MOD & FOD #13 My wife has jeopardised our brand, but where oh where did I put that hair band?

[Jugglegirl]

I think if we've learnt anything from this saga it's to delete all mom bloggers, sellers of children and 'influencers'

Amen

 

[Sick of the bs]

Dress like a mum has now unfollowed!!!

It looks like she's still following when I checked just now?

 

[Colourpop]

Suggested thread title:

SOD this for a laugh, when will it all die down? Meanwhile instahuns all vie for MODs crown.

 

[Sven]

finally a good article from the independent!

The Clemmie Hooper Instagram scandal is proof there’s no place for children in the world of influencers
Parent bloggers should think twice before involving their children in the murky world of influencer marketing

Sorry there was a bit in there about her posting abusive comments under his photos - I’ve not seen evide

Facebook’s “report abuse” function has long been a go-to in sibling arguments and friendship groups around the world. For me, it was a weapon my sister regularly used to counter attack my uploading a photo of her not looking her best. (Ok, fine, looking pretty atrocious.)

We laugh about it, but conversations around social media rights always come back to the same, not very funny, question for me now. Who are the people that don’t get that choice? Who don’t get to, jokingly or not, “report abuse” on their brother, sister, mother, father, or friend’s photo if they don’t want it to be shared online. And the answer is always the same – children.

The news that famed mummy blogger Clemmie Hooper (AKA @mother_of_daughters), wife to fellow influencer @father_of_daughters and part-time NHS midwife, has trolled other influencers using a fake identity (AliceInWanderlust) on gossip site Tattle Life by posting what some people have called “vile” and even “deeply racist” comments, has shocked the online parenting community.

After all, here’s someone who has seemingly made it big. This past summer alone, the mum-of-four launched a successful podcast, released a second jewellery line with Rachel Jackson London and took part in a national M&S campaign with the likes of presenter Holly Willoughby and actress Vicky McClure.



All the while, posting relatable, honest and heartfelt content to her 665,000 Instagram followers. She has always championed frank conversations around childbirth, body image and day-to-day-life as a working mum.

But behind the scenes she was dealing with trolling from other parenting bloggers – mostly aimed at her daughters, the youngest of whom are three-year-old twins Delilah and Ottilie.



Maternal instinct kicked in and Hooper did what, I presume, the majority of mums would do when their child is under threat: she fought back. The problem is, when you are an influencer that profits from parenthood, these battles aren’t fought in the traditional sense. Instead you fight alone, at home, on your laptop or phone, for the world to see.

Hooper knows the score – she temporarily closed her Instagram account last year when she fell victim to abuse from people who accused her of overusing her children in adverts.



Perhaps most importantly to consider is that influencers aren’t just fighting to protect their children, but themselves – for the image they have meticulously fashioned for the world to see via Instagram, including the brands they work with and earn a living from.

Two years ago, I worked for an influencer marketing agency (one that arranged deals for the Hooper clan from time-to-time) and saw first-hand the eye watering amounts of money that influencers are paid in exchange for a few photographs. And more often than not, that price inflates when kids become involved.



Whether you agree with the industry of influencers or not, or with parents using their kids to sell clothes and other products, the simple fact is that some people – the large majority of them good people – do it. If all goes to plan it can become their main source of income. So what happens when it goes horribly wrong?



For one thing, the fallout is certainly abnormal compared to your run-of-the-mill family drama. Her husband Simon was forced to issue a statement and, due to pressure from his own fan base, couldn’t support his wife outright.

“Frankly, I’m in a crap position … I [either] stay silent to protect my wife and knowing that if I do, the silence will be deafening or comment on something I had no knowledge of. It’s not a fun place to be,” he wrote in a post to his one million followers. Although, in all fairness, he may well have been feeling a bit of resentment for the fact his wife had been posting abusive comments on his photos as well, in order to cover her tracks.

Clearly social media and online forums need to think again when it comes to policing trolls, but ultimately there also needs to be a second thought for the children who get wrapped up in their influencer parents’ firing line.



Because, as we all know, the internet isn’t somewhere the large majority of people go to play nice and support one another – meaning this instance might just be the first in a long list to come.

When it comes to kids, the choice is always a parent or legal guardian’s. And, clearly, nine out of 10 times, the Hooper family’s current situation doesn’t happen to parents making a living through online brand partnerships.

But the one time it does is reason enough to question whether children really have a place in the murky world of influencer marketing, where competition, abuse and outright bullying sadly become the norm. And if that’s not enough, consider that a normal day’s work for an influencer marketeer includes hearing stories of kids who are trained to smile on cue, as soon as they see a camera.


I imagine Clemmie’s journey from protective, instinctive mother to disgraced online troll went by in a confusing flash. She said in her statement of apology: “Undoubtedly I got lost in this online world and the more I became engrossed in the negative commentary, the more the situation escalated.”

It will be hard for her, despite her loyal and huge following, to justify her actions and bounce back from this scandal – particularly as anti-bullying week kicks off on Monday 11 November and we are all confronted with the dangerous, sometimes fatal, consequences that conducting the type of behaviour she did can have on other people.

Still, it’s sad that a mother’s plight to protect became as big a monster as the very world she sought to shield her family from. If that isn’t proof enough that kids should be saved from entering the world of influencer marketing, I don’t know what is.

Sorry there was a bit in there about her posting abusive comments under his photos - I’ve not seen evidence of this?

 

[Susiew73]

Thread suggestion (given the poster above said MOD has only lost 200 followers today despite all the press) :

The Insta Huns are circling, they all want MOD’s crown, but as of today she’s only 200 down

.

