Can we chat about fashion Instagrammers/influencers..

[Cherrypie32]

..because I don’t have anyone in real life to carp about it to. So, I follow a few, am addicted to the stories/feeds of some but don’t always know why. The ‘high end’ ones, The Frugality, Dress Like A Mum, Emma Hill etc pop up but quite designer and high end for me. I like the ramblings of Does My Bum but I’m nothing like her body shape so don’t wear her clothes. There are a few more ‘high street’ ones I follow, Steal My Style, What Kathy Did, Forty not Frumpy and more but they tend to be repetitive. Is this because they are so heavily sponsored to flog something? At the moment they are all banging on bout All Saints leather bikers and maxi skirts. And they all copy each other so there’s not much new to look at. There are a few I follow with nowhere near the amount of followers that seem more creative and have different body shapes so I presume that they have more liberty to do this as aren’t under afflilate deals.
I don’t need advice to ‘unfollow’, I enjoy looking at it all, just interested in how it all works really.

Quick, quick - post that ad on a story, sell your product and then pretend it never happened.

When they are in stories, do they still have to disclose? I am asking because I noticed many are not posting but are flashing stills into their stories. For anyone investigating an account, stories can still be located. It doesn’t just disappear after x amount of time. Surely the regulators will do a full investigation starting with the biggest accounts?

The influencers are trying to find workarounds and this can o my mean they knew what they were doing all along.

Asimplestyle promotes &Otherstories and until now she has never disclosed that she is gifted items/receives vouchers. I am actually disgusted with some of them.

Yes, I think so. One of them is promoting M&S (as an ad) on her stories. As you say it is a workaround and a clear admission they know exactly what they are up to.

I was talking to someone who works in fashion marketing and she said that when working with bloggers the company she works for have a policy of not paying hard cash for promotion. They offer freebies, events, trips etc instead which will produce a lot of images of the clothes. I just thought it was interesting. A blogger at an event or even on a city break could have had the whole thing paid for as long as they wear that company's clothes when they're there.

If they are disregarding the rules in stories in the hope they won’t be seen by the authorities as stories disappear they are in for a surprise. I for one will start to screen shot non-compliance and report to CMA. Arguably using the disappearing element of stories is a way of burying the evidence (which in itself is a crime). If the CMA has the remit to access historic stories (the technology is there as the data is saved) to view non-compliance of the clearly set out regulations then there really will be no place to hide.

It was all lovey dovey and now if people realise that sneaky is the by word then good

Ahh, the one I saw was clearly marked as an ad - that isn't the goal. It means that the advertising message is delivered but there is no awkward questionning or challenging. It is a more subliminal message without confronting the reality that they are relentlessly selling. Those pretty little tiles will lure us into believing they are our friends - you know the aspirational ones with the houses, the clothes, the holidays, the ktchens......................

I remember MOD used to get a lot of criticism on here & I always thought that it was because lots of her followers saw her as a friend, very relatable & just like them etc. Obviously her lifestyle changed as a result of that audience & she was no longer relatable.

MOD is resurrecting her original blog. She knows the score and that the freebie gravy train is about the end, so she knows she is going to have to go back and rebrand herself as a broadcastable 'expert' in her professional area and go down that path. Fair play.

Blimey - it's a whole new Instagram out there. So many, many coffee cups, flowers, exterior shots and not a kitchen in sight. Still a stony silence - hard to maintain your integrity while hiding away from the facts.

This has really opened my eyes about the extent of advertising on Instagram. I always knew that influencers received freebies but didn’t realise the the enormous extent of the “gifting” and the crap that has been forced down the throats of their followers. It feels really gross, greedy and manipulative.

A lot of the influencers discussed on this thread have gained their audience by playing up their “just like you” personas. Now that they are being forced to disclose what they have received as a result of a commercial relationship, we can see that this persona is total BS.
Influencers are literally unable to continue their regular style of content because they can’t put an outfit together or take a photo in their house that isn’t somehow tainted by a commercial relationship with a brand. They need to cop onto themselves and realise exactly how spoilt and petulant that makes them sound to the people who are supposedly “just like them”.

