Influencers Who Thought They Could Get Everything For Free

We all see influencers on social media showing off the cool things they receive for free. The problem now is that many people believe that having a couple of hundred friends and fans on social media makes them an influencer, without acknowledging the work that others have done for years before achieving the level of fame that makes them truly worthy of the title. Worse yet, some influencers get a bit snobby about it. Some people like to take advantage of their influencer position to try to get things they want without having to pay for them. From asking for free photoshoots and promotions – to flat out demanding free plane tickets and even ice cream. These influencer stories are unabashed and unfiltered.

Scott Disick Has Lots To Learn

Being around the Kardashians all the time probably allows Scott to get loads of products for free, and he possibly receives all types of offers to post things on his social media accounts. He’s well known for dating Kourtney in the past and for his lavish lifestyle.

But he really messed up badly when he posted about a protein shake he was paid to endorse: instead of writing a caption himself, he copied and pasted the instructions the brand had sent him regarding how to caption the picture. So much for originality! Good going, Lord Disick!

The Food Blogger

Here’s someone who expected a discount of his meal just because he told the owner that he wanted to write a review about the fantastic food he had just eaten. Now call us crazy, but generally speaking, restaurants don’t give discounts just because they are promised a mention on social media.

When the check arrived without the expected discount, the vindictive influencer left them a 1-star review, even though he still went on to rave about the food. Talk about a case of sour grapes. Didn’t he realize this was still a compliment to the restaurant regardless of the number of stars? So at the end of the day, he landed up just spiting himself by looking like a fool.

The Fake Philanthropist

At first glance, you might not notice what is wrong with this screenshot; after all, it’s only fair that the promoter sends a couple of invitations to an event so the influencer can attend so that they can then post about it on social media.

But the missing point, in this case, is that the event they are discussing is in reality a charity event, and the money raised was meant to be donated to help the homeless. Our said influencer is not only asking for one but two free tickets to promote an issue she is not even willing to contribute to, just to keep up an appearance of being all heart.

The Unprivileged Influencer

While we do agree that working to influence people on social media is an actual job, this person does not seem to realize just how privileged they are for being in that position. Yes, it is a full-time job that requires effort, a lot of hours, and even the occasional cold meal, but really?

There are people out there that have to spend hours working in minimum wage jobs to support their families and barely make ends meet, that this sort of comment just sounds a bit out of touch, and a tad obnoxious if we dare say. We mean, getting up at the crack of dawn is a real hardship.

The Entitled Social Media User

This woman went to a restaurant with her boyfriend, ordered three dishes, and did not expect to have to pay the full price simply because she told the manager she would leave a good review on social media. Just like our previous restaurant-goer, this lady was rather upset about being charged full price for the meal.

The ironic part of all this is that if anyone reads the review thinking the restaurant isn’t good, they’ll only be assured that not only was the service great but that the food was excellent as well. The only person who lost out her is the influencer, who said she wouldn’t go back there again, even though the food was yummy. Her loss, indeed.

The Polite Artist

Artists are often underpaid for their work. They can spend many hours or even months on a commission to get it just right. So it sounds like a joke when someone approached an artist offering “likes” in exchange for custom artwork. Too bad you can’t walk into a supermarket, and use “likes” to buy food.

This artist was very polite and patient in explaining why they cannot accept likes on social media as a form of payment. All we can say is, hopefully, they taught that person a lesson so that they never disrespect other artists ever again!

The Minimalist Influencer

We are wondering what this influencer with an entire 315 followers was possibly trying to get for free. It is embarrassing enough when someone with a couple of thousand followers has that type of behavior, but someone who believes that they can influence any percentage of their 315 friends and or family members is just delusional.

This person replying was not nearly as polite or descriptive as the artist above, but we can’t say that we blame them. With the growth of the “influencer”, businesses probably get bombarded with these kinds of messages all day every day.

Clever Sign

This bar came up with a clever way to set some guidelines for their patrons. They are probably sick of dealing with all the social media peeps wanting to get served for free. If they gave discounts to every so-called influencer who posted about the place, the bar would not be able to pay its employees. It’s simple economics…

These people who think they are influencers seem to not understand that the percentage of people they will convince to visit an establishment is not high enough to make that much extra profit for the bar for them to warrant not getting a bill.

