Mainstream car-video celebrities are towed, not driving, in staged segments

Evidence

On January 22, 2020, tech entrepreneur (and former Shark Tank contestant) Zoli Honig posted to Twitter a video of Corden and Justin Bieber filming a “Carpool Karaoke” segment, revealing—surprise, surprise—Corden was not driving during these videos as the finished product would have one think. Instead, the car was towed around by a truck. … Even a modicum of attention reveals these excuses to be false, so why assume anything about “Carpool Karaoke” to be something other than artifice? Honig’s Twitter post reveals that, like much of what we’ve seen throughout this book so far, there’s an elaborate production apparatus involved in the crafting of videos that otherwise seem amateurish or spontaneous. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 176

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the broader point that amateur-seeming influencer content conceals heavy production apparatus; connects to the well-known influencer ‘behind the scenes’ trope.