‘I’m Sick Of Influencers’: Pro Baker Comes Up With A Genius Way Of Dealing With Influencers
London-based baker Reshmi Bennett has just sent a powerful message to all influencers, celebrities, and brands requesting cakes for their personal or work events. Let’s hope they get it.
The confectionery visionary behind Anges de Sucre, an award-winning family-run artisan patisserie, said they get hundreds of requests for cake in exchange for exposure. Even though they aren’t welcome. “I would ‘thank you for reaching out’ but I won’t, because I’m not thankful for your ‘opportunity’ to work for free,” Bennett wrote. “And it’s also clogging up my DMs and inbox.”
Even though Bennett is aware influencer marketing is a massive thing, and “influencing” has become a very popular career choice for many young people, she said it simply does not work for Anges de Sucre. “In particular, hand-made, edible works of art, i.e. cakes, are expensive to produce. They are a luxury.” Bennett even posted a flowchart to cement her point. She’s also sending it to all influencers who ask her for free stuff.
More info: angesdesucre.com | Instagram | Facebook
Baker Reshmi Bennett has just gone viral for standing up to entitled influencers
Image credits: angesdesucre
But she’s well-known for her cakes, too
Image credits: angesdesucre
I wonder if these influencers know who they are contacting when they write to Bennett. She was trained in classical French cuisine in Paris at École Grégoire Ferrandi and then worked in Paris under Michelin starred chefs before starting Anges de Sucre.
Combining classic French cuisine techniques with flavors from around the world, the patisserie whips up and delivers a selection of top-class, hand-decorated cakes around London.
Image credits: angesdesucre
“While my training was classical cuisine, my work experience was in Michelin-starred haute-cuisine. One of the restaurants I worked in had a sudden vacancy in the patisserie section in the summer and as the hot kitchen was like a sauna, I jumped at the chance at being tucked away in the cooler patisserie-side of the kitchen! That’s where I started my patisserie journey,” Bennett explained.
Image credits: angesdesucre
She said starting a small business, building a shop, and running it is a continuous learning curve and she’s still learning. “The most important realization I had was that I cannot do it all. There are certain things I’m good at and certain things I’m not so good/hopeless at and identifying the latter in time has been a challenge in itself.”
Image credits: angesdesucre
Initially, Bennett was trying to manage the shop, the online business, and the kitchen all by herself and it was hell. “I couldn’t focus, I made brash decisions in order to tick boxes, I missed reading the fine-prints and above all, I was tired of feeling tired.”
Image credits: angesdesucre
Eventually, however, she recognized that she couldn’t take care of all these different responsibilities and decided to hire a shop manager and things started falling into place, allowing her to focus much more on what she enjoys the most – creating.
Image credits: angesdesucre
“The reasons why we won’t cake for exposure. I’m tired of the DMs and emails. So it’s gonna be a straight cut and paste of the link and flowchart in response”
Image credits: angesdesucre
Bennett said she definitely isn’t the only professional in the industry who has to deal with unwanted influencer attention. “Cake makers and in fact all food and hospitality businesses are pestered on the regular by these requests,” she told Bored Panda. “Normally, the influencers try to dress it up by calling it a ‘collab’, and I’m thinking that’s because they themselves are embarrassed to call it what it is — begging for a freebie.”
At first, Bennett used to send polite declines or ignore these opportunists altogether but got increasingly irritated by the frequency of them so she started sending more sassy responses. “Usually they respond very defensively, as though they’re shocked that I wouldn’t take up on their offer for ‘FrEe PuBLiCiTy’, or that I’m not flattered that they’ve chosen me for a free cake. It’s baffling really.”