The New Star

This girl has a whole 23 posts on Instagram — yeah, you read that correctly. She calls herself a musician and TikTok star and sends the same copy-pasted message to every brand she can find, without even taking the time to be polite or explain why it would be a good idea for them to send her a PR package.

These wannabes probably see actual hard-working influencers doing this type of promotion on their pages and think all it takes is asking brands for support. They do not understand how much it costs for a company to send PR packages and why the brand would not want to associate their image with someone who’s barely starting and who seems just to want free stuff.

The Angry Beach Club

It seems as if this beach club has had enough with all the people asking to stay there for free. Sure, it is a compliment to know how many people would like to visit, but if people wanted to visit so badly, they should be willing to pay for their stay just like everyone else.

How many messages must they have had to receive before deciding that enough was enough and that they needed to make a public statement explaining that they will not accept collaborations with influencers who can’t influence anyone? What an exhausting process.

Free Cake

It is bad enough that these influencers would ask huge well-established brands for free things, but it’s even worse when they contact small businesses who do not have a budget for promotion on social media. The cake in the picture takes several hours to make, and from what we can see, deserves being paid for.

Not only that, but the company would still have had to pay for the ingredients and time spent, which would mean they would land up being the ones paying for the so-called influencer to have a beautiful cake at their party. How is any of this fair?

Free Photos

This person though the word “collab” would surely be the magic trick to getting their photo taken for free. This is the same type of person who probably thinks photographers charge too much just to click a button on a camera.

Some people think that since photographers (and artists in general) work with something they love, they should feel honored and happy to do it for free. Little do they understand how much time and money was spent in the process of learning techniques and buying high-quality equipment.

Funny Ice Cream Shop

This ice cream shop came up with their own campaign to try and get people to stop asking for free treats. Now, when someone asks them to trade a social media post for ice cream, they will be charged double for their dessert.

Not only is this genius, but it’s also hilarious. Everyone is getting tired of this influencer culture, so this campaign will most definitely attract more customers to the store. In fact, way more than those ice cream-priced social media posts would have.

Real Housewives Of Instagram

This is a very interesting email indeed. These women already seem to live a luxurious lifestyle and pride themselves on the money they have. So why would they need their publicist to ask a restaurant to host them for a free dinner and drinks?

Not only that, but the massive following they supposedly have on social media probably doesn’t even add up to a million followers combining the three of them. Maybe this tactic is how the rich stay rich, now that makes sense.

The Food Reviewer

People need to stop asking restaurants and small businesses for free food! These establishments have cooks, waiters, and bills to pay, and they cannot afford to give everyone a free supper in exchange for a social media post that will not attract new customers.

If they started accepting these deals, they would attract more people zeroing in on them like vultures to annoy them for free food, creating a never-ending cycle of free meals and social media posts that never result in paying customers.

The Insane Human

Oh, Craigslist. It’s surely the home of all crazy people. We don’t believe in judging a book by its cover, but this picture makes it more than obvious. Besides, his ad describes him as an “insane human bent on world domination” That kind of says everything we need to know,

What kind of person would apply for a job where one of the leading roles is to love the “insane human” and also get no money at all in return? Everything about this ad screams “run away!”; we truly hope no one actually took the job — umm — we mean internship.

The Bargainer

This image does not specify what kind of work this so-called influencer is trying to get done for free. But one thing we know for sure: a shoutout on Instagram is not worth 50 dollars worth of work per hour.

In fact, considering the way this person worded their message, and the surprising question mark he sent when rejected, we will hazard a guess and say that they have literally no idea how much their Instagram posts are actually not worth.

The Exhausted Caterer

The influencer life is all about looks, which is why they are always taking pictures and showing off a fancy lifestyle that they sometimes can’t even afford. It’s all about making people believe their story, so they’ll buy what these influencers are selling to achieve a little taste of this imaginary lifestyle for themselves.

