30 Influencers That Were So Out Of Touch, They Deserved To Get Shamed Online

With the joys of social media, there’s also been a rise of new types of celebrities. You suddenly start to see emerging new names — from mega, macro to micro and now nano-influencers, they truly seem to be having their moment online, transforming our feeds into a battleground full of ads, promotions, and brand endorsements.

Today, it’s nearly impossible to go through Instagram without coming across at least one sponsored post or a carefully staged product picture. But not every influencer ruffles our feathers. There are plenty of decent people out there who share their experiences and stories because they generally want to connect with their audience. A personal touch goes a long way with consumers, so their followers can certainly feel it.

More often than not, however, people who believe they are famous can become greedy. They push forward and keep at it to be liked and acknowledged, no matter the cost. After all, collecting and maintaining a large audience is one of the biggest goals influencers have, and the size of their follower base is the thing that makes them relevant to the professionals in advertising.

Needless to say, this industry has rocketed over the past few years. According to Statista, influencer marketing has become one of the most popular and effective forms of online marketing. You see, hundreds of thousands of people browse the net every single day, looking for entertainment, inspiration, and a variety of recommendations. So, of course, marketing professionals use this as an opportunity to promote their businesses and clients.

"The global influencer marketing market value has more than doubled since 2019, standing at around 13.8 billion U.S. dollars as of 2021," Statista reports. Experts predict that the industry will only become bigger and stronger every year, making the collaborations between creators and brands even more fruitful.

Many creators strive to exponentially grow the number of followers on their social media platforms. Yet, people with a thousand followers sometimes already feel entitled to free stuff just because they throw around the word "exposure" every chance they get. Well, as you probably noticed from this post, they tend to overestimate their worth and instead end up looking arrogant and downright annoying in the worst possible ways.

It turns out people are getting quite tired (and often very confused) about this whole influencer culture. While some artists and businesses choose to give in or simply ignore their requests, others are making a stand and publicly shaming their entitled and toxic personalities online. Well, there’s nothing more satisfying than watching someone so full of themselves be put in their place.

Joei Chan, global head of content at Linkfluence, explained that more and more people are seeing a lack of authenticity in these internet celebrities’ posts. "People are sick of all the generic cookie-cutter posts showing celebrities posing with teeth-whitening kits, boutique clothing, or even appetite-suppressing lollipops. Instead, social media users are looking for real, unstaged content to engage with," she wrote.

Plus, let's not forget the rise of fake influence. "Influencers face huge incentives to boost their numbers when it comes to followers, likes, and comments, and this has given rise to issues with bots, paid follows, and other shortcuts," Chan mentioned.

"In fact, studies have found cases where the influencers engaged by major brands have follower bases that are estimated to be up to 70% fake. This isn’t just a massive headache for brands: it’s also another huge reason behind the disillusionment with influencers in general."

Well, that seems to be the case here. Many of the so-called influencers people exposed in this list simply want to get a moment in the spotlight. They believe that just by promising to mention others in their stories for their followers (with a big chance that most of them are fake), it somehow justifies the fact they want to get everything for free.

The sense of entitlement for some of them is through the roof, and business owners, service providers, and artists are beginning to see that. Thankfully, we have plenty of people online who continue to do everyone a public service and shame their desperate cries for attention.