The destruction of
Influencer marketing.

What exactly is an Influencer?

An "influencer," AKA: Brand Ambassador, is someone who has: the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience. a following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages. The size of the following depends on the size of his/her topic of the niche. It is important to note that these individuals are not merely marketing tools, but rather social relationship assets with which brands can collaborate to achieve their marketing objectives.

Influencer Marketing Types:

Different types of Influencers is a ranking for deciding how much you are willing to spend for the peddling. Celebrities vs opinion leaders with extensive knowledge on the subject of a product, lifestyle or category. Regardless of the level of investment, overtime most consumers know when a person has been hired to hock a product and which one's are doing it as a service to a community. One of the most memorably Influencer Marketing fails of all time was "KENDALL JENNER ENDS POLICE BRUTALITY WITH A PEPSI." (1) This shouldn't be too much of a surprise as the Kartrashian's are well known for their willingness to push anything for money, so there true connection to a product, category or target is irrelevant. They are modern day Snake Oil Salesmen and almost all segments of the population are aware of this. Ironically they share the second biggist influencers debacle with dead musician t-shirts too.

Influencers in social media are people who have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic, but many are paid schills.

Then there is Oreo. Oreo collaborated with influencers Dan and Phil on a Lick Race challenge to see who could lick an Oreo clean first. Dan and Phil did not disclose that their content was paid by Oreo’s parent company Mondelez. (2) When a dishonest attempt at 'sell-promotion' is revealed it becomes propaganda and good ole' Dan and Phil had to take down their paid Oreo video.

Sell-promotion is at the heart of the issue when using Influencers. When a consumer see's through a paid Influncer for it's thin one sided sell they and the product they are pushing will fail, losing their audience forever. Turtle Beach game accessories made this error with their 2024 Stealth Ultra controller launch. The product was (is) a gigantic technological leap forward

for gamer's as it's an anti-drift, wireless controller with a screen built-in for customized programming. No other game controller on the market has the anti-drift magnetic technology, so they leveraged dozen's of Turtle Beach paid Influencers to get the message out. The hype worked, but the $200 product had certain design flaws like button layout which were hard to reach compromising gameplay, a rechargable battery that promised 30 hours, but lasted half that and plastic joy sticks verses the competitions aluminium giving way to premature wear. These realities were left out of all the influencer sell-promotional reviews and were eventually spread by consumers all over the internet curtailing sales and the reputation of all involved.

Then there is MSM sensation, Democratic Influencer Harry Sisson. Sisson was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to get out the vote for Kamala Harris during her failed 2024 Presidential run and less than a year later charges against Sisson have come to light. Harry Sisson allegedly convinced 11 women to share explicit photos of themselves via Snapchat. "When the women discovered each other one by one, he called them all insane and attempted to coerce one of them into telling the public that the photos were 'fake.'" (6) Remember the MeToo movement? Sisson is yet another example of how using a predator as an Influencer has gone terribly wrong.

This too will be the result of the obviously fabricated romance of Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. A fantasy Disney like arrangement under the guise of promoting Pfizer's experimental Covid/Flu shots. The billion dollar Pharma industry pushing influencers over product benefits. "Get a “twofer”—a Covid shot and flu shot at the same time." (3) Recall the song "Pusherman" by Curtis Mayfield? "Two bags, please. For a generous fee." USA Today's Article below states what all NFL fan's are thinking and saying, except no one is enjoying it: "The Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance is fake. You know it is. So what? Let's enjoy it." (4) The Taylor Kelce charade is so unbearable at this point that UFC Veteran Paige VanZant Claims Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Romance as “100% Fake” — Recounts Her Own Experience with NFL Player. The endless PR the media pumps out does nothing to convince one to get another jab either.

On-the-other-hand, using celebrities with real experience and connection to a product or brand can bring very positive attention. Authentic, an industry buzzword loosly used by many, is quite relevant here and a gauge of whether an Influncer is a good fit or not. A tech company hiring a retired NBA legend or a famous NFL football player hired to drive a new EV luxury sedan to the Super Bowl would not be considered authentic, but Lucid Motors spent money doing the latter anyway. “Lucid Air: The Official Car of Allen Lazard During Super Bowl Week” That PR piece sure rings true now doesn't it? No, no it doesn't and the Green Bay Packer's weren't even in the Super Bowl that year, but the LA Rams were and they won. Why does that matter? California is where Lucid Motors is based. The Packer's made Allen Lazard a restricted free agent that same year and in 2023 he was traded to the NY Jets. Was that an authentic Infuencer?

Authentic: adjective, au·​then·​tic, not false or imitation : REAL, ACTUAL

Then there's the dark part of influencer's. Well, the darker part. At the dawn of the Cold War, the CIA looked to make culture a subversive weapon. A year after the CIA was formed, the Pentagon established the position of an entertainment liaison officer. They have assisted and funded the production of 60 film and television shows. However, to begin with, its initial aim was to hide its existence from entertainment. "How the CIA infiltrated Hollywood" outlines the journey. Let us not forget in 2013, Congress abolished the domestic dissemination ban, which has led to a heated debate about the role of the federal government in free public discourse. In simple terms this allows the U.S. Government for the first time to use propaganda against it's one citizen's. Northwestern University has a deep dive into the massive change and wrote, "The Smith-Mundt Act Before And After The Repeal Of The Domestic Dissemination Ban." "Although the 2013 repeal of the domestic dissemination ban promotes greater government transparency and may help counter anti-American sentiment at home, it also gives the federal government great power to covertly influence public opinion." Regardless of your personal political affliation, buying social media influencers and bot armies to slander political opponents is immoral and unethical and Kamala Harris the installed Presidential candiate is doing exactly that.

There are very positive uses of influencer's too. The “My life. My card.” campaign we created for American Express almost two decades ago is a great example of authentic. We used actual AmEx cardmembers to feature in the campaign. Those real cardmembers were A-list celebrities and we asked them real questions, which they answered honestly, in their own handwriting and we didn't change their answers either. It was based in truth and not a pretend endorsement.

In-short, an authentic, reality based creative solution, connected to a big campaign idea is prefered as tactical one-off's often fail and propaganda Influencer's are no different.