I think this is a really Whitty title

 

[Tothemoonandback]

Thought of another thread suggestion (reference to Gaga’s safari for her 70th that was meant to be happening this month I think):

“the Insta Huns are still salivating but it’s already gone too far, whatever happened to the safari for Gaga”

.

 

[Affiliatemebaby]

I just wanted to clarify my posts earlier!

I don’t think for one second that MOD’s post qualifies her for the level of opprobrium she’s getting. It doesn’t justify her being described as deeply racist or sustained racist troll or full of hate. That all seems very disproportionate to me although I know I am not personally affected by her words.

I just wanted to say that the words she used are the words often used in the sort of casual racism that is really hard to pin down. And the context in which she made them doesn’t matter in terms of how the press and people unfamiliar with the details will read them. And the fact that she used them shows that she hasn’t thought about the words she uses (or possibly demonstrates a racist attitude because I just don’t know that she doesn’t!).

 

[Treesy19]

How do any of you know who follows who on private accounts?

I hope MOD doesn’t lose her day job. Instead she focuses on that and steps out of the insta square.

I am ashamed to admit I follow a load of them and so you can see how many mutual people you follow, and that includes private accounts. CT defo used to be a mutual but she must have unfollowed CH. TBH i would not be surprised if CT has unfollowed both MOD accounts because she reads here and she wants to cause a ripple, she knows we will notice. CT needs more exposure after all. Hopefully I’m wrong, but these women are ruthless.

If it all falls to pieces, I'd really like their house...

Can I have the sink? I promise to put it on my squares and hashtag it #gifted, of course


EDITED: I’m getting mixed up now, losing the plot? the yesmummum used to follow CH private account. CT still there because I follow CT , but has unfollowed the MOD account.

 

[Basketweaver]

I still want to know WHY she admitted. What happened, why did she telephone them? Somebody please??????

Me too.. Its like someone blackmailed her!

 

[Treesy19]

It's been a week (and, what, four threads?!) since this all kicked off. Can't remember what I did with my time before this... every minute seems to spent catching up on threads at the mo!

I’ve lost a few hours too. The murky world of influencers is somewhat addictive!

 

[GiveMyHeadPeace]

UGG’s stories - please let this be aimed at Hunger Mama & That Mummy Smile

 

[ScrambledEggs]

Y

UGG’s stories - please let this be aimed at Hunger Mama & That Mummy Smile

I hope so too.

 

[Colourpop]

Excellent Just been blocked on IG because of a mix of unfollowing the instamum accounts en masse and a US based troll on the FOD post on bobbles reporting my account

 

[CyanideKiss]

How about
"Poor Alice is lost in Wanderlust
Her Instagram empire has gone bust"

Or
"Now Alice is lost in Wanderlust
Her insta ambitions have turned to dust"

 

[Tothemoonandback]

New thread suggestion:

FOD claims his insta’s for LOLs not for money; proof he can be genuinely funny

.

 

[Colourpop]

Thread suggestion:

MODs getting no organisms, but when will SODs admit their own elitism

 

[poopypants]

Thread title suggestion: While MOD watches her empire burn, FOD continues to shrug and gurn

 

[Notaninstamum]

I was never a huge fan of MOD/FOD. Find them quite pretentious. But I am starting to feel a bit sorry for Clemmie. This is just mob mentality now, a game of Chinese whispers that is getting out of hand.

Whether you found her comments towards CB to be racist or not (I have my opinion) what is making me angry is the fact it's being told that she make numerous racist comments over an 8 month period. She didn't. That's rubbish. It was one comment (like I said, racist or not) that probably shouldn't have been said. But for people & news outlets around the bloody world to say it was more over a long period of time is really very harmful.

I just wish people would actually use their brains & read the ACTUAL FACTS before spreading these stories.

 

[Dinosaurlover2019]

I think, having continued to follow this intently (am on mat leave) that we need to remember what she did. If a friend I knew, someone who’d been in my home and around my children and in my life, turned out to be an online poser saying things and stirring stuff about me or people I know/work with and that they had worked with too, I would be pissed. Really pissed. And it would make me question absolutely everything they’d ever done. The trust is broken. Whether she said things in jest or to make peoooe think she wasn’t who she was is irrelevant, it would still make me question them. Trust is really hard to get back when it’s broken.

As a HCP I also think it’s right she’s called into the nmc to answer her self. Not about being racist or whatever but because she’s called into question her integrity and the integrity of her profession, her employers and any future mothers that come into contact with her. She needs to answer to her governing body why she felt she could do what she did, say what she did and act unprofessionally. She should always uphold the value of her governing body, esp as a midwife and HCP with such a huge following, and she hasn’t done that. So let’s not feel sorry for her.

Let’s all bring it back to what she did that started this and got caught. Everything else spinning out of control is just conjecture and I’m sure will calm down when people get bored.

As I’ve said before I’ve met her and fell for the persona she sold. And she wasn’t/isn’t that person. She deserves to feel anxious and scared. More fool her.

 

[Whippetandhound]

Tell you what actually drives me mad are the companies that are choosing to gift these influencers! Why don't they just start gifting people who really need the money, food, milk, bathrooms and promote it on their own corporation Insta accounts...Why don't these companies start promoting good deeds, free acts of kindness ... because they don't get that big and famous from being nice and generous do they???!!!

Because you need to look at it from the perspective of it being a different advertising channel. It’s also a much cheaper advertising channel to give a piece of stock, paying a small fee, is actually much cheaper than producing a tv commercial and buying the media space to put it on tv. The same goes for a print shoot and taking out an advert in a publication. This allows you to piggy back on someone else and essentially get them to do the work for you. So whilst I hate the whole insta gifting game - as someone who works in advertising you just end up looking at the number of people you can expose you product to for a fraction of the cost of other channels. It’s all business unfortunately.