It seems some people will do just about anything for five seconds of fame, a lot of likes, a little bit of fortune. And maybe even a free lunch or lipstick. We often read or hear about social media influencers behaving badly. Or having bouts of insanity. There are those who think the rules don’t apply to them, ones who blatantly ask for free stuff, and others who expect princess treatment because “Do you know who I am?” I think it’s safe to say, regardless of your job, whether you’re a doctor or an “influencer,” there’s a certain level of professionalism with which you should conduct yourself. Unless of course, you don’t want to be taken seriously.

People have been sharing photos of influencers in the wild, caught in acts that, quite frankly, they should be ashamed of. From flattening fields of daisies for the perfect pic, to renting sets so they can pretend to take private jet flights… Yes, really. Some of the behavior truly boggles the mind.

Bored Panda has managed to unearth receipts of the utmost acts of influencer insanity, just in case you needed any more proof that the world is going bananas. We also spoke to influencer marketing expert Olivia Savage about the correct way to conduct yourself in the industry. She’s the Senior Marketing Strategist of Creator Growth and Engagement for partnership management platform impact.com.

#1 Being This Desperate For Attention

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#2 These Social Media Influencers Are Destroying California’s Super Bloom

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#3 Signs Are Not For Me

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Love them or hate them, social media influencers are here to stay. According to investment banking company Goldman Sachs, ​​the influencer industry is worth approximately $250 billion, and is expected to grow to nearly $500 billion by 2027.

One recent survey conducted by influencer marketing agency IZEA found that 79% of people polled had bought a product after seeing an influencer use it. It goes without saying that social media influencers have become valuable to businesses and brands in the digital age, and can be extremely beneficial.

Problems pop up when the few bad apples take things too far, using their influencer “clout” to try and get away with whatever they want, as if the rules of society don’t apply to them.

#4 Came Across A Influencer That Promotes Injecting Coffee Up Your Rectum

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#5 “Influencers” Blocking Traffic On The Brooklyn Bridge For The Photos

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#6 “Influencer” Using A Municipal Fountain For Her Photo Shoot

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Olivia Savage is an influencer marketing expert, and the Senior Marketing Strategist of Creator Growth and Engagement for partnership management platform impact.com. Savage has tons of experience working with influencers, so it pays to listen to what she says.

When Bored Panda reached out to her, the expert was more than happy to share her words of wisdom with us, our readers, and anyone who considers themselves an influencer or wants to break into the market.

#7 When Influencers Completely Ignore Signs In Nature And Then Proudly Brag About It To Hundreds Of Followers

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#8 She Spent $7 On An Ice Cream Cone For An Instagram Picture Then Threw It Away

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#9 Not How Strawberries Work

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Savage cautions that influencers need to remember that they are small-business owners. “You have built a reputation and community around certain common interests, but if you’re not careful about protecting the brand you cultivated, you can lose it all in an instant with poorly thought-out behavior,” warned the expert.

“Be very careful about burning bridges and abusing the platform you’ve built, because ‘cancel culture’ is still very much alive.”

#10 Ok…. Out Of Touch

Luisa Villafane. Sorry but this is just inconsiderate as hell. Taking pictures in the middle of a crowded street and making people wait…could’ve at least waved the people through if you saw them standing there. All for taking pictures I really don’t care but stop inconveniencing everyone else

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#11 Influencer Bragging That She Still Uses Her Own Line Of Old, Contaminated Lipsticks, Which Caused Injuries And Infections Upon Product Launch

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#12 Influencer Wants Free Food Because Her Staff Is On Leave

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Bored Panda asked Savage whether there’s any real benefit for brands when they give freebies to influencers, and she believes there is. “Providing free product gives creators the opportunity to try it out and provide genuine, authentic feedback about what they think,” she told us. “Leveraging product gifting as a compensation strategy can be very cost effective, depending on the price point and shipping costs.”

#13 An ‘Influencer’ I Know

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#14 “Influencer” Leaves Small Business 1-Star Review For Not Delivering Free Products

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#15 This “Fitness Influencer” Posing With His Bare Feet On Dumbells. Motivational Quote Included

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Then we wanted to know whether it’s considered rude for an influencer to ask for free stuff. Apparently not… “Our own impact.com research shows that brands love it when creators initiate contact, rather than waiting for the brand to reach out to them,” she revealed. “Don’t hesitate to reach out to brands you love.”