Image credits: angesdesucre
Image credits: angesdesucre
Image credits: angesdesucre
Here’s how a typical conversation with influencers looks from Bennett’s point of view
Image credits: angesdesucre
Image credits: angesdesucre
Image credits: angesdesucre
Here’s another one
Image credits: angesdesucre
Image credits: angesdesucre
“The reaction to my blog post and flowchart has been incredible,” Bennett said. “So many small businesses and creatives have been in support as they all suffer the same. The general public too, who are sick to the back of their teeth being fed the empty and vacuous #gifted #blessed #sponsored #obsessed content by influencers. I’ve heard from so many people that they are actually put off by the companies themselves who enable these blaggers by gifting them freebies.”
The baker stressed that she (probably) doesn’t hate influencers per se but there are professional content creators who have actual jobs, and these blaggers are like a turd at the pool party ruining it for them. “If they think it’s a job, then get paid in cash to do the job. I don’t know any landlord that will accept a cupcake in lieu of rent, so how can these influencers think bagging freebies is a job when it won’t pay their rent? Am I missing something?”
On the contrary, Reshmi. You’re onto something. And the people know it!
Image credits: angesdesucre
People are supporting the baker 100%
628Kviews
Share on FacebookGood for her. Influencers are nothing but lazy people thinking everything is owed to them. Go get a real job losers. How is getting free stuff now gonna help you down the road when you retire?? Last time I checked retirement benefits and Social security have to be earned by actually WORKING.
Agreed. Influencers are the one type of people who really truly need to "get a real job."
Load More Replies...It's always struck me as the height of irony that the more successful/famous/rich you are, the more you feel entitled to "freebies" from everyone. And it's depressing how the successful/famous/rich often get the most free stuff...No one who could use the help gets comped meals, vacations, hotel rooms, clothes, fashion accessories, smart phones,10K+ gift baskets, etc.
Why not a pie chart? Feels like a missed opportunity. Good for you for not putting up with these full grown toddlers though.
Because then she would have to charge for even the chart to make a point...
Load More Replies...Musicians (and many others) get a flavor of this that asks for us to play "for the exposure". No cash. My landlord is unimpressed by "Exposure". Besides, people freakin' DIE of exposure ...
I'm really glad that Reshmi Bennett is standing her ground! Firstly, she makes her points in great details which covers every aspect of all this — most importantly, that businesses have already been thriving without the need for any “influences”, and that, candidly speaking, normal people don't care about the people who makes these cake, just what we're seeing online. And those who do care, they end up asking for a ‘freebie’ themselves, so I'm glad she recognised the pattern. Also, each and every one of those cakes are extremely marvellous and stunning!
I'm a influencer, my followers are my 2 kids. Can I have some hours to sleep and go on toilet alone, for free? 😅😅
You’re the right kind of influencer, and your kids are the only ones you need as followers. Don’t worry, your kids will grow and eventually sleep through the night—-and most of the morning too. They’ll also develop a kind of object permanence about people, and understand they don’t cease to exist if they’re out of sight, so will stop following you to the bathroom. But, oddly, even though you’ll finally be able to sleep through the night and pee in solitude, you’ll find yourself missing the old days.
Load More Replies...My birthday is next week and my family is throwing me a social distancing party. This means that I will be visiting with a few and the rest of my family will join us via Zoom for a "party". We don't have a cake yet and since it is my birthday, I would love it if you could gift me a really large red velvet cake with a dragon theme so that it looks like it is bleeding when I cut into it (I'm not really into dragons, I just want to see what you can do). Most of the cake will be consumed by me over the course of several days since this is a virtual party and only three people will actually be in the room, but I REALLY like cake and think I can do it justice. In exchange for your gift, you will get REAL exposure. You see, I have a large family and most of them will be joining the Zoom for about 15 minutes so that means that your cake will be seen by about 50 members of my immediate family, and I will tell them if the cake tastes good. THINK OF THAT! 50 WHOLE PEOPLE. So, free cake? I AM AN INFLUENCER.
50 people in your IMMEDIATE family???? How many siblings do you have???? WOW!
Load More Replies...If your clientele will be people that are stupid enough to follow an influenza, your business will go bust within 2 weeks. That's the attention span these morons have.
