When model Bella Hadid kissed Miquela Sousa a Calvin Klein commercial last month, the ad sparked complaints about "queerbaiting." But there was another issue: Miquela Sousa is not a human being, but a virtual influencer created solely to market goods on social media. And "she" has over 1.6 million Instagram followers. The rise of these influencers has not yet been addressed by the FTC, and they are only gaining in popularity with marketers because of the lack of regulation. “Social media, to date, has largely been the domain of real humans being fake,” says Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. “But avatars are a future of storytelling.” Marketer Edward Saatchi agreed. “Eventually, it will be clear that the line between a Miquela and an Alexa is actually very slim.” [NY Times]
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