But I guess now when you see somebody who
has millions of followers and you've never heard of them, those millions of followers
might not have ever heard of them either. Hi, and welcome back to me talking about whatever
I want. Today, I want to talk about this new thing that I've seen the Kardashians doing and this
shady company that's partnering with them to do it and why I hate it. But, first, of course, I like
to do my comment shout out from my last video. This comment actually goes out to the pressed
noodle. That's kind of a mood. This person says, "Now that D'Angelo will be uploading every
day, I have a reason to go on YouTube every day. What a gift." That's actually a really
sweet comment. And perfect timing because we are one week into my 200 day upload challenge.
Now, did I miss a couple of days? Yes. Partially because that's the way life goes, but also,
this video took longer than a day to make. It's kind of a big topic and I had to do
a lot of research for it, but, basically, influencer marketing has reached a new low.
There's a sketchy company involved. There's legal threats. Basically, it's a lot and it's
called a follower loop. So, here's how follower loops work. You start with an influencer. What
better example than the Kardashians? For those of you who don't know, the Kardashians are social
media influencers and reality TV stars, best known for their many... I don't know why they're
famous, but I do know that they've used that fame to their advantage because they are very sharp
business women. They've turned their social media presence into a multi multi hundred million dollar
company collection and they are very, very rich. So, you've got your influencer. We'll use
Kourtney Kardashian as an example. Next, you have said influencer pose with a bunch of expensive
designer bags. Here, we see her with a bunch of Louis Vuitton bags and a caption that says, "Busy
day." Guess it was a bit of a light flex. Now, what you might notice is that this post has 100000
comments. But I did a review called scrolling through her Instagram and it turns out Kourtney
Kardashian usually doesn't even get a fraction of that number of comments. Let me show you another
example. We'll use Kendall Jenner. The Jenner's are Kardashians, right? I think. I don't know
how that works, but they're related. Here she is posing with a bag. You know what I want to know?
Why do they not only include the purses but also the packaging that the purses came in? It's like
they want to declare to the world, I'm rich and wasteful. Good for you, Kendall. Anyway, you may
notice that this one just has no caption at all, but it still has 100000 comments. So, besides
these Khloe and Kendall posts, you'll find these bag posts from Kim, Kris, Kylie, and... Khloe.
Could you imagine if they had one more kid and they just ran out of names to just misspell with
a K? K'Charlie. Why did I just put that thought into the universe? Now, it exists. I'm so sorry.
Anyway, the point of all this is why are the Kardashians posting with so many bags? And
why do those posts have so many comments? That's because that's phase three. You take your
influencer, you have them pose with the bags, and then you give the bags away. See, the captions
on all of these posts have been changed after the fact. This didn't initially say, "Busy day." It
actually said something more along the lines of, "Hi, everyone. Win $10000 USD cash plus
all the purses pictured here with me. Yes, it's for real. #ad." And so the rules to enter
this giveaway are to go to @curatedbusinesses and follow everyone they follow and, then, number
two, comment on the post. The more I looked, I started seeing these two step follow everyone
@curatedbusinesses is following and then comment on my post posts everywhere. So, the 100000
comments on Kourtney's post or the 100000 comments on Kylie Kenneth Kopeland... Kendall Jenner's
post, they were all entering these giveaways. So, it's not really that much of a mystery after all.
They're just Gucci giveaways. Honestly, who cares? Nope, I'm just kidding. Video's not over. See,
that's not enough for me. It's great to pretend like Kylie and Kendall are just giving away
Gucci out of the goodness of their hearts, but obviously, there's money involved. So, I
did some more research into how follower loops actually work and who is hosting them and
it's a little crazier than I expected. See, in this whole game of follower loops, the people
trying to comment on the post and win the Gucci bags are not actually players. They're just
pieces. Those followers are the commodity. And, honestly, the Kardashians aren't really players
in this game either. They're just the bait, basically. The real players when it comes to
follower loops don't actually show their faces except for the host @curatedbusinesses.
All right. So, here we go. @curatedbusinessesptyltd. As you can see,
they're verified and they have over 800000 followers and... Oh my gosh, their Instagram
layout is terrible. I'm sorry. That's not related to the video or anything. I just... The
lack of aesthetic is killing me. This entire website is just giving me suburban mom wine
night invitation vibes. But, as you can see, this is not just a horrible layout. It's also
an archive of all the previous campaigns that they've run. See, look. Here's Kendall Jenner's
post and here's Kris Jenner as well. They have a post right here outlining their 2020 campaign and,
as you can see, it's all six of them. According to Curated Businesses, it's their biggest lineup
yet. So, I started getting really curious. Like, I have literally never heard of Curated
Businesses. How did they get to level where they're having the Kardashians do promo for them?
How much money are they making? Unfortunately, I never did arrive at an exact answer, but after
looking at their business model, it became very clear that they're making a whole lot.
