'Influencers': Will the tide ever turn?

[InAMess2023]

Just that really. Apologies in advance for the rant...

Latest all over my news feed (I don't actively seek these things out). Is Molly-Mae sunning herself in the Maldives in a ridiculously expensive over water villa after flying business class. All the comments are 'omg boss babe' or 'she works so hard', etc. etc. etc. Even saw that apparently she was at one point running PrettyLittleThing! (Rather than being given the token role of 'Creative Director' and showing herself sat in meetings with her LV notebook). The girl would not know a day of hard work if it hit her on the photoshopped behind - a typical day is getting up late, filming herself in Starbucks, having a few photos with her baby before she hands her back to the nanny, watching Shrek or Harry Potter and doing a quick video talking about her boring day.

I know that I will get comments to say that I'm jealous, and you know what, yes I am? Imagine becoming that rich and that famous (not that I have any desire to be famous whatsoever) just from applying to a reality TV show and having sex on said show. To me it's everything that's wrong with today's society - will it ever change?

I slogged my guts out for six years at uni (with a further six now ahead of me) and yes I have a pretty nice life, I go nice places and I buy nice things, and I have a lot of earning potential in my future but difference is I will always have to work hard. I don't have children and I've made the decision not to but if I had a daughter I'd be gutted if this was her role and career model rather than a doctor, lawyer, or hell even a politician (though they've let the side down a fair bit lately - Liz I'm looking at you).

This isn't a rant about Molly-Mae specifically by the way just using a good example from today. It's the whole culture that seems to be everywhere and I genuinely cannot wait for the bubble to burst - I'm just not sure when/if it will...

Thank you for coming to my TED talk 😂wow felt good to get that off my chest!

Thank you for this thread, I would like to see them all disappear..

That may be the case for the more ‘famous’ ones (if you can call them that) but the huge majority of them are just narcissistic, egotistical, shallow wannabes with low self esteem who just love attention and love to drag their kids (if they have any) into their shallow, self centred world!

The huge majority of ‘influencers’ unless they grow to be well known, just create free content for brands who send them freebies - as I have already explained earlier in the thread, they are being exploited by these brands who get them to do all the hard work by creating all the content themselves using / wearing the brand’s freebie product, having to edit the content and send it back to the brand just for the brand to rake in all the sales where that product will be sold many times over just from that small piece of free content created by the ‘influencer’! And the influencer doesn’t see a penny from those sales, all they have to show for it is a freebie! Freebies aren’t going to pay their bills or put food on the table! The brands are basically laughing at them and taking the piss.

I find it really bizarre how Molly Mae of all people gets all the news articles written about her. There are loads of influencers on Instagram who post content of a genuinely appealing lifestyle, loads of friends, happy families, great outfits and cool trips etc. Molly Mae’s life just looks so unenviable - she rarely hangs out with anyone else except her sister, if she goes out it’s to the Trafford Centre, one of two local cafes she seems to rotate between or a garden place, she seems to have no idea how to engage properly with the baby or even look after her. Her pictures are not particularly well edited and are so drastically different from what she really looks like you have to feel sorry for her. The house is nice, obviously, but the decor looks pretty dated now and it looks like the worst place on earth to entertain a baby in, let alone a toddler. I can’t see how she’s going to sustain that kind of income as she and her child both get older.

I don't know who this Molly Mae person is at all but I am aware of the word 'influencer', and I have wondered if they ever influence anyone to do anything useful.

For some reason I hate it even more when celebrities use their very young children in most photos, but conceal their faces.
Usually, all standing with their back to the camera in front of Disney land etc.

It doesn't make it OK if we can't see their faces!
We already know everything else about them!
It's seeping into TV land too, sick of celeb documentaries full of children with blurred faces!
Stop using your children to monetise your 'career' 🤬

I don't know who you're referring to because I wouldn't rot my brain by scrolling those sites.

Everything is dumbed down now though.

You’re on the third page of a discussion about influencers on a chat forum at 7am. Do you really think people are going to buy that?

I have no feeds coming to my phone . I shut them all down using googled instructions -on my new laptop there were all the news channels so I shut them down but others came up instead - who wants the sun headlines????
So I googled and closed them down ,going in as admin. I use DuckDuckGo to search -it doesn’t track your searches.

