Social media influencer marketing sees less oversight than many other types of
marketing, and thus it tends to display some unethical marketing traits. In particular,
smaller-scale influencers, whose posts only reach thousands rather than millions, are
subject to very little scrutiny over their paid posts. Influencers on Instagram are
expected to use the "#ad" designation in any sponsored post, but not all do, and even
less do so at the beginning of posts to make sponsorships clear.
The potential for deception is very high in social media posts, especially when
consumers aren't aware they're being marketed to. The aspirational aspect of many
influencers' feeds targets their followers to purchase the products they claim to use, but
the potential for deception is high. The products they market may not be something they
use, may not be quality items, and may not consider their audiences; for example, an
influencer with many underage followers would make a poor choice in promoting a
gambling product or an alcoholic product. The lack of honesty and authenticity in much
influencer marketing has been dangerous, especially to the young women who follow
aspirational influencers.
A particularly infamous example of dishonest and irresponsible influencer marketing was
the 2017 Fyre Festival, which was promoted in paid Instagram posts by several of the
best-known social media influencers. The models involved were filmed at a beach
location where the festival did not actually take place, and that footage was spliced
together with stock footage of music festivals, promoting a high-end festival for which
little had been planned and nothing secured. Would-be festival-goers, enticed by the
glamorous advertising and the influence of the models who were promoting the event,
purchased tickets and prepaid cashless accounts for an event at a site that was being
pulled together after they arrived, where the accommodations were nothing like
promised, to see performers who had already declined to perform. Not only was
marketing for this event dishonest and lacked transparency, it was irresponsible of the
influencers who were paid to promote this fraudulent event to participate in marketing
without paying attention to its basis in reality. Overall, the marketing for the event
displayed poor citizenship, as the nature of the event did not fulfill its responsibilities to
any of its stakeholders, with organizer Billy McFarland eventually facing many lawsuits
and federal charges for fraud (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2018).
References
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (2018, July 24).
Press release
. SEC
Emblem. https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-141
