"One of the most popular people in the world right now for saying two words" - Internet weighs in on Hawk Tuah being an industry plant

Just a few days after Hailey Welch, aka the Hawk Tuah Girl, received several positive comments on her Instagram video. People praised her for being a "humble" person in the comments; however, she seems to be facing new criticism currently.

A video surfaced on a YouTube channel named You Won't Believe Me, where a man spoke about Welch and said,

"She's one of the most popular people in the world right now for saying two words."

Several videos on X (formerly known as Twitter) described Welch as an "industry plant."

"Hawk tuah biggest industry plant ever."One user wrote.

"Hawk Tuah is never beating the Industry Plant allegations, you telling me this girl appeared outta nowhere and now she gets a whole reality series?" added a user.

"Hawk Tuah and Bobbi Althoff when it comes to being the biggest industry plants," a user wrote.

People also questioned her new merch line in the tweets.

"At this point she absolutely is, no way she had merch lined up near next day." A tweet read.

"There's no way the Hawk Tuah girl isn't an industry plant that everyone jumped in on," said one user.

The allegations against Welch became more frequent after she posted a video on Instagram, where she said that she wasn't an industry plant, and the viral moment was as organic as it could be.

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"I'm not an industry plant, it was not planned," said Hawk Tuah girl in an Instagram video addressing several rumors

A few days ago, Hailey Welch posted a video of her addressing rumors surrounding her after she got viral post the Hawk Tuah comment during an interview on Broadway while she was reportedly there casually hanging out with her friends. One statement of Welch from the recent post that caught attention was her claims that she wasn't an industry plant.

According to Urban Dictionary, an industry plant is described as follows:

"They act as if things are miraculously happening for them based on their talent (via blog coverage, media coverage, MTV playing their vids, etc). The reality is a low risk/high reward situation for labels looking to build the next 'new star.'"

Shortly after going viral, Welch kept it low for quite some time until appearing on YouTuber Brianna Lapaglia's podcast. Sometime later, she rejoined social media as well. Hailey Welch currently has a follower count of more than 1 million and has millions of views on the videos on her Instagram profile.

Meanwhile, several netizens had used the phrase "industry plant" for the viral Hawk Tuah Girl. According to them, she rose to fame suddenly. Hailey denied all such allegations in the recent post that she dropped. In the post, she said,

"I'm not an industry plant. It was not planned. Every bit of it was just there, right in the moment. I had to ask what [industry plant] meant."

In the recent post, Hailey didn't just talk about the industry plant claims but also addressed other rumors floating around since she gained her sudden recognition. One of those had been that she was a preschool teacher who was fired after getting viral. The Hawk Tuah Girl debunked it in the Instagram video, saying she had been working at a spring plant for about ten months and that she wasn't a teacher.

Welch added that she had further left the job to travel. She revealed that Playboy had reached out through her friend for some projects, however, she eventually turned them down. She also spoke about being invited by Zach Brown to perform with him and claimed that it was all true.

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Hailey had appointed a team to manage her social media posts getting viral

Last month, TMZ published an article where they claimed that the Hawk Tuah Girl might be heading to Hollywood after possibly landing a TV deal. Indy100.com revealed that it wasn't just her comment that made her viral and still relevant, but more of her personality.

Fathead Threads owner, who had collaborated with Welch to release her merch, told Rolling Stone in June.

"She has a bubbly personality. She can be somewhat risque. You never know what she's gonna say. I just think the world needed a laugh, and she provided that."

It had further been reported that Hailey got an entire team to help her establish her social media presence after she deleted her old account about six months back. Business Insider India revealed that while the 21-year-old Hawk Tuah Girl had not opened up about her future plans, she already has a team and a merch line.

While talking about industry plants, Welch wasn't the first one who had been associated with the phrase. Last year, Bobbi Althoff, who became quite popular after landing interviews with big shots like Lil Yachty and Drake, faced similar allegations.