If you’ve ever scrolled through TikTok, you may have encountered those captivating videos of a random influencer restocking and organizing their immaculate kitchen or guest bathroom with supplies like they’re prepping for the end of the world.
You may have also seen those exaggerated “self-care routine” videos where influencers show off their 12-step skincare or haircare rituals, with each step requiring the use of a different product.
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It is also pretty common to see influencers repeatedly tap their nails on the products they use in these videos, all in the name of ASMR.
While these videos may appear to be made for entertainment or educational purposes at first glance, the intention is much more calculated, and as social media users become keen on that reality, it's starting to get ugly.
Social media users call out influencers for their selling tactics
Over the past few months, social media influencers have faced backlash from their followers for promoting overconsumption and unhealthy buying habits.
For example, in January, influencer Tori Halford faced outrage from viewers on TikTok after she posted a video of herself throwing out five Stanley Cups and replacing them with three HydroJugs, dubbing them the new "it cup" of the year.
“This is your sign to get rid of all your Stanleys because the new water bottle tumbler of 2024 is here,” said Halford while throwing her Stanleys in a trash bag.
Many viewers called her out for being wasteful, harming the environment, and promoting overconsumption, all in an effort to advertise a new product. She has since deleted the video from her TikTok page.
@g0.cat.g0 I understand that this is an ad and influencers rely on sponsorships for income but seriously have some responsibility on your wnviromental impact. #granola #granolagirl #fyp #sustainability #overconsumption #consumptionculture #stanleycup #greenscreenvideo
♬ original sound - Cat🪻🐌🌲
It is clear that a marketing tactic that was once working is now losing its flavor amongst some consumers.
“People are just sick of being sold to like the content is constantly an advertisement,” said YouTuber Ashley Viola.
Viola has a YouTube channel dedicated to calling out problematic viral TikTok trends and educating consumers about the sneaky tactics influencers use to promote products. She defines overconsumption as “the excess acquiring of goods that are not necessary, not essential for everyday life.”
“Overconsumption is how the practical influencers incorporate this messaging of ‘you need to buy a huge sum of products that you don't need,’ constantly being on the hamster wheel of having to purchase a new item all the time in a sense of like these items are very unreasonable, very unnecessary, but are being marketed as being ‘haves’ or whatever the case may be,” said Viola.
How influencer marketing turned into overconsumption
The idea of overconsumption on social media really started to take off in the early 2010s, which is also when being an influencer started to become a viable career.
At that time, makeup and skincare videos, such as Sephora or Target hauls, were pretty popular on social media. This is when an influencer would show their viewers the lump sum of items they "purchased" from a specific store, which served as the perfect disguise for product promotion.
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Since that era, influencers have evolved the way they promote products on social media, using tactics that are much more subtle. Instead of hauls, many influencers now post videos of themselves restocking, organizing or cleaning spaces in their homes with products they are quietly being paid to promote.
Some examples of this popular content include “organize my pantry” or “restock my fridge” videos, which often involve influencers taking food out of its original packaging and putting it in containers that make the space look more organized and aesthetically pleasing. Many influencers also don’t disclose to their viewers that they are being paid to promote the containers and products they use in these videos.
Some social media users have criticized this type of content for promoting excess waste and an unrealistic standard for how one’s home should look like.
“Like most of us are way too tired to organize our refrigerators and make them look aesthetic,” said Viola. “That's just not realistic when people are going to their jobs and are so worn out from work, like no one's refrigerator looks like that. These influencers, I don't even think that their refrigerators necessarily look like that when they're not recording content. They’re creating just a very curated image specifically for social media.”
There are even videos of influencers restocking their guest bathrooms with many expensive skincare and other toiletries their guests can use for their leisure, almost making it look like the everyday norm.
What stands out about this type of content is that the same products are always used to organize and restock these spaces, further highlighting that these videos are just mere advertisements.
As these videos grow in popularity on social media, they quietly promote a new standard that suggests consumers should purchase products en masse.
“Influencers have turned into glorified salespersons, and they're just using these really rhetorical, intentional strategies, almost like a car salesman, to manipulate you into purchasing more,” said Viola.
This marketing tactic also comes at a time when many consumers are falling into debt due to overspending. According to a recent Bankrate survey, 39% of adults in the U.S. use buy-now-pay-later services to purchase items. Also, 56% of adults who use these services have encountered issues such as overspending and missed payments.
