From Pranks to PR-propaganda: The Hidden Power of Social Media Influencers

She’s filming herself on TikTok as part of a viral trend where people prank others by claiming they’ve been invited on a sponsored trip with one of the world’s largest oil companies. The joke seems to poke fun at influencer culture, where influencers might promote a brand that pays good – even if their values do not align. This trend circulated in early 2024, just months after investigative journalists at DeSmog revealed how Big Oil companies had been actively using influencers to promote fossil fuels.

​In 2023, the investigative journalist collective DeSmog revealed how oil giants were using influencers to go viral, and crafting a more relatable, family-friendly image (Dimitraidis, Grostern & Bright 2023). However, followers of some influencers taking on the job were not convinced: "So devastating... There's no way you needed the money that bad.", AFP quotes one follower writing (AFP 2023). 

A matcha latte or oil barrel to-go? 

When influencers partner with brands, the collaborations can have political implications – sometimes unintentionally, as seen in the TikTok prank, and other times by design. Influencer marketing works because it comes close to the viewer. It creates an emotional bond with the audience, a concept known as parasocial relationships (see eg. Kumar et al. 2024; Lou & Kim 2019). Influencers build a social media presence, and a personal brand, attracting followers who feel invested in their lives. As a result, influencers do not only influence shopping habits – they also shape ethics, values, and political beliefs (Arnesson & Reinikainen, 2024). Especially in recent years, this has become more evident, with influencers acting as political figures or ideological intermediaries, the researchers argue. 

An influencer might seem like just another local figure promoting the town’s best matcha latte, and research shows that products sell better when endorsed by influencers rather than brands themselves (Kumar et al., 2024). However, influencer marketing isn't always about lattes and lifestyle: it can also be part of a broader political strategy, such as the one the journalists of DeSmog (2023) found. 

If you ask the researchers behind a large Oxford study on online propaganda, the DeSmog case could be an example of social media manipulation (Bradshaw, Bailey & Howard 2021). The Oxford researchers called out states, political actors, and private firms for spreading disinformation to manipulate public attitudes in their favor. Studying internet activity in 81 countries between 2019 and 2020, the team found that private interests are “polluting the digital information ecosystem” and using, what they call, cyber troops to do this. The cyber troops, a term that sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie, can be either bots or real people amplifying a political message (Bradshaw, Bailey & Howard 2021). Their mission? To flood the digital space with narratives that serve their sponsors’ interests, the study suggests. 

Post-truth and post-this and that

Whether it is straight-up false information about climate topics or a more subtle PR push for Big Oil, these efforts exist within a complex media ecosystem where agendas overlap, and the origins of information become increasingly difficult to map out (Chadwick, 2017). Since 2016 – when post-truth was named the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year (see here) – the lines between true and false seem to have become blurred. A more fitting term might be truthiness, a concept coined by comedian Stephen Colbert back in 2005, which refers to information that feels true, even if it is not (Fisher, 2019; Zimmer 2010). Do influencers, with the advantage of parasocial relationships, sell not just products but also truthiness?

A 2023 study conducted in Finland found that nearly a third of young people (aged 15–25) reported paying more attention to political and social issues due to content shared by influencers (Aalto, Ping Media, 2023). However, the study also found that most social media users, especially those over 25, consume content based on the topic rather than who shares it. Similarly, a 2023 study on German youth (aged 16–22) found that while mainstream media remains the primary source of political information, influencers help their audiences interpret and make sense of it all (Peter & Muth, 2023). They also note, however, that influencers who occasionally talk about politics are not as reliable of a source. Nevertheless, both studies highlight the role influencers play in shaping political discourse. While influencers may be just one source of information, their impact is undeniable – just as their job title suggests.