Originally Posted by massivewangers

Does she have it on order, or will she be running a press car on long-term loan in order to try and raise the profile of the Puma? That's the piece of information that likely won't make it to any content put out there, but I suspect it is more likely to be the latter.

People like Jamie (and the likes of Shmee150 etc) are very useful assets to OEMs. They rely on the OEMs to give them vehicles in order for them to be able to produce content, so they aren't going to burn those bridges by slating any of the cars they are lent. For the OEM, it is guaranteed positive coverage and it is very easy to measure the reach (content views are easily counted). In the case of the Puma, which has received some negative press in the mainstream motoring media, you can see why Ford would want a social media influencer putting content out there to say how good it is and that people should definitely buy one.

It's a very good business model for both side really. The OEM get relatively cheap, free positive media coverage, while the influencer gets good content that helps make them money. You can't blame either of them for doing it, but it's a bit questionable in journalistic/advertising terms.

I suspect we might see some tougher regulation in time. It's already happened to the ones that do make-up/fashion etc.