'Compelling.' Reni Eddo-Lodge A 'must-read book for 2022', as picked by Stylist More than one fifth of children want to become influencers and it's easy to understand why. What if you could escape economic uncertainty by winning the internet's attention? What if you could turn the adoration of your social media followers into a lucrative livelihood? But as Symeon Brown explores in this searing exposé, the reality is much murkier. From IRL streamers in LA to Brazilian butt lifts, from sex workers on OnlyFans to fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes, these are the incredible stories that lurk behind the filtered selfies and gleaming smiles. Exposing the fraud, exploitation, bribery, and dishonesty at the core of the influencer model, Get Rich or Lie Trying asks if our digital rat race is costing us too much. Revealing a broken economy resembling a pyramid scheme, this incredible blend of reportage and analysis will captivate and horrify you in equal measure.

**The Instant Top Ten Bestseller** 'Utterly indispensable.' Lorraine Kelly 'A must-read.' Tim Harford TV and radio money-agony-aunt Claer Barrett is the voice of reason in the cost of living crisis, teaching us what we need to know about money, in an accessible way that anyone can understand. By unpicking our emotional relationship with money, she gets to the heart of how our financial habits are formed - and reveals seven powerful yet easy ways to transform how we manage our money for good. If you struggle to understand where you're going wrong with your money but don't know where to start, What They Don't Teach You About Money has all the answers you've been searching for. There's no shaming finger-wagging or headache-inducing jargon, just hundreds of practical tips showing how to get money working for you. The financial world can be an intimidating place, but Claer will banish any lack of confidence, demystifying money matters to help you regain control of your finances - and she'll even make you laugh along the way. You will learn: - why your 'financial personality' is key to unlocking your money habits - the secrets of successful budgeting (takeaway coffee is still allowed) - how to deal with your debts, and understand student finance - how to harness the power of digital banking to make your life easier, and save more - how to plan for your financial future and set yourself achievable goals along the way - how to talk about money and make uncomfortable conversations a thing of the past - easy lessons to help everyone understand tax, pensions and investing (yes, really!) - what you need to know before you buy your first property - how to grow your income and get that pay rise Claer expertly debunks the myths that keep us stuck in financial paralysis. It's time to regain control of your bank balance and get your money working for you!

Dan Kennedy and Parthiv Shah leverage their extensive marketing expertise to teach you proven, no-nonsense strategies for achieving successful marketing automation. This exceptional addition to the No B.S. series is essential for anyone aiming to harness software and cutting-edge technology to elevate their marketing efforts. In this book, you will discover: Effortless Marketing: Explore how software and technological advancements empower your marketing initiatives to operate autonomously. Expand Your Reach: Utilize campaign automation to broaden your audience and, as a result, boost your revenue. Unlock the Power of AI: Learn how the emergence of artificial intelligence can revolutionize your business, positioning it for remarkable growth.

How is morality understood in the marketplace? Why do brands speak out about certain issues of injustice and not others? And what is influencer culture’s role in social and political activism? Big Brands Are Watching You​ investigates corporate culture, from the branding of companies and nations to television portrayals of big business and the workplace. Francesca Sobande analyzes media, interviews, survey responses, and ephemera from the history of advertising as well as exhibitions in London, brand stores in Amsterdam, a music festival in Las Vegas, and archives in Washington, DC, to illuminate the world of branding.

With an emphasis on everyday life, this respected text offers a lively and perceptive account of the key theories and ideas which dominate the field of consumption and consumer culture. This third revised and expanded edition is a major update of the text of the second edition, adding new chapters on youth culture and consumption, retail psychology, gender and consumption, the globalization of food, and digital consumption and platform capitalism. Theoretical perspectives are introduced such as theories of practice, critical theory, semiotics, and psychoanalysis. Examples from film, literature, and television are used to illustrate concepts and trends in consumption, and a wide range of engaging and up-to-date case studies of consumption are employed throughout. Historical context is provided to help the reader understand how we became consumers in the first place. Written by an experienced teacher, the book offers an accessible and thought-provoking introduction to the concept of consumption for students in sociology, cultural studies, human geography, history, anthropology, and social psychology.

