The death of the influencer economy seems to shock some

When Johnny was back with a ginormous PR firm a while back he'd tell anyone who'd listen that advising companies to pay the "influencer" or someone they'd pay to have post a product image or Vine or blog post once or twice a day or a week and get paid big bucks was horseshit. It struck some as very direct and out there but will you look at this. It's crashing down and those who made lots of money for not very much other than selling soap are coming off as the entitled dotars Johnny always said they were/are. Social media most people don't look at advertising (while being the genesis of online pay to play laws and mea culpas about admitting posts are paid) wasn't going to move the dial all that much for the amount they are paying and more importantly the somewhat sleazy way this all ended:

Once brands began to realize that some dipshit’s Vine account wasn’t going to make cans of Ragu or whatever go flying off the shelves, “influencers” cried foul. After all, their way of life–waking up, posting an Instagram of a cereal box, tweeting about laxatives, calling it a day—was threatened. They’d found a tremendous scam, and it sucks when your easy money train gets derailed. (I get it! I’ll be just as upset when blogging dies.)

Here we are at the Jersey City Desk, we've never taken ads and we never will. If your product or company gets mentioned in a good way it's because they earned it the old-fashioned way.

Tom Petty take us out: