As an old, there's plenty I just plain don't get about certain aspects of popular culture. And the most certain of those certain aspects is the emergence of "influencer" as a career.
Influencer. I. JUST. DO. NOT. GET. IT.
But some influencers are making big bucks for gushing about products that they're payola'd to push, and where they also get a cut of the action.
I guess that there's something meritocratic, or at least democratic, about it. After all, in this brave new world, some nonentity with a TikTok or Insta account can viral their way into riches for a promoing a product. So maybe that's an improvement on the old days when consumers were influenced by a celebrity - a movie or an athlete - touting a product.
In the 1940's, there was Ronald Reagan famously endorsing Chesterfield cigarettes as a swell Christmas gift. ("I'm sending Chesterfields to all my friends. That's the merriest Christmas any smoker can have.") Fast forward to the 1970's and we had Joe DiMaggio plugging Mr. Coffee. Jennifer Anniston, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, and Serena Williams all appeared sporting a milk mustache in the Got Milk ads of the 1990's.
Then there were the more recent crypto ads featuring the likes of Matt Damon and Larry David.
Even quasi-celebrities got in the act. Did anyone know who Rula Lenska was before she began her ads for Alberto VO5 by announcing "I am Rula Lenska..." (I'm sure you are, but that doesn't actually tell us all that much.)
Anyway, I guess it's good to see the little guys getting a chance to shill products and rake in a bit of dough.
But for some, the dough they rake in requires an earth mover. A rake just won't do the job.
One such influencer is Zheng Xiang Xiang, a live streamer whose take is well over $10M a week. Over $10M. You read that right. (The numbers I've seen range from $14M to $18M.)
Her approach is a bit unorthodox. Rather than rambling on about the virtues of the product she's promoting, Zheng is a promoter of few words.
During her live streams, an assistant hands her an orange box containing the products, and in a matter of milliseconds, Zheng picks up each item, briefly displays it to the camera, states its price, and promptly discards it. The entire process takes just three seconds per product.
Despite the minimal exposure time, the products Zheng promotes experience a rapid surge in sales. (Source: Times of India)
That’s right — Hermès boxes. The kind of luxury packaging that makes you hold your breath just a little as you slide open the box, hoping to find some shiny new diamond bracelet or crocodile Birkin bag nestled inside. (Source: Medium.com)
Hermès boxes are an interesting choice. I'm old school enough to remember that the sight of a Tiffany Blue box was enough to get your heart pitter-pattering in anticipation. So yesterday.
Years ago, at a company awards dinner, we eagerly sat through the dinner eying the Tiffany Blue boxes arrayed on a table in back of the speakers. Alas, when we opened the boxes, we found a blah crystal paperweight with our name engraved on it. I'd been hoping for something at least marginally useful, like a Revere bowl. The paperweight, as far as I could tell, would only have been good as a paperweight - if you needed paper weighed down for some reason - or as a murder weapon. When I parted from that workplace, I left the paperweight behind on my desk.
Zheng is probably not flogging pricey cyrstal paperweights. Nor is there any Birkin bag, no heavy silk horsey-themed scarf on three-second display. What Zheng promotes is Temu-level cheap junk. But if you sell enough cheap junk to enough shoppers - and Zheng has over 500 million followers - it all adds up.
Still, $18M a week as a live-streaming influencer. I. JUST. DO. NOT. GET. IT.
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