AIBU to think influencers should stop asking small businesses for freebies

[PigglyWiggle]

Binky Felstead of Made In Chelsea (hugely privileged, from generational wealth) has been exposed for asking a small independent bakery to create her sons third birthday cake in exchange for “exposure” by tagging the bakery on Instagram. These has also now prompted another woman to come forward who says Binky did the same to her with her 9 layer wedding cake and NEVER did the tagging/exposure. I feel like I really want this to start a bit of a movement of people calling this bollocks out and end this tiresome period of the “influencer” generation.

YABU - Leave her alone
YANBU - Expose them all, they are grabby desperados who need to get a job

If I ran my own small business, they'd get a short, sharp two-word answer from me, the second of which being 'off'.

Cheeky grasping freeloaders.

the word influencers should be changed to chancers.

Does anyone pay attention to any of them?

You would be a bit of a wally not to have a contract though.

small business owners have to be professional to some level, otherwise they’re not really up to the responsibility. Having your own business is about risk and reward

Other influencers, probably. And the gullible end of the general public.

A few years ago there was a hotel/pub owner in ?Dublin? who did the same, copied the email onto his social media I think. Anyway, it got a lot of publicity.

I think its cheeky as fuck for rich people to beg for freebies. And then to blame their pr and claim they had no idea(which they often do) is just taking the piss

I follow a lot of people on Instagram, sometimes I see someone angling for freebies, “wearing this beautiful cardigan from hashtag random shop, it’s utterly divine, so soft and luxurious and well made like everything they sell. Not a hashtag gift, I paid for this myself ☺️”. Fuck off.

“I renovated my bathroom with these wonderful tiles from hashtag random shop, see the quality? See how they bring colour/beige to my bathroom? See them in the morning light? I shall get more random shite from this hashtag random shop and their staff are marvellous. Hashtag not a gift, I paid for them myself ☺️”. Also fuck off.

angesdesucre - I've followed her for ages. And any one who follows her would know what her response would be as she claps back every time.

She's worth following purely for cake sandwich gate

And yet..... Jacqueline Jossa did this for my brothers small cake mix business about 7 years ago - genuinely not something he'd sent her or she'd asked for as she bought it in a shop. That day he had over 6 months worth of orders. In one day. Because she put it on her stories and said what a nice thing it was to do with her kids.

I cannot describe just what a difference it made to him and his one man business that year!!

It’s only the same as PR gifts in the 90s/00. We used to ask for/ get sent hundreds, thousands of pounds worth of stuff. It just wasn’t overt then.

No it's not the same! This is a wealthy person taking advantage of a small business.
Asking for a specific item which takes hours of the business owners time, not offering to cover travel, then not keeping up their end of the arrangement by not giving the 'exposure' promised.

The only issue here is the least bit - that the celeb didn’t keep up their end of the bargain by giving them the exposure. That’s why you clearly contract both sides of the service.

I blame anyone that actually takes notice of these ‘influencers’ 🙄

https://www.thepoke.com/2026/04/02/this-5-star-takedown-of-an-influencer-looking-for-a-free-hotel-stay-is-a-proper-hall-of-famer/

This one I think

The bakery owner has managed to get more exposure by slagging her off in the media than she would have got from the collaboration.

It’s a business opportunity, don’t like it, don’t do the collaboration. I don’t see why the business owner needs to go and slag off someone to the papers.

I get approached all the time at work over business opportunities that aren’t for us, I don’t find the m offensive or feel the need to name and shame. It’s unprofessional.

Im not in the market for overpriced cakes, but if I were I’d think less of the owner for this.

So not the same.

Much as I dislike the whole influencer concept, I'd think the issue here is that the influencer apparently reneged on her part of the contract. And yes, she should absolutely be publicly exposed for that. Otherwise, unless she's refusing to take "no" for an answer, the mere asking probably isn't a problem.

What's worse is the people who threaten to smear a business or do a negative review if they don't get the freebies.

I am seeing more and more suppliers saying they will refund the price paid if they get x sales using a special code they give the "influencer".

That seems more reasonable and transparent.

I read about this awful Blinky woman over breakfast. Even more appalling is that they are quite wealthy so it sounds like she is a terrible cheapskate and freeloader. How despicable to not want to spend your own money on your children when you are exploiting them all over your instagram account. Vile.

I'd have more respect for businesses if they didn't give people like these freebies, but made donations to hospitals and hospices. These so called 'influencers' are such scammers.

Talking of scammers, I also read that Katie Price's new husband has signed up to that Only Fannies site so he can show everyone pictures of his AI enhanced penis, no doubt massively exaggerated - not that we don't already know that he's a dick! Strange behaviour for someone who claims to be a billionaire!

That’s like the original scenario, not the examples in my post though. My examples are grifters hinting. The OP is grifters asking. Your brothers example is JJ buying with actual money a product, then saying ‘hey I bought this cake, it’s really nice’.

It's not just influencers. Many large businesses commission artist to produce work for them "for exposure" and, unfortunately, some agree which is why we now have a massive problem with visual artists, musicians etc not being paid fairly for their work. This has been going on for decades.
Same issue with unpaid internships...
Influencers are just the new version of the same old problem.

@Charlize43 I'd have more respect for businesses if they didn't give people like these freebies, but made donations to hospitals and hospices

100% this.

This absolutely does my head in. Basically “give me this for free”.

The mass flogging of stuff is also wild. It’s all some finance product called Nous at the minute.

I will never buy an Emma mattress, estrid razor or Suri toothbrush because of the relentless flogging of them. See also symptoms. I did get a wild deodorant (from a shop) and it was shit.

So true! Or they show pictures of the ones they are “narrowing their search down too” and tag the companies.