“There is a silver lining here, in that the number of people willing to promote brands for free has significantly driven down the price of sponsored content, consequently reducing influencers’ ability to make a living off it. Hopefully this whole dumbass ouroboros will finish eating itself and we can all quietly forget about that weird half-decade when using things was a job.”
The original premise: people might promote Coke or Porsche or some other respectable product for free, to get cred. They hope that other advertisers will see that and think “Well, if Coke advertises on that site, it must be worthwhile.”
I admit that I didn’t know this was happening. Look for my Rolex ads soon.
(I’m just fuckin’ witcha. Rolex is a candy bar, right?)