It’s okay that influencers would reach out to businesses to ask if they could collab. The businesses are also allowed to refuse, and influencers should respect that. That wasn’t the case with an unhinged influencer who tried to blackmail an Arizona bakery. The bakery posted a video that has gone viral on TikTok, where they exposed an influencer named glamorama. They shared how she reached out to them to ask for a collab. They politely declined because they didn’t have the budget for such a thing. She didn’t take no for an answer. What she did instead was blackmail them. She told them that if they did collab, she would focus on the nice things and be kinder when mentioning what she didn’t like. Her next words made it clear that she wanted a free meal in exchange for the review. “The meal will need to be comped including the gratuity,” she wrote.
Despite the Arizona bakery’s refusal, the influencer still went there to review them. The bakery stated that they respect constructive criticism, but they don’t tolerate bullying or dishonesty. The influencer definitely bullied them. While she said that she would be nice when mentioning the things she didn’t like if they collaborated, she did the complete opposite when she went there after the refusal. Her review was quite harsh and vulgar. Of course, the bakery had to respond to it. After she claimed their pistachios were fake, they showed that they actually come from Italy. The rest of the video showed how their ingredients are of high quality and how they put a lot of effort into providing excellent products.
The CEO of the bakery’s video wasn’t just to defend themselves, but also to defend other small businesses that the influencer bullied. She doesn’t want the young generations to watch her and think that it is okay to bully businesses in the food industry. This response didn’t go unnoticed by the influencer, who tried to defend herself. Her bad attitude was still there in her explanation video as she accused the bakery of lying. After thousands of comments criticized her, she deleted her videos and posted an apology instead. She claimed her review wasn’t out of spite, but her tone made it hard to believe. She also said that she would learn from this experience. Now, the only post on her TikTok account is the apology. It would be impossible for her to recover from this since 46 million people saw the bakery’s response.
People Reacting to the Arizona Bakery’s Video
Thousands of people left comments under the Arizona bakery’s video. All of them were supporting the bakery and criticizing the influencer. Since she was basically asking for free food, one person wrote, “‘Influencers’ are glorified beggars.” Others found it weird that, with the money influencers have, they would be asking for free stuff. “Influencers make way too much money to be asking for free things,” one person said. Another person then asked, “Are influencers just too poor to buy a pastry ?” Those who saw Glamorama’s review agreed that she was bullying the bakery. “I just watched her glamorama review. That was straight bullying just because she couldn’t get free food,” someone wrote. Another person saw that Glamorama’s response didn’t make her look good. “I saw the same thing. The receipts that she claimed to have to prove that she wasn’t bullying, literally showed that she was bullying,” they said.
The video by the Arizona bakery became so popular that Keith Lee himself left a comment. “I can’t express how much I respect this response,” he wrote. It is a good thing that they stood up for themselves. One person also said that Glamorama would probably change her content following the backlash. “Don’t take this girl seriously. She tried doing travel videos and they didn’t take off, so just short of a year ago she switched her niche to food ‘reviews.’ This girl has no idea what she’s talking about. She’ll fall off this fad and probably move to another one soon,” they wrote. Someone else said, “She just made your bakery more popular. You have a new customer.” It’s true. The bakery came out as a winner here because now millions of people know their bakery and want to try it.
