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

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

#41

Post by delichon »

organsnyder wrote: post #38
delichon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several knowledgeable vegans I know believe that they have real problems with oxalates in particular. This is particularly credible among people who drink a lot of spinach based smoothies, as I once did.

That's still very anecdotal.

Your comment follows two contradictory claims, one that anti nutrients are generally too trivial to worry about, and another that there is at least one that is. No RCT evidence is included for either. Doesn't that make both claims equally questionable?

Personally my long term dietary choices have been guided by N=1 experiments on myself, a.k.a. anecdotes, that have proven to be life saving for me. Anecdotes from others are useful for suggesting such experiments on myself, in the same way that epidemiological studies are useful for suggesting RCTs.

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

#42

Post by subpixel »

morsch wrote: post #6
Simulacra wrote: post #5

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 pretty insidious. People form parasocial relationships with these social media personas. When they recommend blueberries, or a brand of lip gloss, or invasive surgery, it's like a recommendation from a friend. I doubt it's a new phenomenon -- presumably in the past people bought sneakers because some celebrity wore them or recommended them. But it's probably more ubiquitous? And I think it's easier to fool yours…

I think I choose who I am influenced by, but I am definitely influenced. Whether it's the cooking channels I follow on YouTube or the things I see others owning in Instagram posts, it seeps in.

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

#44

Post by 48864w6ui »

yifanl wrote: post #27
tivert wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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. That seems like a false equivalence. I think the question is about what kind of influence, not "influence, y/n?" Is it typical for "th…

> Is it typical for "thought leaders" to be paid to dishonestly push certain ideas? Null hypothesis would imply we should treat them no different than other influencers. Unless you've evidence otherwise?

There's a slope between:

"X paid me to promote Y"

"My employer, X, doesn't mind if I write about Y on company time"

"Our socioeconomic system X happens to mean I have way more free time and energy to promote on of its bases, Y, than other people do"

but is it a qualitative slope or just quantitative?

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

#45

Post by SilasX »

CrazyStat wrote: post #36
mhuffman wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then again the food industry is pretty powerful. Remember when they legally forced Oprah to publicly apologize or saying that it could be dangerous to eat raw hamburger?

No, I don’t remember that. Perhaps you’re referring to this case [1], which Oprah won? [1] https://www.britannica.com/story/a-brief-history-of-food-lib...

Slow down: are you seriously trivializing the fact that the food industry was able to very expensively sue someone over criticizing their product ... when she turned out to be correct ... just because she eventually won?

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

#46

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

whatamidoingyo wrote: post #23

Wait, are blueberries "shilled"? I had no idea, but I indeed "shill" them myself. Eating blueberries early in the morning has improved my digestion. They also make me feel really good throughout the day. So much so, I've made numerous attempts at growing blueberry bushes myself (unfortunately I don't have a green thumb). Likewise with coconut water, a habit I developed in Thailand. If they're shilled, so be it. It wo…

You sound like you work for Big Blueberry. Get out of here with your shilling.

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

#47

Post by 7thaccount »

whatamidoingyo wrote: post #23

Wait, are blueberries "shilled"? I had no idea, but I indeed "shill" them myself. Eating blueberries early in the morning has improved my digestion. They also make me feel really good throughout the day. So much so, I've made numerous attempts at growing blueberry bushes myself (unfortunately I don't have a green thumb). Likewise with coconut water, a habit I developed in Thailand. If they're shilled, so be it. It wo…

2/3 of my bushes died. One is still going strong. It takes time. They also need acidic soil.

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

#48

Post by Spivak »

SilasX wrote: post #45
CrazyStat wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don’t remember that. Perhaps you’re referring to this case [1], which Oprah won? [1] https://www.britannica.com/story/a-brief-history-of-food-lib...

Slow down: are you seriously trivializing the fact that the food industry was able to very expensively sue someone over criticizing their product ... when she turned out to be correct ... just because she eventually won?

I mean anyone with money and time to burn can sue people. This isn't unique to the food industry, this is just SLAPP which is a much more general problem.

So while you're right it sucks and it's bad that they can do this, it's not specifically a "big hamburger" problem.

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

#49

Post by ryandrake »

ghaff wrote: post #30
tivert wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And I think it's easier to fool yourself you have a relationship or kinship with a Instagram microcelebrity than with Micheal Jordan. That, and it's probably easier to be fooled into thinking some Instagram microcelebrity is expressing a true independent opinion rather than making a paid endorsement. I think a similar thing happened to blogs. I recall reading years ago about a "mattress blog" that presented itself…

I have trouble marshaling any outrage in this particular instance but anyone with a base level of intelligence knew that "Got Milk?" was a paid for advertising campaign while you may not know if some blog or Tik-Tok is the legit opinion of an enthusiast or is pay for play.

At this point we have decades of dealing with this. Shouldn't the default assumption be that someone promoting a product online is being paid to do it, until they somehow demonstrate that they are not?

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

#50

Post by SilasX »

Spivak wrote: post #48
SilasX wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slow down: are you seriously trivializing the fact that the food industry was able to very expensively sue someone over criticizing their product ... when she turned out to be correct ... just because she eventually won?

I mean anyone with money and time to burn can sue people. This isn't unique to the food industry, this is just SLAPP which is a much more general problem. So while you're right it sucks and it's bad that they can do this, it's not specifically a "big hamburger" problem.

If "no big deal, it happens all time" is your answer, then you can just say "yes, I am trivializing it" -- that's what the term means.
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