I'm so over influencer culture. They expect people to work for free. I don't follow any, never have. But let me tell you- it would be the day that I EVER asked someone to work for me for free! How embarrassing! #endinfluencerculture
Anyone else heard the voice of the "Soup Nazi" in your head while reading the "No cake for you!" at the end of the influencer´s guide?
YES! Except he was a she and she was saying “No cake for you”!
Load More Replies...Influencers and all the business around them are toxic. Getting stuff and services for free isn't normal. Normal is to pay for someone else's work. No one can eat Likes. Also no school acceps Likes, niether banks do...
However bartering does work. The difference is, with a barter economy you have to actually DO something for the other party to the barter, you don't just get to show your friends pictures of it.
Load More Replies...Same thing happens. My Mother started a designer and influencers ask her to wear her best pieces in return for “exposure to our thousands of followers”. Hate it.
The term "infuencer" was created in order to explain the UNINTENTIONAL effect that SOME people had via their social media presence(s). ie they'd say "had dinner at ABC... it was amazing! Great way to celebrate my birthday"... then restaurant ABC would suddenly find themselves a lot busier, and upon investigation, discovered it was because Jo Blow posted about their dinner there. So.... then some marketing idiot decided to PAY these FEW people, to do some kind of "product placement" with the hopes of generating sales etc. ie someone ASKING for free stuff, is a CHEAPSKATE, ENTITLED BEGGAR.... they are NOT an "influencer".
How do people pay for their bills when everyone wants them to work for free? Oh hi landlord can I get free rent? I have 10,000 followers and will tag you in a post if you do. Come on we live in the real world
Exposure is not payment. I work for a nonprofit and we make deals to give local business exposure to 50,000 emails, 100k Facebook followers, but it's always an exchange for something. Sometimes its a membership or access to our high level donors or payment but reduced. Even with our large email list and social media following, it's still not a good deal for strait exposure.
Hang on a minute. If I make a large donation to your organization, you're going to repay my generosity by GIVING AWAY MY PERSONAL DETAILS????? So I can get on every spam list in the world????? I say f**k that!
Load More Replies...I call them Influenzas; you don't want contact with them, they're of no benefit to humanity and they're all over the world.
They're really just freeloaders and mooches who think that boasting about all the stuff they mooch makes them special.
"Yeah can I have a free cake even though I have enough money to afford it myselffff" You are parasite. No cake for you.
Can't even express how much joy this brings me watching a hard working individual bring some reality to these so called "influencers".....get a real job. I make my own choices, I don't let some self absorbed, entitled person affect my decision making. I can't wait for this platform of influencers to die out and fade away.
TFPs (trade for portfolio) have been around for ever. My husband is a photo hobbyist and people ALWAYS wanted head/modeling shots for free. He spent HOURS doing the shoots & then more time editing. I finally put my foot down when he was asked to drive halfway across the state, which would include an overnight stay, at his expense. The subject? A 3 year olds birthday party.
A good response is to DEFER an "influencer." They usually want something right away. "My next opening is in 2021. If you're interested, I can block out the date with a deposit and it will be refunded upon fulfillment.
Your cakes are absoloutley GORGEOUS I totally want one just like that for my birthday or LITERALLY ANY OTHER REASON! Keep making those beautiful cakes :D
Love the comment by William Guy: "Influencers... Self opinionated, nobodies with little or no talent willing to do anything for Celebrity..." Reshmi Bennett should ask the unsolicited Influencers to come and work for her for, erh nothing - Wonder what the acceptance rate would be :-)
I am always confused by most “influencers.” Most of them have such awful vacuous personalities. Of course there are exceptions, but who is supporting the awful superficial ones? Other people that want to be “influencers?”
Worked in commercial / fashion photography - both on set (as a photographer, photo assistant etc), AND behind the scenes as an Agent in a Photo Agency. Got these "work for exposure" requests all the time. I NEVER saw any tangible results from these 'exposure' requests.... NEVER. It's just a different way of begging for free stuff by people who feel entitled.
