Bloggers and Brands 3

[CookingUpAStormTonight]

New thread I hope.

Ouch allergy.

Agreed.

I doubt any of them are any more transparent than required. If they show a product/ask for product recommendations/say they've had lots of dms about something I'd bet they've been sent it/paid for it.

These threads are wising people up to stealth selling to frazzled mums.

I've just read this whole thread, there are great comments from both Mumsnetters and the Instagrammers discussed.

DMBL40, ED, MP and MOD seem to be taking it on all board and behaving responsibly.

Maybe for those commenters who are clearly trying to turn this into something else should take note

why do you feel like a plant, allergy?

Dorset Cereal PR perhaps

@Fruitbowl2
you seem paranoid. I'm not a plant I'm a woman, a mum who is sticking up for bloggers, some eg MOD/FOD who seem to get such a hard time. It's like reading the comments on the DM, car crash viewing.

If any of them have been more transparent it's really clear they've done so in response to MN threads/people reporting them to ASA.

But so what if they have changed in response to MN threads? I’m not going to further criticise someone who listens to feedback (or as MOD said, used it as market research) and decides to act on it. What does that achieve? They are the ones that deserve credit, not the bloggers who still have their head in the sand.

I agree sharpie. If you're happy they've changed then they should be given credit.

I am on the wrong thread really. Late to the various discussions about instamums generally.

But. If instatamums have been told by their PR teams to get their arses on here so as not to alienate their target audience to sell stuff, I'm not sure why they need defending. They are businesses.

Why did they delete all the critical comments on their posts? They could have addressed the critics on their on accounts. They're on here because they couldn't manage these threads and they end up in the press.

I'm Genuinely flabbergasted that there appears to be a market for this crap. I took one look at FODs account and it was the cringiest thing ever. Anyone knows bringing up kids isn't like that with all those obnoxious ott facial expressions and dangling kids by their feet bullshit. Surely he's some paid actor?
And do brands really shift more when these idiots pose with their products?

The only bloggers on here have come on to explain their stance, quite openly using their names so we know who they are (SofiaLemon excepted, who I kind of miss now she's gone )

The lack of disclosure from WIT is quite shocking, to me. The Zimmerman dresses the most recent example. I have no issue as such with the blogger freebies (it's part of their job, to advertise, I get it, some brands really do devalue though by doing so) but the pretence that this is all personal choice and personally funded is utterly disingenuous. We must just assume everything WIT mentions is an ad.

sharpie. That was indeed rather bizarre with sofialemon!

I think you have to accept WIT / Icons is just a shopping site!! It's all links!! I went on yesterday and was shocked and noticed a lot of it is lower end (ASOS, Stories etc) as that's obviously the price point people are prepared to shop at.

Fair play to you all for sticking with WIT for this long. I deleted that bookmark about two years ago. Shes bought and paid for, that one.

I have to give kudos on here to Dress Like A Mum who is now starting to declare a huge amount more. Even M&S! Paid partnerships and everything! She's still not 100% by any means but she's gotten shedloads better over the past 3/4 weeks. She may be a bit late to the party, but who cares as long as shes becoming more transparent.

I floor her on insta but had never actually looked at the site!

I actually loved her original blog. But this is so far removed from that! I saw thy had a meeting with an architect yesterday too so obviously getting flash and unnecessary fancy offices.

AB also touting next and ASOS at the weekend. Another huge. On discloser!

wardrobe icons is just a fancy frontage for affiliate links under the banner of being 'carefully curated'. give it time and they'll be flogging their own 'carefully curated' range fresh in from aliexpress with a huge markup .

Yes, DLAM seems to have quietly started tagging more of her content.

@magickingdom82 Haha to the 'dangling kids by feet nonsense'. Agreed - MOD must go spare when she's the one who - as she says has to do the dishwasher, washing, clean toilet etc etc and he's just playing Hilarious Fun Dad 🤦‍♀️

@nipersvest This has raised the point of whether something is a magazine or a blog. WIT started as a blog but as Icons is now more of a digital mag - similar to say SheerLuxe in that way. So perhaps she feels the affiliate stuff doesn't all need declaring - what does ASA say here I wonder? Does anyone else know?

FOD is in danger of becoming a parody of himself, the daft facial expressions are gimmicky and off putting. And who was doing it first? FOD or Papa Pukka?

WIT is definitely digital mag now, no idea where that falls with the ASA or even tax and declared income, the magazine is free (is it?), so they make their money from links, does that mean they skirt round the whole EU law on paying VAT for digital sales?

I always wince when FOD holds his daughters up high in one hand, or climbing on shelves and in presses. I do hope the furniture is well secured to walls and am baffled he doesn’t see the potential danger in the way he man-handles his kids.

Most of his video clips are fake, well thought out and rehearsed (as much as you can rehearse with two year olds!). If he put his phone away, he wouldn’t be chasing after them so much. The poor girls must be bewildered by the constant filming of them but I suppose they’ve never known anything else.

And he gives the impression that they aren’t too many ‘hands on’ Dad’d out there.

I've been following these threads with such interest. Diverting a bit from the discussion above (I have no idea for example who MOD and FOD are!), I saw the Claudia W. piece in The Sunday Times and it was timely because I have been thinking about this a lot lately.

I had a very tough 18 months starting in 2016 and found myself buying myself out of a hole, which coincided with suddenly having a little more cash. I joined Instagram and found following feeds such as DMBL40 and Erica Davies and StylemeSunday really useful - my style is not their style but they gave me ideas. They were also a very useful distraction at times.

But roll on another six month or so, and I am starting to feel that Instagram is having a quite different impact. I often feel quite anxious and irritable, sort of twitchy. And also quite want-y, that feeling that no matter what I buy, it will never be quite 'enough.' I think this is totally inevitable when you watch the constant round of new purchases that all these bloggers make. But also there is no doubt that while I consider myself very fortunate, I make a comparison between their beautiful houses/clothes and my own, which just don't match up.

This is a slightly different point to the transparency one - because even with that, I think that (for me) these accounts are problematic. I am not blaming them for this. It's what they do, and that's fine. But I have made the decision to come off Instagram.

Ultimately I just can't see how the effect of this can be anything other than quite pernicious. Or at least, if it's not for other people, they must be made of much stronger stuff than me. I know many of these bloggers make efforts to underline that their lives are not perfect, and some promote good causes like body confidence. But there is no getting round it, they are selling a lifestyle and that lifestyle requires (quite a lot of) money, and it helps to create the illusion of need, which gets you spending more.

I would just add (on a lighthearted note) that ED who does seem really lovely, once showed a photo of her 'messy' kitchen, so that we could see beyond the manicured shots to the 'reality' of life. It made me giggle. It looked like my kitchen might look following a massive refurbishment and on a VERY good day!!

Scummymummies is the only account ive seen where they show "my house is a bombsite" pics and omg it actually looks like a bombsite. I find that account hugely relatable.

Maybe I should try that out Eslpeth. Might make mine look better by comparison, not worse!