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Who even watches this fake-everything crap? How can people bring themselves to care about what some shrill rando thinks they should buy or not buy? I get the s

• holoduke 2y ago
  And how can someone become so obsessed by someone that he or she wants to follow that person. I never understood that.
  • cbolton 2y ago
    If you enjoy what they post, following them is an easy way to get more of something you enjoy.
  • tredre3 2y ago
    This very forum started as a way to follow Paul Graham. We're all the same in the end, no need to look down on people who follow things you don't care about.
  • giantrobot 2y ago
    Parasocial relationships. Influencers engage talk to their audience with a tone of familiarity. For some people they associate that tone with actually being familiar with the influencer. The viewer's internal schema for the influencer is familiar if not friend. This is exploited to sell those people things. It's not all that different from celebrity endorsement advertising, it's just a bit more direct and overt because the influencer might respond to a viewer's tweet or mention them by name/handle if they hit some Patreon level or buy some thing.
• r00fus 2y ago
  I don't know but there are Disney TV shows where the main characters "aspire to become an influencer". It's embedded in the zeitgeist, and I don't know it gets dislodged if at all.
• ben_jones 2y ago
  It’s a raw form of the same old celebrity worship we see with athletes, actors, and wealthy people. It’s in your pocket at all times, it’s in your friends pockets at all times, and there’s a tight feedback loop from the algorithm. Silver lining is the abundance of influencers lessens the stickiness of any particular brand and makes it a shorter term fad.
• sva_ 2y ago
  I think a lot of this is subliminal advertising. My gf sometimes randomly mentions some new product she suddenly thinks she needs and how everyone loves it... and I can only assume she saw something on Instagram without realizing it is an ad.
  • bombcar 2y ago
    It's not even subliminal - it's overt. And it works, even if you know it's happening.
  • whstl 2y ago
    I don't disagree with you, but isn't this just how regular product placement works? You put a coke bottle next to some athlete, someone makes a reference to some car in some tv show, or to some product in a movie. There are subtle and obvious ways to do it in those other mediums... The problem with "hobby" influencers is that they're supposed to be talking about those products anyway, so it's very difficult to know if they're still in the "initial phase" where they're just interested on products out of genuine interest (and purchasing it themselves), or if it's product placement :(
    • sva_ 2y ago
      > You put a coke bottle next to some athlete, someone makes a reference to some car in some tv show, or to some product in a movie. Would be illegal where I live, but seems to be common on IG (I don't personally use it, so idk)
      • whstl 2y ago
        Interesting, what's your country? Where I live (Germany), AFAIK, there is a partial ban on TV/radio product placement, but not in movies. And definitely not illegal in sports, with sponsorships and all.
        • sva_ 2y ago
          I was under the impression that if you do a product placement for which you get paid without marking it as an advertising, that would be illegal due to Medienstaatsvertrag § 8 Abs. 3 [0]. 0. https://lxgesetze.de/mstv/7 https://lxgesetze.de/mstv/7
• nordsieck 2y ago
  > How can people bring themselves to care about what some shrill rando thinks they should buy or not buy? The answer is pretty simple - they give you a reason for you to care. Quick example: Project Farm[1] on Youtube does product reviews. Maybe they're not the best reviews - I don't really know. They seem at least alright. But they're constructed in such a way as to be transparent, objective, and easy to understand. Which is why the channel has a lot of subscribers. Now, depending on the person, "a reason for you to care" will be different. But that's part of the reason why there's so many different influencers in each area - different influencers appeal to different people. --- 1. https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectFarm https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectFarm
  • gretch 2y ago
    I love project farm. Love how much rigor he puts into experiment design but still makes it obvious and appreciable to the layman observer. For example, when he tests tape, he does not put the tape down by hand. Instead he uses a roller with a fixed weight to push the tape down so that all tapes for sure have the same pressure applied
    • bombcar 2y ago
      Project Farm is awesome, but some of the tests he engineers aren't really suited for the tools he's testing. But if you aren't heavily involved with said type of tools, you'd never know so you can continue to enjoy the entertainment. Torque Test Channel does something similar, but they're usually just testing the numbers provided by the manufacturers, and then intentionally going off the rails to break the tools.
      • Vexs 2y ago
        The dude tests basically anything and everything, and gives them generally pretty reasonable goes at a proper test. Sure, it's far off from an industry standard in a lot of cases, but unlike the industry (generally) he does side by side comparisons.
        • 2y ago
• im3w1l 2y ago
  It makes sense if you think of those influencers like brands. Buying Kardashian-endorsed makeup is quite similar to buying (dr John Harvey) Kellogs endorsed breakfast cereal.
• aaronbrethorst 2y ago
  Not us. We’re here on Hacker News, which is a message board run by an early stage investor in thousands of companies, many of which routinely advertise to us on here.