Great. And those cakes look incredible but I'm sure I'd be in a sugar coma for a year after tasting them, lol. I think it's really good that she has a stated policy on her website about free stuff.
I think they probably look better than they taste. Because if you think about it, most of those would be wayyyyyyy too sweet and also very difficult to actually eat. They look like something from a corporate dinner that's really more for decoration than actual food.
Load More Replies...so glad to see this, as a professional photographer we get asked all the time for free photo shoots and I ask them to pay my utilities, grocery and my rent and I'll shoot for free, naturally this does not happen.
Good for her but no points to author of this post, who used way too many photos and took way too long to get tp the point. Useful as a good example of bad writing.
I am amazed that there are so many people with no idea who they are or what they want so they 'follow' others and mimic them. They are disgusting! BTW, the cakes are stupendous and worth every cent you charge for them. They look like they involve a lot of time and work. I'm glad you know your worth and don't fall for this influencer crap.
Marketing professionals like me will reach out to carefully selected influencers as and when we believe a client will genuinely benefit from that marketing channel. Anyone who asks for a freebie is clearly trying their luck - don't waste your time with freeloaders.
Marketing professionals like me will reach out to genuine influencers if we feel it is a marketing channel that will work well for a client - any 'influencer' asking for a freebie is just freeloading so don't waste your time.
It's not like shops making handmade products need tons of exposure, anyway. They need enough to make a living. They don't want to have to branch out and industrialize to a massive extent, as that would diminish the core values of their handmade products. Influencers with a huge following are really only useful for mass producted things. Sure, if some luxury magazine, or a high end chef would mention a creator (in the sense of the shop) like this, where people know handmade stuff has a certain price tag, that's one thing, but mass exposure influencers, nope.
Bored Panda has given her business more meaningful exposure than an influencer could ever hope to do.
Yes. If you are truly an influencer, you probably have a lot of money, so can't you just buy your own darn cake?
It’s like this - you need an audience of MILLIONS for your offer of exposure to mean anything. But people or businesses who have an audience of millions of people tend to know that they should pay for this kind of thing.
totally agree with her, most influencer are people without any ethic feeling or respect, take a look how far they will go to be in..........a Moroccan influencer, has broadcast from a "immigrants boat" his journey and arrival in one of the canaries islands in the wooden boat that arrived at F....a beach on October 9. Through social networks such as Instagram, where he has more than 20,000 followers...
Seems like she's more famous for being obnoxious than she is for making cake. Looks like she's built her entire social presence on being jerky.
Good for her. Influencers are nothing but lazy people thinking everything is owed to them. Go get a real job losers. How is getting free stuff now gonna help you down the road when you retire?? Last time I checked retirement benefits and Social security have to be earned by actually WORKING.
Agreed. Influencers are the one type of people who really truly need to "get a real job."
Load More Replies...It's always struck me as the height of irony that the more successful/famous/rich you are, the more you feel entitled to "freebies" from everyone. And it's depressing how the successful/famous/rich often get the most free stuff...No one who could use the help gets comped meals, vacations, hotel rooms, clothes, fashion accessories, smart phones,10K+ gift baskets, etc.
Why not a pie chart? Feels like a missed opportunity. Good for you for not putting up with these full grown toddlers though.
Because then she would have to charge for even the chart to make a point...
Load More Replies...Musicians (and many others) get a flavor of this that asks for us to play "for the exposure". No cash. My landlord is unimpressed by "Exposure". Besides, people freakin' DIE of exposure ...
I'm really glad that Reshmi Bennett is standing her ground! Firstly, she makes her points in great details which covers every aspect of all this — most importantly, that businesses have already been thriving without the need for any “influences”, and that, candidly speaking, normal people don't care about the people who makes these cake, just what we're seeing online. And those who do care, they end up asking for a ‘freebie’ themselves, so I'm glad she recognised the pattern. Also, each and every one of those cakes are extremely marvellous and stunning!
