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?

I don't follow influencers but find this whole thing fascinating so dip into watching this nonsense now and again.

I get put right off a product/brand etc who use this marketing as the influencers are usually really disingenuous - flitting to whichever product was free - but what I hate is that us mugs are subsidising this. I understand advertising has gone through a change with the demise of magazines etc. but still, will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

Also I will never buy:
Estrid razors
Those magnetic toothbrushes
Wild deodorant
Because they are endless on my feed now.

I'm also at people who can well afford it getting free Hello Fresh. And then profiting from people who use their code.

Aren't a lot of the glam plastic influencers commissioned by wealthy men to flounce about semi naked on yatchts just pimping themselves out to the highest bidder?

Why would anybody want to follow them?

I find it puts me off the “influencer” more. I don’t really follow any influencers, so when one of the nice normal accounts I follow suddenly pops up with an ad affiliate or whatever it really gives me the ick!

I find it really uncomfortable when people get known for one thing, then randomly change what they are doing.

There's one girl I follow on Insta - she sings songs in a really strong yorkshire accent and she seems like a lovely girl, but for some reason that meant that Disney paid for her to go over to America and attend the D23 convention. It just seemed so random

There's also a guy who would mock influencer videos but he's now bringing his kids into the videos. Clearly they enjoy doing it, but I feel really uncomfortable knowing anything about his kids. But cos they are getting popular, he's now doing ad videos as well - ironically, he's now being the person who he was mocking in the first place.

I agree. If i see something being given for free to them i will not buy it

I find it generally a bit off-putting, but concerts and similar events have always been full of people getting corporate freebies - it's just a bit more visible when it's done openly by an influencer.

I don't object per se on businesses using influencers - it's relatively cheap and easy to target the audience the business wants.

However, the lack of due diligence is what winds me up and makes me reconsider using their services. There's an influencer local to me. She has 25k followers so small fry in the grand scheme of things. If the business spent 5 mins mooching through her account they will quickly see that every single day out/meal is gifted or an ad. She says 'this was a lovely day out/meal' but never puts her hand in her pocket for any of these. Her content about said activity is extremely basic, it is just a statement about having a nice time, there's no tips etc. Then the icing on the cake is that she'll get maybe 70 likes and 5 comments from her friends/families and maybe 1 comment from a suck up account, surely the business isn't actually seeing a return on this?

Likewise with Taylor Swift it is starting to seem like her tour isn't actually that much of a success, it's just full of corporate guests rather than fans.

I detest it. Likely very well-off celebrities/influencers being gifted stuff that they could afford anyway. I genuinely really like Joe Wicks but he put a post up a few weeks ago about a fucking VW van or something he'd been gifted and it really wound me up. He's a multi-millionaire and just been handed something most larger families could only ever dream of owning. Fine, do a paid promotion or run a competition in your socials for one of your customers to win one or something but accepting expensive gifts that you don't need is just icky (sorry to pick on Joe, he's far from the worst culprit and does loads of admirable stuff but that one really stuck in my craw).

It's also well known that influencers who go to Dubai are usually paid for sex work & that's how they get to post pics of a glamorous lifestyle. They're are high profile sex workers servicing the wealthy and elite.

Neilsons holidays and the mamas still got it woman at the moment has put me off. She’s done several videos basically showing off parents doing as they like while the kids are looked after. The one that got me was the one of women doing yoga while minions dressed up in fairy wings pushed their babies round in the heat in pushchairs.

I think a big part of this is that most of these are probably not aimed at the average Mumsnetter (although some obviously are)

They are aimed at our DC - because Insta & TikTok shop are a massive part of how they buy things
They don't read magazines with Ads like we used to

I work for a beauty brand and we do use influencers, but mostly the smaller ones (nano-influencers)
Sending products only though - no tickets to Eras! I agree that's ridiculous!

It's not so much to use their 'reach' although they sometimes use our brand name to increase theirs - which is fine!

