Will people buy anything if it’s attached to an influencer or celebrity?

Image- SKIMS

If a bush thong can sell out, what can’t influencers sell us?

From a thong designed to mimic pubic hair to soap allegedly made from a celebrity’s bath water, influencer-led products are becoming increasingly bizarre, but people are still buying them. In 2025, SKIMS’ controversial ‘bush thong’ sold out within 24 hours. Sydney Sweeney’s bathwater soap reportedly sold out in seconds. Meanwhile, Rhode’s viral lip tint phone case continues to trend despite users complaining that it stretches over time, forcing some to boil it back into shape.

The success of these products raises a bigger question: will people buy anything if it’s attached to a famous name? And if so, what does that say about how we consume and who we trust?

The influencer economy is no longer niche. The global influencer marketing market has more than tripled since 2020 and is expected to reach approximately £24.58 billion in 2025, according to Statista. Meanwhile, 63% of consumers say they are more likely to buy a product from an influencer they trust, with TikTok currently dominating as the most powerful platform for social commerce, a 2024 report by Traackr found.

Why do people buy into influencer products?

To understand why people continue to buy into celebrity-backed products, even when they seem impractical or absurd, Shift spoke to Ella Trigg, who studies marketing and advertising. Trigg explained that emotional attachment plays a central role. “Influencers in this generation have a major impact on consumers’ spending habits”, she said. “Many people look up to influencers highly… many form parasocial relationships.”

Parasocial relationships, one-sided emotional bonds formed with public figures, have become increasingly common in the social media era. Unlike traditional celebrities, influencers offer daily access to their lives through vlogs, Instagram stories and livestreams, creating a sense of intimacy that feels personal, even if it isn’t.

As Trigg explained, this closeness makes people far more susceptible to persuasion. “Consumers are easily influenced to purchase products that celebrities they look up to promote”, she said, adding that fans often feel a sense of trust and emotional connection that bypasses critical thinking.

This trust acts as a shortcut. Trigg described celebrities as “high-status endorsers” who activate “mental shortcuts” in the brain. Rather than evaluating a product properly, consumers often rely on the person associated with it. “When fans of celebrities see someone they look up to using certain products, this makes the customer trust a product”, she said, explaining that people assume they would not use a bad product.

This helps explain why SKIMS sold out instantly when it first launched. “Skims was able to sell out insanely fast due to fans looking up to Kim Kardashian and trusting that a brand brought out by her would be high quality and trendy,” Trigg said. “This shows that when a celebrity is linked to a brand, consumers will jump to purchase without even knowing much about the product itself”.

Why does weird sell?

In a digital landscape where people scroll past hundreds of posts a day, producing everyday products does not always sell. “People are overwhelmed and bombarded with new content and ads every minute”, Trigg explained. “Shock acts like a pattern break, forcing the brain to focus”.

This is where products like the SKIMS bush thong and Sydney Sweeney’s bathwater soap come in. They’re not designed to be subtle; they are designed to be talked about.

In a culture dominated by TikTok, controversy becomes free marketing. The more bizarre or provocative a product is, the more likely it is to be shared, stitched, debated and turned into content. As Trigg put it, “Emotionally intense stimuli… are more likely to be recalled later and spoken about.”

Outrage and confusion don’t hurt sales; they often help them.

Aesthetic over function

Not all viral influencer products are shocking or bizarre. Some are simply impractical, and people buy them anyway.

Rhode’s lip tint phone case is a good example. Despite being criticised for its lack of functionality, it continues to sell. For Trigg, this reflects a wider cultural shift. “When it comes to viral products like the Rhode phone case, it shows consumers tend to choose aesthetics over practicality,” she said. “When making everyday choices, emotion tends to win.”

On social media, products are not just for practical purposes; they are also props. They’re designed to look good on camera and fit a certain ‘vibe’. In this sense, buying becomes a form of self-expression.

The influencer perspective

To explore this dynamic from another angle, Shift spoke to Bee Moss, an influencer whose content centres on fashion and lifestyle content.

Rather than focusing on celebrity worship, Moss emphasised the importance of trust and emotional connection between influencers and their audiences. “I want my followers to trust what I am promoting”, she said. “My followers see me more as a friend rather than a random person on social media”.

This sense of familiarity plays a key role in why influencer marketing works. Instead of selling an untouchable lifestyle, influencers often present themselves as relatable and accessible. “People can be influenced more by micro influencers as they are seen as more relatable,” Moss said, adding that many people now see celebrities as “unrelatable and out of touch”.

However, she believes that trend culture still drives a large portion of purchasing decisions. “People are so quick to jump on trends as they want to be ‘relevant,” she said. “The majority of the time, people don’t 100% like the product they are buying; they are just easily influenced”.

She also pointed to TikTok as a major driver of this behaviour. “The trend cycle is now moving too fast”, she explained. “Things go out of trend within weeks or months”.

Is anyone immune?

It’s easy to assume that Gen Z is blindly swept up in influencer hype, but research suggests the picture is more complicated. Having grown up surrounded by sponsored posts, brand deals and curated online personas, many young consumers have developed a sharper sense of what feels authentic and what feels staged.

According to The Influencer Marketing Factory, Gen Z has learned “to tell the difference between a performance and something real”, and increasingly expects transparency and relatability from the creators they follow.

However, awareness doesn’t equal immunity. Trigg believes that while Gen Z may be “more aware of marketing tactics than older generations”, emotional attachment still plays a powerful role. “Products from brands such as Rhode and Skims would not reach the large scale they currently do and sell out as fast, if they did not have the celebrity attachment”, she said.

In other words, even when consumers recognise the tactics at play, the pull of famous figures can still override logic, especially when a product feels tied to being part of the influencers community.

So will people buy anything?

In today’s economy, the product itself often matters less than the person behind it. Consumers aren’t just buying underwear, soap or phone cases; they’re buying closeness to the celebrity or influencer attached to the product.

And as long as influencers continue to feel like friends, idols, or mirrors of who we want to be, it seems the answer is yes, people will buy almost anything, as long as the right name is attached to it.