Obviously, this small business has employees to pay, as well as all their stockists, and it sounds incredibly disrespectful to ask these people to work 20 hours each day in return for social media recognition. If you are throwing a party for 300 guests, you should be able to afford to pay for their food.

Influencer Of Few Words

An “influencer” contacted this restaurant asking for a “collab”. The restaurant was unsure about what precisely the influencer meant and exactly what a collab would entail, And with only six words, said influencer managed to make this restaurant owner steaming mad — and rightfully so.

To be fair, there was no need for this restaurant owner to use such harsh words, but this type of message must be more common than we suspect, and they are probably tired of being asked to work for free. 

Bad Marketing

This blog owner does not know how to get a brand to sponsor his content. And even worse, he admits that he is out of materials for his blog. How can a brand resist such a winning proposal? Is it just us, or does this smack of desperation? Well, maybe just a little.

Sure, it is nice that he is an actual customer and buys products from Xiaomi occasionally, but that does not mean that the brand has any obligation whatsoever to send him free items or even give him an explanation as to why this is not a good deal for them.

Sweet Deal?

A new PlayStation 4 is currently being sold in the stores for about $400. So it makes perfect sense that some rando, who doesn’t even claim to be an influencer, mind you, would want to look for a used video game just to save some cash.

The problem is that this person thought they would convince someone to sell a video game for only ten dollars. Even if he were the most influential influencer on Instagram, this would still be a terrible deal for the seller. 

The Food Photographers

Some people really have no boundaries and are not shy to try their luck. This Instagrammer posts about food and restaurants and thought they would be able to score some free food by simply taking some pictures of their dishes and posting on social media.

The restaurant owner naturally refused, but the best part of this message is “we’d absolutely love to come in and try your menu”. Honestly, who wouldn’t love to try restaurant meals for free? Sign us up for all those free pickings immediately.

The Witty Blogger

This blogger introduces their website and asks if this restaurant would like to be showcased on social media. So far, so good, nothing wrong with that message. The problem is what happens after the restaurant confirms they would like to appear on their Instagram.

The blogger wants the best restaurant in Western Australia to give them free food in exchange for a post on social media. Let’s clarify that again: a blog that does not even mention their name on their introduction wants free food from the #1 restaurant in the area. We think the restaurant will continue to do just fine without this offer.

The Instagrammer

So many people believe that by simply posting pictures of food on social media, is excellent marketing for a restaurant, which is a nice thing to do after buying your food and taking pictures with your phone to share with your fans.

Sure, some people might see your Instagram story and want to order a burger, but that does not make you an influencer. Not only that, but people do it all the time for free, so why would the restaurant want to send anyone free food when they can get the same results from paying customers?

The Comedian

This person has 200 followers on Instagram and reached out to a clothing brand to try and spark a collaboration. The problem is that not only could they not get that many people (if anyone at all) to buy clothes, but they wanted the items for free.

Without any proof of engagement from his followers, a page with a couple of hundred fans does not impress anyone. Let’s get real, most of us non-influencers have at least that many friends following our social pages. Maybe in a few years, this brave person can try again with a different brand, and when they have built up their following by adding a few zeros after the 2!

The Instagram Model

People should do some research before sending this type of message. How can anyone think that having 3,000 followers is enough reason to ask a club for a private booth plus bottles of alcohol? How is that going to help the club?

In fact, the club would be losing money, since booths are expensive, and paying guests would also buy their bottles of bubbly as well. This conversation made us very uncomfortable, but to be fair though, we would love to see footage of this public figure being thrown off a diving board. 

The Hotel Collab

This hotel manager has probably had to deal with numerous self-proclaimed influencers wanting to pay for their stay with an Instagram post. So they came up with an excellent collaboration plan that truly works for both parties. Sounds fair to us!

If this so-called influencer can actually get people to book rooms at the hotel, they will get their money back. This idea scares off all the fake influencers who were just trying to get something for free without helping the hotel at all.

YouFail

This YouTube channel wants to get others to work for them for free. They want someone to film a video and edit it, so that it will be posted on their channel and generate money for them. In return, the “rising star” will get exposure.

