A well-known Australian vegan has taken aim at a former vegan influencer after she revealed she'd gone "full-on carnivore" for 30 days.
US-based Alyse Parker made global headlines earlier this month when she told her 727,000 subscribers she was "more focused and healthy" after completely abandoning all fruits, vegetables and carbs for a strict meat-only diet.
But Queensland YouTube star Leanne Ratcliffe — known as Freelee the Banana Girl — has called out US-based Alyse Parker's meat diet, accusing the influencer of doing the extreme diet for cash, claiming she failed to mention a viral video she made was actually an ad.
"I saw the video title and knew the concept, I knew it was not only ridiculous but also very dangerous," Freelee told news.com.au.
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Advertise with NZME."Once I watched the video I realised it was just a huge advertisement for the company ButcherBox which is a big problem."
As a result, Freelee — a strict vegan who is well known for slamming weird diets promoted online — created a video, pulling apart all the things she believes are "fake" about Alyse's carnivore claims.
Freelee claimed Alyse should have ticked the "video contains paid promotion such as paid promotion" box on her YouTube video, claiming Alyse may have been paid by the meat delivery service.
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In the caption of Alyse's video she did state: "This video was sponsored by ButcherBox."
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Advertise with NZME.But Freelee argues it "isn't enough".
Freelee points out America's Federal Trade Commission endorsement guidelines in regards to paid sponsorships, which state content creators need to be "be clearly and conspicuously disclosed".
The guidelines also say it's not enough to slip a credit into a comments section of videos, instructing influencers to include endorsement disclosures to "be in the video".
"Some viewers may watch without sound and others may not notice super imposed words," the commission guidelines state.
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Alyse does state around 6 minutes 25 seconds into her video that she'd "teamed up with ButcherBox". The FTC says a creator must use "clear and unambiguous language".
As well has having issues with Alyse's transparency, Freelee took a stab at guessing how much the former vegan was paid — claiming it was in the $20,000 region.
Freelee picked holes in Alyse's video, questioning why no footage of her actually eating, cooking or preparing any meat was shown throughout the 14-minute video on her 30-day challenge.
"We only see Alyse put one piece of meat in her mouth on 'Day 1' and that was it. She didn't even chew it — and didn't show herself eating a single piece after that," Freelee told news.com.au.
"She also did not show one scene of her cooking any meat but instead used footage from a video she posted almost a year earlier.
"Even her before and after photos aren't comparable as she seems to have purposely stood further away from the camera in her 'after' shot to appear smaller.
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Advertise with NZME."Even her toe nails on 'Day 30' as she stepped on the scales looked very similar to 'Day 1', they're the same colour and scuffed in the same places."
She went on to describe the video as a "commercial", calling its contents "deceptive" and "misleading".
"It's misleading marketing (that may increase sales) by spouting the benefits of this diet without providing any scientific evidence at all of her claims," Freelee said.
"What's worse is that she is endangering people's lives by omitting the health risks of eating an all meat diet for 30 days.
"As a person who cares deeply about people's health, the welfare of animals and the environment I was deeply disturbed and had to speak up."
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When News.com.au contacted Alyse for comment, she shrugged off Freelee's accusations.
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Advertise with NZME."I know what my truth is and I'm not here to expend my time and energy defending myself to anyone," she said.
"It saddens me to know that the person who accused me of 'lying' about this challenge shared that they spent over 60 hours creating a malicious video.
"Imagine if someone spent 60 hours focused on sharing a positive, impressive, inspirational video instead of tearing someone else down."
The Australian YouTuber isn't the only one who has an issue with Alyse's now viral video, which has been viewed more than 443,000 times since it was posted on December 4.
After being vegan for five years, she stopped following the lifestyle earlier this year for "health reasons" — a move which angered strict vegans.
As a result, the apparent 180 move to then become a carnivore upset some of her loyal followers, who accused her of "jumping ship".
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Advertise with NZME.One said: "Cows experience fear and pain. They have family units. They understand they are going to die when they are butchered.
"Factory farming of beef is not only cruel to intelligent animals but incredibly awful for the environment. You're part of the problem, don't pretend like you're part of the solution."
Another fumed: "Can we stop pushing extreme dieting and veiling it as wellness and transformation. It's toxic."
Accusing the star of "always taking stuff to the extreme", a third wrote: "I find it so strange that a vegan for so long goes the completely opposite route. Going back to most common diet of eating... Well... Everything. But going full on carnivore!? That's crazy!"
Freelee herself is no stranger to controversy. In September, she came under fire for criticising a younger vlogger's diet, calling 18-year-old Emma Chamberlain's multiple coffee habit "disturbing".
"I haven't had coffee since 2005, which is like 14 years. No coffee, no dependency, it is a weakness," Freelee said at the time.
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Advertise with NZME.But her critique of Emma didn't go down well in the video's comment section where she was criticised for being unfairly harsh on the teen.
"This video was offensive from beginning to end," one person said.
In March Freelee posted another video on Alyse, calling her a "fake vegan" — but she insists she doesn't have a vendetta against the reformed plant-only eater.
"I don't have a bone to pick with Alyse," she told news.com.au. "This is bigger than some petty personal gripe. As I said earlier, I'm a person who cares deeply about people's health, the welfare of animals and the environment and I will speak out when I see dangerous behaviour and injustice."
