March 29, 2024

These Influencers Aren’t Flesh and Blood, Yet Millions Follow Them

On a public Google Doc that functions as the company’s website, Brud bills itself as “a transmedia studio that creates digital character driven story worlds” and says Lil Miquela is “as real as Rihanna.” Its “head of compassion,” in Brud-speak, is Trevor McFedries, whom Lil Miquela has referred to in several posts as a father figure.

Before co-founding Brud, Mr. McFedries was known as Yung Skeeter, a D.J., producer, director and musician who has worked with Katy Perry, Steve Aoki, Bad Robot Productions and Spotify. He has helped raise millions of dollars in financing from heavyweights like Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund, according to TechCrunch.

Last summer, Lil Miquela’s Instagram account appeared to be hacked by a woman named Bermuda, a Trump supporter who accused Lil Miquela of “running from the truth.” A wild narrative emerged on social media: Lil Miquela was a robot built to serve a “literal genius” named Daniel Cain before Brud reprogrammed her. “My identity was a choice Brud made in order to sell me to brands, to appear ‘woke,’” she wrote in one post. The character vowed never to forgive Brud. A few months later, she forgave.

Fans followed along, rapt.

The online drama was as engineered as Lil Miquela herself, part of a “story line written by Brud,” according to Huxley. It echoed “S1m0ne,” a 2002 film starring Al Pacino as a film director who replaces an uncooperative actress with a digital ingénue.

While virtual influencers are becoming more common, fans have engaged less with them than with the average fashion tastemaker online, according to data from Captiv8, which connects companies to social media influencers.

“An avatar is basically a mannequin in a shop window,” said Nick Cooke, a co-founder of the Goat Agency, a marketing firm. “A genuine influencer can offer peer-to-peer recommendations.”

There may be hope for the humans yet.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/17/business/media/miquela-virtual-influencer.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

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