Influencer Marketing for Health … is the worst.
We’ve all scrolled through our socials and suddenly had our eye caught by an attractive man or woman, in a rather promiscuous position, flaunting their not so natural bodies, telling us about the new Ecuadorian berry cleanse that has changed their lives, and how in 8 weeks’ time you can change yours too.
Notice in all of these posts how you never see the other side of the coin. You never see photos of the participants in an 8-week challenge who relapsed into their binge eating behaviour due to the restrictiveness of the diet. Or the ones that caught the flu halfway through because of the low calories and nutrients causing a depression in their immune function. Or the ones that put-on weight because they were compensating with food for the increased exercise they had never done before.
All we ever see are the success stories, put next to a person who fits the ‘ideal’ image. What is not an ideal image is that person with bulimia who ends up in a hospital on feeding tubes because they can’t stomach any nutrients. Or the diabetic person who goes hypoglycaemic and starts to have a seizure because all they’ve done for three days is drink lemon tea. Or more commonly, the person who tries that challenge or product, and gets absolutely nowhere with it.
This is the stark reality of the state of health right now, we’re in a crisis, and people are taking advantage of that. They are abusing that by juxtapositioning the body these people aspire to have, with a product that the model has likely never used themselves.
What that model has done though, has been consistent with their Nutrition, educated themselves on the correct foods to eat and when to eat them, been consistent with their exercise routines, and have done so over a long period of time. We know that is what works, but that is not what sells so that is not what gets put on social media.
Those ads, or more specifically, what those ads represent, is one of the things I dislike the most about business in the online health space. I, like many other Health Professionals, chose to pursue this line of work because I genuinely wanted to help people be healthier.
This is why you see Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics, and other Health workers putting their lives and the lives of their loved ones at risk every single day during a global pandemic. Because their mission in this life is to help their fellow man. This environment, and thought process, is what I was exposed to for years before going into business.
However, business is a competition for attention. It is all about how you can get someone’s attention, engage them, and then convince them that they need your product or service. This concept was expected, but unsettling to me, especially when it came to influencer marketing.
The idea of using a person to market a product in a way that makes it seem like something it is not, to me is just lying in a roundabout way. They’re not directly saying, ‘hey take this product and you’ll look like me’ but we all know that is the notion that’s being pushed.
I laugh at these ads because I can see right through them. To me, they seem silly, but to a lot of people, it doesn’t seem silly, quite the opposite actually. They seem genuine, trustworthy, and believable. What’s worse, is that the businesses and companies pushing these ads know that, and they know how to make sure that the people who believe them, see them.
This is where it really hits me in the moral and ethical feels because that person is generally one who is extremely vulnerable and is likely in need of serious help when it comes to their health. Moreover, they have probably tried many different things to take control of their health all with the same (negative or neutral) result.
If you haven’t already, read the 2016 study that Erin Fothergill conducted with participants from the ‘The Biggest Loser’ show to see the vicious cycle serial dieters go through with weight loss and weight gain. That study demonstrates something that many Health Professionals already know. Many people who try these health cleanses, challenges or products are stuck in this vicious cycle and often end up worse after.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has also shown that over two-thirds (67%) of Australians over the age of 18 are overweight or obese. Just under half (46%) of young Australians aged 18 to 24 are overweight or obese. This statistic of young Australians increased from 39% from the previous survey conducted three years earlier. Clearly, a lot of people are struggling with navigating their health, especially young people. Young people who spend a lot of time on their devices exposed to these influencer marketing tactics.
As I spoke about earlier, Health Professionals get into this line of work because they value helping others. When I decided to move my work online, I wrote down all of the values I wanted to uphold to myself and to my audience. They were;
- Provide scientific and evidence-based nutrition protocols to the combat community
- Educate the combat community about the health risks associated with ‘cutting weight’ and educate them on minimising these risks
- Educate the wider community about the benefit of good nutrition and regular exercise
Every post I make on social media relates back to these core values and this is why I have a problem with influencers (more specifically the businesses who use them) in the health space. They aren’t trying to help these millions of people in any way; they’re trying to manipulate them to make millions. Their values look more like this;
- Sell as much as we can to make money
- Find out what people’s weak spots are, target that and make money
- Do whatever we need to, attractive models, pseudo-science, clever marketing, anything we have to in order to make money
They do a good job of upholding these as well. This is why it so encouraging to see the brave few Health Professionals who take to social media to make this message more ‘fun’. They get creative and engaging with their content to make this vulnerable population pay attention and take away lessons that could positively impact their health.
Rather depressingly though, the allure of the blonde beach babe holding a product works. This vulnerable population buys into the dream that the product they’re holding will make them look like that as well.
I often find myself wondering what the impact this culture has on the health of this vulnerable population. The 46% of young adults aged 18–24 who are on their devices looking for credible information, only to be bombarded by bikini models, muscle dudes, challenges, and crappy products.
How many times do they do these challenges and use these products only to end up back exactly where they started or worse off? How much disappointment can they go through until they just say, stuff it, I’m done. How much of a role are these playing in keeping them in the vicious weight gain weight loss cycle?
What’s more depressing is thinking about how that could have been different if they were bombarded by good science, by good ethical practitioners who could show them that there is a way. Who could teach them that it’s not as simple as it’s made out to be but with the right guidance, it can be done.
Something I go on and on about is social media cleansing. We can’t control a lot in this day and age, but we can control what we see on our socials. Do yourself the favour, unfollow businesses, and companies that use these tactics. Instead follow credible scientists, inspiring stories from people who have made changes and sustained them (doing it the right way).
The algorithm is smart, it targets you based on your interest. If you follow these pages it will make you see similar content, it will also direct ads that has similar content. That way you might see ads not for the lemon detox diet but for the new multidisciplinary health clinic that opened up down the road you had never heard about.
If you’re serious about your health and want to make a serious change, start by changing what you see on your screen every day. If you stop engaging with them, Big Brother (Zuckerberg), will make them go away. Being healthy is hard enough as it is, stop making it even harder.
Jordan Sullivan Dietitian.
References
Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition. Fothergill E1, Guo J1, Howard L1, Kerns JC2, Knuth ND3, Brychta R1, Chen KY1, Skarulis MC1, Walter M1, Walter PJ1, Hall KD1. Obesity. 2016 Aug;24(8):1612–9. doi: 10.1002/oby.21538. Epub 2016 May 2.