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TikTok influencer hints she’s willing to lie to promote products if the price is right

January 28, 2023

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita explains his state’s decision to prosecute TikTok on “The Evening Edit”.

A popular beauty influencer with more than 12 million followers on TikTok has defended “false advertising” in a now-deleted video.

“Even if she put on false eyelashes, why does it matter?” Mads Lewis said in his now deleted video. “I know it’s false advertising, but isn’t it all false advertising?

The debate over truth in advertising on TikTok began after beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira was accused of wearing false eyelashes while promoting L’Oreal Telescopic Lift mascara. Nogueira had described her lashes after using the product as “THE EYELASHES OF MY DREAM!!”

When users said they could see extra eyelashes, Nogueira denied using extensions in now-deleted comments, according to Rolling Stone.

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Lewis, another influencer, argued that Nogueira’s possible use of false eyelashes was not a big deal due to the prevalence of false advertising in the industry. The videos resurfaced on another TikTok account which stitched the videos together to ensure the platform preserves Lewis’ vision for posterity.

Mads Lewis attends the 2021 Breakout Awards at Universal Studios Hollywood on December 8, 2021 in Universal City, California. (Michael Tullberg/Getty Images/Getty Images)

“Don’t get me wrong, lying sucks,” she continued, comparing what Nogueira did to food companies altering their products in ads. “But everyone does – especially when it comes to social media, and especially when it comes to making money.”

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“Sorry, if someone put $200,000 in your face and said, ‘Hey, promote my sh— mascara,’ I don’t think you’d think twice.”

Mikayla Nogueira tiktok beauty influencer

Mikayla Nogueira onstage during the L’Oreal Paris INFALL-A-THON pop-up event at The Grove featuring live performances and Infallible Fresh Wear product experiences at The Grove on March 19, 2022 in Los Angeles. (Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for L’Oreal Paris/Getty Images)

Users condemned the take and argued that the problem was not that Nogueira lied, but that she built her platform on “honest reviews” of products and then was caught “several times lying”.

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Other TikTok beauty influencers were quick to criticize Nogueira, calling her behavior “weird” and accusing her of posting “misleading reviews” that could harm other influencers.

“People trust us and that’s not cool,” said Alissa Ashley, a beauty reviewer with more than 435,000 subscribers, in response to the controversy.

In a tongue-in-cheek post about the controversy, BuzzFeed noted that “the investigation into a beauty influencer’s apparent mistake” is a step up from some of the controversies that have plagued these accounts in recent years.

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Recent controversies include James Charles sending inappropriate texts to minors and accusations of racism and bullying from influencers such as Laura Lee and Jefree Star. Buzzfeed noted that these users still had over a million subscribers each.