YouTube star Alissa Violet has angered followers when she promised them Louis Vuitton handbags in a giveaway that was reportedly never fulfilled - and allegedly ghosted the winners.
Violet ran a giveaway for Louis handbags starting on August 25 and aimed at her 3.9 million YouTube subscribers and 8.8 million Instagram followers. It was in partnership with a now-defunct company called Cheek.
To enter, fans had to follower Cheek and tag two friends in the comments section of her picture, where she was surrounded by Louis Vuitton bags and boxes. As far as giveaways go, the instructions weren’t too bad - sometimes, influencers will have fans follow multiple accounts, like multiple posts and tag even more people - so, a fairly low-maintenance way to win a designer bag.
According to Buzzfeed News, after the Instagram promotion she changed the caption on the giveaway to “long day (announcing the winners Friday) and then finally to simply “long day.”
The comments now include, "Where's her bag?" "#unfollowAlissaViolet" and "How do I enter that giveaway tho?" as well as plenty of clown emojis and calls of "scam!"
When fans didn’t receive their LV accessories, Violet reportedly did not respond. Now, some of her fans are calling the giveaway fake.
But after BuzzFeed News reached out to Violet about the giveaway, she responded to one of the winners who she had reportedly not talked to in weeks.
It looks like there's a chance fans could get their bags after all. The company involved with the prize, Cheek, is now-defunct and the link to follow it no longer works - but it is still saying that the winners will receive the handbags of their dreams soon.
This has happened before with Instagram giveaways - companies promise people something, whether it’s that infamous red bathing suit or beauty products, get a whole bunch of followers, and then never fulfill the orders.
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Cheek no longer exists - so only time will tell if they provide the promised handbags - but at this point, it's more likely that they'll be buying their own Speedy bags.
