Insta-Influencers - Do you think we really care? Read the flipping room!

[Chocolateteabag]

What is with all the "look at us all having a lovely lunch/drinks party/holiday abroad/trip to Ascot/Wimbledon blah blah blah"

Do brands really think that watching other people having a lovely freebie time will get us plebs rushing to pay full whack for their stuff?
Is that really going to drive up sales as we head into fricking recession?

I don't really mind being shown stuff by the Insta lot in their bedrooms or flouncing about next to their nearest wall. I get to see what clothes look like on different shapes etc etc

But seriously - seeing "the beautiful people" all rolling about laughing and having a fabulous time to "launch a new product" or "celebrate" such and such brand feels so "them & us" - AIBU?

Yes YABU - you jealous fool
No YANBU - there is something a bit weird in promoting a brand by having an exclusive event which only a small special group are invited - exclusionary?

I don’t even know what influences are

Doesn't work on me because I rarely know who these people are nor do I care

But isn’t this just marketing? What the difference between this and paying a famous actress £5 million to float around in a perfume advert? I’m sure they don’t just wear that perfume and nothing else.
I actually prefer that pretty Lucy from Hull (or wherever) can make a bit of money rather than say already wealthy actors/footballers etc get paid millions.

Yeah I like Stacey too but I had to stop following her as some of the posts were giving me the rage.

Same here. I only come across them when they hit the news for various fraud crimes or (sadly) commit suicide.

I’m new-ish to Instagram. But it does struck me as just advertising, and I’m already fed up with it. Facebook has become a giant ad for any crap, my family still uses it though.
I’m into photography but even that is heavily staged and photoshopped on IG to suit a hashtag.
I mean, no matter how amazing your house is, making reels of you lighting a candle in various corners is not exactly… I don’t know, maybe I’m just not down with the kids anymore.
I’m a massive coffee fiend, but why do you go on your bike ride, stop somewhere, get the friggin coffee grinder out, take a photo, make a reel of you making fresh coffee in the middle of bloody nowhere, I mean…I do love freshly ground coffee, I make a flask, shove it in my rucksack, have it with a massive wedge of cake (that’s squished after two hours of mountain biking) in the middle of nowhere, but why the hell would you want to see that?!!
I don’t know…

Yep I know - I have been taking breaks away from Insta and I have had a bit of a cull of the worst ones. It doesn't make me feel bad per se, just a bit WTF? "why do I care about your PR lunch?"
TBH this type of freebie thing actively puts me off a brand -

share a discount code - thanks
share pictures of you chucking money at your selected special crew - er no!

But yes - I know I should just step away.....

Unfollow consumerism obsessed accounts and start following ones who influence against it, such as Aja Barber.

I came on to write exactly this! There’s a premium beauty brand I occasionally buy items from, and I recently saw some (posh, thin, rich, white, young) woman on Instagram thanking them for sending her a selection of their products. It really put me off the brand.

I don’t mind spending £££ on a product when I rate the product and think it’s worth the money. I do mind spending £££ when my money is effectively subsiding freebies to the people who are least in need of freebies!

I find it weird that people follow influencers and brands if they don’t like to see marketing. That is literally what an influencer’s job is. And brand accounts aren’t there for any reason other than marketing. Following influencers and then moaning about their content is a bit like ordering a Boden catalogue and then being annoyed that it’s trying to sell you Boden clothes.

I just follow my mates, my football team and hobby stuff on Instagram.

YANBU. I don't have Instagram for this reason. There is enough shit going on in the world. I don't need this vacuous crap in my life.

All marketing is about selling you a dream. It has little to do with reality. Showing on my laptop at the side of this page is an ad picturing a hand-in-hand couple on a perfect beach in perfect weather. Experience tells me that if I went there it would probably be teeming with rain. Or if not, the beach would be choked up with oiks munching greasy doughnuts

YABU - only follow pages that make you happy!

Yanbu, I unfollow anyone who does ads. Influencing is not a job. I also mostly veto companies which use influencers if I can. Makes no real difference but makes me feel better! Why do they think watching someone (usually someone who does not need it) get/do/use something for free, would make us want to purchase said offering? Also hate when they say ‘working with a brand’… nope, it’s instaflogging, it’s not work.

Yabu to take it so seriously; stop following if it makes you feel bad

I have never watched these though of course I know they exist, a bit like I never watch adverts on TV and have Adblocker on all my devices but YANBU

YANBU OP. There's one from Bristol who home educates her kids and goes on about 'unschooling'. It's not that that bothers me, but she's clearly completely blind to the fact that most of us have to go out and earn a living, are juggling childcare etc. She doesn't realise how privileged she is to stay at home all day. She clearly earns so much from ads, her husband doesn't work either (or 'works for her', but what does that even mean?!). I recently unfollowed. I've also unfollowed an account recently which I really used to like, about travel. Both have young children, and continue to get #gifted holidays without them. Meanwhile us 'normal' mums are desperate for just a day to ourselves and a decent night's sleep, never mind going abroad and getting paid for it! A lot of them just don't live in the real world, or make any effort to acknowledge those of us who do. It seems even worse now while some people are really struggling with everything getting more expensive.

Do brands really think that watching other people having a lovely freebie time will get us plebs rushing to pay full whack for their stuff?
Yes they do think that, because some people do. Not you obviously and not me (I've never followed or watched such a thing) but enough to make it worth their while giving away the free stuff.

You're the one following these people OP.

I invite local micro influencers to my restaurant for publicity. Works amazingly! To read the room I only actually need to read my followers and theirs who clearly are interested otherwise they wouldn't follow. Us businesses would also like to stay open even with a possible recession looming so I'll damn well advertise how I like, regardless of who's offended

I voted YABU for even looking at these people. You're providing their lifestyle by following.

Totally agree and don't get me even started on life, health, relationships, sex coaches with absolutely NO qualifications to call themselves anything of the sort between them.

Utterly nauseating and all ego driven!

It's the nature of the beast unfortunately. There's loads of accounts I started following when they were small who then have got bigger and completely changed their content to constant #ad #gifted posts, I unfollow but ultimately it's what they wanted to achieve I suppose.

It depressesand enrages me that this works. I don't have insta and it took me ages to get my head around the concept when I first heard of it. I still don't entirely get it. It's just so indivualistic and gross.

When I hear of them it makes me angry, not at the individual but at the idea that we live in a society with such an unjust distribution of wealth and this is seen as aspirational rather than appalling.

Lisa Faulkner is very annoying for this ! Always showing off what she has been sent for free. Disgusting.