Kendall Jenner to Olivia Jade, how social media influencers are not always what they seem

As tied in as I am to the hi-tech zeitgeist, I must admit that until I spent a weekend bingeing on two documentaries about the disastrous Fyre Festival of 2017, the whole culture of social media “influencers” had flown under my radar.

Fyre, it may be recalled, was a music festival that was supposed to take place over two spring weekends in the Bahamas. It may not have started as a fraud, but over time it became indistinguishable from one; its chief organiser, Billy McFarland, is currently serving a prison term in the US for fraud as a result of the scheme. Hundreds of festivalgoers paid thousands of dollars for deluxe accommodations and catering, only to be stranded in the rain without transport home and fed stale cheese sandwiches.

What makes this relevant to the influencers culture is that Fyre was all about the marketing.

The campaign took place almost entirely on Instagram and other social media, chiefly through a coordinated campaign of posts launched on December 12, 2016. Kendall Jenner, perhaps the most prominent “influencer” in the world, was reportedly paid US$250,000 for a single posted contribution to this campaign.

Fast-forward to March 12 this year, when dozens of wealthy parents were arrested by federal agents and charged with paying bribes and committing fraud to get their children into elite universities. Among them were Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, who allegedly paid US$500,000 to bribe their daughters’ way into the University of Southern California as purported rowing stars.

The younger daughter, Olivia Jade, 19, is a prominent influencer who promptly incorporated her college lifestyle into her commercial pitch. “It’s been a few weeks since I moved into my dorm and I absolutely love it,” she attested on Instagram. Surrounded by new bedlinens and make-up accoutrements she wrote, “I got everything I needed from Amazon with @primestudent.”