A pastry chef got furious when influencers asked him to send them free food in exchange for promotion during the coronavirus pandemic.
Brian Campbell is the owner of Miann dessert restaurant, patisserie and chocolate factory in Auckland, New Zealand.
Like many businesses, Brian’s restaurants have been completely closed amid the lockdown. Last week, Jacinda Ardern who is the prime minister of New Zealand made an announcement to tell that businesses can reopen their offices, shops, stores and restaurants but direct contact with customers would still not be made.
After hearing the news Brian told Buzzfeed, “As she was talking about it, I was like, OK, I’m ready to go.” He was glad that now he can at least take orders online and immediately updated his website.
He then noticed there was a message from an influencer on his Instagram account who asked Brian to send him free food in exchange of promoting his restaurant.
“Literally in 10 minutes, I was getting messages from influencers requesting that we send free stuff so they could post it on their profile. I was like, fu**ing hell, this is such a piss take,” he said.
There was not only one message but he received five or six requests from influencers for free food. He replied to each influencer but also decided to call them out through a post he made on his account.
He wrote: “Dear Influencer”.
“PLEASE STOP FOR A SECOND AND THINK, Think about the Restauranters, food producers that have had ZERO income for a month, the possibility of 50% drop in revenue for the next few months. Think about the PEOPLE whom you are asking for stuff for free from, to boost your own profile.”
“It’s time for YOU to bring VALUE to your LOCAL BUSINESSES and go order some food from your favourite places, PAY FOR IT, POST IT, FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT. YOU JUST HELPED A SMALL BUSINESS!”
Brian explained that he has no problem with the influencers but their way of asking for free food during the pandemic when many including his business has affected made him criticize them.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand what we’re going through. Going from having business to having zero business is quite a tough situation to be in. We’re supporting families, trying to keep our staff employed,” he said.
Brian received a good response on his post as people supported him and even showed their wish to order from his website. “People in the industry are being like ‘thank fu*k someone spoke up’ and just general customers [have been] asking if these requests really happen. A lot of positivity about this,” he said.
One person praised Brian writing, “Love this.” While another added, “I hate it when people ask for free food”.
But one person differed with Brian’s opinion as the social media user said influencers help the business to grow by promoting them for free. “The reason most companies do well is because of influencers promoting them for free, most of the time, and advertising for them,” she wrote.
But Brian didn’t change his mind and stuck to his words, he even noticed some influencers had unsent the message after his post. “I’ve never seen it before. Their name pops up and says their message has been deleted,” he said.
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