I'm a influencer, my followers are my 2 kids. Can I have some hours to sleep and go on toilet alone, for free? 😅😅
You’re the right kind of influencer, and your kids are the only ones you need as followers. Don’t worry, your kids will grow and eventually sleep through the night—-and most of the morning too. They’ll also develop a kind of object permanence about people, and understand they don’t cease to exist if they’re out of sight, so will stop following you to the bathroom. But, oddly, even though you’ll finally be able to sleep through the night and pee in solitude, you’ll find yourself missing the old days.
Load More Replies...My birthday is next week and my family is throwing me a social distancing party. This means that I will be visiting with a few and the rest of my family will join us via Zoom for a "party". We don't have a cake yet and since it is my birthday, I would love it if you could gift me a really large red velvet cake with a dragon theme so that it looks like it is bleeding when I cut into it (I'm not really into dragons, I just want to see what you can do). Most of the cake will be consumed by me over the course of several days since this is a virtual party and only three people will actually be in the room, but I REALLY like cake and think I can do it justice. In exchange for your gift, you will get REAL exposure. You see, I have a large family and most of them will be joining the Zoom for about 15 minutes so that means that your cake will be seen by about 50 members of my immediate family, and I will tell them if the cake tastes good. THINK OF THAT! 50 WHOLE PEOPLE. So, free cake? I AM AN INFLUENCER.
50 people in your IMMEDIATE family???? How many siblings do you have???? WOW!
Load More Replies...If your clientele will be people that are stupid enough to follow an influenza, your business will go bust within 2 weeks. That's the attention span these morons have.
I'm so over influencer culture. They expect people to work for free. I don't follow any, never have. But let me tell you- it would be the day that I EVER asked someone to work for me for free! How embarrassing! #endinfluencerculture
Anyone else heard the voice of the "Soup Nazi" in your head while reading the "No cake for you!" at the end of the influencer´s guide?
YES! Except he was a she and she was saying “No cake for you”!
Load More Replies...Influencers and all the business around them are toxic. Getting stuff and services for free isn't normal. Normal is to pay for someone else's work. No one can eat Likes. Also no school acceps Likes, niether banks do...
However bartering does work. The difference is, with a barter economy you have to actually DO something for the other party to the barter, you don't just get to show your friends pictures of it.
Load More Replies...Same thing happens. My Mother started a designer and influencers ask her to wear her best pieces in return for “exposure to our thousands of followers”. Hate it.
The term "infuencer" was created in order to explain the UNINTENTIONAL effect that SOME people had via their social media presence(s). ie they'd say "had dinner at ABC... it was amazing! Great way to celebrate my birthday"... then restaurant ABC would suddenly find themselves a lot busier, and upon investigation, discovered it was because Jo Blow posted about their dinner there. So.... then some marketing idiot decided to PAY these FEW people, to do some kind of "product placement" with the hopes of generating sales etc. ie someone ASKING for free stuff, is a CHEAPSKATE, ENTITLED BEGGAR.... they are NOT an "influencer".
How do people pay for their bills when everyone wants them to work for free? Oh hi landlord can I get free rent? I have 10,000 followers and will tag you in a post if you do. Come on we live in the real world
Exposure is not payment. I work for a nonprofit and we make deals to give local business exposure to 50,000 emails, 100k Facebook followers, but it's always an exchange for something. Sometimes its a membership or access to our high level donors or payment but reduced. Even with our large email list and social media following, it's still not a good deal for strait exposure.
Hang on a minute. If I make a large donation to your organization, you're going to repay my generosity by GIVING AWAY MY PERSONAL DETAILS????? So I can get on every spam list in the world????? I say f**k that!
Load More Replies...I call them Influenzas; you don't want contact with them, they're of no benefit to humanity and they're all over the world.
They're really just freeloaders and mooches who think that boasting about all the stuff they mooch makes them special.
"Yeah can I have a free cake even though I have enough money to afford it myselffff" You are parasite. No cake for you.
Can't even express how much joy this brings me watching a hard working individual bring some reality to these so called "influencers".....get a real job. I make my own choices, I don't let some self absorbed, entitled person affect my decision making. I can't wait for this platform of influencers to die out and fade away.
