An eye-opening investigative report on the Instagram marketing of “detox” teas reveals that some celebrities are paid as much as $250,000 for a single Instagram post about the certain “Teatox” brands. Anyone who follows a fit celeb or two on Instagram has seen the ubiquitous skinny chicks pics trumpeting the weight loss wonders of detox tea. A jaded (or just experienced) consumer figures out that these are paid endorsements. But nobody cares about that stuff anymore — what’s the sense in following a Kardashian if you don’t get to see what she’s paid to endorse? After all, part of her appeal is her wealth (the paid part) and another big element is a Kardashian’s exposure to products and what she chooses. Inquiring minds want to know. (The Kardashian detox tea of choice is FitTea, BTW.)
The long article at Racked (by the excellent Chavie Lieber) explains that the Instagram post is sometimes just an add-on to a product placement in a video, citing Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” Britney Spears/Iggy Azalea’s “Pretty Girls,” and the Big Sean’s “I Don’t F$*k With You” videos. Those all feature MateFit tea, one of the leaders in the detox business. Anybody who has been scarfing down the MateFit tea weight loss solution since seeing Minaj writhing and shaking in “Anaconda” will be happy to know that, according to the talent rep who brokered her teatox deal, Minaj at least “insisted on tasting it first.” No mention about whether Big Sean or Iggy Azalea liked the brew. The weight loss ingredient in most of the “detox” teas is a laxative, BTW. The Instagram post deals even allow a celebrity to delete the post a few days later. They just flush it, in other words.
Depending on where you work, of course, NSFW:
