Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy

Journalist Brown debuts with an acerbic takedown of how people pursue fame and money online. Delving into the worlds of OnlyFans, multilevel marketing companies, cryptocurrency, and more, Brown laments that what was once a space for individual creative enterprise has come to embody the worst elements of cutthroat capitalism. “Deception is lucrative and becoming increasingly extreme,” he writes, characterizing the influencer economy as a “giant pyramid scheme” whose “real beneficiaries—the companies and shareholders reaping the highest rewards—are hidden by those desperate to take centre stage.” His evidence includes the rise in “surgery culture” driven by influencers like Renee R Fabulous, a former hotel chambermaid who became a “brand ambassador” for a cosmetic surgery clinic without revealing that she was being paid to recommend their Brazilian butt lifts and other services. Brown also compares Billy McFarland, the convicted fraudster behind the 2017 Fyre Festival, to Adam Neumann, the founder of WeWork, “who trademarked the ‘We’ part of the brand name and then leased it back to the company at a cost of $6m[illion],” among other “dubious decisions.” Doggedly reported and packed with outrageous anecdotes, this is a persuasive argument that 21st-century influencers are nothing more than 19th-century snake oil salesmen reincarnated. (May)