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Welcome back to HotToks. This edition we report on Shein's recent influencer trip to China, how Gen Z approaches plastic surgery, and influencers ranking above journalists on TikTok.
Coming hot off of going on headlines for the million-dollar mansion they were inviting influencers to for Coachella, Shein does it again with an insensitive brand trip, inviting influencers, this time to China, to visit their factory. Let’s unpack and talk about why this could be problematic.
The trip was with several influencers, like Destene Sudduth, Fernanda Campuzano, Kenya Freeman, and Marina Saavedra, to Shein’s “Innovation Factory” (one of around 6,000 factories that Shein uses).
Each influencer posted similar content regarding the visit, with similar language in their captions (not at all suspicious), featuring the trip’s branded hashtag #SHEINOnTheRoad (which now has over 2.6M views on TikTok).
But an influencer named Dani Carbonari has been predominantly in the limelight, being called out by her followers for dismissing the company’s long history of poor working conditions. With nearly 500K followers on Instagram, she vlogged and shared her Shein-sponsored trip in a post and video tour on the platform, saying, “there are so many companies not taking half the initiative Shein is. They are aware of every single rumor and instead of staying quiet, they are fighting with all of their power to not only show us the truth but continue to improve.” She was impacted by “getting to see what the entire process of @sheinofficial clothing looks like from beginning to end” and “getting to experience China surrounded by people born & raised there.” She even went so far as to say that she “was really excited and impressed to see the working conditions,” panning the camera to a clean, bright factory.
To support Shein and share content about the brand like this is to ignore her followers, reminding her of the extensive history of Shein’s labor rights violations. And it’s impacting her following. Over the last few days, her Instagram has lost over 200 followers, and her tone-questionable videos have gone viral on other platforms like Twitter and TikTok.
Creators online are commenting on the trip, making fun of the hashtag #sheincares, and sharing resources about the company, like the Channel 4 documentary called “Untold: The Shein Machine.”
Others say there’s so much second-hand embarrassment for the creators to take a brand trip to see a “fake factory.” And others are recreating the viral sponsored videos. Safe to say that this influencer trip didn’t help change their brand image. It actually might’ve made matters worse. It’s the scripted captions, the factory vlogs, the fake “investigative journalism” interviews, and the audacity for me.
Since the dawn of TikTok as a platform, we’ve noticed its unique qualities: its ability to invite creators to be transparent with their audiences. It’s come with praise: the rise of anti-gatekeeping culture, paving the way for open discussions about pay and wages, and more recently, being honest about products in a trend we’re labeling ‘de-influencing,’ and also… breast augmentations? This is not a drill.
We’ve gone through many a phase on TikTok. One day gatekeeping is in, and one day it’s out. One day it’s #gorpcore; the next, it’s #balletcore. One day we’re pro-girlboss, and then we think the girlboss sets unrealistic standards for the masses. The nature of the platform lends itself well to rapid opinion-sharing.
And what’s more vulnerable and raw than sharing about the work an influencer had done? Many influencers are taking to TikTok to share their experiences getting work done, hoping to help others. Namely, Alix Earle had recently celebrated her “boobaversary” by making a TikTok video detailing her procedure, down to the price.
According to Theda Kontis, the president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, when she asks patients if she could put their pictures online, “older patients are wishy-washy,” and younger patients say, “sure, when is it going to be posted?” She goes on to explain that “obviousness is the goal now.”
To put things into perspective, in 2022, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that 76% of surgeons surveyed said that they had experienced at least a slight increase in demand compared to before the pandemic. Patients’ top reasons for getting plastic surgery are wanting to “feel refreshed after aging from pandemic stress” and noticing “things they want to improve during video calls” (what a first-world problem).
Surgeons note that this generation is coming in earlier for treatments and knowing what they want to get done. And on the other end, they aren’t afraid to share their knowledge, expertise, and experience online for the world to see.
Eli Rallo, a 24-year-old content creator, author, and podcaster who has been open about her cosmetic procedures with her 722K+ TikTok followers, said, “I think people were getting sick and tired of the Instagram influencer as we know her, we’re looking at these people; they’re not even real. TikTok is a medium where people could just be themselves” and that invitation for vulnerability is the draw to TikTok versus other social media platforms.
How far we’ve come. Though celebrities like the Kardashian-Jenners are still notorious for not addressing enhancements they may or may not have undergone, we have still come a long way from brushing the subject under the rug.
Journalists struggle to stand a chance in the age of social media influencers.
According to the 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, even though mainstream journalists have done well on legacy social media platforms like Facebook, they have not had the same impact on newer platforms with a younger-skewing audience, like TikTok.
With 28% of consumers using it, Facebook remains the most important network for news, but even that was down from its peak of 42% in 2016. YouTube came in second with 20%, Whatsapp with 16%, Instagram with 14%, Twitter with 11%, and TikTok with 6%.
The report shows that while mainstream journalists often lead conversations around news on Twitter and Facebook, they struggle to gain a footing on newer networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, where personalities and ordinary people are more prevalent, even regarding conversations about news.
TikTok has a different appetite for news coverage: people on TikTok like watching satirical videos about the news or sometimes even trying to make viral memes about the news. Although journalists have more credibility, they may be less sought after on platforms like TikTok or Instagram. Viewers on those platforms prefer to learn about the news in a less-formal way than just reading the news.
Nonetheless, traditional mainstream outlets are finding ways to break out on TikTok. For example, Yahoo News hit 1M followers on the platform. The brand relied on Julia Munslow, a 24-year-old special projects editor, to coordinate the brand’s TikTok content and news coverage. Yahoo News said it had succeeded by using TikTok-specific features like live streaming and “paying close attention to the topics in the news that Gen Z cares about, like social justice issues and student loan debt,” Munslow notes. Am I hearing that the key to success is letting Gen Z run your social media?
Thanks for reading!
- Viv
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