It's to get a large amount of UGC (user generated content) so our followers can see our products being used by people of different ages, genders, skin colours, styles etc.
we also ask them to share application tips to help users and create 'how to' videos - as that's what our customers ask for

Far rather do that than pay some of the extortionate fees traditional advertisers or retailers can charge!

Previously brands would just send free products to the beauty editors of newspapers & magazines - this is just an updated version to better match current media and shopping habits

The whole culture of influencers is a pile of wank. I don't understand the mentality of someone buying something because someone else has posted about it on Instagram.

i was influenced to read a long post on Threads where influencers were lamenting that they are asked to advertise products with no, or a low, fee. so not only are they given free stuff, they are paid in addition, to do their post about the thing.

now i get it, it's their jobs, doing their reel etc takes time and so on so fair enough they view themselves as professionals with an associated fee. good for them.

however, there is absolutely no suggestion anymore that they chose the product because it is good, or the best or great value or useful. it's just an advert.

my issue is you can't escape it on insta now, it used to be nice photos, inspiration for things to do, or places to go, or meals to make. but now it's much like a glossy magazine of yore where there would be pages and pages of adverts with a few articles scattered in between.

and no, i don't want to see rich (almost always white) women being given the things i have to pay for, then discarding it the following week for the next iteration. and getting paid for doing that THEN flogging the original thing on ebay or vinted or the second row to the people who's attention creates their job in the first place. it's disingenuous and taking us for fools.

it's insidious, it creeps in, if you keep seeing happy smiling people having a lovely lovely time with an oh so nice looking thing integral to that nice time, without even realising, unconsciously you start to desire that thing. it's the human psyche, you can't help it.

and no, i don't want to see rich (almost always white) women being given the things i have to pay for, then discarding it the following week for the next iteration. and getting paid for doing that THEN flogging the original thing on ebay or vinted or the second row to the people who's attention creates their job in the first place. it's disingenuous and taking us for fools.

A million percent to this!!

Absolutely this.

They are the modern day equivalent of the avon women but like to pretend the some more high brow.

I do this too. I will not buy anything from any brand that gives their product away to influencers.
Same with days out for kids etc. if they can afford to give away so much they don't need my money.

I agree but accidentally voted YABU, oooops.

I find it incredibly annoying and I also dislike it when the influencer fit advertising into their stories in a lazy way. Sometimes they will even say "Oh, I know this seems a bit strange but ...it's so wonderful yadayada". They are not good actors so it often comes off as really weird and just puts me off them and the brand

I used to follow a few influencers, but honestly think they are all so fake. Narcissistic money grabbers. It’s not a real job, it doesn’t create anything of value. They are just peddling free stuff, to help fund their lifestyle, which we are supposed to admire. It’s boring and it gives me the ick now. A bit like the Emporers Clothes - once I’d seen their bullshit, I can’t un see it! I also can’t spell Emprirer. 😵‍💫

My biggest gripe are influencers who are qualified medical professionals doing this (in their area or practice) and having affiliations with brands. I struggle with skin problems so follow a few doctors on Instagram with special interests in dermatology - seeing them be paid to promote products or brands for treatment of medical conditions is poor ethics and instantly leads to me unfollowing them and avoiding the brand.

I also agree with OP about influencers in general and it usually turns me away from a product rather than encouraging me to buy it.

I don't really come across influencers much as I avoid most SM, but I guess it's similar to when I look at Amazon reviews etc and they're all 'this is a review of free product' or suchlike. I immediately scroll past and try to find genuine reviews. 'Free product' reviews are, I imagine, 99% positive, as the people getting the free stuff see it as the best way to continue getting free stuff. Hence it's all meaningless.

When I think of influencers I think of sheep 🐑. It represents the death of individuality or originality.

” I don't want to see rich (almost always white) women being given the things i have to pay for”

What’s wrong with being a “white woman”?

Jesus Christ I hope all that race obsession snarly DEI crap doesn’t advance here any further than it already has.

Agree. I don't 'follow' influencers at all. Celebrity endorsement too.