• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Both brands and influencers are at high risk of looking crass in the current climate. There has been a significant backlash against influencers (see: Arielle Charnas) producing content about coronavirus. A scroll through any influencer's feed will show them attempting to grapple with the fact they can't go out to make content and that some of their followers might be sick or be key workers who put themselves at risk of infection every day. Some post emotional essay-length captions about how we have to stay inside. Others who choose to continue as usual now get questioned by their own followers over whether they should be selling frivolous items.

Digital Media

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Christian LeBlanc’s plan was to graduate business school and work full-time at one of Canada’s largest accounting firms. But in his last year of university, the Vancouver resident did an exchange program in Bangkok, Thailand and started making videos of his travels for his family and friends and posting them on YouTube for fun. He came back to Canada to work long hours and lots of weekends at a job he didn’t like. So, at age 22, he decided to quit accounting, sell everything he owned and scrape together “just enough money for a one-way ticket” back to Bangkok. He lived like a “broke backpacker” for a year before his YouTube business took off.

Digital Media