Is there anything sweeter than someone getting a taste of their own medicine?
In 2018 even my dad is on most social media platforms, so influencers and PR companies can really target any demographic they fancy with a few strategically placed posts.
This in turn means a barrage of product placement is only ever a scroll away, which is fine. Kylie Jenner has to eat – I too am a fan of not starving – so she’s got to sell some makeup, I get it, but quite often influencers sell the idea of luxury, not the reality.
This is where Payless have stepped in…
As reported by Insider, the budget shoe retailer set up a fake luxury store called ‘Paleesi’ and invited some influencers down to check out their wares.
Hiking up prices on items to around 30 times their value in some cases, the bait was laid, and who would’ve guessed the influencers would fall for it?
The answer is probably most people, but that takes nothing away from the satisfaction of watching someone herald the ‘high quality’ of a pair of $19.99 trainers, which they’ve parted with hundreds of dollars for.
Doug Cameron, chief creative officer of DCX Growth Accelerator, told Ad Week of the experiment:
[Payless] wanted to push the social experiment genre to new extremes, while simultaneously using it to make a cultural statement.
So yeah, there’s a lesson to be taken away from all this.
Don’t trust anyone, ever, no matter who they are or what they are offering you. Become a hermit instead and live off the land. It’s the only way to get real value. Or, y’know, shop around a bit first to make sure you’re not getting fleeced.
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