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Perhaps this is just me being odd man out, as is often the case, but I don’t give much credence to articles I suspect are authored by “influencers” whose opinions may be biased by their sponsors.
Whenever I see folks who can be found on multiple Internet addresses with boatloads of sponsors I always wonder just how much they have to hold back in their articles. I have been doing this way too long to believe it is all rainbows and unicorns.
If I had a vote, which I do, I skip over articles I perceive as possibly lacking in transparency given merchandise or money has traded hands. Wouldn’t it be great if authors included statements about their sponsors and what the sponsorship entailed?
My two cents,
Ardvark
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SCI am amazed at how big a business this “infulencer” thing has become. I have no problem with people doing things for money or merchandise, but I do have a problem when what is basically paid advertising not being clear in identifying themselves as such.
I know the RV industry will provide folks they think can influence others to buy their products up to and including complete RVs and I strongly believe those perks bias the articles that influencers spew out.
I’m probably just old school, but I put more stock in something I read that is produced by someone who is actually “living the life” rather than someone who is writing to help sell something. Not sure how many recall when some magazines used to put a header on article that read “paid advertising”, because it was hard to distinguish whether it was a real article or a piece pretending to be a real article. My thought is influencers need to identify themselves as such and state what perks they have received whenever they put out something for public consumption.
My two cents,
Ardvark
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SCI do like watching some youtubers like Forestry Forest, Rolling Earthship, and Slim Potatohead because they do interesting things. Most of the youtubers just ask for money and give advice that anyone with a little common sense would already know. I saw one video where a guy was showing how to heat your RV without using propane and all he did was plug in a bunch of electric heaters.
and all he did was plug in a bunch of electric heaters.
Seriously? If you can make decent money giving out advice like that, then I’ve been in the wrong line of work!
Bryan
Hi Coly,
For me, and maybe this is only me, the rub is we have folks who supposedly are RVers basically doing everything they can to influence potential buyers. I am not opposed to people getting free merchandise as long as they say that is what they are doing, because I think at the very least that carries with it an implicit bias to paint things in the best possible light. What I don’t trust them to do is discuss the pitfalls or the negatives of whatever they are traveling in or promoting.
And some of the folks on YouTube are writing about technical things about which it is obvious to me they know very little and more importantly it strikes me they did not even make an attempt to thoroughly research their topic before they hit the keyboard. It also appears these folks have a significant number of followers who write incredibly positive comments about what they just saw.
As always my two cents and as I said, maybe just me. 🙂
Ardvark
Steve and Andra
2012 F350 6.2 gasser SRW LB
Fab Fours front and rear in case we run into a rhino
2019 Northstar Laredo SC
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