By now, we’ve all heard about the viral, insane story of @fashionambitionist.

On Tuesday, the Instagram world FREAKED out over what seemed to be the absolute cutest and most romantic start of a proposal. EVER. Marissa Fuchs (Director of Brand Parnterships & Sales at Goop — keep this in mind as you read) was thrown off guard when her boyfriend started her on a journey to find him. The end result? Well, definitely an engagement…but could there also be a wedding too?

From surprise guests to Flywheel to a Glamsquad appointment to a canceled Blade (due to weather, #firstworldproblems) to a car ride out to the Hamptons to a flight to Miami to shopping to PARIS…the entire digital space seemed to be completely fixated on what could be one of the coolest proposals of all time. And to be honest…I was invested as well. It was really freakin’ cute! I mean, WHAT A GUY!!!

As the story unraveled and still no proposal, I started getting a weird feeling about what was going on. I mean, the brand tags (brands that I

know

enjoy working with bloggers/influencers) alone were enough to raise red flags. That’s what REALLY stood out to me, because as someone who uses this space to work with brands…I do the same thing. But to the average Instagram user, it was still a dream come true journey. In my head: Could this

actually

be a ridiculous publicity stunt?

Turns out, it sure is.

YES, THAT IS RIGHT. AN ENTIRE DECK WAS CREATED FOR THIS DAMN PROPOSAL/ENGAGEMENT/WEDDING.

Yup. That’s RIGHT. Before this proposal even started, brands knew what was coming. And why? So they could get in on the proposal, and have A LOT of eyes on their products or services. DUH. A brand’s dream, right? Makes total sense from a marketing standpoint.

Given any other circumstance, this would be an awesome opportunity to partner with brands. But for an engagement? I’m not so sure I’m loving the idea of an engagement being a complete spectacle. And then there’s the other side of this.

I



read an insanely good article



and there was a quote from an ad executive basically saying THERE IS NO WAY SHE DIDN’T HAVE A HAND IN THIS. I mean, Matt knows a lot about what I do, but would he be able to put together something like this?! Hell to the no. Even with the help of Hayden or Allie, I don’t think they’d be able to put together something that has MY business attached to it without me having any knowledge. I’ve seen a lot of arguments that don’t believe she had anything to do with it…but…I’m still not buying it.

And remember what I said before about what Marissa does for a living? Yeah, girl knows how brand partnerships work. (




Allie




did make a great point though. If she DID have a hand, she thinks things would have went smoother given her career.)

Does anyone see an issue with this? Or is it just me? The whole thing just feels super inauthentic now.

Which brings me to my next point.

It’s almost insane that this is how influencers’ minds work nowadays. No, actually it is insane. Here’s my opinion: At the end of the day, I don’t think I’d want to sacrifice an extremely special time in my life just for a few brand partnerships or a few thousand followers. Maybe that’s because I’m not a large influencer by any means, and I don’t rely on partnerships to help me live or care to


really


incorporate them in every aspect of my life?

Again, just my opinion, but I think there are a lot of people out there that

would do the same thing Marissa/her team/her boyfriend/whatever

is doing. And I’m not sure I’m into it or “proud” to be part of that type of community. Honestly, I think it fuels the fire to the whole “bloggers/influencers are entitled, get whatever they want, aren’t authentic” argument.

I know there’s going to be differing opinions (ahem,



ALLIE



, PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS;)), but these are mine, and I’m super open to having a conversation about this!