Borkowski Media Trends: De-influencing, 'Diva Green' & more...

Can Boris bounce back? Caffeine Content creates Coffee Kerfuffle

De-influencing Back Into Want

Those with at least shoulder-length hair and an addiction to TikTok or Instagram reels will remember the unbelievable success of the Dyson Airwrap campaign last year. At various points, but especially nearing Christmas 2021 (with the flooding of ‘present hints to boyfriend’ content), the fancy curler which retails for £480 was an inescapable object of desire, one of those that seems to be ubiquitous, if only on social media.

It was absolutely mind-boggling then to find this holy grail of ‘That Girl’ multiverse in one of many de-influencing videos. De-influencing, the new trend taking TikTok by storm, is content creators telling their viewers which popular products not to buy – bar, of course, those made by the brands which sponsor them. Potentially in an effort to make content more earnest and its creators to seem more relatable, de-influencing is likely to only contribute to over-consumption, splurging on novelties one definitely doesn’t need, and hoarding, the pillars of the influencer economy.

It feels good to be told not to worry about buying an overhyped product. That being said, there will be plenty of people who had already bought the product when it was first sold to them by an influencer. De-influencing doesn’t work in a vacuum; the next video your favourite influencer will put out after discouraging unnecessary purchases will inevitably be a sponsored post, encouraging unnecessary purchases. You might like your Dyson Airwrap, and yet, sooner than anticipated, feel embarrassed of it enough to replace it by the new it-curler. While it produces a familiar, older-sister-gives-advice kind of feel that those of us without sisters might crave, de-influencing is essentially a speeding up of the trend cycle so that we get over our product obsessions faster, only to then be assisted by the same influencer to obsess over something else.

‘Diva Green’: I’m not rude, I’m just an actor

The week’s media blitz on the court case of actor Eva Green versus White Lantern Film is shaping up to be the stuff of old Hollywood legend.  The once Bond girl is suing the production company over the disintegration of a planned dystopian thriller flick entitled A Patriot in which she was down to star, alongside a role as executive producer. It is this latter role which White Lantern is accusing Green of taking too far, with diva behaviour worthy of greats like Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe being thrown about in the courtroom. In a move straight out of the Wagatha Christie playbook, Green’s private whatsapps message were used in evidence, with cringe inducing quotes like references to the crew as “shitty peasants from Hampshire” and descriptions of the film as a “B-shitty-movie” hitting the headlines. Green defended her frankness by saying it was her, “French side coming out.” In an era of increasingly polished celebrity PR machines that manage every single social media post and closely guard every interview opportunity, it seems that the best (or at least most unflattering) insight the public will ever get into the private life a public figure is through the inimitable platform of the show trial. From Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, to Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, it is clear that the public appetite for the truly dirty details has not been quenched by the curated snippets that flood social media. We always have and always will love a courtroom drama. 

Boris: Beware the Shadow Prime Minister 

Boris Johnson, the former UK Prime Minister who has always cared more about his fame than the country, re-emerged this week on an international mission to whitewash his battered legacy. 

The Churchill-worshipping ex-PM wants a legacy which will be written about in the history books much like that of his hero. Sadly for Bojo, his time in office was full of scandal and disaster, for much of which he bears personal responsibility. To combat this ignoble image he’s clinging to the one shining light of his premiership: his early support for Ukraine in its resistance to the Russian invasion. He is a national celebrity in Ukraine.

Since leaving office Boris has become a self-appointed military ambassador flying the globe pleading with governments to send more weapons and money to Ukraine. As noble the cause and the work he is doing, we must not forget that this is Boris trying to rewrite the history books and whitewash his domestic failures to create a Churchillian legacy. It's safe to say we've probably not seen the last of Boris just yet...let's just hope people don't forget all the failures he championed before the comeback steps up a gear.

Caffeine Content Creates Coffee Kerfuffle

The PR teams for the UK’s big coffee shop chains found themselves unexpectedly busy this week after Which? released data revealing the wild variations in caffeine levels between high street hotspots. How to respond to this unexpected yet fascinating piece of information that none of us had ever even considered before?

As proven by the many identical conversations happening in offices around the country when this news came out – there were no winners or losers in this PR-wise. Nobody could quite decide what’s worse – paying £3.95 for a flat white that’s not much more than frothy milk, or accidentally drinking triple the recommended amount of caffeine every day.   

The news gave us some interesting insights into our preconceptions about our coffee chains – the most surprising being that the somewhat suburban brand Costa offers up the highest level of legal, highly addictive stimulant, with their medium cappuccino containing a whopping five times more caffeine than Starbucks’ equivalent, one might assume the cooler and more metropolitan coffee house would offer a bigger hit with each drink.

Pret, arguably better known for its baguettes and salads than its coffee offering, also came out on top, with their Espresso containing more caffeine than any other brand.  

It’s unlikely this report will have a serious long term impact on coffee consumption; when you’re as addicted as we are to the good stuff, it could contain petrol for all we care. But with a food crisis closer than it has been at any time since World War II, consumers are starting to examine how to get the best possible value from a product in ever-more minute detail, and exposés such as the Which? report should put any retailer who cuts corners on notice.