As seen by group 2, online influencers have become the new wave regarding media celebrities, ad promoting, and potential income for the average person. People are able to become instantly famous with a viral post in any genre and any type of way. From cooking tips, cute videos of dogs, to dance trends, anything can become popular overnight.
On TikTok, an older man simply riding a skateboard down the street, drinking Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice, and sinking along to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac garnered around 71 million views. As the video went viral, not only did Mick Fleetwood recreate the same video, but Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice gave him a promotion deal as well. According to this article, Ocean Spray Cranberry juice was sold out in many stores and the classic song received a, “374% jump in sales and a 89% jump in streams” as well as made it back to the Billboard Charts after being released back in 1997. With rapid sensationalism occurring at the drop of the hat, endorsements and sponsorships are becoming ever present in videos produced by micro and macro influencers.
The advertising has also boomed from virality of media stars as these fresh influencers welcome any type of promotional deal as free agents. A-list celebrities also tend to be very selective with brand deals and are willing to give a lot less promotional material for a more expensive price tag. Many of these media influencers are also closer in age to a brand’s targeted audience and come off as more relatable to the younger generation. As stated by this article, “the influencer marketing industry is expected to hit $13.8bn by 2022”, which supports the notion that this ad strategy has and will continue to become one of consumers main ways for purchasing items.
With so many younger people looking up to these media influencers, it's significant that users are made aware when a recommendation is an actual ad deal or sponsorship to restrict manipulation by the influencers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also set guidelines regarding endorsement deals such as,”any influencer with a material connection to the brand [must] clearly and obviously disclose [any] material connection…every time they promote the product” as stated in this article. With so many facades associated with social media, it’s hard to tell what’s real and fake, this is why these are important ethics to enforce as the younger generation is especially more at risk of misleading information.
No comments:
Post a Comment