This New York Times guest essay on how social media influencers exploit restaurants for free meals makes me think back to an earlier era when I was a food writer in D.C. more than a decade ago and certain upstart blogger-influencers used similar tactics to extract free stuff. Their writing and insights were often superficial and their brand-building presence at food-media events sucked up all the oxygen in the room.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/24/opinion/social-media-influencer-restaurants.html

#FoodWriting #SocialMedia #InfluencerEconomy