Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal

This chapter discusses the emerging practices of social media Influencers. In focus are six influential Instagram Influencers who were ‘exposed’ for involving themselves in campaigns aiming to discredit telecommunications providers in Singapore. In the absence of enforced legal boundaries and ind...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Abidin, Crystal
Format: Book Chapter
Published: 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79384
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author Abidin, Crystal
author_facet Abidin, Crystal
author_sort Abidin, Crystal
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This chapter discusses the emerging practices of social media Influencers. In focus are six influential Instagram Influencers who were ‘exposed’ for involving themselves in campaigns aiming to discredit telecommunications providers in Singapore. In the absence of enforced legal boundaries and industry norms regarding advertising formats and advertising ethics, brand scandals are frequent, causing concern among regulators, brand managers, and platform owners. When starting to accommodate commercial brands and contents in social media posts, Influencers are constantly at risk of breaching their contract of trust with their followers. The case study shows how Influencers, followers, and eventually also the brand clients, are sensitive to what they experience as deceptive and unethical behaviours that will put normative pressures onto the Influencers to conform to certain ethical standards.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-793842020-12-16T05:56:46Z Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal Abidin, Crystal This chapter discusses the emerging practices of social media Influencers. In focus are six influential Instagram Influencers who were ‘exposed’ for involving themselves in campaigns aiming to discredit telecommunications providers in Singapore. In the absence of enforced legal boundaries and industry norms regarding advertising formats and advertising ethics, brand scandals are frequent, causing concern among regulators, brand managers, and platform owners. When starting to accommodate commercial brands and contents in social media posts, Influencers are constantly at risk of breaching their contract of trust with their followers. The case study shows how Influencers, followers, and eventually also the brand clients, are sensitive to what they experience as deceptive and unethical behaviours that will put normative pressures onto the Influencers to conform to certain ethical standards. 2016 Book Chapter http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79384 restricted
spellingShingle Abidin, Crystal
Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal
title Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal
title_full Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal
title_fullStr Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal
title_full_unstemmed Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal
title_short Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal
title_sort influencers tell all? unravelling authenticity and credibility in a brand scandal
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79384