So as someone who used to work with influencers as a full time job, I personally feel that the use of influencers / celebrities to promote the Covid vaccine, even “sensible ones” is a really really terrible idea

This isn’t to say that influencer marketing doesn’t work. If you’ve ever sat in front of a GA dashboard the moment “the right” influencers talks about a product in “the right” way you will understand the potential.

The problem is that in giving a handful of influencers legitimacy as a vaccine information source, you’re essentially signalling that all influencers have the potential to be a legitimate vaccine information source.

These are also people whose followers genuinely trust the opinions of - from beauty to parenting, often influencers can be a more informative and personal source of information than traditional consumer media.

But here’s a real scenario that happened recently. An influencer I follow has just over 100k followers. She talks about beauty, fashion, homeware, mental health, relationships and family. I think she’s pretty relatable and I also like her style

A few months ago she began discussing her vaccine hesitancy. Any criticism was met with deletion / blocking. While I don’t agree with what she was saying or her actions, she didn’t actually break any terms of use and she has a blue tick so she’s legitimate right?

But right now,to some extent that’s ok, because the public should be able to differentiate this person as someone who is not an expert in vaccines or science or Covid. It’s pretty clear to the majority that we shouldn’t be getting this kind advice from influencers or celebrities.

But by running an influencer campaign you’re saying these individuals without any qualifications are able to “influence” on something as serious as vaccine information. Then the lines start to blur - how do the public know who is a legitimate source of information and who isn’t?

With research suggesting that influencer strategies are also being used to recruit young women for far right groups and QAnon this may have serious implications. There are also reports of a growing issue of vaccine refusal in the well-being influencer communities.

While an influencer campaign may be quick, cheap and effective it may have long term and potentially dangerous implications for how we (and in particular young women) consume and interact with untrustworthy social media content.