No amount of influence can buy you even an ice cream cone at this Los Angeles hot spot.
The owner of popular City of Angels ice cream truck CVT Soft Serve got so fed up by so-called “influencers” asking for free treats in exchange for Instagram promotion — that he’s now charging the leeches double.
“Our business is doing just fine without their exposure,” owner Joe Nicchi told NBC Los Angeles.
“I have had people come up to me and say, ‘Man, this line is crazy. I’m surprised you only have 5,000 followers,'” he continued. “Why does it matter what that number says? I have a line down the street.”
On Sunday, the no-nonsense ice cream scooper put up a sign on his truck that read: “Influencers Pay Double” and posted it on his business’s social media accounts. The post quickly went viral and made it to the front page of Reddit.
“We’ve decided to make this thing official with signage,” read the caption. “We truly don’t care if you’re an Influencer, or how many followers you have. 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.”
In another post, the company added: “We couldn’t care less about how many followers you have, and we’re super embarrassed for you when you tell us.”
The icy policy came after years of influencers trying to get free grub from him, Nicchi said — but the last straw was last Thursday when he received a request to comp ice cream for a 300-person event, in exchange for “exposure.”
Nicchi — who started CVT, which stands for “Chocolate Vanilla Twist,” with his wife in 2012 — said he understands the irony of his policy going viral.
“I’m happy for the exposure, and I realize that it is complete irony that I’m getting exposure for this thing when other people have offered me exposure,” he said.
His follower count has increased too — but he said he wishes people focused on that less.
“Let’s make it more about the taste of the food and the quality of the product and the service, and less about that follower count,” he said.