Influencers get paid big bucks to promote brands
There are two main ways influencers can get paid to promote a product. Some influencers may receive a commission every time a product they endorse is purchased through an affiliate link, which they often place in the description box of their videos.
Influencers can also land sponsorships from companies, where they can make a lump sum of money to promote their products, regardless of whether their viewers buy them or not. For example, through sponsorship, content creators can make about $10,000 to $20,000 for a single Instagram post or 60-second video on TikTok to promote a brand.
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“It varies dramatically based on an influencer's following,” said Viola. “If you have a very large following and a larger reach, you can get paid as much as $50,000 for a single post. But for a smaller creator, of course, you're not going to be making that much. It could maybe (be) $500 for a single post or $300 if you're a smaller influencer. If you have a large following, brands are willing to shell out the big bucks, definitely, to pay influencers to widen their reach.”
Some influencers may also receive contracts from brands that instruct them on how to promote their products.
“They'll say you need to create two videos with our product in it and say this thing, or create a reel that's this long and mention our product X amount of times,” said Krysten Stein, an assistant professor at University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College.
Consumers grow skeptical of influencer marketing
Currently, influencer marketing is estimated to be a $21.1 billion-dollar industry, according to data from Statista. Also, a recent study from Matter Communications revealed that 69% of consumers claim they trust recommendations influencers give them for new products or services.
“The companies benefit from utilizing the labor of the creators that have curated their followers and that trust,” said Stein. “So I think that's a big part of this idea of being real online.”
With brands investing so much money into influencer marketing, some viewers are beginning to question the authenticity of product reviews from content creators.
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“Influencers, they just use very intentional, rhetorical strategies, very over-the-top strategies,” said Viola. “They do things like ‘this product changed my life,’ or ‘this is literally my favorite product ever,’ or ‘this is the best skincare cream that I've ever used.’ You hear them use all of these superlatives and really dramatic language, only for them to promote another skincare cream next week and claim that ‘this one is the best one.’”
Influencers have also been criticized by viewers for failing to disclose to their followers whether or not they are being paid to promote a product, which the Federal Trade Commission legally requires them to do.
The FTC states that if you are being paid to endorse a product on social media, “your endorsement message should make it obvious when you have a relationship (‘material connection’) with the brand” in order to keep recommendations “honest and truthful.”
Disclosures of paid promotions should also be placed somewhere that is not “hard to miss,” and people should be able to easily “see and understand” it. Despite this requirement, some influencers aren’t being transparent with their viewers about whether or not they are being paid to promote a brand.
“I think the law hasn't caught up to it quite yet to figure out exactly how to adjudicate this, people not disclosing their sponsorships, because influencing is still a relatively new career,” said Viola.
Social media users fight back against influencer marketing with underconsumption
As consumers on social media are becoming more aware of the different tactics influencers use to sell products, such as promoting overconsumption, viewers are starting to fight back with a new trend; “underconsumption core.”
Underconsumption core is a trend that started on TikTok that encourages people to restrict their spending and only buy what they need. This lifestyle also involves buying second-hand clothing or furniture and prolonging the life of goods that you already own.
The trend goes hand in hand with the recent de-influencing trend, which involves content creators warning social media users about buying certain overhyped and indulgent products.
“Viewers are really tired of this lack of authenticity, and we're seeing influencers in mansions and constantly flaunting their wealth; meanwhile, people are really struggling right now,” said Viola. “There's a housing affordability crisis, people are struggling to pay their student loans, people are struggling with inflation to just buy groceries. And they don't have money to keep buying new products every single week or every single day like these influencers want us to.”
It is no surprise that consumers are starting to hit back against influencer marketing by partaking in these trends as they continue to face increased pressures from a struggling U.S. economy and uncertain housing market.
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The U.S. inflation rate reached 2.5% in August, which is the lowest it's been since February 2021. Still, the consumer price index, which measures the average prices that consumers pay for goods and services, increased by 0.2% in August, according to data from NerdWallet.
Also, since the second quarter of 2020, home prices in the U.S. have increased by about 28%, which has chipped away at housing affordability.
As the underconsumption and de-influencing trends continue to roar on social media, Stein doesn’t believe that consumers are fully tackling the root of the problem.
“Influencing is a part of this ecosystem, but realistically, we're not holding the platforms accountable either,” said Stein. “And so I don't know how long the de-influencing trend will last, but at the end of the day, it's like, if we want to engage in de-influencing and proper consumption, well, we probably need to get off of a social media platform that is created for income generation. We can't escape it.”
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