To find influencers being gifted stuff puts me off the brand?

[Sparrowchicken]

I know the concept and point of influencers being gifted stuff, it's because they have a social media reach and it's a lot cheaper for the brand to send some stuff than to develop ads and pay for them to be distributed.

I don't follow a tonne of people but often get videos or posts showing up in my suggested feed, saw one yesterday for a brand aimed at mid 20s plus, so young adults and adults rather than teens etc. The 'influencer' was gifted tickets to the Eras tour (which are well sought after) even though they've posted about going numerous times before, and lots of products in return for a quick, lazy video and post saying wow look what I got.

I love this brand, I've used it for years, and I know it's petty as when you spend money on them they can spend it on what they want, but I've reached the point it just puts me off. Sadly the list of brands that don't work with influencers is probably small so limits options of avoiding it.

Does anyone else find it off putting? On the one hand yeah sure it allows 'regular' people to make a career on social media, and maybe it is just jealousy- when you work hard for your money and spend it on these products it is crap to see someone get loads (that theyll probably never use) for free. Or do you ever feel influenced and like it makes a product more appealing?

Why is it any different to people "acting" in adverts pretending they like something because they are being paid for it?

Because often the declaration it's an ad is hidden in small print or within vlogs. When you watch an advert it's clear. I used to quite like the brit YTers and some make up influencers, but it's so disingenuous now I'm sure most know it's all made up fantasy.

But all of the 'influencers' are fake, surely no one believes any of them are 'real' ??

A lot of "influencers" buy followers, which are not expensive to buy and makes their follow count look impressive to brands.

I don't follow any influencers, and if I see one advertising something I buy I automatically remove them from my company to buy from list. I hate this form of advertising, the influencers don't care about the brand, it's just freebies and payment to them. I wouldn't mind brand reps who actually love the brand, have used it before and know exactly what it's all about.

Absolutely agree with you, OP, it puts me off a brand that's advertised like this. And actually what I find worse is the way these very ordinary mums exploit their kids, vlogging their lives and exposing them all over Insta just to satisfy their desire to be an influencer. It makes me think go get yourself a proper job to pay for the clothes/make up/baby equipment/holidays/experiences etc etc etc and respect your children's right to privacy

I don't follow any but it's advertising really that people choose to look at, personally I try to avoid advertising as much as I can.

I remember being particularly annoyed about this when shopping for baby things. I’d been considering a Mamas & Papas travel system and then I saw that they’d gifted one to Millie Mackintosh. I just didn’t see why I should spend hundreds of pounds of my below average salary on one of their prams while they give them to millionaires for free.

This is why I love BabyStyle prams.
They are the team behind Egg prams, and the Oyster prams too.

They outright refuse to gift any of their products to influencers for free, and as a result they have a lot of brand loyalty from me.
Helps that they are also a great brand in general and I've loved everything I've owned from them.

I don't mind having to spend out on their products, because knowing some rich influencers aren't getting them for free too makes it even more worth it to me.

Totally shameless aren't they!

And I'm small fry. I can only imagine how many bigger and better known brands must get!

Because everyone knows actors are pretending…

Influencers are grifters.

One of the challenges with influencers is they know their time is limited so they grab every brand deal and PR product going because they don’t know if their time is going to be up in six months/one year/five years. There’s an influencer I used to babysit who’s just been on her 8374th holiday this year and when I fight hard to keep the green-eyed monster at bay, I try to remind myself that this lifestyle she currently has, she won’t have in a few years.

But also, why does she get a million free prams whilst I’m scrubbing someone’s else’s crap off one from FB marketplace?!

I think it should be illegal for parents to grift on the back of their children, their children can't give informed consent to be plastered over the Internet, it's sad. I hope in the future there are lawsuits.

When Sephora opened their Manchester store they had a preview evening and invited a load of Influencers. They were all given a gift bag each and one Influencer did a post listing all the contents and there was almost £1000 worth of products! i’ll never set foot in that place for that reason.
I’ve also stopped going to several local restaurants as they started doing gifted meals to Influencers.

100 percent agree.
I want reviews to be unbiased and scrupulously honest.
I can personally vouch for Blizzard, Equafleece and Friday Fox dog coats as used them for decades.

An influencer talking something up is biased.

