How social media influencers and audiences co-create online brand crises
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2025-03-10
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Rosenthal, Benjamin
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This work explores the role of social media influencers (SMIs) in online brand crises and the emotional reactions of online publics. Using the case of a controversial Balenciaga advertisement accused of inciting pedophilia, we analyze how these perceptions of moral failure trigger widespread backlash, with accusations that the brand was promoting child abuse. Online publics also revisited past controversies involving the brand, raising conspiracy theories that linked Balenciaga to satanism and hidden agendas. While existing research on brand publics focuses on positive engagement and self-visibility, this study highlights how they also emerge in moments of collective outrage, forming an oppositional form of brand public, which mostly criticizes the brand for its behavior. Since online publics rise in moments of emotional engagement, we examine how SMIs drive these discourses as part of publics and as intermediaries constructing the audience's perceptions. Our findings reveal that even when influencers attempt a rational analysis, audience reactions remain overwhelmingly driven by moral and emotional indignation, demonstrating the power of social media in transforming brand crises into a broader event.