Singapore's Ministry of Finance pays for Instagram 'influencers' to promote Budget 2018

[ignhelper]

[IMG]https://static.straitstimes.com.sg/sites/default/files/styles/x_large/public/articles/2018/01/17/dw-budget-influencers-instagram-180117.jpg?itok=7vB6Frae[/IMG]

[QUOTE]SINGAPORE - What do pretty pictures and financial planning have in common?

Budget 2018, it seems.

In an effort to reach out to younger Singaporeans, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has paid for over 50 social media "influencers" to post on Instagram to promote the Budget process.
At least 30 posts by these young social media users have popped up since December last year, asking viewers to visit the Budget website to learn more about the Budget, or to share their feedback with government feedback unit Reach on its website and at its physical "listening posts" this month.

Budget Day this year falls on Feb 19.

The influencers have anywhere from 1,300 to 35,000 followers on Instagram. Some post photos of themselves at the listening posts while others share photos of their daily lives with captions about how the Budget relates to them. The posts are tagged as sponsored posts.

For example, blogger and property agent Cheng Kai Ting, who has about 21,800 followers, wrote: "Before we penned down our signatures to seal our union for #KenTingWeds, there was a lot of planning done to make sure we worked within our budget and planned our finances well for our future together.

"Similarly, the Singapore government has to plan the #SGBudget ahead to help us Singaporeans and support our businesses in the next Financial Year, and our President will pen down her signature as assent for the enactment of the Supply Bill."
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[url]http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/mof-pays-for-instagram-influencers-to-promote-budget-2018[/url]

What the fuck are they expecting 18 year olds to give a shit about?

[Anteep]

let em sing they're no longer poor

[ultra_bright]

Looks like social media manipulation is moving on from just ads and commerce to politics.

God help us if social media starts tracking peoples political views and try to influence them through AI and targeted advertising, teaching machines how to manipulate people will be a dangerous thing in the future.

[knimren]

When do we get public ratings of people around us like in Black Mirror.

[Narry]

[QUOTE=Antimuffin;53091864]When do we get public ratings of people around us like in Black Mirror.[/QUOTE]

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System[/url]