Amazon launches its own social media influencer program into beta

All the links in the article to Amazon now lead to a generic login page with no mention of the program.

You can see they weren't generic in the Google cache though:

  site:amazon.com "amazon influencer program"

It makes me sad that fame and celebrity, no matter how it is acquired, equates so directly to money-making and power now. Sad because I don't think it is encouraging the best parts of our nature. But I don't know what to do about it.

My question is will there be a guarantee that the items are genuine and not counterfeit?

Celebs will probably not want to be associated with buyers of their endorsed products ending up with counterfeit goods.

Why use such a controversial name as "influencer"? Why didn't they just call it "recommender"?

They were recently hiring a SDM in Germany for this program.

Nice maybe they buy up competition

A what? A "social media influencer program?" It's a program that employs people skilled at pretending to be someone they aren't, whose goal is to influence the views of people who would prefer to be someone they aren't.

"Social media influence" is jargon for lies. Proof? When was the last time you saw a famous actor flogging potatoes? The reason? People actually need potatoes -- they don't need to be tricked into buying them.

Even more worrying is the recent rise in lawsuits against anyone who posts a negative product review in social media. The idea is to squelch anything but controlled advertising copy, recited by young, attractive employees. And ... it's working.

My favorite advertising slogan of the last 20 years: "If you don't buy a new car, the terrorists win."