One LA ice cream truck owner is well and truly done with influencers. Joe Nicchi, the head honcho of iconic ice cream truck CVT Soft Serve has thrown down the gauntlet in the face of Sugar Bear Hair consumers.
Nicchi has reached the end of his tether with Influencers that request free goods in exchange for “exposure.” In an interview with Vice, he revealed that his business is bombarded with requests for free cones at least once a week. The straw that broke the camels back, however, was when he was asked to cater an event for 300 people for exposure, and sweet fuck all else.
“Last Thursday, I got an event request to do a party on a weekend for 300 people in exchange for the word they love to use, which is ‘exposure,'” Nicchi said. “I can’t do that; I can’t work for free.”
Nicchi decided to combat the plague of Lulu Lemon clad scoundrels by putting up a sign, letting them know that CVT Soft Serve was not interested in their services. The sign read “INFLUENCERS PAY DOUBLE”.
He followed the sign up with a scathing post on Instagram. “We truly don’t care if you’re an Influencer, or how many followers you have,” the caption read. “We will never give you a free ice cream in exchange for a post on your social media page. It’s literally a $4 item…well now it’s $8 for you #InfluencersAreGross.”
Unintentionally, Nicchi’s post went viral, granting him the one thing he feared the most, exposure.
In contrast, last year, a pop-up mural was erected in Los Angeles; the mural only allowed verified influencers and people with over 20,000 followers to access. The private mural protected by a security guard and featured a sign out front that read:
“PRIVATE MURAL
FOR VERIFIED INFLUENCERS AND PEOPLE WITH OVER 20,000 FOLLOWERS ONLY
WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.
SEE SECURITY STAFF FOR PROOF AND ACCESS”