Another one who you might want to google is Katie Hayes aka the worlds worst makeup artist. At least she got famous for her job but I'm not trained and can do a better job! She's been outed for being racist and homophobic yet companies still give her free stuff! Classics also include...

• gifted a free Moses basket she's now selling for £400 🤦🏼‍♀️
• told her followers not to wear primer under makeup as it makes it slide off 🤦🏼‍♀️
• introduced a facial she's doing that including 'hydrochloric acid', and when asked if she was sure that's what she meant said 'yes of course' 🤦🏼‍♀️

Gives me the rage tbh

Ah yes, good point, I use duckduckgo instead of google on all my devices and say no to tracking wherever possible so that might explain why my online life is fairly influencer-free.

We had an open day type thing for 6th formers at the dental hospital where I work and they ALL wanted to be cosmetic dentists and be the next singing dentist type. It's sad all the ones who have just qualified already have their own drXX page before they've even graduated. All they care about is the amount of followers they have

I think a lot of them will get a surprise when they hit practice and realise the type of person that often goes to high end cosmetic practices! I don't think it's worth the stress personally! 😆

That is grim @janfebmarchapril totally pulled in by the glamour, not reality of healthcare.

I was scrolling through MN on the train to work this morning, I've literally never been on Instagram.

Stop following them and live your actual life

Haven't read the full thread then?

I never get stuff like this in my news feed?! Despite the OP saying she doesn’t seek it, there must be something she’s clicking on to make it come through - I literally couldn’t pick Molly May or whatever she’s called out in a line up. I wonder if it’s just for the youngsters 🤣 I literally never get stuff like that on my phone.
I follow some ‘influencers’ for running but largely because they run a lot, and are fast, so therefore have some inspirational talent. Very different to being insta-famous for having Botox and hideous lip filler. I’d like to think anyone over about 25 knows that it’s all a load of vacuous shit and not to pay it any attention at all? Anyone who thinks facial filler and Dubai is aspirational deserves a feed full of crap IMO.

I don't think you have to follow any influencer to know some of the if you are on any form of social media or pop culture. Even if it's just passive absorption and just awareness of the name.

I mean i don't follow anyone but ive heard of Molly Mae. Doesn't she have a large number of children, alway glam in the nails and hair sense and is married to a boxer (and it's a "traditional" marriage regarding childcare)?

No that's Paris Fury you're thinking of. (married to Tyson) - Molly Mae was on Love Island and is with Tyson's brother, Tommy. They only have one child who is unfortunately named Bambi

Hating successful people with money: will it ever stop?

Most of them haven't got money and pretend to have it by blagging free stuff. Fine ( although duplicitous) if blagging from a wealthy large corporation but not if hey are deceiving small local business into giving them things for free, which many of them do. More fool them I suppose. From this thread, their lives seem miserable and shallow. A bit like them.

The huge majority don’t have money, they get freebies from brands, spend hours creating content, editing it, doing their hair and makeup just for the brand to use their content and rake in sales from that freebie product while the ‘influencer’ doesn’t send a penny, all they get is a mere freebie! Not going to pay their bills or put food on the table! They are being exploited but somehow think they’ll find fame and fortune. It’s actually laughable!

Oh!! Right, well you can absorb incorrect information without trying. 😆

It’s actually the opposite. A lot of the small companies are the ones who approach influencers and want to send them freebies because the influencer has a ‘large following’. The companies are basically laughing at influencers and exploiting them because they get the influencers to create the content, do all their own makeup and hair, do all the leg work in terms of videoing and editing and the company doesn’t pay them a penny from all the sales they make on the content that influencer created! It’s no real loss to the company offering one freebie here and there for people silly enough to do all the leg work! It saves the company hundreds of pounds by not having to pay a real model or a photographer/ videographer/ makeup artist!
I’ve had a few brand’s approach me offering freebies in return for content! I just tell them no I don’t work for free, go and ask an influencer to do it lol!

Yet influencers like to make it appear that they’re ‘models’ and ‘instafamous’! They’re not! It’s way more difficult to break into the real modelling industry!

Actually influencers are having an increasing negative impact on small businesses. Taking products but not doing content. Even fairly small influencers don’t just do it for the free products. They get products and paid.

It’s an expensive And complicated way of advertising. Epically since the ASA are cracking down.