So, I'm on their website right now, which is extremely sketchy looking. Never trust
a website that has a pop up and a bunch of text boxes on the home page. I guess the point of
this website besides the information is to try to legitimize this company. As you can see, they have
a whole media section. But I'm going to be honest, this is the worst media section I've ever
seen in my entire life. First of all, some of these are tabloid magazines. That's not
really inspiring confidence. Like, hey, guys! We were in The Mail Online. We're legit. On top of
that, one of these actually seems to be negative press. Khloe Kardashian and Scott Disick are now
giving away $12000 worth of Louis Vuitton bags and the contest has the craziest rules. That's
making your company look bad. Not only that, but I also see the same article on here twice. Just
on different websites. Yeah, the media section of their website gets a one out of 10 for me.
Next, I went to the about us section try to just learn more about Curated Businesses
and how they run things and... Oh my gosh, it's even worse than the media section. First of
all, this thing is just chock full of buzzwords. It's like entire sentences strung out of buzz
words. On top of that, their about section is literally five sentences long. About us. We're
not going to actually tell you anything. Just email us if you really want to learn more. By far,
though, the worst part of their entire website is the frequently asked questions section. Question
number one is, is this real? Which, according to their answer, they have government-issued lottery
permits. Their answer to is this real seems more of an answer to is this legal, which I find very
interesting. They also have a question that says, nobody from my country/race/ethnicity has ever
won. Why? Why is that a frequently asked question? After seeing that, I decided to take a look at
some of their previous winners because they do have them all listed here. We have this lady
right here, which I find it very interesting that her picture is staged the exact same
way that Kylie Jenner's and all those other people's pictures were staged. She's even posing
the same way. What's also weird though is that comments are actually disabled on her posts, so.
Now, I did look through the rest of the pictures on this person's account and this is definitely
a real person, but I didn't see any pictures of her with the bags after that one, so I decided
to keep looking. I also find this other person, which... You may notice that her picture is also
staged the exact same way that the Kardashians are. Even down to leaving all the bags in the
picture. I just don't... Why is that a thing? Again, this is a real account and, in this case,
I actually was able to find pictures of her with the bags. But what I did find a little strange
was she has one of the bags in the pictures before she announces that she received the
bags. Just thought that was a little strange, but I'm guessing Curated Businesses made her
go back and take a Kardashian style photo. The last winner I looked was definitely the
strangest because the caption was just sending me. "You were wondering if this was real? Yes, this
is more than real and it's amazing. This is the happiest day and all, thanks to Curated Businesses
and Kris Jenner. They are the best." Like, if you want something to seem real, it's not a
good idea to go online and say, "Hey, I know that you all thought this was fake, but it's definitely
not fake." Like, I could see if Curated Businesses said that, but to have the lady herself say it
just makes it seem fake. But that wasn't the only weird part of the post. She also got the
bags weirdly fast. Like, she announces on March 2nd that she won the competition, which good for
you, but then on March 3rd, she has all the bags. How did she get the bags in less than 24 hours?
This person right here says, "Didn't she just win yesterday? How did she get the bags so quickly?
Something seems fishy about that. She wouldn't have received them all that quick. And the fact
that she needs to try and convince everyone that this competition is real in her caption... I don't
know. Something is definitely off with this one." Which is true because, bottom line, even if
the bags are real, these people are going out of their way to make it seem as suspicious
and fake as possible. Someone else said, "They choose the winner before they post it.
You can read the information in their extended terms and conditions." But then Curated Businesses
actually replies and says, "We take our business and credibility very seriously. Some people simply
cannot be pleased. She won Monday, shipped Monday, and delivered Tuesday. What's so odd about
that? This winner was close to our LA office and if you continue to make baseless claims in a
public forum, I will seek action. Unfounded and defamation. My company is a legally run marketing
company and we will not continue to allow these untrue comments to circulate. No wonder our
winners want to quickly go back to private accounts. So many people ruin their win with
silly comments like this." Holy crap. Why are you so triggered? What? Are you going to try to take
action against this video because I'm pointing out how weirdly fake everything you're doing sounds?
Like, if you want my official verdict, no, I don't think that these are fake. I don't think the bags
are fake. I do think that there are real winners. But to react so strongly to people saying, hey,
you're going about this in kind of a shady way, is insane. On top of that, they have a separate
account named Curated Businesses Legal. It's such a lame power move. Curated Businesses will
tag their Curated Businesses Legal page to come and show up and intimidate people. "Please cease
and desist with your defamatory comments and wild accusations that are simply not true." Fun fact.
I don't think you can send a cease and desist in the Instagram comments section, but that's
just... I'm not a lawyer. What would I know? Honestly, this company just seems terrified of
being called fake, which is weird because if you're not fake, then just host your giveaways and
ignore the people. I don't know. It's weird, okay? It doesn't help that all of the posts sound very
advertise-y. The winners are like, oh, guys, it's definitely real and also not fake. It doesn't help
that every single photograph that the winners take is staged the exact same way as the Kardashians'
photos. They say they don't send photographers over and, if that's the case, it makes it seem
fake to have your people stage it the same way as you stage the professional ones. Honestly,
they just have the worst PR team of all time. On top of that, I saw weird stuff, like
people asking, "Hey, I would be excited if South Australia was eligible. Why are we
never eligible, but the rest of Australia is?" To which Curated Businesses said, "They just
won't allow it. Ship to a friend's address. There are ways around it." So, you don't have a
permit to host this kind of competition in certain parts of Australia and you're trying so hard to
seem like you're doing everything legally, but then you're telling people, oh, just use a fake
address. That way, we can get around not having the permits in your area. Honestly, your PR team
gets a two out of 10 for me. Please try harder. So, that left me with my last question about the
follower loops. See, we know who the influencers are. They're the Kardashians and some other
people. We know who the company behind it is. Curated Businesses and they're just awful.
