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Is the recent trend of faking sponsorships on instagram a dangerous one?

Secretofmateria

Secretofmateria

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Oct 27, 2017
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I noticed that many of my friends that i follow on instagram started posting pictures of themeselves with, or only a product and caption the picture in such a way that makes it look as if they were sponsored by that brand.

When i asked one friend about it, she told me that a lot of people who aspire to be sponsored on instagram, herself included, do this to make themselves look more marketable to companies seeking influencers to tout their products. I was baffled, then upon further research I found this article on the atlantic which states that this is a totally common, and even expected trend amongst those pining to be instagram famous.


My question is, why would companies now go out of their way to pay influencers to feature their products when it seems that so many are willing to do it for free, all for the sake of that sweet sweet instagram celebrity status? Also is their anyone here who does this?
 
nsilvias

nsilvias

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Oct 25, 2017
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This post is sponsored by resetera, head to resetera.com/eragold and use code whycan'tanyofyoubenormal for a free trial of resetera gold.
 
HStallion

HStallion

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Oct 25, 2017
62,262
Its like being asked to do something just for the exposure but you're doing it to yourself.
 
Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,098
Secretofmateria said:
My question is, why would companies now go out of their way to pay influencers to feature their products when it seems that so many are willing to do it for free, all for the sake of that sweet sweet instagram celebrity status? Also is their anyone here who does this?
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I mean this is a problem that kinda solves itself:
  • Wannabees flood instagram with fake sponsorships to imitate stars
  • The value of real sponsorships devalues
  • Real stars stop doing sponsorships because it isn't worth it
  • Wannabees stop flooding instagram with fake sponsorships
 
Goldenroad

Goldenroad

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
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Nov 2, 2017
9,475
Secretofmateria said:
i wont shed any tears for them, im just curious as to why a company would ever pay for this kind of marketing now when so many will do it freely, sort of baffling.
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Because you're talking about literal nobodies who are not "influencers". There's no way someone like Kylie Jenner, or whoever, is going to promote your product for the exposure.
 
Trickster

Trickster

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,533
Is your friend part of Gen Z? My impression of gen z people is that an insane amount of them want to get famous enough on social media to basically become influencers.

Don't really think it's a "dangerous" trend. As long as the companies or their products aren't featured in a negative way, I doubt they're gonna wanna sue people for the free advertising.

And at worst the people doing this are gonna go nowhere with it and just give up trying to make money from it
 
OP
OP
Secretofmateria

Secretofmateria

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,424
Teh_Lurv said:
I mean this is a problem that kinda solves itself:
  • Wannabees flood instagram with fake sponsorships to imitate stars
  • The value of real sponsorships devalues
  • Real stars stop doing sponsorships because it isn't worth it
  • Wannabees stop flooding instagram with fake sponsorships
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Click to shrink...

i could only hope so, seeing some of my friends do this lately has made browsing instagram a groan worthy experience
 
OP
OP
Secretofmateria

Secretofmateria

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,424
Trickster said:
Is your friend part of Gen Z? My impression of gen z people is that an insane amount of them want to get famous enough on social media to basically become influencers.

Don't really think it's a "dangerous" trend. As long as the companies or their products aren't featured in a negative way, I doubt they're gonna wanna sue people for the free advertising.
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no shes a millenial, but she strikes me as the sort of person that desperatley wants to be a part of gen-z. Sort of like a "how do you do, fellow kids?" Scenario.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,029
Nah it's not dangerous, but it does add another layer of suspicion and corporate governance for Instagram advertisers that now they have to be on the lookout for people pretending to be sponsored through them. Like, let's say some person who has really vitriolic, hateful posts starts saying their account is sponsored by Nike or something, it'd take an extra layer of scrutiny. As always, don't take what you see on the internet at face value.

It's all fucking hilarious to me, people pretending to post sponsored content that isn't... But I get this is a trick that non-influencers use to try to make their account look more legit to would-be sponsorship partners.

Ultimately, though, the responsibility is on people who follow those "influencers." Don't believe everything you see on the internet. Be skeptical.

As a macro-trend this is probably self-correcting over time. Ultimately companies that sponsor posts need to do their research on who they choose as sponsors or ambassadors. If companies don't do their research, they'll pay ambassadors who don't have the social reach that they're pretending to have. It's honestly a good opportunity for a middle man, so if anybody is looking to make real money in this new media industry, be the middle man who matches up companies with legitimate influencers... Invent the company that has data science to validate whether an influencer has the reach that they pretend to have. I'm sure companies like this exist already, but it probably isn't too crowded if there's still enough people faking their influence with fake sponsored content.
 
