Whether they’re sharing beauty tutorials or performing pratfalls for the camera, social media influencers tend to have one thing in common: they want us to buy things. In a video collaboration between Frame News, Wrestler and The Spinoff, we look at influencers, and the powerful marketing industry behind them. 

Almost as soon as we had social media, we had social media influencers. YouTubers, Instagrammers and every other format-ers acquired fame and huge followings, only to quickly ask themselves: for what? The answer turned out to be, like most full-time jobs, cash. Agencies swooped in to pick them up, and brands to pay for them to advocate for them.

It seems like such a sweet deal – until you look at it from the consumers’ perspective. Their feeds are getting filled with ads, yet no one is admitting they’re getting paid. Contrast that with the strict disclosure standards on telly and the radio, and it starts to look like the unregulated wild west is just another place for young people to get exploited. In this video, from Frame News, we speak to influencers, their agents and critics of the regime to try and figure out what the deal is with this very new and very rich industry.

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