Woman claims Vogue YouTube video accidentally linked to internal revenue spreadsheet

‘I’m just wondering if I’ve got this on accident, or if everyone’s seen this’

A woman has claimed that a link on Vogue’s YouTube channel allegedly brought her to an internal revenue spreadsheet.

Maya Basra shared a video to her TikTok last week about the alleged mistake, which she said she discovered while watching videos from Vogue’s popular YouTube series Beauty Secrets.

While asking her followers if they’d experienced the same thing, she claimed that, when she clicked the YouTube video link, she was redirected to a Google Sheet about the publication’s revenue from individual episodes of the series. Each episode was described by a celebrity, as the series features stars using their go-to products.

“I clicked on a link, and I think it just took me to Vogue Beauty Secrets’ revenue page,” she said, before directing her camera towards the spreadsheet on her computer. “Like, I can see their YouTube commissions from all of the people that have been [featured] … I have a whole Google Doc. I’m confused.”

According to the video, the alleged Google Sheet for Vogue also appeared to include a sheet about the products used by celebrities in the video series. There were also retail links for where to buy the products, along with what appeared to be the prices of the items.

The first sheet in the video also listed “Talent Name,” referring to the celebrities featured in the YouTube series, alongside another column that was labelled “Revenue”.

Basra went on to question if the information was “open to the public,” or if she had “just accidentally clicked on the wrong link”.

“I’m just wondering if I’ve got this on accident, or if everyone’s seen this,” she said. “Maybe this is just a new thing they’re doing. I think this might have been an accident.”

Although she didn’t specify which link she’d clicked to find herself accessing Vogue’s alleged Google Sheet, it appears that it was a mistake that has now been fixed. When clicking on Vogue’s Beauty SecretsYouTube playlist for Beauty Secrets, it properly led to a list of videos for the series.

Basra’s video has gone viral on TikTok, where it has amassed more than 761,000 views. In the comments, viewers expressed their shock over the discovery, while also poking fun at how they’d react to seeing the document themselves.

“The fact that VOGUE is tracking this in a Google Sheet is WILD,” one viewer wrote, while another quipped: “Those are certainly Vogue (beauty) secrets!!!

“Girl the way I would download and save to MY drive lmao,” another added.

Other pointed out that the link between the YouTube series and Google Document was most likely a mistake, with one quipping: “An intern messed up lmaooo,” while another joked: “Someone’s getting fired.”

The alleged spreadsheet for Vogue’s Beauty Secrets series has also been re-shared on multiple Reddit forums. According to the document, the highest commission from a video was Laura London’s episode, which generated an alleged revenue of $3,121.58, out of the total commissions of $12,119.29. In London’s episode from February, which has more than 1.27m views, one of the everyday products she highlighted was a facial massage device, TheraFace PRO, which retails for $399.

The Goolg Sheet also indicated that Julianne Moore generated a revenue of $1,834.86, with her episode for the YouTube series, while the commission for Emma Robert’s video was listed as $1,505.53.

On Reddit, some were surprised by the apparent revenue amounts that Vogue generated from the YouTube series, with one person writing: “This is shockingly little income. I wonder how much these people get paid to advertise.”

However, some said that they weren’t shocked by the numbers, with one describing their experience in marketing. They also explained how it could be difficult for Vogue to determine which viewers bought the products used in the YouTube series.

“I worked in digital marketing for a while and affiliate/influencer marketing really isn’t the obvious cash cow everyone makes it out to be. It can be EXTREMELY difficult to track reliably unless people click on the link in YouTube and then immediately buy (which frankly is just not how online sales works anymore...if it ever really did),” they wrote.

The Independent has contacted Vogue and Basra for comment.