Social, web, marketing and digital world continuously evolve and never stop. New professions inevitably arise, they’re those jobs that until a few years ago were non-existent and maybe even unimaginable. 2017 sanctioned the boom of the so-called instagrammers. Who are they?
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… I didn’t find any better way than the most famous quote from Blade Runner to begin this article. Because it’s true, around on social networks, actually, I’ve seen things that you wouldn’t believe. Instagrammers ’ creativity has no limits. They’re children of Instagram, in other words they are those influencers whose job consists of posting their more or less spontaneous photos taken for various brands and companies.
Up to this point everything sounds normal, in the end nobody has ever stood on ceremony while watching commercial supported by celeb testimonials, even when they were almost improbable. But if I can tolerate George Clooney that gives up his shoes in change of a cup of Nespresso, it’s difficult to accept general instagrammers that claim to look natural using a shampoo on a tropical beach with an orgasmic expression.
The risk looking ridiculous in fact, is always around the corner…and often (almost ever!) it walks next to narcissism. The yearning to be noticed, sometimes ‘unleashes’ imagination (and Photoshop), therefore it’s easy to turn a sexy shot into a farce.
Toothpastes are exalted with plastic poses and seductive glances as if they were diamonds, swimsuits are emphasized while rolling about the sand in Fregene but with the hashtag #Maldives, awareness raising projects for Save The Children are sponsored with a great pic with a view on their boobs and the inevitable mushy sentence, of course.
Backs are bowed like sand dunes of the Sahara and legs are disproportionally long, they’re adjustments that seem to be made with Paint Windows ’95 edition! And men? Because we mainly talk about women but even guys like to be photographed and retouched. Instagrammers promote products for men while showing themselves barefoot in luxurious hotel rooms when observe the horizon beyond the window. Or they take pictures in fake business atmospheres, or in a wild environment with wind that messes their hair…and probably only to “sell” a pair of socks.
But the apex is achieved with the evergreen toilet selfies, and the question is just one: why? Because of the location (that is surely…stimulating!), you expect that the product that they endorse with their name is toilet paper or, at least an awareness raising campaign to export bidet out of Italy. I would accept even dental floss. And instead, the only dental floss in the picture is the one of the thong worn by the influencers to say no to hypercaloric drinks and yes to natural smoothies that make you lose 20 kg in 3 days. The alternative is the six-pack showed off by the boys that, while quoting Kant (and they are almost sure that she’s Diabolik’s girlfriend), push their followers to try the gel that fixes your hair in a way that would make envious even Ken, Barbie’s fiancé!
To damp this crazy pathetic fair, it would be enough to add a note of irony, or even better self-irony.
Because, dear instagrammers, remember that in your job it’s important to bear in mind the words pronounced by the American actor Bradley Whitford when he says that you need to be real enough to be believable, but don’t necessarily have to be real enough to be real. Equilibrium!
