Brand-sponsored trips are luxury vacations marketed as exciting and exclusive experiences. These trips are often documented through intricate social media videos that highlight the glamorous aspects of the destinations and products being promoted. However, as the beauty industry rose along with content creation through significant marketing on online platforms, so did the ethical dilemmas. Influencers use their platforms to promote these products and gain popularity, engagement, and financial benefits so when does the fine line become drawn when product quality lessens but sponsorship grows?
Brand trips have become more prominent in the modern era with the rise of social media and other digital marketing. As influencers gained traction – especially on YouTube and Instagram – makeup reviews became a central focus. They dominate online spaces, ranging from testing the latest lip glosses to critiquing foundation lines. This industry boom made beauty influencers a driving force behind brand-sponsored trips.
Lack of inclusivity was a major problem with these brands when the YouTube sphere was surrounding quirky LA content creators like Emma Chamberlin; there was this extension of popularity with these influencers for young audiences. Companies, after sponsoring their individuals for new products, Coachella, and other events, had a little bit of backlash. There were a few influencers who started to publicly speak about how they felt as if their experiences were quite different from the other influencers.
Many of these women were ethnic women as described by Kianna Naomi, an influencer who was invited to Fiji by the brand Dote. She publicly came out to say how she felt isolated based on her race told the Daily Mail that she “‘…didn’t want to be the problematic black girl… didn’t want to be labeled as ungrateful… [and that she] was protecting a company that didn’t care about [her] well-being in the slightest… [she] thought that [she] could be a representation of black girls all over the world. But for [her] to feel like the token black girl on two trips in a row, it’s dead. [She] don’t want to do it anymore.'” She felt exploited, which is the fault of the entirety of the brand trips model; companies often have influencers promote their product while providing an exciting trip to exploit them for their brand and money.
This was 6 years ago, there has been some progress in how brands seem to operate their events and promotional trips, but sponsorships still are labeled controversial in promotional media. Examples can be the “Mascara Gate” where a makeup influencer was shown lying about the length of their eyelashes after applying a new brand’s mascara. She was later revealed to be wearing false lashes intended to falsely advertise to her viewers in the video.
Recently this past January 2025, the brand Tarte had a brand trip to an Island where many LA influencers were shown promoting and attending the trip there for makeup during the LA Fires.
Their recent trip got a substantial amount of backlash based on the current climate in California where a devastating amount of fires have wiped out many families’ homes and lives. This trip happened during the intensity of this event and many of these influencers and the brand did promotional videos on the greatness and need to buy these new products when many people can not even be able to buy clothes and food for their families. This demonstrates the tone deafness and unethical behavior these big corporations have. The company Tarte has had many controversial brand trips from recently to a future Bora Bora and Dubai trip. Many of influencers sponsored to go are comprised mostly of very wealthy individuals. A question has to be asked: why does the brand not send more of the financially struggling influencers or customers?
The unethical and tone-deaf content uploaded is shown to be very glamorized for media consumption. Luxury brand trips take influencers to exotic destinations like the Bahamas, Hawaii, Paris, and Bora Bora, and these settings create the illusion of getting the consumer’s amounts of money worth by picturing escapism from the buyer’s lives. The locations reinforce unrealistic expectations about advertised products and provide an illusion of “if you buy our product, you will also have a similar lifestyle”; a truly false narrative and perception.
These brand trips lack inclusivity, highlight the tone-deafness surrounding the brands and influencers, and include false advertisements and reviewers. Certain brands partner and sponsor influencers for their brands and in return many influencers will proceed to make a video on their product in a positive light and will shift their perception to be positive with their sponsor to gain more revenue for themselves, the company, and future opportunities with the brand. This interconnection in the media should be recognized as a marketing scheme that is unethical and created unrealistic expectations.