8 minute read
The Bullshit Behind Brand Trips
by Zainab Zaman | Design by Emma Hill
The “Get Ready With Me” videos, the product placement, the perfect photos, and the exotic destination—all key staples of what we know as Brand Trips. These luxurious vacations include traveling to beautiful destinations worldwide with models decked out to the nines. Brands fund these trips as a form of advertising to sell their products, but what are they really selling? This ideal life is out of reach for many consumers and thus often makes the brand feel out of reach.
Brand trips have become not only a sensational part of social media but an industry of their own. The trips exude opulence and draw in viewership but, in some cases, can lead to a brand’s demise.
Flashback to 2019: the rise of tiny accessories, striped tube tops, and a new wave of influencers. From Hannah Meloche to Emma Chamberlain, these Gen-Z girls took over YouTube with their vlogs. The “It-Girls.” One brand, in particular, saw an opportunity that would both capitalize off these influencers and catapult them into overnight success. The brand was “Dote,” an online shopping platform labeled the “Online Mall” with over 150 stores ranging from “Forever 21” to “Princess Polly.” This app also encouraged influencers to go live and shop in real-time among users. With special discount codes exclusive to the app, many teenage girls gawked over this online shopping platform.
The brand’s popularity catapulted when Dote began pairing with a growing generation of YouTubers for all-expense paid, lavish brand trips—a trip to Fiji with personal photographers and free clothes to wear. We watched our favorite influencers hang out with each other and become best friends in a matter of days through YouTube videos and perfect Instagram photos of the girls dressed effortlessly trendy while laughing together on the beach. With each post, the influencers would thank Dote, leading their audiences to quickly download and shop on the app in the hopes of resembling their favorite influencers.
After the Fiji trip, Dote attempted to hold on to the spotlight for as long as possible by funding more brand trips, including a trip to Texas and Coachella (one of the hottest festivals in the world). The Coachella trip became so sensationalized in the media that fans called it “Dotechella” because of all the partnership posts. On all these trips, Dote continued to invite back the same girls, so much so that they became known as “The Dote Girls.” The influencers whom fans idolized became the new face of the brand.
The branding of the influencers as “Dote Girls” marked the beginning of the end for this brand. The influencers that Dote associated with were all white, thin, and fitting Eurocentric beauty standards. Many customers began to point out the lack of diversity within the brand’s close circle, and even if there were minorities on the trip, they were not advertised as highly as their white counterparts. Kianna Naomi, a black influencer and the only minority invited on the Dote Fiji Trip, revealed that the photographers did not want to take her photo and would prefer to photograph the other girls.
“I didn’t speak up because I was protecting a company that didn’t care about my well-being in the slightest. I thought that I could be a representation for black girls all over the world. But for me to feel like the token black girl on two trips in a row; it’s dead. I don’t want to do it anymore,” Naomi said in a 16-minute YouTube video. The few photos of her on the trip were circulated on all Dote platforms, which read as tokenism and performative action.
Dote attempted to combat these concerns by inviting more girls of color to “Dotechella;” however, the truth about the brand’s actions behind the scenes quickly came to light. Daniella Perkins, another black influencer, filmed a video similar to the other girls attending Dotechella but explained how she felt like she didn’t fit in. Through the vlogs of the other YouTubers, viewers discovered that the white influencers were staying together in large beds on one side of the house. Meanwhile the non-white influencers stayed on the other side of the house in couches and pull-out beds. Dote claimed that they would never intentionally segregate. However, viewers and Varena Sayead, a minority influencer on the trip, got a different impression when there was a separate photoshoot for the white girls and the girls of color.
“As a minority, you’ve gone through things, and it’s easy to pick up on things…They shot all the white girls together and then all the minorities together—it felt very weird,” Sayead said.
The brand trips that put Dote on the map also created its demise. Dote tried to bounce back from this brand trip scandal by offering “Dote Coins” (coins that customers could exchange for cash value for clothes through the app), but after that expired, the brand built on brand trips had nowhere to turn. They closed down, removed themselves from the app store, and deactivated their Instagram account.
More recently, the world of Covid-19 put the concept of brand trips in a new position. Consumers wondered if this type of marketing is even ethical anymore. With the pandemic ravaging the world, excessive and opulent traveling was often viewed as “out of touch.” Influencers gain popularity for being “relatable” to their audience. However, it is difficult to remain relatable when jet-setting to the Bahamas while, at the same time, others are being laid off from their jobs or losing loved ones because society failed to quarantine. As a result of the pandemic, brand trips have lost most of their appeal, while brands and influencers that focus on activism are receiving high praise.
Today, with most travel restrictions loosening and the immediate aftermath of the pandemic diminishing, brand trips are on the rise again.
If you opened TikTok in early 2023, you’ve heard about the “Tarte Dubai Trip.”
Tarte, the cosmetic company, took 50 of TikTok’s hottest influencers on an all-inclusive trip to Dubai. This included an Emirates business class flight and a private villa at the Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach, for all guests and their plus ones. These influencers included Monet McMichealand and Alix Earle, amongst others. These influencers once again rose to popularity for their “relatability” on screen to young girls through “Get Ret Ready With Me”s. This video style shows influencers getting ready for nights out or just going to class. Tarte capitalized on this by paying these influencers to film GRWM’s with Tarte products.
The internet immediately latched onto this brand trip, and you couldn’t escape the content no matter where you turned. Between the overwhelming amount of content from the 50 influencers, whether positive or negative, Tarte got people talking. Questions on how they afforded this trip and why influencers who previously didn’t wear Tarte products suddenly claimed that a new contour stick was a “must have” and would “absolutely change your life” began circulating.
With all this money funneled into the trip and the press the trip garnered, the company didn’t reap monetary benefits in sales as they had likely hoped. In fact, a job for the senior marketing manager for Tarte opened up soon after the brand trip ended.
While the lavish trip grabbed attention from followers, there was also backlash against Tarte. Tarte, much like Dote, was called out for its lack of inclusivity, especially in its shade ranges.
“If Tarte has this much money to spend on a trip, they can spend the money to expand their shades,” one TikTok user said.
Others are also upset that only a small handful of the 50 girls were girls of color. Others think the trip proved how out of touch both the brand and influencers are: “I kind of feel like they’re being a little tone deaf. In this economy, it’s so unrelatable,” says Lindsey Brown, a TikTok creator with 21,000 followers.
Brown tapped into one of the deep-rooted problems with brand trips; they are simply unattainable for the average person. Brands sell the idea of beauty and luxury through their products. However, when brands go on trips, this idea of beauty and luxury is associated with the new destination or the picture-perfect influencers representing them. This leaves consumers feeling inadequate. The image these brands sell becomes out of reach to the everyday individual. By equating these lavish trips with beauty and the brand’s message, it continues to propagate unrealistic standards in the eyes of the public.