#16 This Group Photo

Image credits: Canadastani

#17 Instagram “Influencers” Are Renting Sets To Pretend They Take Private Flights

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#18 This Girl Makes TikTok Videos Of Her Forcibly Hugging, Touching Or Trapping Korean Men. This Is Not Okay Behaviour. In All Videos The Men Are Visibly Uncomfortable

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But Savage says there’s a way to go about it. “We have educational content about how to pitch yourself and even a media kit template to help creators craft a winning pitch,” offered the expert.

“Aside from proper grammar and good overall email practices, creators should be sure to provide some information on their content style, primary audience, followership, and any tangible results they’ve generated for other brand partners. Providing a couple broad ideas for how they’d leverage their free product in promotional content is also a good idea.”

#19 Was Told To Post This Here. Woman Stomped All Over The Plants In This Conservatory For Instagram Shots Despite Staff Repeatedly Asking Her To Stop

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#20 My Friend Got Shorted By A Pretty Major Influencer

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#21 Influencer In Banggood

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Not all brands or small businesses are in a position to give away free stuff. But that doesn’t mean they can’t work with social media influencers, says Savage. “Brands can provide influencers discounts to purchase your product, plus some sort of bonus or performance-based compensation if content they make promoting your product generates sales for your brands,” suggests the expert.

“You can look for creators who are already making organic content about your brand and ask to repurpose or repost their content in exchange for some sort of discount or other reward.”

#22 Choosing Beggar Is A “Micro Influencer” Who Will Pay You When She Gets Endorsed

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#23 TikTok Influencer Who Live In An NYC Luxury Apartment Wants Free Labor

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#24 I Get A Lot Of Dms Daily From Teen TikTok “Stars” Asking For Free Stuff From My Business, And Here’s An Example

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According to impact.com, theoretically, anyone who self-identifies as a trendsetter or plugs a product on social media can be considered an ‘influencer.’ “But what sets influencers apart from the ‘average Joe’ is the quantifiable amount of clout they wield with their followers. What’s even more valuable than their number of followers is the trust their audiences place in them,” explains the company’s Product Marketing Manager, Blaire McClure.

#25 To Get Free Food As An “Food Influencer”

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#26 I Love Instagram Influencers

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#27 Instagram Influencers Offer The Best Incentives To Work For Them

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McClure adds that audiences place a premium on authenticity. “If an influencer has done a good job of cultivating trust through engaging content that resonates with followers, they can parlay that trust into lucrative partnership opportunities with brands,” she said.

But once you’ve built that trust, be warned: you can lose it even faster than it takes to hit “like.” So please don’t follow the example of anyone featured on this list!

#28 Sure Jan

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#29 Pretending To A Chess Player Without Learning A Single Rule Of The Game. All For The Gram

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#30 Don’t Sell Your Limited-Edition, Pricey, High-Abv Beer To Paying Customers! Give It To Us For Free

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#31 Local 15 Year Old “Tik Tok Influencer” Wants A Free Pair Of Hand Painted Customized Air Force 1s. I’ve Been Waiting For This Moment

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#32 AI Influencers Taking Over

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#33 Influencer Wants To Collaborate For Her Wedding And Gets Called Out By The Designer

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#34 Influencer Gets Defensive Over Comment On ‘Making Money For Doing Nothing’, Gets Called Out For Entitlement

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#35 Entitled Instagram “Influencer” Calls 911 To Get The Cops To Go To The Store For Her At 2am To Get Formula For Her Baby

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#36 “My House Was Broken Into And I Am Suffering From Sleepless Nights And Terrified For My Life But Heres A Product That Promotes Radiant Skin Anyway. Quote My Name For A Special Discount” #selfcare #healing #influencer #skincare (I Love Sharon Au But This Seems… Wrong?)

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#37 This Loser Doing A P Diddy Baby Oil Prank On These Retail Workers And Holding Up The Queue

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#38 Honestly, This Is The Worst Behavior I’ve Ever Seen On A Flight. Fart In My Nose Instead. Lick The Back Of My Neck. That Poor Old Woman Next To Her

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#39 Luxury Gym (Not A Joke From An Instagram I Follow She Is Serious….)

