2023-06-18 04:00:00
Recent escapades involving influencers in Quebec have literally “killed” the reputation of the profession, but many now want to “reclaim” the controversial name.
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This is what several influencers met by The newspaper.
They now use the title of “content creator” to define their work, in order to “distance” themselves from the term influencer, which has been abused in recent years.
However, the term “influencer” is neither taboo nor “silly,” says culinary designer Ève Martel. “Being influenced does not mean being manipulated. An influencer is someone who has a positive influence, who can influence a behavior, a purchase, a new lifestyle habit, without it necessarily being monetary,” she continues.
Harmful scandals
It suffices to recall in particular the story of the Massie twin sisters last March, forced to sell their house following failing to declare their income on the erotic content platform OnlyFans.
The famous influencer party on a Sunwing flight to Mexico on December 30, 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, also severely damaged the reputation of the profession. Images showing influencers drinking and smoking without a mask had gone around the world.
“Suddenly being an influencer became just girls in bikinis and dumb guys. But this is not a new concept. Gilles Latulippe was an influencer! He did beer commercials, but he was an actor,” illustrates Ève Martel.
In the same basket
These viral headlines have had the effect of wrongly generalizing their work, putting them “all in the same basket”, they lament. Many also sensed fear on the part of advertisers following these events.
“If we associate all influencers with the latest controversies, then we should all associate TV hosts with Éric Salvail,” says influencer Anthony Tran.
The young man of 23 years has also recently flown to Mexico with Sunwing, in particular with the aim of restoring the image of influencers in Quebec.
Influencers gala
It is also for this reason that the content creator, followed by more than 283,000 subscribers on TikTok, set up the very first influencer gala last year. The Influence Creation gala brought together 300 content creators, divided into 13 categories.
“I find it unfair [le traitement réservé au mot “influenceur”] because it’s really not representative of all the people who put in the effort and who try to do this job, to live from this passion,” he says.
Far from controversy
Like him, many others do not identify with those behind the recent scandals.
The fact remains that these scandals can be “irritating”, we are told.
“I just want to answer and say: hey, I am one [une influenceuse] and I work very hard to keep my business running. And there are people, like me, who do great work too,” says Frédérike Lachance-Turcotte, founder of Folks and Forks.
The story is the same for Sarah Couture, founder of Les Trouvailles de Sarah. “It picks me up, it annoys me. I also find that so unfortunate and sad. It’s such a great tool, it’s close to my subscribers,” she said.
Proud to influence in the kitchen
The story is the same for chef Laurent Dagenais, who admits to being proud to influence people in the kitchen. “There are people who see my video, who will take their car to go to the market, buy the ingredients, come home and make my recipe, then send it to me. I have people sending me [des photos] from Australia, Japan, Texas. For me, it’s worth all the subscribers in the world,” he says.
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