> I think it's probably hard to distinguish what you truly "agree with" if your income relies on agreeing with it.
The simple solution is to only agree to represent products you actually like. For influencers who are popular enough that they can pick and choose, this isn't all that hard.
The thorny issue is the smaller influencers (who are the majority, for sure) who have to take whatever is offered to pay their bills.
> For influencers who are popular enough that they can pick and choose, this isn't all that hard.
Sure, but there's no way for me as a viewer to tell whether a given influencer is making honest choices, or just peddling whatever shit pays them the most. In fact, the whole value of influencers to the marketers is that they confuse people on this very issue, that they convince people they're being honest even though they're not.
> The thorny issue is the smaller influencers (who are the majority, for sure) who have to take whatever is offered to pay their bills.
Right. And since the popular influencers started as such smaller ones and most likely had to compromise their ethics right at the start, why should I believe they suddenly found their moral compass again once they became popular?
The simple solution is to only agree to represent products you actually like. For influencers who are popular enough that they can pick and choose, this isn't all that hard.
The thorny issue is the smaller influencers (who are the majority, for sure) who have to take whatever is offered to pay their bills.