this is a thought im cooking so it may not come out so well. but i've been doing a lot of thinking about youtuber (""""influencer"""") spconsorships and parasocial relationships. because, it's not enough (or useful) to tell people "don't be parasocial" or "it's just an ad" because of the way that social media works.
it tells you that you're all equals: you can also make tiktoks and youtube videos, this guy isn't that much different than you. and to be a good youtuber you have to earn people's trust, and that's based a lot on vibes. you watch a youtuber not because they're a researched academic or a super famous actor, but because (on some level, big or small) you trust their opinion.
and then they put an ad in there. they do a segue to a sponsorship for ground news or displate or whatever. but they're still talking like themselves, they're saying how they genuinely like this product, sometimes they even incorperate it into the actual meat of the video. it's hard to tell what is advertisement and what is them.
and you know they're getting paid for this, you know how many youtube sponsors have turned out bad before, but... you trust their opinion. and every time you hear the ad, it gets a little more into your brain. so you have to make guesses about their character: would they take a sponsorship they don't like or haven't tried? would they knowingly scam their audience?
and the thing about youtubers is they (often) need to seem trustworthy, seem genuine, seem like this is the real them, to get ahead. so it predisposes you to view them as trustworthy, and it genuinely feels like a betrayal when they promote like... some harry potter game. even if they didn't care where the money was coming from, even if they don't know you, you trusted them, on some level.
but beyond obvious betrayal, youtube sponsors are so... sinister because they prey on that trust, as i said, and so they worm their way into your brain so much better than other ads. famous actors act in comercials. but youtubers... just seem like they're talking to you.