  • EGreg 2y ago
    It’s almost like this is a result of capitalism in general, but pearl clutching is done in specific cases while ignoring the exact same dynamics nearly everywhere else Note how different the platforms are which are about collaboration instead of competition and profit motive: Wikipedia Open Source Software Science They feature a peer-review process, for the privilege of publishing your information for free to everyone. And you are held to a high standard, but also you have no obligation to wake up in the morning and continue to be an influencer-expert-on-everything. You can make a small contribution and drop the mic. That’s a gift economy. And if we had UBI, far more people would participate. Reimagine the whole system! This alternative is far healthier for society than surveillance capitalism and perpetual tribal outrage and depression across all ages. LAWeekly wrote about it last year: https://www.laweekly.com/restoring-healthy-communities/ https://www.laweekly.com/restoring-healthy-communities/
    • ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
      The three things you listed all have their own fiefdoms that are fiercely defended even without a profit motive.
• wnevets 2y ago
  Celebrity endorsements have been a thing effectively since the inception of celebrities. Why are those more worthy of people's attention?
  • AlexandrB 2y ago
    They're not. A lot of the internet is now "People Magazine" style tabloid nonsense. Some influencer "reacting" to another influencer getting mad because a third influencer said some controversial political opinion. This stuff isn't new, just packaged differently for a younger audience.
  • usrusr 2y ago
    One key difference is that those celebrities of old were famous for things quite disconnected from the thing they endorsed. And even when it was close (athletes endorsing sports gear, Hollywood beauties endorsing hair products) the "they are getting paid for the endorsement" was still nicely disconnected from what they were faimous for. Most influencers are famous for voicing an opinion on stuff. The stuff they are paid to praise. This seems as if it must be even more obvious, with the fame and the business so well aligned, but somehow this alignment appears to enable the fame to outshine the paid nature, like a person standing between a car's headlights would be perfectly invisible despite getting quite some scatter light on them. When the endorsement is orthogonal to the fame, perceiving it as what it is turns out to be much easier.
  • chankstein38 2y ago
    I've never understood why those worked either. They were _obviously_ paid for their endorsement and appearance in the commercial so why would that make me believe the product is good? Obviously it has worked for people but I've never understood why Shaq shilling some product is shorthand for "it's a good product" to people. I feel like people are really gullible.
    • rightbyte 2y ago
      Maybe it doesn't work at any reasonable rate of return and the advertisement sector is mainly a scam?
• elorant 2y ago
  The same reason they watch a reality show for the Kardashians. People want a glimpse into the life of the rich and famous.
• chinchilla2020 2y ago
  My guess is that the profit margins are so high, and the marketing is so cheap, you don't need a ton of sales to make money.
  • whstl 2y ago
    Anecdotal, but: I know some music equipment influencers and most of the ones I know just receive a free product, so yep it is very cheap. There are exceptions of course. My sister know some perfume influencers (who knew it existed) and it's very similar.
    • TylerE 2y ago
      Is it really "just a free product" when that stuff starts around a few hundred bucks and can easily run into the thousands?
      • whstl 2y ago
        Well, it is by definition, but yeah: with expensive products they obviously only send units to a small number of influencers, and often I know some stories of people only having it for a few days for making a video and having to return, almost as a favour. The more professional influencers obviously get paid a rate, and might or might not get a free unit.
      • giantrobot 2y ago
        Most of that stuff has embarrassing margins. Sending a couple samples to an "influencer" (paid advertiser) is the same as sending a retail shop floor samples/demo units. It's a tiny fraction of an advertising budget to get it in the influencer's hands then in front of potential customers. An influencer campaign is probably a fraction of the cost of TV commercials with an order of magnitude better attach rate.
        • TylerE 2y ago
          I think y'all are missing the further implications. A lot of these influencers talk up the gear they're sent for free and then sell it.
• j45 2y ago
  People who don’t know any better, yet because there may not be a way to locate alternatives as easily To quote the tshirt.. if the goal is to stop making stupid people famous (by glorifying celebrity).. It may require the people with a variety and diversity of authentic perspectives to get off the sidelines of silence and also create content not for everyone but those who are also interested.
• Barrin92 2y ago
  >Who even watches this fake-everything crap? the reason it works is precisely because it's not fake everything. A lot of these influencers are content creators who have built genuine followings, and are outside of their sponsor and brand deals significantly more personable than your average TV figure. That's why a lot of these people can command such high prices per user. I know a few people in the streamer space and they can usually charge about 1$/viewer/hour for sponsored content. So a streamer with 10k viewers can make 20k just playing a sponsored game for two hours. The audiences are incredibly invested because it's people they've been following for years.
• pessimizer 2y ago
  > Who even watches this fake-everything crap? Very few people. If it makes $21B in the US, that means that it's getting an average of $50/yr out of each of us. To be honest, I don't even know what "the dollars driving the industry" is supposed to mean. I assumed it meant $ in influencer pockets, but it's unclear from skimming the link. It could even mean "revenue estimated to have been driven by influencers."
• Simulacra 2y ago
  Young people, stay at home moms, people who are addicted to social media… I think it's the same kind of people who would buy things from the TV that they don't need. And a weird twist, I think it's entertainment for some
• ghthor 2y ago
  My friggin teenage kids do, it’s super annoying