One of my guilty pleasures is watching fashion and beauty gurus on YouTube. What kinds of videos do fashion and beauty gurus upload? Their videos range very widely, from make-up tutorials and shopping hauls to fitness routines and vlogs of their personal lives.
I’m unsure as to when I noticed this, but I discovered that these fashion and beauty gurus have a become a highly valued commodity… to fashion and beauty companies.
It started when I saw that certain gurus included a disclaimer in the video description or the video itself, promising the viewer that the items featured in the video were not “sponsored” by anyone.
Now what does that mean?
It means that no companies were feeding the guru money to say positive things about the products, or at least implied this intent by sending them products for free, and that the guru had purchased everything with their own money and whatever opinions she expressed in the video were her own, honest and genuine.
A special example would be Michelle Phan, easily the most famous beauty guru on YouTube. She now owns her own make-up brand, em cosmetics, which is now used in every one of her make-up tutorials since its launch and hence promoted to all of her subscribers, somewhat subtly. You’ll see what I mean in her most recent make-up tutorial:
The question is: is this okay? Clearly this is beneficial for the companies because this is an excellent way of getting their name out, through (self-claimed) experts who have already earned the trust of hundreds and thousands of viewers out there. I know I’ve certainly been tempted to shop at many of the stores mentioned during a video.
I personally don’t mind because I learn about stores or brands I wouldn’t have known about otherwise, and I’m capable of judging whether or not something is trustworthy regardless of someone’s opinion. However, I can’t say the same for the more vulnerable viewers – the younger shoppers, the shopaholics, the trend followers – who may be easily convinced to spend on things that their role model gurus gush about. This is such a grey area of ethics that cannot be simplified by regulations because companies and gurus are technically not doing anything wrong.
This sponsoring trend has only come to life in the past one to two years and it’s spreading fast, from gurus like Michelle Phan with millions of views to new gurus with only thousands of views. This concerns me in regards of the potentially wasteful purchases that vulnerable members of the YouTube audience will make, and I can only hope that gurus will be aware of their influence on their viewers instead of taking advantage of them for their own benefit.
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This is an interesting post, Min Young. I too admit that I am guilty of watching a lot of these YouTube videos, and sometimes it does bother me that these content creators are trying to ‘sell’ through their videos. I personally don’t mind it too much, as long as they are promoting honestly good products, since I can readily find reviews for the items online nowadays. But having their own product line and using their channels to sell it – I’m not too sure about.
Hey Laura – glad I’m not the only one who watches these videos! I don’t pay too much mind to the reviews either, but I definitely agree that it feels weird when you watch a video that you know is trying to sell something. At the same time, though, I can’t imagine saying no to companies if they offered me money or even free stuff… Definitely a trend I’ll be keeping an eye on in the next few years. Thanks for your comment! 🙂