The leader of Boston band Honey Cutt has noticed some startling similarities between the aesthetic of Mia Berrin’s project Pom Pom Squad and the rollout for Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album Sour.
Honey Cutt shared a thread of visual parallels between the two artists’ promotional materials late last night (June 23) on Twitter, stating that she believes there is artistic overlap into Berrin’s work. Berrin has been curating the aforementioned aesthetic since the release of her 2019 album Ow, and has a new album, titled Death of a Cheerleader, out tomorrow (June 25). Rodrigo’s album dropped in May via Geffen Records.
“Had a tiktok going viral that had photos that show how Olivia rodrigos team have been very ~inspired~ by Pom Pom Squads music/album art/Insta posts/style/vibe etc and have copied pps frequently thru olivias campaign,” the tweet states. “It got reported and taken down. So Ima post the pics here”.
Berrin’s and Rodrigo’s visuals share the themes of high school and cheerleading, but Honeycutt’s thread delves into more specific similarities, such as Instagram posts with similar outfits, poses, lighting, and color schemes. One comparison shows Berrin and Rodrigo wearing similar latex gloves with cheerleading outfits; another shows photos of both artists using alphabet barrettes with their head in the same pose, titled in the same direction. In these examples, both of Berrin’s posts are from 2020, and both of Rodrigo’s are from May 2021.
Other artists have commented on the parallels as well: Bartees Strange today tweeted “Somebody on Olivia rodrigo’s team is a pps fan. For sure” and Massachusetts-born band Potty Mouth shared “had this thought but seeing it side by side is actually painful.”
Judge for yourself with Honey Cutt’s side-by-side comparisons below.