TikToker Nara Smith whips up a bag from scratch in quirky Marc Jacobs ad

TikToker and model Nara Smith has partnered up with luxury bag brand Marc Jacobs for a quirky ad where she whips up a bag from scratch in her signature style. 

Smith, who boasts 8.3 million followers on TikTok alone, is most well-known for posting content on motherhood and making complex meals such as bubblegum and Coca-Cola from scratch for her family and husband, American model Lucky Blue Smith, who she married in 2020.

Don't miss: The power of 'empty billboard' influencers: A case study into TikToker Nara Smith

In the video, which was posted on Marc Jacobs' social media accounts, Smith starts out by saying that she has been craving a delicious Marc Jacobs tote bag since she woke up.

"So instead of going to the store to buy one, I thought I would make it myself," she says. 

Smith then goes on to mix flour, eggs and water to make the dough before adding in some red food dye.

She then kneads the dough to make sure it is "silky smooth" before rolling it out and cutting out the pieces of the tote. She places a mini version of the bag on a tray and slides it into the oven to bake for an hour. 

When she comes back, Smith pulls out a full sized red The Tote Bag from Marc Jacobs from the oven, adding that it "really hits the spot."

"Have you ever had a craving for something you can’t stop thinking about until you actually, have it? We were craving The Tote Bag, so Smith made us one from scratch," said Marc Jacobs in its caption. 

Marc Jacobs later posts a second video with Smith modeling the newest bag to join the Marc Jacobs family: The Denim Chain Tote.

The ad was well-received with many commenting that the ad was good and that the marketing team deserves a raise. 

An empty billboard?

Marc Jacobs is indeed jumping on the Smith bandwagon at the perfect time considering that she has been at the center of much discussion as of late. Recently, netizens were abuzz regarding a TikTok video by Bee Better Company.

Bee Better Company is an entrepreneur with an MBA who posted two videos this week breaking down some of the marketing tactics that Smith uses in order to draw in her millions of loyal followers. He describes them as the "darkest, most psychologically manipulative marketing tactics" he has ever seen on social media.  

While Bee Better Company deep dives into many different tactics that Smith utalises in the video, he in particular mentions a term called strategic neutrality. 

"So, if you pay attention, Smith has exclusively and very intentionally chosen to never respond to or engage in any controversy surrounding herself and her own personal brand," said Bee Better Company, referencing a recent incident where it was reported that Smith tried to sue a content creator, Oneswa, for allegedly stealing her content. However, despite it coming out that this was never the case, Smith never came on camera to defend herself. 

Bee Better Company said: 

The reason for this is that she has a huge team behind her that want to make her what I like to call an empty billboard.

An empty billboard, or opinion neutral influencer, is someone whose content is designed to be broadly appealing and neutral, avoiding controversial topics. This allows them to serve as versatile marketing tools, seamlessly integrating various brand endorsement without alienating any audience segment, according to Bee Better Company. He argues that this is the most appealing thing to marketers and brands.

"Smith's content is designed to be universally appealing which makes it commercially viable. So basically, because she never engages in any controversy, we don't know her political opinions, we aren't really intimately familiar with her beliefs and her values," he said. 

Bee Better Company added that Smith is able to capitalise on universally relatable themes of motherhood and cooking which allows brands to use her image and her brand for anything because there is nothing to contrast what they are promoting. 

"If Smith, for example, were to sit down and respond to a controversy she's been in or speak about Palestine for example, this would immediately shatter the fourth wall, and ruin the idealistic and perfect image she has crafted for herself because she would no longer be neutral, broadly acceptable and highly marketable."

Smith has since come out to say that she does not have a big production team behind her and that her husband is the one caring for the kids while she cooks and films. Smith added in a recent video that she recently got diagnosed with Lupus and so had to change the way she eats and cooks. 

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