- Influencer Janibell Brown criticized a celebrity beauty brand for offering to pay her in "exposure."
- While she did not name the brand, Brown claimed an email from the company asked for free custom content in exchange for "perks."
Fashion and beauty micro-influencer Janibell Brown took to TikTok on March 27 to rant about a celebrity beauty brand having the "audacity" to offer to pay her in "exposure."
"I haven't been tried like this is in my six years of being a full-time influencer," Brown said, explaining that the unnamed brand had emailed her offering "perks" in exchange for free content.
Brown told viewers the brand emailed her and offered to send her a product in exchange for a "brand ambassador opportunity" and the chance to be selected for a meet and greet with the celebrity during their LA photoshoot for the brand.
"I'm screaming," a viewer commented. "Not an unpaid and a sweepstakes."
@janibellrosanne These brands need to get it together! Exposure and meet and greets DO NOT pay the bills. Pay influencers their rates or create the content yourself in house. Im not opposed to receiving free products, i love trying new stuff and sharing what i love/dont love! But when said free products come with a brief, specific deliverables and a contract imma need yall to run me my check. #influencer #influencers #celebritybrands #knowyourworth #influencertips #rant #ranting #contentcreators #contentcreator #contentcreatortiktok #contenttok ♬ original sound - janibellrosanne
According to the email, which Brown provided Insider a copy of with redacted identifying information, the brand asked her to create a post about their new product, a clay face mask, in exchange for "a chance to meet and greet [said celebrity] in LA." The email also listed the other "perks" that Brown also highlighted in her viral TikTok.
When asked, Brown did not share the name of the celebrity or their brand with Insider, but said her comment section should make it "very clear who sent that email." (Influencers commented that they'd received the same email for Vanessa Hudgens' beauty brand, Know Beauty. Know Beauty did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Insider.)
Brown, who has a few thousand followers on TikTok and over 50,000 on Instagram, told viewers she couldn't believe that in 2023, with how influential the influencer industry is, brands still try to solicit free work or "lowball" creators. "They insult you and your craft and your worth all in one fucking email," she said in her video.
Content in exchange for exposure or free product (which Brown said she's "not above") is a hot industry topic — both for influencers and businesses. F*** You Pay Me (FYPM), a Glassdoor for influencers, often describes a free product as simply tools to do the job with. "Your bank would never accept 'exposure' as payment. Neither should you," they wrote in an Instagram post last month.
Without regulation or payment transparency, inequity can also go unaddressed. For instance, a 2021 study showed that Black influencers made significantly less money than their white counterparts.
Brown told Insider she doesn't necessarily have an issue with the exchange of free products for potential posts — many small brands don't have the budget to pay influencers, and free products can get expensive to send, noted — but those exchanges shouldn't ask so much of influencers when creators stand to gain comparatively less in return.
"If you don't have a budget for dedicated content, you need to hire someone in-house, create the content yourself, or be more realistic in what you ask for from influencers," Brown told Insider over Instagram direct message. "We have bills to pay and food to put on the table — just like everyone else."
But, if brands expect to offer exposure or product in place of payment, Brown thinks expectations should be more realistic.
"When I say 'be more realistic,' I mean don't pitch us an extensive scope, firm guidelines, required verbiage, et cetera, as a whole and expect us to do it for affiliate income or free product," she said. "Those are pitches that we receive for paid activations."
But, as fashion creator Belle Bakst commented, "Someone is gonna do it." ("That's the worst part!" Brown responded).
Brown said the job can be particularly exploitative for younger creators. "So many influencers are still learning the ropes and getting duped into signing crazy agreements that are quite literally taking money out of their pockets," Brown said. "It goes so much deeper than free products. A lot of brands are slick and take advantage of novice creators all the time that don't have management [and] don't understand these contracts."
Many commenters shared similar frustrations, including fellow influencer Charity Amaka Ekezie, who wrote, "Perks don't pay bills."
"Oh hell no.... That is soooo offensive," another commented. "They might as well call it an internship."
Brown replied: "They ain't even offer me a lunch stipend!"