TikTok Influencers Were Faking It? No, Really?

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Influencer-Marketing Analyst Who Hates the Word “Authentic”; images of TikTokker Sara Uy confessing one of her sins…

Shocker: in one last gasp trend, some TikTok influencers confessed to lying about their lives and habits. Really? You mean, they weren’t being “authentic”?!

(Pardon me, I’ve got a smirk attack happening.)

Example cited by the Daily Mail: “Serena Kerrigan, who dubbed herself the ‘Queen of Confidence,’ used the trend to admit that she had been on Monjauro – a weight loss drug similar to Ozempic – this whole time, despite previously denying it.”

The self-proclaimed “Queen Of Confidence” lets her royal subjects in on her secret to success.

Of course, the fans weren’t too happy about these confessions:

‘So, you all lied? You built this following based on a lie?’ one wrote on Reddit. ‘I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s just so odd.’  

‘Cannot wait until the documentary on the lies of influencers come out in a few years,’ another wrote. 

‘They are just marketers with faces to them,’ a third wrote. 

I feel for these gullible young people who fell for the influencers’ often misleading and even harmful advice.

I feel less sorry for the gullible marketers who threw money at posers with little actual substance. Their brands are now associated with con artistry.

I do hope this leads to widespread realization that much of what we see online is deceptive, that many of the people who tout “authenticity” are covering up the truth, and that we all need to do a better job of distinguishing reality from fraud in a fake-it-till-you-make-it economy.