A traditional set, say a studio kitchen for a food product shoot, is a first level reproduction: the set is a reproduction of a real kitchen; the food shown is

A traditional set, say a studio kitchen for a food product shoot, is a first level reproduction: the set is a reproduction of a real kitchen; the food shown is a reproduction of real food; and that actor is a reproduction of a real chef. That's all easy enough to see. This apartment though has a second level of fakeness. What it offers is not so much a reproduction of reality as a reproduction of "influencer" life. You go there to take photos of yourself taking photos there. That's one reason why I felt that adult films were an appropriate analogy: porn conveys not only a direct pleasure fantasy but the second level fantasy of being a porn star. I think this second level fantasy may explain why don't care if the first level's fakeness is so obvious. In this case though, the set is not even a reproduction of anything real. It is just a construction of symbols that recreates what a "trendy millennial luxury penthouse" represents. Maybe not even that since the community itself defined which values a "trendy millennial luxury penthouse" should have and how certain symbols signal those values. Take millennial pink. It's not a real thing. Millennials do not have some biological attraction to that specific shade. The color started as a way to show that you had a specific set of values, say: uniqueness and authenticity. At some point however the color came to stand-in for these values; I am unique and authentic because I own a millennial pink chaise. Now the color doesn't even convey that so much as the idea of millennial, or more likely some ironic take on the idea. Influencers make an easy target. My point though was never that influencers are the problem, just as porn is not the problem, rather I think they both capture how we are moving farther towards a hyperreal existence. In my view, the "reality TV" realities they offer are different from more traditional media because they are not just simple reproductions and because, more and more, they are constructed in the air.