But I want to know who is paying into these. Who are the people you have to follow to win
these giveaways and how much is this doing for their accounts? Well, I did some digging
through their website and... Oh, no. Follower loops don't work people. This is one account,
@mushyco. They sell baby supplies, I guess. Now, notice how they have 667000 followers, but they
get fewer likes on their posts than I get on my Instagram. I went to their Social Blade for their
Instagram and they are losing followers almost every single day. There's this other account
named @ggcbikinis and they have 156000 followers, but some of their posts get as few as 300
likes. That's terrible. On their Social Blade, they don't lose followers almost every
day. They lose them actually every day. That's when I realized. The scam is not actually
the Gucci bags. I don't think the people joining and following all these people to try to
get some free designer are the ones being tricked. I think the companies and the brands
trying to buy into these games are the ones being scammed. Curated Businesses is like,
oo, we'll send followers to your account, but what good is that if all the followers are
just going to unfollow every single day for the rest of your account's life? These follower loops
don't grow your following. They just temporarily increase your follower count. And there's a huge
difference. Brands don't pay you because you have 667000 followers. They pay you because of how
many likes you're getting. If it's 300, I'm sorry, my guy, but you're not going to get that much.
When you really step back and think about it, why would these follower loops work anyway?
The 100 million people that are following Kylie Jenner, they don't care about Mushy Co
baby supplies. So, if Kylie Jenner is like, hey, go follow these people so you can win some
free Gucci, they're just going to unfollow once they don't win. The only thing participating in
a follower loop does is just make your account look dead. Seeing as there's 75 people, how much
are they actually paying to get into this? Like, does each person pay $1000 to get that boost,
then, Curated Businesses makes $75000? I mean, that would cover the Gucci bags. What if each
person is paying $10000 to get in. Is Curated Businesses making $750000 a post? Who actually
knows how much they're making from this campaign? I wanted to see what kind of Instagram accounts
were buying into this currently because they're actually running a campaign right now. Sofia
Richie is giving away Gucci bags and, to win, you have to follow the 75 people that Curated
Businesses is following at the moment. I look through these people and would it be wrong if I
said these seem like the exact kind of accounts that would try to purchase 100000 followers at a
time? Some are companies and some are influencers, but almost all of them already have 100000
followers and a lot of them are verified. I see this guy right here, Patrick Bet. He has 2.7
million followers already. Why would you need to buy more at that point? Also, it's worth noting
that I've never heard of this person. But I guess now when you see somebody who has millions
of followers and you've never heard of them, those millions of followers might
not have ever heard of them either. Let's see. I see Janky and Guggimon. They're
these artificial virtual influencers. They're like animated avatars that wear expensive clothes
and get brand deals off of it. But I guess they were a bit more artificial than we thought
since they're just buying their followers. I see Talentless. That's Scott Disick's clothing
company. Isn't Scott Disick an actual celebrity? Like, not just an influencer. I guess a million
followers on his clothing brand wasn't enough. Oh, look. It's not only Bing Energy, but also the
Bing Energy CEO trying to get some fans off of Sofia Richie. That's probably the least
surprising one out of all of this. Oh, wow. Nicole Arbour's there, too.
Now, I take that back. That's the least surprising one out of all of this.
So, yeah. That's the latest batch of people who are probably going to get an additional
100000 followers in the next day or whatever and that's how a follower loop works. It's not
even a loop, if we're being honest. It's more of a follower transfer. Like, you're just paying this
company to be a middle man in the hopes that Kylie Jenner will transfer some of her followers
to you. I truly think that this represents everything wrong with influencer culture at this
point because the point where you are buying a higher follower count, then the follower count is
just a number. I'll use myself as an example. I have 216000 subscribers on this channel, but I do
want more subscribers. I want a million people to look all the videos I upload every single day.
Two million, three million. But I want them to be real people. I also don't understand the point
of this because you don't get brand deals because of how many subscribers you have. You get them
based off of your views and likes. As you can see, paying Curated Businesses to have Kylie
Jenner do charity work for you does not really increase the amount of likes that you
get. So, this whole thing is just pure vanity. But yeah. That's the story of how the Kardashians
are using their followers as pawns, currency, whatever you want to call it, and just kind of
willy nilly pawning them off to other celebrities on the Instagram by using Gucci bags as bait for
people who can't afford them. I'm just going to be honest with you. If I had the chance to win 20
Gucci bags and all I had to do was follow a few people on Instagram, shoot, I might join Curated
Businesses' next campaign. Honestly, who cares?
I remember watching this when it came out. Absolutely amazing. His videos are great, I wish more people went into deep dives about Instagram
Another one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty7xmTRLgUU