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#40 This Instagram “Influencer” That Went Full On Tropic Thunder With The Black Face

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#41 I Took Some Advice That Were Given After Posting The Conversation I Had With A TikTok “Influencer” Yesterday. This Is What The First Person I Made The Offer To Said

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#42 Entitled Influencer Trash Talks Asian Restaurant After They Politely Refuse To Give Him A $100 Discount

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#43 “Influencer” Upset Our Tiny Business Didn’t Send A Freebie In A Timely Manner

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#44 My God. The Entitlement And Self-Centeredness Is Boundless

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#45 Yelper Gives A Pizzeria 1 Star Because They Wouldn’t Give Her A Discount Even Though She’s An Influencer

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#46 My Mum Is An Artificial Florist And Had An ‘Influencer’ With 70k Followers Ask For Free Wedding Flowers For Exposure

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#47 Woke Up To This Message From A Colleague In Our Group Chat. She Started Prank Videos And Has Received A Warning From Work About Some Of Her Content Too

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#48 Ah, The Good Old Exposure Pay We All Know And Love

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#49 Instagram “Entrepreneur Influencer” Using Bots

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#50 Streamer Loses 1mil Gambling And An Influencer Is Asking His Followers To Help Repay Him

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#51 To Have An Influencer Perk

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#52 Influencer Using The Black Lives Matter Protests For Clout Gets Called Out In Her Comments And In A Video

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#53 What A Loser

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#54 Wellness Influencers Need To Be Stopped

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#55 Yelper Is Mad Because Restaurant Didn’t Them Free Meal In Exchange For Potential Ig Exposure

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#56 I Have No Words For This One

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#57 Hopeful Instagram Influencer Is A Douche

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#58 Fashion Influencer Caught Adding Material To Art Gallery For Picture

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#59 They Were Doing TikTok In The Water Fountain

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#60 Why Do Influencers Have To Beg For Donations For Their Own Lives ??? What

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#61 Using The Queens Death As A Way To Promote Your Onlyfans

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#62 Tiktokers Promoting Potential Cancer Causing And Kidney Damaging “Skin Darkening Nasal Spray” In Exchange For Free Products ($11 USD)

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#63 Meta’s AI-Generated Profiles Are Starting To Show Up On Instagram

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#64 TikTok Compilation Channel Openly Trying To Get Free Work From Me Because Theyre “A Huge Social Media Influencer”

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#65 So, I Make Clothes And This Dude Really Wanted Them For Free So This Is What Happened (Mind You This Guy Was By No Means An Influencer And Had No More Than 100 Followers, Which Unfortunately Matters In This Case

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#66 The Amount Of, “You’re Getting Paid By Exposure” Cb’s These Days… She Has Less Than 60k Followers, Most Of Which Seem Purchased

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#67 Another “Influencer” Who Fits Right In

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#68 TikTok Compilation Channel Openly Trying To Get Free Work From Me Because Theyre “A Huge Social Media Influencer”

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#69 “No Filter” But Instagram Says Otherwise At The Top

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#70 Thinking You Deserve Free Jewelry From A Small Antique Seller Because Of Your Whopping 1100 Followers

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#71 It Should Be Illegal For Influencers To Post Before And After Pics To Promote Their Apps Without Specifying That The Before Is Right After Giving Birth

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#72 Influencer Bride-To-Be Begging For A Free Artwork

An influencer bride-to-be reached out to me, offering me a once in a lifetime opportunity to get my work in front of her 250k followers. She won’t be able to make any payments to me though

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#73 Instagram “Influencer” Fakes Motorcycle Crash And Appears To Include Product Placement

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#74 “Influencer” Tries To Make A Deal With Me For $2,800 Computer

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#75 Ever Wondered Why The Clothes You Ordered Don’t Fit You Like They Do The Models?

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#76 Who Is This? Saw On A Zoo Trip Yesterday In Johnson City Texas

First time seeing an influencer in the wild, don’t know anything about her, just weird to see in person.

I find this hysterical and embarrassing. That’s on a group trailer zoo tour so she’s fully doing this with a bunch of other ppl on this thing unless she reached out to get a private tour but since you were on this too I’m assuming she’s just doing her thing on a public tour with other people and her tripod set up in front of everyone

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#77 Influencer Asks A Rescue Group For Dogs For A Free Puppy Of Their Choice, In Exchange For Exposure On Instagram

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#78 Chase Attempting To Avoid Paying Rent By Becoming “Live-In Social Influencer”

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#79 This Has So Much To Do With Facts

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#80 Positivity “Influencer” Using Fans To Bash A Restaurant Because He Lost Stuff And Won’t Just Ask For It Back. His Post An Hour Before This Is About How The Cops Were Called On Him For Punching Holes In The Walls

He posted this weirdly vague story and asked follows to leave reviews to this restaurant about his things, without any actual description of his things.

Image credits: human_dumpster

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