100% agree. I hope they sue their parents and get to keep all the earnings themselves, this includes the lofty m/c ones like Mother Pukka who thinks it’s fine she doesn’t show their faces now, after years of years of whoring them out.

100% if they've been paid to use it I don't believe a word of their 'review'.

I have a blog and related social media-a small following, granted. I do travel, and I've worked with some tourism boards, been sent to do a hotel review once, the odd gifted meal in return for a review. BUT that's content I was doing anyway, I do a lot of food reviews for places I like the look of, so go to eat at with my partner. I also turn down most things I'm offered, if it's not the sort of thing I'd be posting about anyway. Did recently accept a new coat-a really good quality long mac, in return for mentioning it in a post (where I make it clear they've sent it to me) because I really needed a good coat for the football.

I always, always declare when something is an AD, as well as saying why-so the ASA just states I have to say AD, but I think there's a difference between 'AD-I was sent this coat to mention it in a post' 'AD-| got this meal for free for a review' 'AD-this tourism board gave me a travel card for three days for this post' etc. It's all about transparency, for me.

If you're reading my blog or looking at my content then chances are you want to know what public transport is like in the city you're reading the post about

There seems to be a little group of "mum influencers" who advertise Wild deodorant. I might have considered it previously, but the constant hard sell and discount codes has completely put me off .

Yes this rips my knitting too!! I
follow someone on insta who used to be a presenter on a TV show (don't think she's on tv at all now but is doing paid ads for all kinds of brands) but today saw her saying her whole wardrobe is "blah" despite her being gifted tons of clothes, including from one of my favourite brands (Sézane). A bit sick of it tbh. 🤮

Yes, saw this on Suffolk Nest yesterday.

Already runs a successful business but still accepts freebies. Money grabbing in my mind but it's just the nature of the beast.

Very off putting and makes me like the brand less. Bit like those people on Instagram with their huge 'hauls' from B&M that resemble Neptune stuff. Tacky springs to mind.

There is one mother who is deeply concerning
she videos her little daughter eating suggestive shaped food
Has thousands of male followers.
The little girl is 4 currently, but she was being filmed eating inappropriate stuff as a toddler and the Men’s comments were gross.

Hope the poor little girl sues for exploitation.
( Was only made aware via a post about n MN about her exploitation.

I've completely gone off Boux Avenue because of the Z list, reality TV "influencers" they keep using 🤢

I just don't see why brands think sending them to events or whatever is supposed to be appealing, especially when the only mention of the (unrelated to event) brand isn't mentioned beside a lazy tag in the caption. Who is it inspiring to buy said unrelated product?

I think you’re underestimating the power of tags and how they work; I actually have a real life example of how it worked regarding the Eras tour.

My teenage niece is a big Taylor Swift fan and was browsing by hashtag for tour related content, because of this she came across a get ready with me by Lydia Millen who was given Eras tickets by Space NK and Laura Mercier.

My niece - who had never heard of Lydia Millen, Space NK or Laura Mercier before - loved Lydia’s concert look (fun but classy apparently) and decided to follow the tags in her caption for Space NK and Laura Mercier; she actually ended up going onto Space NK’s website for a browse and bought not only a Laura Mercier item (bit pricey for her) but a few bits from other brands too.

Now like I said, my niece had never heard of Space NK, Laura Mercier or Lydia Millen before so the use of tags and hashtags not only resulted in sales but brand awareness too. These brands only reached my niece because they gave Lydia Millen those tickets and in doing so, associated themselves with Taylor Swift and tapped into her market.

What’s interesting is Lydia Millen IS NOT someone who would normally appeal to a teenage demographic and you definitely wouldn’t associate her with Taylor Swift either but it worked so these brands know what they’re doing.

I get that, but anyone can hashtag eras tour and associated content so it shows up- "here's what I'd wear if I was going x y or z" are popular. It's different for teens as they're easily impressionable as well, which is why was keen to get opinions from people who are more likely to be a demographic of the products I saw. As disingenuous as LM TS content is, having just looked it up at least she clearly marked it as an Ad and put effort into showcasing the products as part of an entire look.

I agree, OP. Especially when the influencer is rich anyway and doesn't need all the freebies

There's a couple of 'Instagram sisters' that each married rich sportsmen yet get gifted freebies all the time. I refuse to use any brand that gives freebies to them