While we do agree that exposure is essential, especially at the beginning of one’s career, it is just offensive to ask someone to work for free when you know you will be receiving money thanks to their hard work and talent.

Reverse Psychology

This guy reached out to a brand just to get free products. The brand, knowing this would not be worth their time, suggested giving this “influencer” a considerable discount — which, honestly, was more than fair and something he should have accepted. 

Obviously, he would not get any product for free, and getting a discount is way more than he should have expected. But his ego was hurt, and he missed out on this great opportunity to get what he wanted for a better price.

The Nude Influencer

This guy wanted to upgrade his nude picture portfolio, so he reached out to a professional photographer to get a quote for a photoshoot. The issue here is that this person, regardless of what type of picture he wanted, was expecting the photographer to work for free.

But the photographer was already prepared for this type of situation! People probably send similar messages to him all the time, so they came up with a perfect solution that can benefit both parties if the so-called influencer is actually up to snuff.

The Cheap Influencer

Everyone wants to look good, and let’s face it, getting help from a personal trainer is something not all of us can afford, even though we wish we could. This person contacted a personal trainer to ask them for free training sessions.

Once again, here is a case of an influencer trying to use their platform to undermine a professional’s work and training for their own benefit. Personal trainers get paid by their hour, and not monthly by a company, which means this person would be wasting their time that could be used training a paying customer.

The Jokester

The only explanation for this message is that it is meant to be taken as a joke — or so we hope. How can someone have the nerve to suggest that an artist should pay them to post their song, when they were the one who reached out in the first place? If this sentence sounds confusing, it’s because this whole idea is insane.

People honestly do not understand how the social media business works. None of this makes any sense. Even on a big scale, with a well-known influencer, the musician should be the one getting paid for their work, not paying for this minimal exposure. We think it sounds a bit fishy!

The Offensive Offer

Deep down, this PR person is probably very ashamed to know that this is their job. This bride has 55,000 followers on social media and considers herself an influencer big enough to ask for these things. We wonder if she is paying her publicist in shout-outs too.

Not only does she have the guts to ask for two hour-long videos and a thousand pictures, which will both need to be edited and maybe photoshopped (we didn’t suggest that), but she also wants to offer a 25% discount on someone else’s work. We genuinely hope no one was desperate enough to think this was an excellent business opportunity.

The Fed-Up Restaurant Owner

This restaurant owner got really upset when a small influencer tried to get a free meal in exchange for a social media post. As they write in the post, even a big celebrity like Katy Perry paid for her meal, so why would this person get one for free?

If a restaurant is big enough to have a massive pop star as a customer, it certainly isn’t short of exposure and good publicity. So it is just flat out embarrassing that someone would suggest that, instead of just paying for what they want to buy.

The InstaBride 

Wedding parties are expensive, so it makes sense that brides would try to get discounts or DIY some decorations to make it a little bit cheaper. That being said, she also has a job; she is a fashion blogger and would not want to work for free.

So how come she thinks it’s okay for someone else to work for free only for her benefit? Her wedding will be a fabulous source of good content for her social media platforms, so she should invest in that party, instead of asking someone else to pay for her celebration.

Straightforward Joe

This business owner received a proposal to work for free for two whole days (and give away his product as well) in return for social media exposure. His response is better than the offer itself, and we hope it made this publicist rethink their strategy before sending it to another company.

What they do not understand is that the exposure they mention will never result in a long line of customers queuing in front of this ice cream shop for months; therefore this “opportunity” is only an opportunity for Joe to waste his time and money.

The Angry Moose

This hotel owner wrote an open letter to a social influencer that really should have been addressed to all the influencers out there. This post explains exactly why people should stop asking for free accommodation, services, and products. As always, there are two sides to every situation, and he raises some good points.

The sad thing is that this post is from 2018, and years later, we are still here discussing this same issue. Unfortunately, there must be businesses out there that do accept and give these people things for free, which is why they keep insisting.

The Promoter

This person has the guts to say that they get paid $60 to promote musicians on their Facebook page, which, again, is followed by a ‘massive’ crowd of 300 people. Again, exposure is essential, but your dignity is worth more than that.

