Social media influencers draw more attention than Prince Charles - 6th April 2018

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Under the influence: Ali Gordon (left), Lydia Millen, Longines vice-president Juan Carlos Capelli, Amanda Shadforth, Matt Harnacke and Nadia Fairfax at Longines black tie dinner at the Games. Photo: Karon Photography

by Andrew Hornery

When a pouting social media princess supposedly "outranks" a real life prince who is set to inherit a throne representing more than 2.5 billion people across the Commonwealth, it is clear the tectonic plates on which our cultural social pecking order have been built for millennia have dramatically shifted.

And you can blame your smartphone, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, were billed as the star attractions at Wednesday's opening ceremony of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, though given the amount of attention and special treatment given to an ever growing band of "social media influencers" who found their way into various corporate boxes, no one seemed terribly interested in a pair of stuffy blue bloods.

Indeed poor Charles and Camilla barely got a look in when it came to the selfie-obsessed Instagram "influencers", busy pouting and posing for their sponsor, the Swiss watchmaker Longines, which was sponsoring their trip and no doubt lapping up the carefully art-directed shots being uploaded onto their various social media feeds with strategically placed products and brand names.

Their follower numbers are certainly impressive, numbering into the hundreds of thousands for the likes of Sydney fashion blogger and accomplished socialite Nadia Fairfax, who at least was actually known to PS given her social pages pedigree.

But I have to admit I had never heard of professional British pouter Lydia Millen, who apparently met her future husband, fellow social media influencer Ali Gordon, after he liked one of her shots on Instagram. The couple posted their lovely, but not really that special, wedding video on YouTube and it has now clocked up 807,799 views, while her beauty blog this week included a compelling dissertation on how to cleanse one's face. Utter madness.

The on-field talents of rugby sevens star and aspiring Home and Away hunk Charlie Taylor are certainly well known, though Taylor also gives his bulging muscles plenty of exposure on Instagram, which is paying him handsome dividends as the 22-year-old looks toward a career beyond the football field.

And what to make of menswear "influencer" Shaun Birley, whose job is apparently to travel the world staying in luxury hotels wearing designer suits and $20,000 watches?

He seems to be doing very well at it, though I have to admit, his celebrity credentials were of unknown provenance when PS asked around to see if anyone had heard of him, let alone knew what he actually did.

Incongruously embedded within this genetically blessed posse was PS along with a small band of slightly less-polished, middle-aged and rather old-school newspaper reporters, who were trained in the school of asking other people questions and sniffing out stories. We take notes in shorthand rather than Snapchat.

In the old days a company like Longines would have been hopeful its brand might get a mention in whatever coverage resulted, but it was never guaranteed. Journalists don't write ads.

But that's not how things work in the new social media pecking order, which soon became apparent on Wednesday night.

While the Instagram darlings were shepherded onto their luxury coach, ferried to their private suite where they dined on gourmet delicacies and sipped Tattinger champagne with Longines vice-president Juan Carlos Capelli in a private room not far from the royal couple, PS and Co ended up on a rather less salubrious minibus before arriving to rain-soaked seats about a million miles away, only to spend the evening under a steamy plastic hoodie juggling a cold pie and warm beer.

Not that it really mattered as the real stories were among the people, with a huge crowd cheering, singing, laughing and clapping away, we got the uncensored comments and banter from everyday people about the royals, the acts and the cold pies.

What fun.

(The Sydney Morning Herald)