Just a few weeks ago, Lauren Rutherglen’s 10,000 TikTok followers would have expected advice on what beauty products to buy.
But as she rummaged through the creamy Glossier eyeshadows, Ilia serums and Charlotte Tilbury liquid bronzers in her drawer, the Calgary-based content creator was reminded of the expensive but disappointing products that the Internet had convinced her she needed.
So she made a “deinfluencing” video — a TikTok-coined term that describes the rejection of viral, cult-favourite beauty or lifestyle products (typically associated with influencer culture) in favour of more affordable choices.
“I just wanted to share my opinion on things that I was influenced as a consumer to buy and just didn’t really like,” Rutherglen told CBC News.
She doesn’t mince words during her TikTok video, which has upped her follower count by a few thousand. “It dries out, it’s hard to blend. I hate it. I hate it so much,” she says of one product. Wrinkling her nose at another, she claims that it “literally smells like rotting Play-Doh.”
But deinfluencing is a content strategy in itself, according to the Canadian creators, industry and marketing experts who spoke with CBC News. As the cost of living goes up, content creators are striving to build trust with audiences who can no longer afford the expensive products that some influencers get paid up to half a million dollars to promote.
A marketing strategy in itself
The deinfluencing hashtag on TikTok had accumulated over 228 million views as of Feb. 23.
Some TikTokers directed their followers away from trendy, pricey products that they felt were a disappointment or a waste of money, instead recommending cheaper, more functional alternatives (which they might still be paid to promote).
Why get the $50 Stanley tumbler when you can just get a water bottle, they asked? Why do you need $175 Ugg minis if you can buy a regular pair of boots? Why buy Kim Kardashian’s shapewear products if you can get inexpensive pantyhose?
A curated social media feed can serve the same purpose as a fashion magazine or a beauty catalogue, and users tend to follow people they trust will recommend high-quality products, said Jess Hunichen, the co-founder of Toronto talent management agency Shine.
“Trust is the number one commodity that these influencers have,” Hunichen said. Her firm represents about 250 people working in the influencer industry. “If they lose that with their audience, this whole thing goes away for them and they don’t want that.”
Deinfluencing is a tool that can build that trust, she added. It’s not unlike the in-person retail experience, where shoppers at a cosmetics store or a clothing boutique might seek advice or validation from a salesperson working the floor.
“When you have a sales associate say to you that you look amazing in everything you like, maybe they just want to sell,” she said. But taking a critical approach might have a more powerful — and lucrative — impact.
“When they say to you, ‘you know what, this looks incredible,’ [or] ‘I don’t love that colour on you,’ you immediately trust them,” because they’re willing to give you an honest answer, Hunichen said.
Rutherglen, who says she has acne and textured skin, uses her platform to connect with others who share her need for specialized products — but don’t want to be duped by an advertising or branding scheme.
“A lot of businesses [want] honest reviews from people that have communities of people who trust what they’re saying,” said Rutherglen. She doesn’t make an income from her social media, nor does expect to receive a sponsorship deal from the companies she criticized in the video — but it’s all water under the bridge.
“I would rather burn these bridges and be honest with everyone then sell something that I’ve either altered to look good or I just really don’t like and don’t use, because then [my followers will] be in the same boat that I was after purchasing all those products,” she added.
‘I don’t think anything’s accidental’
Several critics have questioned whether deinfluencing indicates a rejection of the influencer industry, or whether the trend could backfire on content creators whose shunning of consumer culture leave a bad taste in the mouth of their sponsor brands.
The industry was worth about $16.4 billion in 2022, with the industry expected to grow to $21.1 billion in 2023, according to a report from research firm Influencer Marketing Hub. The experts featured in this story ballparked it around the same, with projections to keep growing.
“I don’t think anything’s accidental. I think influencers are very strategic, very intentional,” said Lia Haberman, a Canadian adjunct professor of influencer marketing at the University of California Los Angeles Extension, who wrote about the deinfluencing phenomenon in a recent article.
“It’s more of a curation strategy versus any kind of anti-consumer message,” added Haberman. “So they’ll tell you, ‘Don’t buy this mascara, but I love this one.’ … I think the message isn’t really about consuming less, but just consuming maybe more thoughtfully or intentionally.”
Rutherglen said that the trend is taking off as people who are worried about their employment status and a possible recession are making more thoughtful spending choices. “If you’re wanting to purchase something, you want it to be something that’s of value and reflects what you worked for and the money you earned.”
Jess Hankin, a Vancouver-based content creator who earns an affiliate commission from Amazon for her TikTok videos, agreed. She pointed to an incident in which the cosmetics company Tarte sent dozens of influencers on a glitzy three-day, all-inclusive trip to Dubai this past January.
“Sending a whole bunch of influencers just to have this little glamorous Instagram kind of life somewhere else, where so many of us are like, ‘dude, my mortgage is through the roof,’ or, ‘I can’t even afford to buy a house,’ is just not something that a lot of people want to see right now.”
Honesty is an influencer’s best currency
The rush to “deinfluence” viral Internet products began around the same time that an American beauty influencer named Mikayla Nogueira posted a TikTok touting the powers of a L’Oreal mascara. “This looks like false eyelashes,” she said during the L’Oreal-sponsored video.
The criticism was swift: she was wearing actual false lashes, many of her followers said, and deliberately misleading her audience into buying the product.
“When you embrace a brand too fully, it can make it seem like you’re just embracing them or endorsing them because you have a contract and you know you’re sponsored by a brand,” said Haberman.
A recent marketing move by Taco Bell shows that brands might be warming up to a reverse psychology-style of promotion, she added. The Mexican fast food joint paid singer Doja Cat last year to complain about having to write a jingle for their brand on her social media feeds. It was negative attention — but attention nonetheless.
Taco Bell’s move “was deinfluencing before deinfluencing,” Haberman said. “Most companies are not that comfortable with the idea of, ‘we’re going to pay an influencer to complain about us or to say anything negative at all about our product or our brand.'”
“But I think kind of the braver, bolder, more progressive companies on social media are going to jump on this and find a way to turn it to their advantage.”
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.