This is just another example of a schemer trying to profit off someone else’s work and creation. Had they actually built a platform where the artist could showcase his talent to other professionals, this fee would make sense, but this is pathetic.

The Clever One

This person has it all figured out. Instead of mocking these self-proclaimed influencers or making angry posts on Instagram, this Twitter user explained how they redirect these offers. This is a brilliant idea since actual influencers would not have a problem getting ten people to make purchases.

The fact that no one ever accepts this type of offer only proves that the brand would have wasted a lot of money if they sent free goodies to every “influencer” who asked for products to promote. We need more people like this!

Creative Pinterest User

This person decided to turn their Pinterest account into a source of income. So far, so good. The issue is that they wanted to charge an Etsy store for something they could have done themselves, and that’s where the problem starts.

The store owner was very patient and figured out a way to make this collaboration work: they set up a coupon code and offered to give a commission for each sale this influencer brought. We genuinely think this is a perfect deal.

The Freeloader

Chase seems to be making headway and has started to get big jobs in his field as an influencer. It is definitely not that easy to work with big brands such as Nivea and Bud Light, especially for someone with less than half a million followers.

And even though, believe us, those are surely impressive accomplishments, Chase is clearly not at a point in his life where he can afford to pay his own rent. We would love to see the reaction of this property owner when they received this message.

The Funny Restaurant Owner

Sick and tired of Instagrammers and Bloggers, this restaurant owner wrote this message to express how much these reviews actually matter and affect business. It’s really funny how people keep trying to use the same trick, even though it never works.

At least this person has a sense of humor and asked the influencer to disguise themselves, as food critics do in comedy movies. Maybe the influencer will also have a sense of humor and actually follow the guidelines. We would love to see that.

The Cheap Bachelor

It’s funny, the more famous you are, the more free things you get. But when you are not that famous and actually need the free stuff, you honestly can’t get anything. That’s why we, the regular people, work to be able to afford to buy the things we want.

These people seem to think that all they need to do to receive free things is to appear on a reality show so that they can get famous and start getting all types of stuff for free. We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but those 15 minutes of fame run out pretty fast.

Another Reality Star

What is happening in the world? Doesn’t anyone want to work and pay for their things anymore, honestly? There are so many people trying to get products for free that it almost feels like everyone is vying to be an influencer nowadays.

But if everyone is an influencer, then really, no one is an influencer. Do you see the problem? If everyone is willing to promote your product, you don’t need anyone to advertise it. Your product is already famous. Made you think twice, didn’t it?

The Influenster Influencer

The influencer market is just as confusing to influencers as it is to the people being influenced. There are now even websites such as Influenster, where you can sign up to receive free products to review. Just when you were starting to think that your opinion didn’t really matter.

This is an excellent concept for all the people who believe they are social media influencers and keep asking brands to send them free stuff. This way, everyone is happy. We give five stars to this platform for coming up with the idea.

The Fashion Week Cheapo

In case you didn’t know, the outfits celebrities wear at Fashion Week are all borrowed, and they have to return everything after the event. This is done for exposure, since these people’s pictures will be on the covers of magazines and news articles and splashed across social media.

But this is only the case for actual famous people, who have designers reaching out and fighting each other to dress them. It does not make any sense for someone to work for free in exchange for exposure to someone’s small following.

The YouTuber

Ah, ending with another classic. YouTubers who want to receive free items to review on their channels. To be fair, some of these reviews are very helpful and might make the audience decide if they will buy a product or not.

But most of the time, brands have a team of people working on finding the perfect influencers to promote their product, so the chances are that this person’s message never got them really far at all — or even a foot through the door, if we are honest.

Queen Of Instagram

Check out this arrogance on display here. This clothing designer said that an influencer approached them for a partnership, but she barely had enough followers to be considered an influencer at all. Red flag number one, but it doesn’t end there.

Not only that, but she wanted free clothes, and then had the nerve to want to charge the designer insane rates for her wearing them in her Instagram posts. To make matters worse, she said the post would only be visible for an hour on her feed. Now that doesn’t sound like a winning deal to us!