The widespread rebranding efforts of almost all influencers to position themselves as “content creators” signal one thing: the influencer industry is experiencing an existential crisis
Alix Earle is not your average influencer: 6.5 million followers on TikTok, countless brand sponsorships, being one of the first two hosts who launched a podcast on Alex Cooper’s podcast network, Unwell (the result of an exclusive three-year, $60 million deal with Spotify). Earle’s rise to fame – and maintenance of it – is as glorious to watch as Dua Lipa’s iconic stage presence six years after “Go, Girl, Give Us Nothing”.
But she thinks she’s “annoying”. She wonders if she’s someone that she would even like. As relatable as it may be (I experience those thoughts five times a day), a closer look into the influencer marketing landscape shows that influencers and their relevance have been increasingly under the microscope which threatens the existence of influencer marketing. After all, as a $24b industry according to Statista, it’s only fair for the industry to face such scrutiny.
The domino effect of celebrity culture’s downfall
Think about it, celebrities and influencers operate in the same system, so it’s helpful to investigate the demise of celebrity culture as we know it, which foreshadows that of influencers.
Make no mistakes, celebrities are still big business: sold-out concert tickets, record-breaking box offices, inventing beauty brands that make a strong mark. However, much ink has been spilled over the disillusionment of it all, perhaps since Gal Gadot imagined all the people – or celebrities if you will – on 18 March 2020; followed by Dakota Johnson’s ending Ellen DeGeneres’s career, the downfall of James Corden and now Jonathan Van Ness. The list goes on. We wake up every day and some news from some celebrities comes out on the surface.
There’s no point in sugarcoating a culture perpetuated by capitalism and its ideology. Everything is done with calculation and curation, from performative activism to fake apologies. Writer Halima Jibril argues in Dazed that the cost-of-living crisis, ongoing conflicts around the world and recent events have thrown the role and existence of celebrities in our culture into question, and 2023 was truly the year it cracked.
Social media, especially with its meteoric rise during the pandemic, is also “an arena where the demystification of celebrity occurs”, which explains the rise of influencers during the pandemic. Social media platforms have democratised fame, allowing individuals to amass large followings and cultivate their own brand of influence. Both celebrities and influencers wield power in shaping popular culture and consumer behaviours.
Such heightened scrutiny allows us to look at the influencer culture through a thin veil. We’re witnessing a seismic shift in the dynamics of fame and influence, and also a broader cultural awakening – one that goes deeper than “Get Ready with Me” or “A Day in My Life”, one that celebrates diversity and authenticity, one that asks for freedom for all.
The global rise in consciousness
In her video essay about the disillusionment of influencer culture, creator Angie Mariee notes that there has been a global rise in consciousness: Gaza and the liberation of Gaza represent “a catalyst for change”. Movements around the world are a collective call for global change. Business leaders and politicians who think they are cats with nine lives are demanded to speak up. “Business and political leaders think they can just ride out the wave and we’ll eventually forget and get tired”, said one comment under Mariee’s post. Unless you follow a certain trust report that urges businesses to continue to do the right thing on social issues one day but tells brands to stay out of politics the next.
Creator Mayi says that lifestyle influencing is not revolutionary, and does not “make sense in the current economic system.” As we descend into more wars and witness more pandemics and environmental crises due to the climate emergency with income inequality growing all around the world, the importance of celebrities, influencers and the culture around them “will decline, as what is truly important to us becomes even more apparent,” says Jibril.
Attention is an expensive – and important – thing
In a podcast episode of the Ezra Klein show, Tim Hwang explains how the $500 billion attention industry works. Our attention is constantly “bought, packed and sold”.
We’re in the age of show-stopping, attention-grabbing headlines, but our attention has been constantly warped and manipulated by giant machines aka big tech companies. Influencers engage in the attention economy to monetise it.
But people are truly paying more attention than ever. Actively. With more than four billion people eligible to vote in an election in 2024 – in several important economies including the United States, India, Indonesia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Mexico, and South Africa to name just a few – this year is considered the world’s biggest democracy test. From geopolitical volatility, and continuing US-China economic tensions to changes in policy, interest rates and government regulations, we simply can’t afford to not pay any attention.
People seek out information that serves and educates them. That all changes the dynamic that we have with influencers on social media. Influencers who fail to acknowledge the cultural landscape will fall off the pedestal. According to the so-called Strauss-Howe hypothesis, history can be roughly divided into periods of 80 to 100 years, depicting turnings that come in cycles of four. The four historical turnings are High (First Turning), Awakening (Second Turning), Unraveling (Third Turning), and Crisis (Fourth Turning). We’re currently in the Fourth Turning. While some dismiss it as pseudo-historicism perpetuated by the media, others argue that we’re confronted with crises requiring more than mere lifestyle influencing. Perhaps the downfall of the influencer culture is the result of Pluto in Aquarius again after 226 years. A revolution is underway.
