Professionals, or experts, are held to high standards because their work should reflect the experience and knowledge that comes with the title. A “professional” hockey player is expected to compete at top performance when on the ice in front of thousands of people. An “expert witness” is questioned on their knowledge before permitted to appear in a courtroom and provide sworn testimony on a topic. But how does the public differentiate between experts and professionals, compared to “influencers”? Influencers have the ability to sway decisions, manipulate public opinion, and even move markets. But does that qualify them as experts to wield such power?
In 2017 this question was under great scrutiny as a result of the failed Fyre Festival fiasco that left hundreds of people stranded after paying thousands of dollars for a luxury experience. The festival was promoted on Instagram by numerous celebrities and influencers such as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Alessandra Ambrosio and others notable names. Each of these celebrities have millions of followers who unknowingly will believe almost anything these icons post on their news feed, that is why the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires influencers to disclose when they are being paid to market a product.
The festival founders, Billy McFarland and Ja Rule, had arranged for these celebrities to simultaneously post the first festival advertisement, thus sparking widespread interest and instant success on Instagram. The post connected to a site that secured a once in a lifetime experience with celebrities, music, and other over-the-top promises. It was clear that the marketing strategy was an immediate success, but the problem was it was advertising for something that literally could not exist.
Ticket sales had sold housing and accommodations to thousands of people on an island that could realistically support one hundred at most. The Netflix’s documentary FYRE is a combination of interviews and actual footage detailing the unraveling of events that ultimately show the founders had no concept of the intricacy of hosting or building an event of this magnitude. So what is the responsibility of the influencers who never identified they were being handsomely paid to flaunt the greatest weekend of their followers lives? Weren’t their followers lead to believe they are “experts” on such events?
Well, they still have millions of followers who will listen to almost anything they say, but they did get a slap on the wrist by the FTC. While some of the influencers were fined and issued apologies, others just took down the post and moved on. This is a reminder that these “professionals” don’t necessarily have any knowledge of what they are advertising. It used to be clear that a famous celebrity appearing in a commercial was being paid to promote a product, but with the debut of influencer-based marketing its become foggy when there is an ad slipped in between otherwise entertaining pictures and videos. The FTC requires that the hashtag #ad be added when posting paid advertising, but often these are slipped into a slew of hashtags that can number in the length of the Apple iPhone agreement.
Marketing professionals can use an abundance of strategies to promote their products and utilizing influencers is becoming one of the best strategies out there. But, Instagram followers should be informed, and FTC policies should be enforced, possibly even strengthened to ensure incidents such as Fyre Festival can be prevented in the future. But, to what level do we hold influencers accountable? They were not the one’s who organized the festival or purposely mislead followers, that’s just their job as influencers. Let’s hope these social media celebrities will be more “professional” in the future and reference real experts before posting their next paid advertisement.
References:
Wikipedia contributors. (2019, March 9). Fyre Festival. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:03, March 14, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fyre_Festival&oldid=886870167
Netflix (2019, January 18). FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ0KNVU2fV0
Paige, Rachel (2019, January 18). Kendall Jenner’s Fyre Fest Instagram May Have Actually Changed Influencer Culture
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/01/221813/kendall-jenner-fyre-festival-lawsuit-instagram-ads
Ostheismer, Micheal. Federal Trade Commission. (2017, September 7). CSGO Lotto Owners Settle FTC’s First-Ever Complaint Against Individual Social Media Influencers.
Ostheismer, Micheal. Federal Trade Commission. (2017, September 7). Three FTC actions of interest to influencers
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2017/09/three-ftc-actions-interest-influencers
Usher, Emma. (2018, August 17). Influencer Measurement: Don’t Put Data on a Pedestal https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/08/17/influencer-measurement-dont-put-data-pedestal
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