Influencers have faced newfound scrutiny in the past year for a variety of tone deaf moves like throwing ragers while their city is locked down or simply trying to sell during a pandemic-fueled economic downturn.
Despite the backlash, however, the influencer market is booming.
The “influencing” industry is like many others in that a select few reap the rewards. But what if influencing was more democratized? What if anyone could be an influencer, or at least have a million Instagram followers?
MSCHF, the group behind stunts like attaching a paintball gun to Boston Dynamics’s robot dog, wants to answer these questions with Death of the Influencer. The titular death is of a fictional, unnamed Influencer, the “son of Andy Warhol and Paris Hilton,” who was apparently killed by a password reset. RIP.
We can’t bring our Instagram account or followers into the after life, so the Influencer has willed them to us. MSCHF’s manifesto reads that the Influencer “leaves behind an empty account with no trace of meaning beyond its outsized follower count.” Indeed, there’s a real @deathoftheinfluencer account that has one million followers and no posts as of publication. (Don’t worry, MSCHF didn’t buy the followers, just the account.)
Image: screenshot by the author
“Any hope for influence now rests in your hands,” says the manifesto. With the goal of a more egalitarian influencer landscape, MSCHF wants anyone to post on the account.
While there’s no guarantees, text 646-853-3611 with a photo and it might end up blasted to one million (plus) followers. There’s no information about how long MSCHF plans on posting to the account — but knowing their past drops, you’ll want to get in on it ASAP.
The Influencer is dead, long live Influencer.