How many times have they stretched the truth (or downright lied for that matter) about loving something that they got sent for free. Not just the one item either! getting a monthly voucher allowance to keep up the pretence that they were regularly choosing to spend their own money with a brand.

They might act like their taste and styling has been the reason that people follow them, but let’s face it - it’s a hell of a lot easier to gain followers when you have a constant stream of new products to show off. If they were trying to do the same thing with the products they bought with their own money, few people would be interested because they’d just be repeating the same things over and over.

I don’t want to support people who are so shady and who have directly profited from the naivety of people like me. The worst thing is that many of these accounts have really sold the idea of #womensupportingwomen and #supportsmallbusiness when they’ve been shilling for any brand that will give them a freebie.

@ChiaraMontague well said.

Was also thinking about the women supporting women and Mental health aspect today. The reality is they have deliberately misled their followers (largely women and in many cases mothers of young children who can be very vulnerable in terms of their mental health). It makes me angry they have paid lip service to excellent causes whilst undermining it to the extent they have. “Disappointed”, “feel like a Mug”, “Misled” all feelings from their female (assuming) followers on this thread alone. You want to support women? Don’t sell them an idea that doesn’t exist whilst personally profiting from it. You care about maternal mental health? Don’t make them feel they should have the must-have Instagramable buggy liner and back pack whilst personally profiting from it. Admittedly there have been good elements - highlighting the need for smear tests for example but there has also been a lot of self invested virtue signalling.

I think the vouchers/monthly allowance/regular gifting thing has been the most illuminating aspect of this for me. The repeated exposure of the brands reinforces the feeling that the brand must be so great that people buy from there time and time again. The fact that this is done in conjunction with other paid posts, sometimes disclosed, is even more deceitful because the stream of vouchers and gifts is clearly just part and parcel of the same overall arrangement with the brands, and yet the brands and the influencers have been able to conceal the additional adverts on the guise of it not being covered by the ASA rules. It's scandalous really.

Who has revealed they get vouchers or monthly gifting??

Womensupportingwomen was a silencing device to deflect criticism and supportingsmallbusiness was a hook for another freebie (see the post a few pages back). Am guessing they will venture back in a few days to continue their selling and will turn the fan girls on anyone daring to challenge/enquire. The sulky woe is us tone will continue and they will play the victim, not the sales person.

Have seen Anneli Bush passively complaining about the rules on stories a couple of days ago. Bloody hell.....the gifts though! On one Tory it was everything she was wearing, everything baby was wearing, what he was sitting in, eating off of and even eating....their veg box had been gifted too. Of course this should be declared as “payment in kind”. I just cannot understand how so many of them think that it should not have to be declared.

They are living a lifestyle for free. But someone is paying for it....ultimately their followers who they are “influencing” to buy these products .....which means they can get them for free. I cannot see what is so objectionable to these transparency rules.... unless you don’t want to be transparent in fear the game is up and you’ve been outed.

Couple of examples, direct from the feeds:

DLAM: Jacket & boots from @ marksandspencer bought with #gift voucher that forms part of my monthly retainer budget with them

Emma Hill: JEANS - bought myself (I work with the brand on a monthly basis)

The jeans were Topshop. Basically anyone that wears AndOtherStories.

Obviously on one story not on a Tory that would be a whole different thread

I wonder if in 20 years we get a documentary (much in the same vein as the Bros documentary) with the title ‘When the Fawning Stops’.

Fair play to Emma Hill though, her responses to comments are great. No pity party from her. DLAM has also just got on with it too, although her 'I agree with transparency' comment made me splutter when I read it.

MOD's assertion that her blog would be sponsor and ad free would carry more weight if it had been enshrined somewhere permanent not just on one of these momentary stories which fly into the night. We shall see.

@ beerflavourednipples yes, I had a little cynical smile to myself when I saw she had oh so conveniently just ressurected her blog. I'm sure the timing of this was purely and completely coincidental.

I don’t expect blogs or other channels to be ad free. They’ve got to eat. I just want transparency as what is ad and what is not.

Just had a look at Emma Hill good on her, good replies

Well it certainly explains why insta become very narrow & less diverse. The same brands, the same styling, the same items. And also why certain brands are so popular but you rarely come across them in real life.