Culture

Influencers have been the talk of the town recently. And not in a good way. Only Scrans has been taking swipes at clickbait merchants, while stores in Nantucket have been banning them altogether. The discourse, as ever, is not kind. But the backlash only tells half the story. Because for all the eye-rolling, these are people with a platform, and a platform can have a genuinely positive influence. TikTok especially has been helping struggling businesses find a new lease of life. Take The Rich Collection Bella Italia, a Shoreditch shoe and handbag shop which was on the brink of closure after over thirty years of trade, until the owner’s daughter launched a TikTok campaign to save it. The videos took off, and the shop now has queues stretching down the street. It was a similar story for Salpiké, a Latin American and Caribbean restaurant in Brixton Market. After a missed payment, the landlord locked owner William Mejia out of his own store. However an online campaign, backed by influencers - and Stormzy - helped change its fate. Then there’s Eating With Tod. Say what you want about him, and his messy eating, but he also uses his platform for good, drawing crowds to spots like Umana Yana, a roti restaurant in Herne Hill, where daily takings had dwindled to as little as £20 after council telephone boxes were installed blocking the storefront. What links these places is that they’re longstanding, often immigrant-owned spots in neighbourhoods under increasing pressure from gentrification. They made their success by serving their communities and building relationships with local people. Without a PR team lining up coverage, it’s difficult for a place like that to cut through the noise. Influencers can level that playing field, giving punters a way to find what’s actually good rather than what’s best marketed. It’s not just about helping individual restaurants, either. Influencers have been using their platform to raise awareness of the bigger issues affecting small businesses. MC, aka Miles Combe, became a TikTok sensation when he started to document the gentrification of the area he grew up, working his way through pastries from Gail’s et al to see whether they justified the price tag. Salpiké Owner William Mejia with Stormzy. Credit: @brixton.village / @salpike_brixton Credit: The Rich Collection Bella Italia But virality is a double-edged sword. A sudden surge of popularity can create a pressure cooker of hype that small businesses aren’t built to handle. This was the case for China Star in Edinburgh. The restaurant went viral after the owner’s daughter posted an emotional appeal to save her mum’s failing business, and then found itself overwhelmed by an influx of new customers, closing temporarily for a reset. And there's a second problem. In a world where anyone can be an influencer, everyone is an influencer. Suddenly we're all being fed restaurant reviews, food unboxings and viral snack tests from every Tom, Dick and Harry. What if we don't want to come with you to try London's BEST fifteen patty ‘nduja melted cheese fried chicken burger or matcha rainbow glitter sprinkled ube latte? A lot of these influencers are using places as little more than backdrops. It’s why shops in Nantucket have started turning them away, tired of tourists treating storefronts like a media wall on the red carpet rather than somewhere to actually shop. Notting Hill residents have been making the same complaint about their pastel-painted homes for years. When did we become extras on someone else's film set? There's a related issue with people turning up unannounced to give their two cents on a restaurant when they might not know that much about food. Only Scrans made a similar point this week, arguing that influencers should need a licence to review places. That seems like a stretch, but in an age of Subway Takes, where the algorithm rewards the hottest opinion over a considered one, you know these "reviews" aren't being served with nuance. This isn’t exactly new though. In many ways, it’s just a reinvention of traditional restaurant criticism. The old guard, who are sniffy about creators, may just want to take a quick look in the mirror. A few years back, Grace Dent told the Off Menu podcast that restaurant critics are not necessarily food experts, but people that can just write well and “fire out a lot of copy.” And journalists have been known to hustle for comps for years too. What we’re watching, really, is the democratisation of restaurant criticism. But it’s worth noting that Gen Z, who are making most of this content, aren’t actually its biggest fans. A recent Yelp deep dive into Gen Z’s behaviour found that young people favour detailed written reviews over influencer content when deciding where to eat (78% vs. 59%), preferring detail from real people over scripted commentary and star ratings. So where’s the line? We love trying new places and spotlighting small businesses. We want restaurants, cafes, shops and collectives to be found and supported, especially the ones without the machinery to make that happen on their own. But that comes with responsibility on both sides. PR teams need to vet influencers with the same rigour they would a journalist or anyone asking for a freebie, regardless of follower counts: what’s their background? Who are their followers? Have they bought followers? Are they more interested in clickbait than what’s on the plate? Businesses, especially those without dedicated PR teams, need to be just as wary of influencers angling for freebie dinners in return for coverage that may never materialise. Ask themselves whether the exposure on offer is actually worth the cost. Because the more freebies that get handed out without any of that scrutiny, the more it feeds the beast. Done right, the relationship between creators and businesses can be hugely beneficial, both for the people earning their livelihood and the rest of us trying to find them. Just don't expect us to queue for the matcha rainbow glitter latte…. FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: @eatingwithtod CITY ROAST Liked That? City Roast is the series that stirs up debate. We take on the capital’s hottest topics, serve you what’s happening, add our own seasoning of thoughts and questions, and then hand the mic back over to our readers. Whether it’s playful (is North or South London better? Is Arsenal more than a football club?) or serious (how safe is the city for women? Have dating apps killed relationships?), our City Roasts are about opening up conversations. These aren’t hot takes for the algorithm. We don’t sit on the fence. We state our opinions and we want our audience to do the same right back. See More

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