Influencers and Hollywood Script

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms have people who call themselves influencers.

They are part of the belief that anyone can make money on the internet. That’s why some influencers take photos in birthday suits and hair extensions and post them, just to harvest more views. Some of them are quite aggressive.

Influencer: I have 40,000 followers on Instagram.

Manager: So?

Influencer: If I stay in your resort for a week, they’ll see me lounging outside the pool, getting a rub down in your spa, and eating oysters at the bar.

Manager: So?

Influencer: Great advertising! They might come here on vacation or honeymoon.

Manager: All 40,000?

Influencer: Some. 

Before Google and Yahoo, the British film industry and Hollywood influenced Africa and other continents that speak English through colonization.

They smoked in the movies, so we smoked. They drank whisky on the rocks, so we drank it. They had mini bars in their sitting rooms, the middle class in Lagos and Johannesburg has them in their homes. Hollywood made movies about going on honeymoon, Africans wanted honeymoons.

Hollywood kidnapped people for ransom, African directors make such movies. American television shows have gruesome murders and suspects being tortured by the police, Nigerian directors make their own ‘Murder For Hire’ movies.

Hollywood is no longer the major influencer because of the time factor. Movies roughly have 4 stages: development, pre-production, production (shooting scenes) and post production. How long does that take? Two/three years?

Music Television (MTV) did well for a while because it was much faster to make videos. Social media is even faster, because it’s immediate, as it happens.

Social media is the reigning king for now but Hollywood left its mark as the major influencer. Social media guideposts for a happy life is taken straight from the Hollywood play book.

1. Fall in love.

2. Have an expensive white wedding.

3. Go on honeymoon, outside your own country.

4. Return and go to your mortgaged town house.

5. Live only for each, no in-laws, cousins and definitely no cheating.

The second point above, makes African weddings more expensive than European and north American ones because of double billing. Couples or their families pay for two weddings: the traditional ceremony and the white wedding.

Hollywood is no longer the main influencer, but it has the last laugh. 

Another ‘written podcast’ by Nonqaba waka Msimang.