Those who turn to social media influencers for honest reviews may want to do more research.
Three reality-stars-cum-influencers were duped into hawking a fake diet drink made with hydrogen cyanide — a chemical used by Nazis at extermination camps — called Cyanora. Footage of the prank appeared on a new BBC Three television show hosted Irish rapper Blindboy Boatclub.
Blindboy, whose real name is Dave Chambers, aimed to expose celebrities for recommending products they’ve never actually used.
The show, “Blindboy Undestroys the World,” invited former “The Only Way Is Essex” cast members Lauren Goodger and Mike Hassini and former “Love Island” participant Zara Holland to audition to be a brand ambassador, promoting Cyanora through their social-media platforms. Each was given information about the product, including the fact that they would not be able to try the drink themselves before agreeing to work with the brand.
Forgoing research and a legitimate product review, the wannabes agreed to film promos for Cyanora — even naming hydrogen cyanide specifically.
“From what I know, that all looks pretty natural,” said Hassini, 25, during his ad spot.
“We were very transparent,” Blindboy explained during the episode. “The product was clearly labelled ‘hydrogen cyanide,’ and we wanted to see if they would consider selling it to their fans, which would kill them.”
Holland’s agent, who was present during the auditions, insisted she would need to try the product before promoting it to her followers. Goodger and Hassini, however, readily obliged.
“Half these posts you see that people do, they’re not even trying them half the time,” said Goodger’s agent, who was also caught in the sting.
“I never tried Skinny Coffee,” Goodger, 33, added, despite promoting the brand on her Instagram account @LaurenRoseGoodger, which has since been shut down.
One of the undercover Cyanora marketers said to Goodger, “We were a bit worried that maybe you’d want to, you’d need to try it, before you mention it. No? Not bothered?”
“No,” she responded. “I’ve even had my own friends message me, ‘Laur, can you get me some of that Skinny Coffee, does it work?’ ”
She continued, “I’m like, ‘Do you not know this by now?’ And they’re actually going and buying it, and I’m like, ‘You know how this works.’ ”
It was only after their interview that the reality stars learned of the investigation.
In a statement to the show’s producers, Holland, 24, said, “Although I had read out the ingredients, which included hydrogen cyanide, I did not immediately know what this was at the time.
“I would like to make it very clear that my followers on social media follow me because I only promote products that I have tried first and know a lot of detail about them,” she claimed. “My followers are extremely important to me and I would never deliberately mislead them or promote a product that was dangerous.”
Goodger’s former agency claims she was misled: “Our [former] client would not endorse the promotion of products that contained harmful or suspect ingredients, or without knowing the contents. Our client was told the product was in production.”
Her current talent agency confirmed, “Lauren was asked by her old management to appear in an advert for a new water.
“There was no mention of what the water contained before the meeting. The money on the table was quite a large sum of money,” they explained, implying the paycheck was Goodger’s priority.
Goodger admitted to the Daily Mail that the job interview was less than thorough: “No deals were signed, and it was an audition. They asked me, would I promote the drink without using it? In the heat of the moment, I said yes and also said I hadn’t tried Skinny Coffee in the hope of getting the job.”
She added, “Of course I wouldn’t promote anything that contains poison, and proper checks would have been made before any promotion.”
Meanwhile, Hassini declined requests by multiple news outlets for comment.
In a statement to BBC Radio 1’s “Newsbeat,” which recently had Blindboy on their show to discuss the controversy, the Advertising Standards Authority of the UK said, “If a celebrity claimed that using a dietary product had helped them lose weight when, in fact, they had never used the product, that could potentially be a problem under our rules. Though we’d have to carefully assess the context in which the claims appeared.”
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December 21, 2019 at 04:54AM
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Influencers tricked into shilling diet drink made with cyanide - New York Post
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