TFPs (trade for portfolio) have been around for ever. My husband is a photo hobbyist and people ALWAYS wanted head/modeling shots for free. He spent HOURS doing the shoots & then more time editing. I finally put my foot down when he was asked to drive halfway across the state, which would include an overnight stay, at his expense. The subject? A 3 year olds birthday party.
A good response is to DEFER an "influencer." They usually want something right away. "My next opening is in 2021. If you're interested, I can block out the date with a deposit and it will be refunded upon fulfillment.
Your cakes are absoloutley GORGEOUS I totally want one just like that for my birthday or LITERALLY ANY OTHER REASON! Keep making those beautiful cakes :D
Love the comment by William Guy: "Influencers... Self opinionated, nobodies with little or no talent willing to do anything for Celebrity..." Reshmi Bennett should ask the unsolicited Influencers to come and work for her for, erh nothing - Wonder what the acceptance rate would be :-)
I am always confused by most “influencers.” Most of them have such awful vacuous personalities. Of course there are exceptions, but who is supporting the awful superficial ones? Other people that want to be “influencers?”
Worked in commercial / fashion photography - both on set (as a photographer, photo assistant etc), AND behind the scenes as an Agent in a Photo Agency. Got these "work for exposure" requests all the time. I NEVER saw any tangible results from these 'exposure' requests.... NEVER. It's just a different way of begging for free stuff by people who feel entitled.
Great. And those cakes look incredible but I'm sure I'd be in a sugar coma for a year after tasting them, lol. I think it's really good that she has a stated policy on her website about free stuff.
I think they probably look better than they taste. Because if you think about it, most of those would be wayyyyyyy too sweet and also very difficult to actually eat. They look like something from a corporate dinner that's really more for decoration than actual food.
Load More Replies...so glad to see this, as a professional photographer we get asked all the time for free photo shoots and I ask them to pay my utilities, grocery and my rent and I'll shoot for free, naturally this does not happen.
Good for her but no points to author of this post, who used way too many photos and took way too long to get tp the point. Useful as a good example of bad writing.
I am amazed that there are so many people with no idea who they are or what they want so they 'follow' others and mimic them. They are disgusting! BTW, the cakes are stupendous and worth every cent you charge for them. They look like they involve a lot of time and work. I'm glad you know your worth and don't fall for this influencer crap.
Marketing professionals like me will reach out to carefully selected influencers as and when we believe a client will genuinely benefit from that marketing channel. Anyone who asks for a freebie is clearly trying their luck - don't waste your time with freeloaders.
Marketing professionals like me will reach out to genuine influencers if we feel it is a marketing channel that will work well for a client - any 'influencer' asking for a freebie is just freeloading so don't waste your time.
It's not like shops making handmade products need tons of exposure, anyway. They need enough to make a living. They don't want to have to branch out and industrialize to a massive extent, as that would diminish the core values of their handmade products. Influencers with a huge following are really only useful for mass producted things. Sure, if some luxury magazine, or a high end chef would mention a creator (in the sense of the shop) like this, where people know handmade stuff has a certain price tag, that's one thing, but mass exposure influencers, nope.
Bored Panda has given her business more meaningful exposure than an influencer could ever hope to do.
Yes. If you are truly an influencer, you probably have a lot of money, so can't you just buy your own darn cake?
It’s like this - you need an audience of MILLIONS for your offer of exposure to mean anything. But people or businesses who have an audience of millions of people tend to know that they should pay for this kind of thing.
totally agree with her, most influencer are people without any ethic feeling or respect, take a look how far they will go to be in..........a Moroccan influencer, has broadcast from a "immigrants boat" his journey and arrival in one of the canaries islands in the wooden boat that arrived at F....a beach on October 9. Through social networks such as Instagram, where he has more than 20,000 followers...
Seems like she's more famous for being obnoxious than she is for making cake. Looks like she's built her entire social presence on being jerky.
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