Influencers Don't Care If You Go Broke

I wish celebrity-worshipping would just STOP.

Me who has no money and skips all influencer product promotions. pikachu face

The Taylor Swift phenomenon is amazing. So many of her fans were defending the dynamic pricing, saying she had not influenced it. She revolutionized how high tickets could be priced during reputation tour to ensure that she made more money than resellers. It’s also the reason resellers charge so much for her tickets. The only way to make a profit on a $800 tickets is to charge over $1000, so she drove resell prices up as a consequence. She didn’t do anything to stop resellers from charging her fans extra money through some verification; she just made it so that if anyone is selling $800 tickets, it’s her. At the time, every music journal was predicting that those high prices would cause the tour to fail, but her fans were willing to pay those prices. It became the highest grossing tour because she was charging her fans prices that you used to only see resellers charge. The amount of times I’ve seen people say “Taylor would be so upset and she would never do this” with her most recent tour even as her $70 tour merch fades with one wash. It’s unhealthy. I wanted to go to the Eras tour, but the idea of spending $1600 a ticket is gross. She would do “this”; she’s the business savvy artist that invented “this”. She’s just completely revolutionized the parasocial relationship between fans and artists especially through her private listening parties

Their job is to take money out of our pockets and put it in their pockets. All of them from low level influencers to top celebrities. At all times and in all ways. That is my belief.

Influencers are the new sales people.

I really wish we would stop giving influencers attention. Why do we do this? What do they do for us??

Im surprised you didnt mention the ad campaign Taylor put out with Capitol One to sign up for a credit card just to try to get tickets for her concert. Always rubbed me the wrong way when her solution to high ticket prices she created was to tell her fans to sign up for debt.

"Our relationship with these influencers are their currency." Nicely said.

You need to understand that an influencer is a sales person .

I have been thinking about this recently. Like why do people get angry when their idol is in romantic relationship, or why do they buy everything that he wears/uses/eats. Sometimes I see bloggers selling basic merch (like cheap t-shirt with a word on it), it looks ugly and it's extremely overpriced, but some people actually buy it. And I also think that selebrities (especially asian ones) create a "surreal and untouchable" image to distance themselves from other people and make money out of it. I'll try to explain. Lables already choose extraordinarily beautiful people to form a k-pop group, but also alter their appearance even more (whiten their skin, getting cosmetic surgery, loosing weight) to create an unrealistic picture. Every photo is retouched and edited, every caption is carefully written and should be approved to be posted, their makeup is done seamlessly by professionals and their hair always stays in the same shape. They avoid even the slightest scandal and they don't talk about politics (or anything that includes sharing their personal opinion), they always say how much they love their fans and how much they inspire them. They don't usually go in public, they don't eat at the same restaurants you eat, they don't fly in planes you fly. You can barely find a single ugly photo of them, etc. And my point is that you wouldn't take a loan for 1000$ to go to your local singer's concert, but when it comes to BTS or any other popular group, you would take that loan just to see them one time, because it feels like they are literal gods, flawless creatures that came down from the sky to bless our mortal souls with their immaculate selves. And people (including me) would give everything, just to make eye contact with one of the members. That's actually sad how easy it is to manipulate me or other people just by creating this "para social relationships"

Imagine social media ceasing to exist overnight. Millions of people will be forced to find their own identity and see themselves as merely who they are, and not who they might like to be. That my friends, is the real doomsday for many.

I don’t trust any influencer. I don’t follow any of them on my socials. Not even my favorite singers. Like you said, they are a brand. There is no reason why we should be trusting them when they try to sell us things.

Never forget Fyre Festival. Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner have pretty much shaken off the bad press from that, no real consequences for them. There have been so many huge case studies that society should know better, but memories are short and people are kept distracted.

Rich people only face consequences when they steal from other rich people.

thank you for emphasising that money is emotional. I’ve grown so tired of listening to the same people giving out toxic advice about money and encouraging others to shut off emotions when managing finances. listening to you saying that it’s very emotional was a breath of fresh air and brought me a step closer to understanding my own financial habits. thank you for the video!!!

Honestly any time I see a product pushed super hard by a bunch of influencers I automatically don’t trust it.

You’re absolutely right about the “brand of Taylor Swift” and how we should treat it differently than Taylor Swift the person/artist. She’s exceptionally good at making us feel like her friends which can be a bad thing. I feel like her social media accounts (and more specifically Taylor Nation) “rewards” people who buy the merch, and the countless album variations, and go to concerts with engagement and it feels pretty terrible as someone who can’t afford to spend in that way. It’s important to remember that you’re not a “bad fan” for not being able to contribute to a massive media machine worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Scamfluencers" will make fake apologies, but will never return the money, greed is greater than their principles, if they ever had any.

If most of the "get rich quick schemes" advertised by influencers were effective, no one would be poor.

Even if Taylor's concert is once in a life time, I dont want to see myself skipping out on real necessities like food or stack up on credit dues because I spent thousands of dollars on one concert ticket. I was able to admire her for years with just listening to songs, I think im good with that. I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan, and have shed so much light about the era's ticket pricing. Im only 27, and recently, I've been more responsible about my finances which in this day in age we should truly embrace more.