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How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

bonappetit.com

11–20 of 157 posts

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#11

I'm amazed that people still depend on "influencers" to make decisions. After all we've seen over the last 10 years of sponsored posts, and "influencers" people still blindly follow their lead.

this is nothing new. Companies have being paying models to go to bars and tourist site and use their products. Pharmaceutical companies have paid doctors (in hotels, spas and what not) to prescribe their pipeline medications to patients. Then US government passed a law to make it illegal for pharmas to do that. It just spawned some 'medical education' company that is hired by the big pharams to do it on their behave.…

s/need/ought/g

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#12

I'm amazed that people still depend on "influencers" to make decisions. After all we've seen over the last 10 years of sponsored posts, and "influencers" people still blindly follow their lead.

It's a three step process:

1. Convince people they're part of your group, make them feel special for being part of that group, and make yourself their identity.

2. Don't straight-up recommend the product. Say things similar to "This is great for people like us!" Insinuate that people truly in the group would want this product (and therefore, wanting this product makes you part of the group).

3. Profit.

Identity / group appeals are more powerful than individual ones. Unless you're Michael Jordan.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#13
post #8

Honestly? Better than shilling your highly processed industrialized food.

Yep, on the spectrum of shilling for nukes, cigarettes, sugar and blueberries, blueberry shills are relative saints.

As long as they don't shill bananas mixed with blueberries. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/FO/D3FO0...

Apparently the polyphenol oxidase in bananas doesn't play well with other nutrients.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#14
I really cannot figure out the Bon Appetit site anymore. I subscribe to the magazine, and when I log in it says I'm a current subscriber, but I'm not allowed to read the online articles. Do you just need a separate subscription for the online stuff?

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#15

I really cannot figure out the Bon Appetit site anymore. I subscribe to the magazine, and when I log in it says I'm a current subscriber, but I'm not allowed to read the online articles. Do you just need a separate subscription for the online stuff?

I tried a subscription to the digital version but still couldn’t figure out the login system to read the recipes and articles. It looked like the login was on another site and the cookies didn’t work properly across them.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#16
post #12

I'm amazed that people still depend on "influencers" to make decisions. After all we've seen over the last 10 years of sponsored posts, and "influencers" people still blindly follow their lead.

It's a three step process: 1. Convince people they're part of your group, make them feel special for being part of that group, and make yourself their identity. 2. Don't straight-up recommend the product. Say things similar to "This is great for people like us!" Insinuate that people truly in the group would want this product (and therefore, wanting this product makes you part of the group). 3. Profit. Identity / gro…

That is basically the Edward Bernays method of selling. Create a need. Have someone else espouse the need for that thing. Magically your company has exactly what people think they need because of step two.

He did this with smoking for women.

- Company A wants to sell more cigarettes.

- Company A approaches marketing firm B to sell things.

- Marketing firm B hires marketing firm C and D talk about how cool it is to smoke for women. Show women smoking in cool ways. Show doctors are cool with it. Show how empowered you are. Very base emotional in-group ideas and feeling good about yourself (not necessarily good for you). Do this until a particular point in time when people seem to be buzzing about it and meme's fly. Social media has made this way easier and faster to do.

- Marketing firm B now starts putting brand A in adverts also espousing how they can help you with what firms C and D did.

- Profit for company A.

It is a shockingly effective way to manipulate people without them even seeing it. As it uses our cognitive biases to manipulate us. You think you can ignore but you will have a tough time of it. Even if someone shows you how it is working it can be tough to get out of it. As you had 3 other people tell you it is ok and several trusted 'news like' sources say it is ok. It is also used in political orgs to good effect too. This method is everywhere.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#17

I'm amazed that people still depend on "influencers" to make decisions. After all we've seen over the last 10 years of sponsored posts, and "influencers" people still blindly follow their lead.

some influencers are blind sell outs like you say, but there are those that sell out within their values. relying on 'influencers' is just relying on pre-internet role models to save brain power

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#18

I'm amazed that people still depend on "influencers" to make decisions. After all we've seen over the last 10 years of sponsored posts, and "influencers" people still blindly follow their lead.

It's often cool to say that you're an independent thinker. Or to imagine that's true. But in almost every respect, the vast majority of people want to be sheep who fit into some herd or another.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#19

I'm amazed that people still depend on "influencers" to make decisions. After all we've seen over the last 10 years of sponsored posts, and "influencers" people still blindly follow their lead.

If you think you aren't influenced by "thought leaders" and similar, you are mistaken.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#20
post #13
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, on the spectrum of shilling for nukes, cigarettes, sugar and blueberries, blueberry shills are relative saints.

As long as they don't shill bananas mixed with blueberries. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/FO/D3FO0... Apparently the polyphenol oxidase in bananas doesn't play well with other nutrients.

The general term for this is "antinutrient", and their effect in real-world situations is rarely large enough to be worth the trouble of thinking about.
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