Influencers are things of a recent past; enabled by the ubiquity of Internet and the prevalence of social media platforms.
Like all things on earth, it has two sides to its metaphorical coin, and it is one part good and one part bad.
Bad for things like spewing bad propaganda, humblebragging their glamorous lifestyle and monetizing everything with no thought and regard for right or wrong.
Good for things like charitable works and spreading good messages like saving the world from certain climate doom.
What about using both sides of the coin for aplomb?
And that’s what a Malaysian influencer just did to extreme virality.
Harvinthskin; Actor, Entertainer, Host
According to World Of Buzz, online Malaysian influencer Harvinth Skin came under recent nationwide fire when he recently tried to crowdsource RM24,000 (approximately SGD$7,859) to purchase a pair of Nike Yeezy 2 shoes .
Ya know, just to add to his potentially burgeoning sneakers collection.
As he had a large follower-base (at 141K at time of writing), he had appealed for just a paltry RM1 from each of his followers to achieve that goal.
He even had the audacity to list his CIMB bank account number, indicating that funds received would be directed without further ado, into his own personal account.
Understandably, the post went viral with 25,173 likes (at time of writing), mostly I presume, due to his audacity and mass outrage at his actions.
Comments
The comments inevitably came flooding in.
Some took aim at followers who would donate money for his selfish, personal cause, while others highlighted the good he could have done instead.
(Ha, the irony of the latter suggestion)
The Good, The Supposed Bad, And Not Even Ugly
And the good was apparently what this whole stunt was all about.
Never mind that this move was clearly to generate publicity (hey, an influencer has to be popular by definition and he has to eat as well right). The whole plot was revealed in the end to be a fund-raising idea to provide shoes for an orphanage.
After rounding up funds to RM1,500 from donations totalling RM1,044, Harvinth purchased 32 pairs of shoes from Bata and hand-delivered them to the orphanage.
In a move unsurprising of an influencer, he revealed the true intention behind his audacious campaign in a video titled ‘I bought #OurShoe (RM24k)’, proving that he had all along planned to use the donations for charitable uses.
As the video is a tad lengthy at 12 minutes odd you can be sure to just take our word for it.
At the end of the day, agendas and intentions are multi-layered.
Things aren’t always mutually exclusive.
While Harvinth stands to benefit from the free publicity provided, publicity, as mentioned, is a part of his job.
At least in this instance, the end-goal was beneficial to some less fortunate.
I mean, right? I think?
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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