Instagram Girls
BY Georgi R. Chakarov and Alexandra Shutova
Swapping glamor and fame for bleak, ordinary lives.
Anastasia Smirnova wins Instagram Girls final
Undoubtedly, among the main attractions of Instagram are the profiles of beautiful girls whose life seems to be all about luxury, fitness, gourmet food, beaches, sun and stars. The posts of famous Instagrammers like Kim Kardashian regularly top the social charts in terms of global reach.

Russian girls also take their share of internet fame using Instagram which is more popular than Facebook in the country. Putting aside international models like Irina Shayk who boasts nearly 8 million followers, there are local girls who attract millions of followers with their glamorous “it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you look good” posts.

Mila Blum selfie

This spring, entertainment net Pyantitsa (Friday) decided to check if “the goddesses of Internet Mount Olympus” can actually do something by putting them to the ruthless test of ordinary life challenges in Russia. Surprisingly or not, none of the girls with up to 1.5 million followers turned down the channel’s offer to become the stars in their project titled Instagram Girls.

A total of 24 girls took part in the first season of the show which forced them to prove that they can make ends meet without posing on the internet. The tasks included working at a flower shop, at a fish market or housekeeping in an old, dirty home. They also tried themselves as social workers, volunteers at homeless assistance services and behind the curtains of a circus.

In each episode two girls opposed each other with the goal to prove which one of them can survive best without their usual wardrobe, makeup and friends, and move into a modest apartment on the outskirts of the city and master an unknown profession. Their efforts were evaluated by ordinary people who are not in the social networks: an employee of a housing and utility infrastructure, a sportsman, a director of a village shop, Russia’s main ice swimmer, a baker and others. After each task, the jury gave a virtual “like” to the participants. The more likes a girl collected, the closer she moved to winning the contest. Viewers at home also took part in the liking.

Regina Panina

The show was filled with tears and whims, but there were also examples of endurance, which was quite unexpected. For example, in one of the episodes Anastasia Smirnova, who hates fish, had to work at a fish market. She actually impressed the jury with her skills in catching fish from a large aquarium, scaling and gutting it. Definitely, the nastiest task for famous model Maria Liman was going to a budget beauty salon where she had to undergo a facial snail massage procedure. She got so terrified and was ready to give up but summoned up her courage and completed the challenge.

Naturally, there were cases of real sabotage. Famous model Daria Shy seemingly failed all the tests on purpose: she did not like working at a sewing factory or in a restaurant. Another girl, Regina Panina, declined to work as a model for the famous flamboyant designer Andrey Bertenev.
Mila Blum was one of the few participants who embraced every challenge with a smile and composure and impressed both the audience and the jury, collecting the most likes.

The majority of the girls faced this side of life for the first time. They never even thought that such things could ever happen to them and accepted the reality experiment as a positive and important experience.
Two girls competed in the final which challenged them to introduce average people with no internet to the magical world of the internet and Instagram. Anastasia Smirnova showed more skills in teaching her ‘student’ how to make the best selfies and won.

Anastasia Smirnova

Anastasia who currently counts 207.000 followers got over 1.2 million votes during the show on its official website which helped her get to the final. The girls actively promoted the project on their Instagram pages and attracted the internet audience to the TV screens. The total count of votes was five million and the average market share in the target demo was 3.2%, nearly doubling the channel’s results. These numbers prove how well Instagram Girls managed to engage Pyatnitsa’s audience on TV, the website of the show and the profiles of the girls on Instagram, and how successful the producers were in realizing the strategy of transmedia promotion.

Pyatnitsa is launching the original format at MIPTV, while work on the second season has already started and the show is expected to return in the fall. ▪

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