16bits

16bits

Member
Apr 26, 2019
2,862
Secretofmateria said:
exactly my thought, why would they want to get rid of free advertising?
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In advertising/ marketing, i assume the brands choose very carefully who they want to pay to endorse their products.

If someone claims they are officially an influencer, and well, lets say they are not suited to their brand, it could well be harmful to the brand.
 
Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,098
Man, reading this thread is making me work up an appetite. It's a good thing that Blue Apron offers a wide variety of tasty, nutritious meals that are delivered right to my door.
 
OP
OP
Secretofmateria

Secretofmateria

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,424
The Albatross said:
Nah it's not dangerous, but it does add another layer of suspicion and corporate governance for Instagram advertisers that now they have to be on the lookout for people pretending to be sponsored through them. Like, let's say some person who has really vitriolic, hateful posts starts saying their account is sponsored by Nike or something, it'd take an extra layer of scrutiny. As always, don't take what you see on the internet at face value.

It's all fucking hilarious to me, people pretending to post sponsored content that isn't... But I get this is a trick that non-influencers use to try to make their account look more legit to would-be sponsorship partners.

Ultimately, though, the responsibility is on people who follow those "influencers." Don't believe everything you see on the internet. Be skeptical.
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of course, i dont follow any racists or homophobes (i hope) but i imagine if one of them starting pushing a big brand super hard it
Could become an issue for that company.
 
Ezra

Ezra

Member
Nov 14, 2017
499
Secretofmateria said:
My question is, why would companies now go out of their way to pay influencers to feature their products when it seems that so many are willing to do it for free, all for the sake of that sweet sweet instagram celebrity status? Also is their anyone here who does this?
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This will not happen.

Advertisers found out about the power of microinfluencers years ago because we have data showing that people trust smaller influencers more, but there's a whole strategy behind that. If the brand have a physical store, we need to find influencers that live nearby, that has the same lifestyle that the brand promotes, we need to brief them about our product etc. Big influencers are used to a whole different thing (awareness, brand stature etc).

In advertising, we don't have control of who are talking about our brand, but we try our best to have control of the narrative. This would definitely not happen if we're not paying influencers.
 
Trickster

Trickster

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,533
limerobot said:
In advertising/ marketing, i assume the brands choose very carefully who they want to pay to endorse their products.

If someone claims they are officially an influencer, and well, lets say they are not suited to their brand, it could well be harmful to the brand.
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I doubt most companies care that much who advertises their products if it's free and unofficial. If some nazi or another evil person did this for some product, and it attention. The company could easily distance themselves or crack down hard on that person.

And realistically most people that are gonna do this will just be dumb young people
 
OP
OP
Secretofmateria

Secretofmateria

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,424
Teh_Lurv said:
Man, reading this thread is making me work up an appetite. It's a good thing that Blue Apron offers a wide variety of tasty, nutritious meals that are delivered right to my door.
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if you need a website to post your great recipe idea's on then why not try Squarespace? Head to squarespace.com in order to find aesthetically pleasing and simple to use website templates in order to make YOUR dreams a reality! While your their use my offer code eeeeyyylmao for 20 percent off of your first month!
 
Mirage

Mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,565
This is pretty crazy OP I'm afRaid Shadow Legends is a mobile-fantasy RPG game for mobile and PC developed by Plarium Games.
 
StrayDog

StrayDog

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Jul 14, 2018
2,614
Fake celebrities doing fake things.
This only will devaluate the brand and ok with that lol
 
Ezra

Ezra

Member
Nov 14, 2017
499
Trickster said:
I doubt most companies care that much who advertises their products if it's free and unofficial. If some nazi or another evil person did this for some product, and it attention. The company could easily distance themselves or crack down hard on that person.

And realistically most people that are gonna do this will just be dumb young people
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It truly depends of the way they're doing the "ad", who that person is and what brand we're talking about. For example, one of my clients is a big makeup brand from Brazil with a feminist and pro-lgbtqi+ message. If an homophobic influencer is saying that this brand is paying them, my client would definitely have a problem with that.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,109
Why are people doing free advertising? Value yourself and your time people
 
MisterZimbu

MisterZimbu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
372
Eh, I do understand the issue of it devaluing influencers by promoting content for free. Why would sponsors pay anyone when there are plenty of people doing it for free? The sponsors would just be losing money at that point. But not nearly as much money as you would lose if your identity became compromised while viewing the web without NordVPN.
 
Lost Lemurian

Lost Lemurian

Member
Nov 30, 2019
4,297
Y'know, I don't have an Instagram, and as far as I can tell, it's just people trying to sell each other lotion and monthly box services.

What exactly is the appeal?
 
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