lala Milan, Olivia O’Brien and Adam W.
The West Hollywood launch party—held at Harriet’s Rooftop—featured creators including Chris Olsen, Emely Moreno, Victor Ramos Elliot Norries Julian Burzynski and Griffin Maxwell Brooks, and industry execs such as Tommy Fortmann of Matter Media Group, Pranav Mandavia of UTA, Emily Blair of Emily Blair Media and Alec Huerta of Align PR, and Sam Olsen of Seventeen Magazine who sampled hot wings and took dabs of Hot Ones’ famous sauces.
Inspired by the viral Hot Ones game, TRUTH OR DAB: RAPID FIRE will feature the biggest personalities on Instagram as they face off against spicy questions—and even spicier hot sauce. Guests will play from a deck of game cards featuring revealing questions. Should they choose not to answer, guests will have to eat a wing doused with the Last Dab, the notoriously spicy hot sauce used on all the final wings in the Hot Ones interview show.The six-episode Truth or Dab: Rapid Fire series premiered May 10 and will release weekly through June on Instagram.
Guests Included Chris Olsen, Emely Moreno, Victor Ramos, Griffin Maxwell Brooks, Julian Burzyniski, Elliot Norris, Reed Shannon, North Star Boys, Junior Choi, Emily Blair, Tommy Fortmann, Pranav Mandavia and Alec Huerta.
Creative Direction brought to life by Rory Roth and Jill Ferree of SUNY-Side Up.
Special Thank You | Cancel Communications @cancelcommunications + Jacquex Frankel @thecooljag