Nitibha Kaul's 'poverty porn' post for H&M x Sabyasachi a cautionary tale for influencers

Influencer marketing is on a steady rise in the country. As per a ClanConnect report, 78% of marketing leaders leveraged influencer marketing in 2020, while over 13% of them initiated influencer activity for the first time in 2020.  

In fact, budgets allocated to influencer marketing also grew significantly in 2020 with 39.13% of marketers mentioning an increase in spends on influencer marketing over the past year. This indicates how important influencer marketing is to modern brand managers and its capabilities to deliver staggering results. 

However, could an influencer collaboration gone wrong impact a brand negatively as well? The question arose when former Bigg Boss contestant and influencer Nitibha Kaul was accused of promoting ‘poverty porn’ with her posts for H&M X Sabyasachi collection.  

The influencer ended up deleting the posts and the collection also got sold out almost immediately, but the industry feels that acts like these could have far-reaching consequences on both brands and influencers both.  

The other side of the coin  

There have been several instances in the past, globally wherein the acts of an ambassador have impacted its brand images. Be it netizens forcing Snapdeal to drop Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador back in 2015, after people started rating it negatively on Play Store, or Gillette letting go of cricketer Hardik Pandya in 2019 after his problematic remarks on a talk show. 

While some might argue that the implications were big because of the popularity and stature of such brand ambassadors, the industry feels that the same rules will soon start applying to influencers as well. 

Blogchatter CEO & Co-founder Richa Singh says, “Influencers today are no longer the sales & marketing leg of brand campaigns. They are digital advocates for the products that they endorse. In that light, anything they do or not do gets associated with the brand as well. The good, bad and ugly. 

"This is in some way good news for the industry because we are being elevated in the minds of the consumers and our power to drive impact has risen quite a bit. But then like everything else, with great power comes great responsibility. In this case, the flak has a cascading effect on the brand too.” 

Blink Digital Client Services Director Khushboo Bhatt, while referencing Kaul's post, adds, “When influencers create content for a brand, along with their unique style they also extend their persona/image to the brand. If the influencer is accused of creating ‘poverty porn’ (an informal term used for content that makes use of poor people in order to fulfil their personal motives) then it may, at times, be extended to the brand in question.” 

Creativity vs Credibility 

The incident is going to have an impact on brand and influencer relationships too, as the former would like to have more control on the content being generated.  As Singh points out, “After every such incident, the industry tends to review internal processes so I will not be surprised if some changes are done to creative freedoms allotted to the influencers for content. 

"Of course influencers will push back as they always have against such tightening (as should they) – the mix of things might be some kind of middle path. What that middle path will be is still a thing to see ahead.” 

But more than a curb on creativity, as many would argue it could lead to, this will result in influencers becoming more sensitive and safe with what they are promoting and how they are promoting. 

Branding Edge Strategic Communication and Advisory Managing Partner Rahul Tekwani points out that it is the influencers’ responsibility to be careful about how they are presenting the brands. 

He says, “Using someone else's poverty, suffering or misfortune to sell a product is not 'creative' at all. It's a malpractice that should be highlighted, spoken about and openly discouraged. Influencers should definitely be more mindful of the kind of content they create. Not everything is supposed to get you likes and followers.” 

Singh adds, “Influencers have to start looking at everything they do from the perspective of a larger civil society, in a fast-moving content industry the pressure to churn posts is so high that often our filters go missing. This needs to stop – we cannot be insensitive to the world we are in. In recent times, multiple influencers were also accused of classist behaviour which they thought were simply harmless jokes. But given how large their impact is today, everything they say or do has to be checked from all aspects, especially societal boundaries.” 

Bhatt says, “Influencers can be more real about their content and draw from their lifestyle, values and beliefs versus trying to go out of their way to create something different or voice opinions on things they don’t understand or believe in - just to get noticed.” 

How should brands proceed 

The brands need to be careful of who they are partnering with and also keep a tab on the sort of content being generated around their products. 

Tekwani highlights, “As far as brands go, they should choose influencers not based on how many followers they have, but based on the kind of content they create and how well that does with what they stand for.” 

Bhatt further notes, “Brands can have guidelines in place to ensure they choose only those influencers that are relatable to their brand image.

However, this should not give brand managers a licence to have a free hand at censoring influencer content and ideas, else there will be little difference between an ad film and an influencer content piece.”