Why Are Your Favorite Celebrities Selling Detox Tea?
Instagram has become a boomtown for mild laxatives and other snake oil.
None of my friends are talking about it, so why can’t I escape detox tea? It’s there each time I open Instagram, trying its best to look glamorous.
Seeding product with tastemakers is a formal marketing strategy for legit companies, but with Instagram's highly influential vessels for product placement that moonlight as real people, the social media platform is a booming hotbed for snake oil of all kinds. The people I’ve spotted selling tea also promote other dubious products, like waist trainers and designer knockoff shoes. They do this for money, and, for upstart brands, it works. One of my co-workers considered buying detox tea after seeing it on JuJu’s account. “I wanted to get rid of any bloating and slim down my stomach,” they explained. “I asked my cousin, who’s a doctor, if this was an okay thing to try. She said it would just make me poop and pee a bunch.” They never bought the tea, but there’s some on another desk in The FADER right now. “It’s called Skinny Fox Detox,” the owner explained. “Ugh.”