Providing a much-needed de-Westernising perspectives of Dubai’s social media influencing industry within the broader context of global platform capitalism, Zoe Hurley offers an important contribution to the field of social media through illustrating visible economies in a city circuited by social media influencing.

Word-of-Mouth in Contemporary Hollywood provides a unique insight into the potential for online communication to enable audiences to exert a greater impact on film industrial practices than ever before. In an overarching analysis of contemporary Hollywood film financing, marketing, distribution, and exhibition practices, Simon Hewitt recontextualises word-of-mouth in light of social media and examines the growing impact of audience participation. Using a ‘Bourdieuconomic’ approach, he applies qualitative research methods to better understand the contemporary Hollywood film audience, the contemporary Hollywood film industry, and the mechanisms that connect the two. The book explores new film financing mechanisms that incorporate fans into the packages used to secure production funds. It assesses the role of ‘Grassroots Intermediaries’ in contemporary film marketing campaigns. It critiques ‘democratic’ crowdsourced methods of film distribution, and finally, it considers the possible future of Hollywood film exhibition. By helping to bridge the gap between the gift economy and commodity culture, this book will appeal to students and scholars of media industry studies, media finance and economics, fan and audience studies, film studies, film history, and media marketing.

Haven’t we all seen a Black Panther movie and listened to at least a few Harry Styles tunes? Who hasn’t seen a Taylor Swift video? Or can’t name an incident or two involving the Kardashians? Popular fascination with the rich and famous is an inescapable part of contemporary consumer culture. Celebrity Culture is a comprehensive yet accessible survey of the pervasive phenomenon. This new edition of the textbook is fully revised and updated, incorporating up-to-date examples, case studies and additional features, including a timeline and retrospections at the end of chapters. Whilst recognizing that celebrities have existed for centuries, Cashmore argues that celebrity culture in the 21st century is a novel and unique phenomenon driven by rampant consumerism, advertising and the media. He describes the evolution of a new kind of fame, the growth of consumerism, the rise of the paparazzi, the fluctuating value of sex scandals, the transmutation of blackness, the metamorphosis of the British royal family, the emergence of influencers, the appeal of celebrity couples, the increased visibility of queer culture, the transformation of politics, the reconstruction of talent and the attempts of theories to grasp celebrity culture’s magnetism. Celebrity Culture will appeal to a wide undergraduate audience throughout the social sciences and humanities.

'An ideal summer read' EVENING STANDARD 'Equal parts insightful and entertaining - whatever your take on influencers, Bad Influence is a great read' YOMI ADEGOKE Oenone didn't set out to become an influencer. The word barely existed when she started posting on Instagram at university to document her 'fitness journey' after a toxic relationship came to a messy end. In this humorous meditation on her digitized life, Oenone chronicles the pits and peaks of coming of age online. Grappling with modern-day issues on a public stage - from body image and personal boundaries to the limitations of online activism, Bad Influence examines what happens when your day-to-day reality becomes #content - and that #content pays your bills. It asks: can you truly be authentic online? Can social media be a force for good? Is it necessarily bad for our mental health? Written with wit, warmth and honesty, this is a candid account of what it really means to be an influencer, from someone still figuring it out: the good, the bad and the instagrammable. 'Warm, juicy, and eye-opening, like having a chat with a best friend' ANNIE LORD 'If ever a book captured the zeitgeist, this is it' GRACE CAMPBELL 'Funny, warm and brilliantly engaging' LUCY VINE

This interdisciplinary collection explores four distinct perspectives about the mask, as object of use for protection, identity, and disguise. In part I, contributors address human identities within collective social performance, with chapters on performativity and the far right and masked identities in political resistance and communication. Part II focuses on the mask as a signifying object with strong representational challenges, exploring representations in festivals, literature, and film. Part III investigates the ambiguous use of the mask as a protective and concealing element, delving into visual culture and digital social media contexts. Finally, Part VI draws on the work of Levinas and Deleuze to investigate a philosophical view of the mask that addresses memory and ethics within intersubjective relationships. Questioning the contemporary world, using communication, sociology, visual culture, and philosophical theory, the volume provides a pedagogical and formative perspective on the mask.