Snapchat tends to be about the quick and the ephemeral: post something, people see it, it disappears. Like a Las Vegas magic trick with filters, lenses and too many emojis.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion, however, has decided to create a reality show for Snapchat, as part of the wider Snap Originals series, about not just herself but also her numerous dogs – as well as featuring cameos from celebrity guests and their dogs. It is called Off Thee Leash With Megan Thee Stallion. Of course it is.
“[She] plans to bring her own pets with her, including her pit bull 5ive, her most well-known French bulldog 4oe, another Frenchie named Dos, and a Cane Corso named X, whom she added to her family in September,” noted Billboard of the show’s plans.
She also posted about it on her much more permanent Twitter and Instagram accounts, announcing the show and underscoring the fact that she is “one of the best dog moms ever on the planet”. Perhaps feeling the need to reemphasise the extent of her greatness here, she stressed she was talking about “the whole entire planet”.
Unsurprisingly, she also has a tie-in canine merchandise line just in time for the show. This includes a Hot Dog hoodie ($35), a Hot Dog travel bowl ($25) and a Hot Dog bandana ($15). It is not clear on the site if this last item is for dog use, human use or both.
Sometimes – and of course wholly dependent on the pop star involved and the aesthetic they want to project to the world – going big and brash is the only option. In fact, people would be disappointed if you went the quiet and dialled-down route. They might even be horrified.
It is all part of a wider investment by Snapchat into more long-form and series-based content such as Coming Out (following six young LGBTQ+ people as they come out) and Twinning Out (about twin sisters, Niki and Gabi DeMartino, as they try to build their careers as singers, actors and influencers).
Off Thee Leash With Megan Thee Stallion has yet to appear on her Snapchat and she has just 228k subscribers on there compared to Twitter (where she has 7m followers) and Instagram (where she has 26m followers).
Given how small her Snapchat profile is compared to her presence on other social platforms, this all reads like Snapchat trying to forge a new relevance by drawing in names that are huge on rival platforms to make exclusive content, hoping a large chunk of their fans follow them there. At the minute, her followers on Snapchat are not even 1% of her followers on Instagram – so there is still a long way to go here.
