There’s no shortage of reality TV stars who have transitioned to being full-time influencers after their 15 minutes of fame were up, joining the masses of sponsored posts and bizarre promotional skits on our Instagram feeds.
With the New Year just around the corner, we thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on some of 2022‘s most memorable, problematic and inadvertently hilarious #SPON moments.
From Laura Byrne‘s awkward AF potato chip sponsorship, Holly Kingston and Jimmy Nicholson begging for a free holiday and Amanda Micallef getting ditched by HelloFresh, there were plenty of iconic moments this year.
And don’t even get us (re)started on whatever the hell is going on with Suzan Mutesi’s Instagram,
*Sips tea (that doesn’t pretend to cause weight loss)*.
Makeup and skincare galore!
Makeup and skincare sponsorships are the foundations (pun intended) of any influencer’s career.
But we can only see so many posts of white micro-celebs holding up their favourite “perfect match” concealer before we start scrolling past without even checking the brand name.
So there’s truly something to be said for when influencers get a little more creative with their sponsored posts.
Our top moment of 2022 was Martha Kalifatidis eating Maccas in her car while wearing a silver face mask. Obsessed!
But our least fave was celebs venturing into multi-level marketing (MLM) territory. We’re looking at you, Tori Spelling (and closer to home, Mishel Karen).
Huge cash prizes
Big Brother Australia alum Skye Wheatley, Married at First Sight Australia’s Jessika Power and influencer Tammy Hembrow are certainly not strangers to the #SPON life.
But every now and then, we stumble across a post from these big Aussie names that raises major red flags.
We’re sure you’ve seen it at least once. Your fave will be posing, surrounded by luxury brand shopping bags, and occasionally holding up a massive wad of cash.
Honestly, we’d just love to hear from someone who has actually won one of these major prizes pls. We’re not saying it’s fake; we’re just… confused.
Sex toys
Okay, there’s obviously nothing wrong with a celeb spruiking some pricy lingerie or a vibrator line. We actually love that so many influencers are promoting sex positivity and self-pleasure!
The bizarreness of these sponsorships isn’t with a product, in particular. But rather the hilarious (and honestly smart AF) ways social media stars promote them.
Of course, the influencers have had to get creative, as they can’t exactly show the products being USED on social media. You can’t even show a female-presenting nipple on Insta, FFS.
But NGL, influencers holding a dildo right next to their face or Abbie Chatfield using a vibrator as a karaoke mic is honestly our new favourite type of content.
Our fave 2022 moment came after a bunch of reality TV stars received lingerie and sex toy advent calendars from a major online adult shop.
We especially appreciated Jack Vidgen‘s unboxing post, thanks mostly to his The Challenge Australia co-stars’ comments.
Cyrell Paule wrote. “No wonder it’s been hard to reach u 😂 [sic].”
“😍😍😍😍 Team bussy [sic],” David Subritzky said. If you’re not chronically online like us, we would recommend not looking up that definition.
Konrad Bien-Stephen added: “Someone is having a fun couple of weeks 🔥 [sic].”
We love supportive co-stars!
Diet products
We’ll keep this one to the point… How TF are people still allowed to push diet products in 2022?
There are countless varieties of weight loss teas, shakes and supplements that have been proven to be ineffective and sometimes even dangerous.
You don’t have to venture far into the comment section of these Instagram posts to read firsthand experiences of how the products made people “sick” or were just glorified laxatives.
But anybody from D-listers to influencers with Kardashian-level fame can still be spotted posing with these products.
It’s time to stop pushing diet culture in 2k23, babes!
Want even more goss? Listen to episode 239 of the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!
Know something that we don’t? Spill the tea here! Get the tea first!
Follow So Dramatic! on Instagram and tune in on Tuesday to get your reality tea fix with the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto.
